It's been weeks since my last posting. the real world has interfered with the virtual. Interfered with my real-world gardening as well. I only have been able to get about 2-3 hours in my garden each week. Nonetheless, I cleared more land and planted the last of my potatos (I have pictures). My tomatoes are mostly in, as are melons and cucumbers. I have harvested about 5 pounds of mixed greens in the past two weeks - a guess derived from actually weighing a full bag of spinach on a commercial scale. I have also harvested the first quart of sugar snap peas. they were delicious and worth, by themselves, the space alloted to them. Knowing that many more quarts of peas will follow is a bonus. The tomatoes are mostly planted and my staking system is set up.
Each week brings its own bouquet. Sweet William has remained the star player, although I think other dianthus will start to bloom next week, along with volunteer sunflowers and gloriosa daisy. Spinach has responded poorly to the heat, most of it has bolted or is in the process. Interestingly, my mosty productive patch, the second planting, has managed to hold up the best. I think because I kept it hard cut and well watered during the hottest days.
Everything seems to be leaping up in response to the stifling heat and occasional thundershower. As always, weeds seem to be growing the most. It has made me think I might do a little more mulching this year than in the past.
Back to work.

Someday I will figure this technology out fully. Like putting captions under photos, or leaving room for comments. Yesterday I planted more beans: Black Valentine - what can I say? The name appealed. And yet another flight of carrots (Purple Haze - not just a good name, the best of the purple carrots I tried last year) Tonight I worked on my communal responsibilities. I used a weed whacker to keep control of some paths and the area around the garden shed.Or at least I gave it the old college try. Unfortunately, I ran out of both fuel and string. Technology foiled me there also.

The photos posted earlier showed the flowers already in bloom in the garden : Dianthus barbatus, Anchusa "Loddon Royalist" and Geranium ibericum. I failed to note in the last post that my harvest included a bouquet of Dianthus. Commonly known as Sweet William they are visible in the photo of the table. They are good cut flowers, being of the same family as the carnation. The picture of the harvest is self explanatory, but the lines in the dirt between the pepper plants are where I planted spinach. Oh Yes, yesterday I extended the underplanting beneath the peppers to include oak leaf lettuce.

The pictures of our meal might seem silly, but all of that food (except those eggs - local and free range of course) were courtesy of CDCG. Either it was a product of the garden or bought from The Veggie Mobile. The mushroom/asparagus omelet was flavored with thyme and scallions from the garden and of course the salad was fresh from our plot. I wonder if it is fair to include the value of flowers as an output of the garden? I think I could find a dozen studies that show flowers have a positive effect on a person's health. Just as with my grandfather's melons, it never pays to be too parsimonious about the things that feed you.

A Thousand Words