Late May Veggie Blooms

The blooms you find in a veggie garden this time of year may not be as obviously spectacular as those in a conventional flower garden, but if you stop and look closely enough, there is still plenty of color and interest for the discerning eye. I realized this as I worked in the garden today. In no particular order:


The mizuna has bolted. Like most other brassicas, the flowers are yellow and remind me of little exploding fireworks.


My Seville orange tree is blooming. I'm crossing my fingers that we'll have some orange marmalade in time for Christmas since we won't have any Meyer lemons this year.


I've been meaning to pull up what's left of last year's scallions but haven't gotten around to it...


I'm glad I didn't because the blooms are really interesting and complex close up.


Last year's sage and thyme are taking over the herb bed and will have to be trimmed back.

The purple sage flowers remind me of lavender. I wonder if they are in the same family.


The crimson flowered broad (fava) beans have the most stunning blooms in the garden right now.

I can't get over how beautiful the crimson flowers are. The plants are stockier than the more common Windsor variety. I wonder if the beans taste any differently.


My white-flowered Windsor fava beans are growing vigorously now. I have to remind myself to water them everyday now that our daily highs are in the 80's. Last year, I didn't do so during a hot dry spell and had a lot of blooms drop as a result.

I read somewhere that fava bean flowers and shoots are very tasty. I could never bring myself eat them as I love the eventual beans too much!


Last year, I made some flavored vinegar from these chive blossoms. I have to admit that the flavor was a bit strong for my taste. Maybe this year I'll try something different and steep them in some olive or canola oil. This giant cluster of chives is growing alongside my cantaloupe, Imperial artichokes and relocated wild strawberries.


Finally, this may be the saddest looking flower of the bunch but who wouldn't be excited to see the first tomato blossoms of the year?

Random Snapshots

The snow peas are about 2 feet tall and loaded with flowers. Pictured is one of two patches I have growing. Hopefully we'll get a decent harvest this year.


Strange but one thing we have an over abundance of at the moment is chive blossoms. I never realized how beautiful the flowers are.


The other day, I started rooting some lemongrass that I had purchased from the Asian market. In the past, I've been able to grow and overwinter this herb in a pot. This year, I'm planting it out in my garden. If all goes well, new shoots will emerge from the base of these stalks.

As you can see, I'm also making some chive blossom infused vingar.


Finally, my Meyer lemon tree is loaded with young fruit right now. My stash of marmalade is almost gone. Hopefully I'll be able to can even more of it this year.

This Week's Harvest

It's that time again. I hope everyone had a great weekend. We were lucky to get two warm and sunny days here in New England. I was finally able to get out into the garden to do some serious work (which I will get to in another post). One thing that struck me today was how big some of the veggies were getting...a sure sign that summer is just around the corner. Pretty soon the tomatoes will need to be staked, heads of lettuce will be decapitated, and strawberries will be turned into jam. I'm really looking forward to June.

This week, I harvested one of my mini Napa Cabbages. It wasn't quite ready but I wanted to get to it before the slugs inflicted anymore damage. The leaves had quite a few holes, but is still edible in my opinion (I don't think anyone has ever died from eating less than perfect looking cabbage.) I also picked a lot of Tuscan kale, some of which ended up in a great Italian sausage soup that I made for dinner tonight. And yes, Jonathan and I pulled more Easter Egg radishes. Believe it or not, they are already starting to turn hot so I'll probably harvest the rest of them tomorrow. In my experience, the quality of a radish tends to diminish quickly if you leave it in the ground for too long, even if it haven't fully sized up yet. Better to harvest them on the smaller side unless you like things spicy.


Finally, I picked a few chive blossoms to make chive blossom infused vinegar. I'm really curious to see what all of the fuss is about! Here is a link to Villager's post on how to make it.

The grand total for this week's harvest: 2.61 lbs

In the May Garden

Some random tidbits from around the garden...The overwintered chives are flowering. Has anyone eaten chive flowers? I wonder if they would be tasty in a salad. Also, my overwintered parsley (top left) is thriving. It's not an herb that I cook with often but I really should find a use for it.

What is this???!!! My Favas are starting to form buds. I have 7 plants remaining since one succumbed to an unknown pest. Next year, I will have to remember to sow more seeds as their were only 12 to a packet and germination wasn't so great. I do have a question for those of you who've grown Favas before - Do any of you pinch off the tops to encourage a more bushier growth and hopefully a bigger harvest? Left undisturbed, mine are growing pretty tall.


The coffee can Rhubarb chard is doing just ok, although I have no idea why the leaves are the color they are.


I hadn't mentioned this before but I did save one of my aphid infested artichoke seedlings to plant out into the garden. It was the largest and least damaged-looking one. I check it regularly for aphids but they seem to have disappeared. Whenever I see a little spider in the garden, I say a little "thank you". Strangely enough, it has already started to develop the large jaded leaves found on more mature artichoke plants. The artichoke transplants that I purchased a while back have yet to reach this stage.

The Red of Florence scallions are doing well. If you look closely, you can see the wine colored base. I have a feeling these will turn out to be real beauties come harvest time.


Finally, the Piracicaba broccoli are doing well. After the failure I had trying to grow this veggie last fall, I'm really looking forward to picking my first mini-crown of homegrown broccoli. The problem with having a garden that is part-shade is that it takes a little longer for things to mature. I really wish these would grow a bit faster!

Questions for the Masses

1. My overwintered Red Russian kale is budding...a sure sign that the weather is warming up. I'm really looking forward to saving seed as this is one crop I would love to grow year and year. My question is - so what now? While other plants become incredibly bitter at this point, will this kale continue to produce edible leaves? Or should I just pull it after the seeds mature?


2. My seed potatoes are happily chitting away. I will plant them out very soon. I've been reading about potatoes grown using straw. Here's a good article on this very subject. Has anyone grown potatoes using this technique and if so, did it work well? I'm concerned about reduced yields and potential light exposure to the tubers.


3. Initially, I thought that these were chives growing in the old garden but now I'm starting to second-guess myself (although I did see a light purple chive-like flower last fall). The leaves just look much thicker than conventional chives. I'm wondering if this happens as the plant get older and is not harvested on a regular basis. So what do you think? Are these chives or are they some kind of perennial onion???

Weekend Chores

For the past few days we've been enjoying truly wonderful weather here in New England. It is indeed a nice change from the torrential rain and cold winds we experienced not too long ago. This past weekend, I was able to get out into the garden to do a bit of cleanup and digging. While the recent rains caused my garden to flood for a few days, it also helped to thaw out the soil. Even the beds that were left uncovered this winter were easy to turn over.


I went ahead and transplanted some of my cool weather greens (Shanghai bok choy, Mizuna and Tuscan Kale) underneath one of my mini hoop houses. Admittedly, I neglected to harden them off beforehand. Regardless of this, they seem to have adjusted to the protected environment just fine. Our nights are averaging near freezing, but the days are warming up dramatically. With the increasing sunlight, I have to be more diligent about venting my hoops as temperatures inside are now reaching into the low 80's at mid-day. In fact, my spinach is already showing signs of heat stress.

It felt really good to get my hand dirty. The soil blocks were incredibly easy to transplant and I'm happy to say that none of my seedlings were damaged in the process. Hopefully, I can start to harvest some Mizuna and bok choy at the end of this month.


In other news, the overwintered chives are starting to sprout again...


...and my hard-neck garlic is finally showing some signs of life.

The spring growing season has officially begun! I hope you all are as excited as I am!

Last Weekend's Other Chores

This past weekend, I also transplanted a couple of scraggly looking raspberry plants from the old garden. When we came to visit what was then our future home back in June, I noticed that these plants produced golden raspberries, which were small and a bit moldy at the time.

I gave them a good dose of compost and minerals and planted them next to the strawberries. Hopefully they will like their new location.


I also found a HUGE clump of chives (or what I think are chives). I had never seen them get this long and scraggly, but I guess this is what happens when you don't harvest them all summer. I dug up about half of it to transplant in the garden.


I gave the clump a severe hair cut, divided it into three smaller pieces and planted them next to my garden gate. Hopefully they will have to time to settle in to their new location before the weather gets too cold.


Finally, I am planning on purchasing shallot seeds to sow this spring but decided this past weekend that I would plant a few bulbs right now for fun (and hopefully for an earlier crop). This variety is called "supermarket". HA!