The Plan

No, not the kind you eat. I’m talking about our adolesent cat, Peaches, who found us on Feb. 19 (my cat-loving grandma’s b-day, strangely) and now lives in our shed. Note the seriousness of his expression. I don’t think he had much of a kittenhood- always on guard, far too wise for his age. He was most likely born late last fall and abandoned. And then he had to endure a harsh -20 winter alone. But don’t let his serious demeanor fool you. He’s the sweetest, most affectionate cat in the world. He has daily cuddle sessions on my lap and likes to give eskimo kisses. He’s coming inside this winter. I don’t care what Al and Jake say.

We’ve been enjoying bits and pieces from the garden lately. Carrots keep coming, garlic is done, brussel sprouts have begun, a couple of fennel bulbs, a few ripe tomatoes (thanks Jeff!), and I picked the first of what will likely be a good crop of green beans. Anne made some mashed potatoes with the first of the potatoes.

Fennel bulbs are one of those veggies that will stump most employees at checkout. I’m sure they do not sell very many — it’s not a very popular vegetable in the U.S. Then again, I’ve seen zucchini stump some employees, so maybe it’s a question of employee training and/or quality. If you haven’t had fennel, I do recommend it as something completely different from every other vegetable. The foliage smells a lot like black licorice, but you won’t likely find it with foliage on at the store. We often eat it raw, sliced thin, with olive oil and salt.

Artichokes are another good stump-the-checkout-clerk vegetable. We seem to have managed to trick one plant to bloom. The aphids seem to really like artichokes.

We planted squash late so as to avoid some of the squash bugs. Haven’t seen any yet, so that might have worked. The squash vine borers on the other hand are plentiful and likely doing their slow damage to the plants.

It’s a race now to see if the plant can live long enough to bear fruit. Two new mini varieties of summer squash are growing along with spaghetti squash elsewhere in the garden. Also found a nice robust acorn volunteer squash doing very well along side the compost bin. That’s nice since we didn’t plant any acorn squash this year.

This island bed, which sits in the center of our drive, is probably my favorite. There are several reasons for this: 1. I limited the color scheme to peach, orange, maroon, and pink. If it isn’t one of these colors then it doesn’t belong here. This was harder for me to do than you might imagine. The mustard-colored yarrow is a variety called Terra Cotta and has orange and clay-colored hues, depending on the day. 2. Unlike my other beds, it is fairly compact and contained by the gravel around it, which makes weeding less daunting. I can think of several other beds surrounded by grass that aren’t getting ANY attention because they need a complete overhaul- just too overwhelming for me to even consider right now. I have a neighbor who sprays Roundup on the entire bed if gets out of control and just starts over…not a bad idea. Sorry if you don’t like Roundup. I don’t either but do using it sparingly in non-edible areas.  3. This bed is planted in a naturalistic style. The Purple cone flowers and red Amaranth have naturalized, hiding flaws and shading out any lurking weeds.  With plants of all different heights in all different areas (tall in front is ok), there’s definitely chaos but also a little order somehow.