…with basil fresh from the deck
…enough for us to eat for dinner
…enough to freeze some for a future meal
…with a couple summer squashes that have been kicking around the fridge for a week
I planned this (and our other meals this week) on Saturday morning, as usual. That routine is about to change because:
Our first CSA pick-up is this afternoon! Greens, greens, and greens. And strawberries. Looking forward to a harvest-centered meal plan strategy!
My supermarket basil seems to be recovering and flourishing! I got an Italian basil and a Thai basil (because I’m obsessed with homemade pho).
Almost as soon as I brought it home a month or so ago, it flopped over and looked dreadful. I planted it in a container immediately, and it was so pathetic that I took a bunch of cuttings in hopes that at some point I’d have something to show for having purchased two basil plants.
Then a bunch of leaves on the original spindly plants started turning kind of white. Powdery mildew, maybe? I plucked the icky leaves off, figuring that I’d end up just plucking all of the leaves off.
But the disease seems to have gone away, or is at least gone for now. And the plants are growing!
Thinking about taking more cuttings and growing basil all over the place, because free plants and because yum.
We drove out to a farm and picked strawberries!
It was a gorgeous day and there were plenty of ripe berries for the picking. Even though it was hot and sunny, the breeze and fluffy clouds helped keep us very comfortable. Plus I had packed an unreasonable amount of water.
Highly recommended outing for a 3.5 year old!
I got some time in the garden today! A friend took F from afternoon through evening, J came home a little early, bagged up some heavy brush, and then took Baby C. And then hauled our last homemade lasagna out of the freezer and baked it up because I tossed my big plans for making dinner tonight unceremoniously out the window!
I planted our blueberries, which involved digging, amending the soil, planting, watering, mulching, and watering again. Then I “planted” our two new trellises and sowed runner beans at their bases. Then I realized that I had just cleverly used shredded oak leaf mulch right next to our neighbor’s yard, and in this neighborhood we spend most of November, December, and March (and April?) raking up oak leaves. So I plopped down an old bit of 18″ wire fencing that we found behind the shed to (hopefully) keep any stray leaves off their lawn.
And then I planted our $1.68 bag of 15 bright red gladiolis right in front of the house, and pulled some weeds, and uprooted some annoying ornamental grass.
And then I put things away! I didn’t get dinner till 8:30, but the garden is going. Phew.
Back in the middle of March, my seeds arrived in the mail and we had a couple of super nice, warm spring days. So I went ahead and planted parsley, chives, and comfrey in pots on the deck.
I chose these because they all said to plant before the last frost, or “just” before the last frost, however one figures out exactly when that is. Well, we had quite a few frosts after that, and I assumed nothing would grow.
We have a few feeble chives sprouts. They’re a couple inches tall, wispy, and aren’t seeming to get taller. We have a couple of little baby seedlings in the comfrey pot. They’re so young, with just the two initial leaves out, that I don’t know how to tell if they’re comfrey or volunteers.
But the parsley!
We have probably about a dozen little seedlings going. I transplanted a few into recycled starter pots.
And it’s an overreaction, and a reflection that I’m such a newbie at gardening stuff, but it makes me feel very rich that I got all these baby parsley plants for “free” by just spending a few dollars on a seed packet.
This is not my yard!
We took a trip to a public garden a county or two over from ours. We met a couple of friends there with their kids, and F and the others got lots of exercise! Also, it was beautiful. Also, picnic lunches are extra delicious after a lot of walking.
We have a few surprise tulips in our yard too. I’m honestly surprised at all the bulbs in our neighborhood, given the incredible squirrel population.
The rain last week smooshed those daffies!
The flowering pear and flowering cherry trees have buds!
I don’t know what this little volunteer is, but I love it.
And raindrops on daffodils.
This has been a challenging week for me. I’m not sure why. Maybe recovering from being sick? Maybe that my infant suddenly decided to put on her demandy-pants and cluster feed for two days? It just felt really hard to even keep up with the basics, let alone plan, garden, spring clean, etc.
But there are still awesome things:
J is working from home in the mornings for a couple of weeks.
It’s Friday.
I just discovered Weather.gov’s hourly weather maps. Here’s a link to one for Baltimore weather.
The play room is relatively neat.
It’s supposed to be sunny and warm this weekend.
…flatten March’s flowers! And turn the back yard into a swamp again.
Spring is starting for sure!
