What is going on at this homestead lately? We are lucky enough to have water (though technically in a drought, last nights rain thoroughly soaked everything, but we’re not matching anything like ‘parts of the Sahara’ or on fire) and the ability to grow plants and the wonderful access to clean water and even cooling air (I do love our heat pumps that dehumidify and refrigerate our air). Because this baking day is hot!!! Yesterday when the man made crackers the kitchen was a swamp (which would make him Swamp Thing, which I think he’s very much ok with…).
Everything is soaked though – heavy with water, crushed stems and dripping flowers – with the temperature rise today and tomorrow it is likely to be a jungle again out there. We just got a hold on the weeding process (I should have been a Lambsquarters farmer) but I’m sure we will be under its power again this week. But flowers in the flower garden are coming up (Poppies, Cosmos, Zinnia, Nigella, Flamingo Celosia, Calendula, Sunflower) and shoots of others (Snapdragons, Gilia, Gomphrena, Foxglove, Strawflower, Salvia, Scabiosa, Bachelor Buttons, Balloonflower, Bells of Ireland, Malva Zebrina) but no response from some (Echinacea, Salpiglossis, Gazania and other African and Paper Daisy, or alas, my Stocks and Blue Flax); I will take the successes and leave the duds. Taking notes, adjusting beds (hmmm, that echinacea bed now looks like a good Kale bed!).
We’re exploding in pumpkins, hot peppers, peas, lemon cukes, and little greening tomatoes while the blooms are profuse on the green (and purple and yellow wax and dry) beans, ground cherry, and melons. The asian greens (choy sum, tatsoi, purple bok choy, mizuna, and Chinese Star Napa) are looking amazing (and are delicious) as are the eggplants, carrots, and fennel. The chard is sparse but growing amidst some onions, the few transplanted leftover potatoes in the garden look great, and the corn looks better than expected (of course, the top half where I have thinned and weeded looks so much bigger than the part I haven’t gotten to yet – ha!). Both our barleys (purple and black) did not do great but we will at least have enough to reseed next year. Soon I will pull the peas (after I dry the shell peas) and put in some Purple Podded Pole Beans on the large trellis for the Fall (the other pole beans – True Red Cranberry which is a stunning dry bean, Cowpea, and Succotash are coming up nicely).
We’ve been working on a new herb bed project (which is proving to be quite a task, we cut down an ancient and sprawling Forsythia and a Honeysuckle only to find a little apple tree and an almost flowering Yucca – I love eating Yucca flowers…) and need to do something about the grape trellis we removed (we cut back the grapes but they are already thick with vines and leaves again, but now with no support – like when we moved in!).
But today while my beautiful Tulips deliver bread goods, I must be at the dissertation desk writing about aesthetic commitment and ontological ecologies. Then off to the Augusta Mill Park Farmer’s Market we go (where we look like veggie groupies because we hang out a bit while D sees her friend who works there…), falafel for dinner (with our delicious flatbreads) and game night with a new game (Forbidden Island!).
Let the Tuesday rumpus commence!
Rock Bottom Homestead 