Bees

I wish The Spouse hadn't taken the camera with him to a party. I wish Blogger was letting us upload pictures. If both of these wishes came true I could show you pictures of very busy bees. I have a lot of creeping thyme in the front rose beds as groundcover. I love it because it spreads all over (I pretty much have a carpet of it in one bed now, off of maybe 6 tiny original plants). Weeds grow up through it but they are easy to pull and the thyme is very forgiving.

Right about now the thyme is in full bloom, thousands and millions of teeny purple flowers all over the place. And the bees are wild for them. I was weeding today (seemed appropriate as it's been, what, 3 weeks?) and it was a little precarious. The bees were everywhere and they were humming like mad. It was quite noisy, down there on my knees. And precarious. Before I'd pull a tuft of crabgrass or a sprig of dandelion I'd sort of wave my hand over it first, a little "Hey, I'm coming" kind of warning to the bees. They'd fly up and move over, I'd pull the weed and then they'd fly up and settle back where they'd been. It was all very cooperative and civilized but I kept thinking about the time at a cocktail party when a bee stung me right above my wedding band. That wasn't pleasant.

Anyway, inbetween pulling weeds I was watching the bees, their legs fat with dark orange pollen. It was something to see. And me without a camera.

Tomatoes

It has been raining steadily since June began. Which is typical. This morning dawned bright and fair, however so The Neighbor and I went off to Fremont Gardens to buy tomato plants.

Of course, Fremont Gardens being the sort of seductive nursery that it is I also bought 2 Anaheim peppers, 3 basil plants and some little petunia-like flowers for a pot that lives on the front porch.

Anyone who gardens knows that a tomato grown yourself tastes nothing like a tomato purchased in a store. It doesn't matter if the tomato is an organic heirloom variety...if it has been in a truck and on a shelf for any length of time it is not going to have that essence that a tomato lover lives for.

I used to grow my tomato from seed. The only problem with that was that I had way more plants than I could put into the ground. I'd have dozens and dozens of plants to give away. Plus, there would only be a couple of varieties.

I have a small kitchen garden. I don't need 20 roma plants. So I started buying tomato starts (from Fremont Gardens...always) and have been very happy with the results (when I remember to water and generally tend to the plants).

This year's varieties:

Purple Cherokee (I do love the darker varieties of tomato)
Green Zebra
Bloody Butcher (what the fark kinda name is that for a tomato? It just screamed "Plant me!")
Sweet Million (a cherry tom...'cause you gotta have at least one)

I also planted some basil because tomatoes love basil and I do, too.

This was a Cat Weekend for us...but plugging a few toms into the gorgeous black earth of the potagers didn't seem like work. Plus, the gardens immediately began to look fruitful, even though everything else buried therein is a few weeks away from popping.

Dig the completely groovy curved bamboo that I found for staking the tomatoes. I usually just plug in a straight stick and tie them up as they grow. These curvy beauties will act as tomato cages but look far more cool in the process. I dig them.

Garden Babies

Growing up on the farm we had a lot of fruit trees: apple, pear and fig. We had a small grape arbor and tons of blackberries which were not exactly cultivated but hedges of them were tolerated. (We also had a stand of filbert trees...what everyone calls hazelnuts nowadays...but they were wormy and I don't remember ever eating them. They were fun to play with, though).

Living in the city it is a little more challenging to grow fruit in any quantity but I have my columnar apple tree (I forget what variety of apple it is...it's good for pies because it's not too sweet and has firm flesh) and my table grapes. I planted the grape stock our second year in the house and one in particular, "Vanessa" has done extremely well. 2 years ago I had so many grapes that I was able to make 6 pints of jelly (the most gorgeous pinky-lavendar color you ever saw with a delicate grapey-flavor) in addition to all the grapes we just ate out of hand. Last year, because I had that watering lapse, we got exactly 2 bunches of grapes. (Likewise, we only had 2 apples). I think that was when I realized how neglectful I'd been. I was very sad.


But, as is the way of nature, both the apple tree and grapevines have forgiven me. They are bursting with potential fruit and are greenly confident that I will not turn my back on them this year. They promise, if I care for them, to provide apples for the Autumnal Feast and plenty of grapes for jelly and winemaker's cake. I will not let them down.

At Last

Yesterday, just before we tipped from May to June, I got the kitchen potagers planted.

In the first bed there is Japanese eggplant (which I should have started indoors and didn't so it's going to be a total crap shoot whether anything happens there), garlic and French beans. Mesclun is planted in the garden pot. I've found that to be a very easy way to do the "cut and come" again business. Mostly because it keeps me from growing too much. If I remember to add fresh seed every couple of weeks we should have fresh lettuce well into October.

I'll put tomatoes in behind the garlic; I'm thinking I'll get to Fremont Gardens for my plants on Friday.

The second potager has radishes in the pot (an experiment), mult-colored beets in the front center, 3 hills of a round variety of zucchini that is really yummy and cute, with fava beans planted on either side of the bed. I love fresh favas, assuming I can control the black aphids, who also love them.

It was just starting to sprinkle as I was putting in the seeds and then it rained nicely in the evening. So everything is watered in by Mother Nature. Now I just have to move the hose out of the garage and remember to water all my new plant babies. And this is key because last year, for some completely indefinable reason, I didn't water my garden much. The grapes shriveled on the vine, most seeds failed to sprout. We didn't even have mesclun. Mesclun! A toddler can grow mesclun. Proper watering will be key to success this year. I must not slack!
Also, I must keep The Dog from thinking that what I've really done is give him a new playground.