This Garden Though….

heirloom tomato beauty shot

This year’s garden has been amazing. And all thanks must go to Edgar. We have struggled through the last three seasons without any tomatoes, very few squash flowers, great herbs and lettuce, but honestly not much else. I love to plan, I actually do it in January/February to help ease the winter doldrums. Once the planting season starts, the bakery gets revved up and Edgar gets stuff with much of the work. The planting, pruning, deadheading, watering; its all him. And many times he gets super discouraged, too much rain, not enough rain, too hot, too cold, borers, bugs… a lot of variables. Luckily this is not our livelihood, but I do feel for all those busting their butts agriculturally . They are making a life and providing us the best locally sourced food for our consumption, with all of these challenges and much more.

Our soil definitely needed some TLC, and the long standing wisteria roots needed to get out of our three raised beds. They were definitely a culprit in our depleted soil. This spring, Edgar dug all of the soil out of our beds, lined them with a tarp ( wisteria roots be damned!) sifted any raging roots from our existing soil and supplemented with new beautiful, enriched raised bed soil. From this, a big beautiful harvest of heirloom tomatoes, watermelon radishes ( finally!) , zucchini, cucumbers, lettuce and tons of basil. These are my favorite summer crops for my limited space. Looking forward to the fall lettuce, more radishes ( always!) and some escarole. Any other suggestions?

In the meantime, if you need a local taste, or are re-doing your own garden, be sure to visit our friends at The Farm ( it’s sunflower festival time! ) Parsell Farm,Brass City Harvest, Sunshine Lavender Farm ( more than lavender!) and our friends at Jarjuras, where they have always supported local growers.

watermelon radishes