That is some powerful garlic

I made some hummus last night with a few cloves of garlic from one of the many heads harvested from this year's home crop.
Whoa! Potent stuff!
I didn't realize how strong garlic can be... really! The smell burns my eyes and nose, and even the smallest cloves give as much or more flavor than large cloves from a head I bought at the supermarket.
It's just another example of how homegrown vegetables can taste so different from the ones we buy at the supermarket.
We harvested the garlic several weeks ago. I would say we pulled up about 25-30 heads. We saved the four largest, which we plan to plant in the fall, then washed and dried the rest and stored them in a dry, dark cupboard.
We initially thought they would last for a while. But the garlic tastes so good, we're using it all the time. And now... well, I don't think they'll last more than a couple more months.
C'est la vie.

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Categories: vegetables and fruits |

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Gardening with kids

The more I garden with my son, the more my love for gardening itself grows.
Seriously.
Last weekend, Luke and I prepared an area -- where we just harvested garlic -- and planted four hills of acorn squash and pumpkin.
We pulled back the old mulch, shaped the hills, and Luke helped me push the seeds into the ground. He was an awesome helper.
Gardening with kids is so cool, because they light up when they reap the benefits of their work. Luke was so excited to see two of the pumpkin seedlings have already emerged last night as we were taking stock. And he makes a beeline for the peas, and snacks on them happily.
It just takes some patience to garden with kids, especially ones so young. But you know what, it's so worth it. People in public always marvel at how Luke eats his vegetables without complaining. He doesn't love every vegetable, but he is starting to understand where they come from, and his curiosity is all I ask for.

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Categories: garden laughs | vegetables and fruits |

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Covered in dirt = Good day gardening

It's that time of year again... the time of year when I can spend just about all day outside in the yard, pulling up this... planting that... shaping the earth with my own two hands.
And this year... I have more help.
Yesterday (Sunday), I lathered Luke and myself up in sunblock and we headed outside to take advantage of the unusually cool day. We explored, we pulled up some weeds... then we settled down with shovels, wheelbarrow and bags for a project I've wanted to tackle since moving into my house more than 3 years ago -- digging up the grass in the little strip of land between the public sidewalk and the street.
My square-blade shovel is supposed to do wonders for taking the lawn out... but I've never had luck with it. My husband thinks I don't have enough body weight to use it efficiently... I figured I was just a weakling. After about 30 minutes of struggling with it, a neighbor took pity on me and loaned me a landscaping pickax. The weight of the ax made the difference in pulling up the grass, and Luke and I worked for hours.
He has a little spade that's just his size, and he would put dirt on the shovel and run and dump it in the wheelbarrow.
Sometimes he would put the shovel head on the sidewalk and run up and down, listening to the sound of the scraping metal and yelling as loud as he could.
We stopped to eat watermelon and 'ooh and ahh' at the bugs unearthed in our work. We saw a grub, and watched it crawl its way back into the earth. We saw a really cool spider, and it popped its legs out and began running all over the sidewalk -- causing my son to scream with glee. We watched butterflies chase each other and beetles crawl through the dirt.
By the end of the day, both of us were covered in dirt and sweat. Luke's bath water turned brown the moment he stepped into it... and I was very grateful for my shower later that night. I was sore and achy from the weight of the ax, but I couldn't help but think that it had been a very fun day with my son... and maybe -- just maybe -- he learned something. I know I did... he made me notice all the stuff I normally don't notice when I'm outside and showed me how important it is to stop and enjoy.

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Categories: garden laughs |

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Look what I found in the garden

I was checking out some of the vegetable garden beds in the front yard the other day when I spotted this in the grass....
I think this is a black swallowtail butterfly, which would make sense... I just saw its caterpillar feeding on the dill not two weeks ago.
Gosh, it was gorgeous.
And huge! It was nice to be able to examine it pretty closely for a few minutes before it took flight. The queen and monarch butterflies never let me get close.
So, the appearance of the black swallowtail means my efforts to diversify the butterfly visitors have so far been a success!

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