Here is the first planting of the year with a variety of salad greens.

Usually my gardening season begins with the harvesting of horseradish and the preparation of many jars or the pungent root. This year is different, as I am in the process of moving my studio from the location in downtown Barrington that  I occupied for at least the last 36 years, and there was no time for horseradish. Natalie went out and bought some roots and prepared them was we usually do, but to my taste it wasn’t quite the same.

But this is a temporary setback and when the move is complete by mid May, my hope is that since I will be working out of the house, there will be much more time to tend to the gardening on a regular basis.

But in any case the planting has begun, and this weekend I made my first trip to Goebbert’s and got kale plants, collards and mustard greens in the ground. From seed, I planted spinach, lettuce and arugula. Rain followed.

The thyme plants wintered over well and are very vigorous.

The herb garden on the south side of the lot is doing well. Some of the herbs wintered over and are much more prolific than in the planter boxes by the deck. I’ll adjust the later plantings of herbs accordingly. The thyme wintered over exceptionally well, better yield than ever, and the oregano looks great as well. The tarragon is leafing out well and I may need to move it as the plant really spread out last year and was encroaching on the thyme.

The oregano is growing fast and did well over the cold winter.

The sage plants got hit by the cold, but there are buds popping out on the lower portions of the stem. I think the sage would benefit from mulching in the fall. The lovage plant is springing up and will probably be a lot larger this year.

I have parsley plants to get in the ground yet and I will plant them in the planter boxes by the deck as they seem to do well there.

The horseradish plants occupy too much garden space, so I am going to reduce that patch considerably. I’ll put some more effort into cultivating fewer larger roots, which should be a lot easier on the harvesting end. Hopefully with fertilizer and cultivation I can make that happen.

I’m still behind with the cleanup, but even with the move, I think I can stay somewhat on schedule. The hawthorne tree is shading the garden too much so I’ll probably have to remove it. I also need to get a professional to remove the pear tree.

But, as usual, it is wonderful to be out in the sun with the smells and sounds of spring and to again get my hands in the good earth.

This is the last of the pepper harvest.

You know it is the end of summer when the last of the veggies goes in the freezer. It was a better year for peppers this year than last, the plants were healthy and vigorous, but I think the rainy weather cut the yields a bit. The hot peppers flopped because the soil stayed too wet. I need to find another place for those next year.

All that’s left now is Kale, Swiss Chard and Collards. There will be some great soups this fall! Lots of herbs left, also. I’ll need to dry some of those and maybe make some Tarragon and Rosemary Vinegar.

This has been the worst summer for ever for mosquitoes. We had about 1 week near the beginning of August where we could sit outside, but then more rain and more bugs. Because of the impossibility of working in the garden with swarms of bugs, even in bright sunlight, I was unable to plant any second crops, and actually never planted some of the later first crops like other varieties of zucchini and later basil plantings.

Peppers yielded well, but the hot peppers by the back fence were  a total fail, as the ground was too wet all summer. The heirlooms and most of the other tomatoes got the black wilt and didn’t produce well. The large amounts produced many split tomatoes which then rotted. The Romas yielded well in spite of it all. The few cucumber I planted did well, but later plantings never got planted. The zucchini planted from seed never came up.

Red and Green Salsas

The Tomatillo plants grew very well and were without any problems. They didn’t have any dying branches because of too much rain and no bug issues. The plants bear heavily and spread out, so a conventional tomato cage isn’t enough for support. I’ll need to find another method of support next year.

This will be a permanent addition to the garden. Salsa Verde is great and easy to make. Plus, the plants seem to be problem free and don’t require a lot of attention. Recipes for both types of Salsa will soon be posted at <karneyfamilyrecipes.com>.

The Tomatillos are doing well and I am looking forward to a large crop.

The mosquitoes are still swarming and it is been difficult to do anything in the garden other than basic weeding. I have plants that have been sitting in trays for almost a month but it’s too buggy to do any planting. The rain has been gone for almost a week and I am seeing dry soil for the first time all summer, so I am hoping the bugs will be somewhat gone in a few days,

I picked the first couple zucchini this week, and the cherry and grape tomatoes have been yielding well. Some of the tomatoes have been in the ground since early May, but nothing is ripening yet. Early Girl is supposed to produce in 50 days, but as usual, it will be August tomatoes. When the Romas ripen, it will be a great crop.

Peppers are starting to produce, I picked some full size Gypsy peppers this week and all the pepper plants look good except the hot peppers by the back fence — they got too much water from all the rain and look a bit stunted.

The Tomatillos are doing well and it looks like a good crop. Supposedly they are ready to pick when the fruit has filled up the husk.

Deer and rabbits have rimmed the Lacinato Kale an the Collards, but they will probably come back. Herbs are looking good except the Basil.

I am hoping to get some fall plants started this week if the mosquitoes decline.

We’ve been having rain every couple of days, and the mosquitoes are unbelievable. It is impossible to go into the garden without a heavy slathering of DEET.  I did manage to get the peppers and tomatoes weeded today, but any other work was impossible between the heat and bugs.

I picked the first two grape tomatoes and we had a salad for lunch of arugula, radishes, Lolla Rosa lettuce, kale, mustard greens, and green onions; supplemented with purchased avocado, red pepper, shrimp and croutons.

I pulled up the radishes — extremely poor yield and the spinach which had bolted. The bottom branches on the early girl tomatoes are starting to die. Too much rain, and not enough sun.

The Lovage survived the winter and has vigorous new growth.

The cold winter killed all of last year’s blackberry canes. Since blackberries set fruit only on the year old canes, we won’t have any berries this summer. Fortunately, vigorous new canes are springing up, so the roots weren’t damaged.

The Lovage that took almost all summer to finally spring up from seed wasn’t damaged by the cold. It appears to be doing very well. Now, I just need to figure out what to use it in.

The lightning bugs seem a little early this year, I saw the first ones tonight. I guess summer is here

Despite the mosquitoes, I tilled a couple more areas of the garden and planted collards plants, kale plants, broccoli plants and cucumber plants on the back of the compost bin. I have pretty much filled the available space and there is no room left for beans.

I need to get the lemon cucumbers planted along the back fence, get some more arugula and lettuce in and sunflowers behind the barn. I have 4 red kale plants left that I’ll plant over by the herbs.

Spinach is bolting so I need to pick what is left in the next couple of days. Some of the radishes are ready and the arugula is yielding well. The Lolla Rosa lettuce is up but I didn’t plant a lot. What’s there should be ready by next weekend. Lacinato Kale is ready and the mustard greens should be ready in about a week. The Pak Choi is taking off and probably needs a week or two. We’ve been eating spinach, arugula nad kale for a week or so.

The mosquitoes have been ferocious. Even in broad daylight in the sun, I can’t even stay out long enough to pick a few greens without slathering myself in DEET. This is the end result of all the rain.

However the plants are lovin it. the Grape, cherry and Early Girls tomatoes have set fruit already. The early planting of large plants has paid off.

Today, I braved the mosquitoes long enought to prepare and plant two hills of Spineless wonder Zucchini plants and I hill seeded with Lebanese zucchini. I’ll plant more seeds in a few weeks as succession planting for zucchini seems to be the way to go.