I bought some seeds from Terroir this spring for a spinach that supposedly doesn’t bolt in hot weather. I planted it, and it came up looking like spinach. “Cool,” I thought. I ignored it for a while and then the vines took over the garden! It’s not really a spinach, but a tropical plant native to India and Southeast Asia.

According to Wikipedia, “Basella alba is an edible perennial vine in the family Basellaceae. It is found in tropical Asia and Africa where it is widely used as a leaf vegetable. It is native to the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and New Guinea.” 

The leaves are sweet and thick even into the middle of September. I’ve been picking the leaves and putting them on sandwiches. They taste something like spinach, but have a hint of sweetness like sweetcorn. I haven’t sauteed any yet, but they supposedly taste like spinach when cooked.

This would certainly be a way to have greens all year, and they will grow up a trellis. I need to try more uses before the weather gets colder. Could be the discovery of the year.

It’s definitely been a good year for the Tomatoes, except all most all of them ripened at once. I dried two trays of Roma tomatoes and made sauce from the rest. I was late on the harvest and lost a dozen or more to rot.

When I planted the mint garden last year, I didn’t even think of pollinators, but it has attracted a myriad of wasps and bees, many of which I’ve never seen. I have been able to identify some of them, but there is even a greater horde of them that are in the area of 1/4 inch in length that won’t sit still long enough to be identified. It is truly amazing! The mint is spreading everywhere!

Here is a little gallery of some of the visitors to the garden.

The groundhog has returned. I noticed that a couple of my heirloom tomatoes that were just about ripe had bites out of them. The next day I saw the perpetrator run away when I entered the garden. The groundhog is back, or it’s a new one (more likely).

I stationed Dedo in the garden with a sign but it didn’t do much good despite Dedo’s best effort.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, he entered Greg’s garden and was subsequently dispatched along with his brethren by means that only seasoned farmers know.

End of the groundhog story.

But we also have rabbits. Lots of them. they trimmed some of the pepper plants. Totally wiped out the celery root and kept the okra plants well trimmed. They couldn’t care less about my new ultrasonic rabbit chasers.

I will likely need to do more fencing next year. En Garde!

I used the holiday today to finish up my planting, I weeded the mint garden last week and tilled behind the composter and along the path. Today I planted okra where the broccoli was that got decimated by the rabbits. Between the path and the pine tree, I planted 3 ground cherries, three more Okra plants, and six fennel plants. I managed to break up the hard soil enough behind the barn to get three tomatillo plants in. Rain is coming for the next few days so I’m glad I got it all done.

The potted Jalapeno has been yielding a large amount of peppers – more than I can use. The tomatoes continue and the basil is doing well, The Shishitos are starting to yield. They are mostly hot this year.

The preparation and tilling I did last fall helped a lot, but there were a couple of beds not prepared. The wet spring hindered getting some of the planting done, and the following drought made me spend a lot of time watering, and I probably should have done more.

The peppers have turned around after a couple doses of fertilizer and more water. All of the plants look good.

The peas had an amazing yield and were good and tender and crunchy, even with full-sized peas in the pod.

I’ve had a tomato every day since the first one, so I am on to my usual summer breakfast of tomato toast.

Two crops of radishes were total failure as well as the ones I planted in a pot with potting soil and regularly fertilized and watered. I’m not sure what the secret is, but I certainly don’t have it.

I got one zucchini several weeks ago. Little ones keep sprouting, but they don’t grow and eventually turn yellow and rot.

I didn’t plant the potted cilantro thick enough, but the potted basil from seed grew quickly and is absolutely beautiful. I’ll need to start new pots of cilantro and basil in the next couple of days.

I picked the first couple of tomatoes last weekend and made tomato toast for Katy, Kevin, and myself on Saturday. Evan and I picked an overflowing colander of peas later in the day. I should have picked them a few days earlier, but even though there were full sized peas in the pods, they were still crunchy and tender. This variety is a keeper.

We used cherry tomatoes from the garden and dill, and oregano on Grouper that Natalie made last night. I picked my first small zucchini tonight for my dinner. There will be many more in a couple of days.

I’ll water tonight. The peppers look terrible, I will fertilize them tonight as well. I have some small green peppers growing and some Shishitos, but the plants are spindly and not vigorous.

Of course, I love being out in the garden in the brilliance of the day, but with the solar lighting, the garden takes on a magical appearance as the sun goes down.