Neely's Garden - Part 3

Well, a good deal of growing has happened since I planted the tiny, delicate seedlings in my vegetable garden.  I no sooner got the plants in the ground that it began to rain and I didn't snap any pictures, thinking I would get them in the next day or so.  If you live in the Northeast, well you know how that has gone lately.

Anyway, several weeks later and the plants are really coming along.  The salad bowl (the bed on the right) is thriving and looking like a fresh salad may be on the menu for this weekend.  (Yippee!  We just got a new grill so I think maybe some grilled shrimp over some beautiful, fresh arugula.)

I'll plant some seeds in rows between the plants this weekend to replace what's already in the ground as it is harvested.  My experience with the arugula is that it will come back for a second round toward the end of the summer, but to keep it available all season, I'll keep reseeding.

In the left bed are kale, rainbow chard, collards, zucchini, two kinds of cukes and two kinds of green beans.  They are slow in coming but when August rolls around, I won't be able to keep up with the cucumbers and the fresh greens (my favorite veggies) will be thriving and available thru the fall.  With any luck, the cuke crop will be abundant enough that I will be able to put up some pickles this year.

I noticed that bugs were snacking on the leaves of the greens so I sprayed them with some organic insecticide this weekend and will continue to do so regularly for the rest of the growing season.  Other than that, the soil was prepared well enough that I won't do any further fertilizing.  Just weed and water, which it looks like mother nature will take care of this year. 

Summer is such good eating.  If you have never had the divine pleasure of cutting vegetables for dinner and eating them within minutes of separating them from their roots, do yourself a grand favor and plant something, anything - lettuce in a pot on the deck, some tomatoes on the terrace and taste the sort of freshness that we just don't get the opportunity to savor with supermarket produce.  It's like the difference between rhinestones and diamonds.