Everything's coming up blue-- potatoes and berries, that is.

I am so happy about my blueberries! Until two years ago, my 20 bushes ( a wonderful mix of early, mid and late season varieties I got from White Flower Farms) were productive and carefree. But then the winter moth caterpillars descended and ate the flowers before they had a chance to bloom.

I researched methods of controlling the worms, and decided to use Bt. Unfortunately, my overgrow bushes were so tall that is was tough to get the spray to reach the foliage, even when I stood precariously on a ladder.

Next I researched pruning blueberries and gave them a major overhaul, removing old woody stems and trimming back suckers. 

This spring the Bt worked, the bumble bees bumbled from flower to flower, and the branches are bent to the ground with ripening berries.

I don't cover the bushes to keep the birds away-- instead I planted another ten bushes out among the perennials for them, and I pick all the ripe berries every day, morning and night. I can't bring myself to net and hurt even one of the friendly birds that eat so many insect pests in my garden, and sing to me all day.

When I was picking this morning a cat bird sat nearby and argued loudly that they were his berries...

The first harvest:

I also snuck a few new blue potatoes out of the edges of the planting, and made a colorful salad also featuring Oregon giant peapods, radish pods, and red scallion -- it was colorful and delicious. Here are the ingredients before chopping and mixing:

Peas, strawberries, and a young wanderer

It's feeling like summer in my kitchen garden, and I'm enjoying the long warm evenings.
I have heard other gardeners complain of the tedium of picking peas and beans, but I enjoy the treasure hunt through the foliage, and the triumph of a bowl full of peas ready to shell.  Though I must admit I like my purple and yellow beans because they are easy to find. But that's next month's harvest.
Right now it is all about peas, and I am happy that my varied trellis structures are holding up under the weight of a lot of vines-- here's the fullest one, with 'Alaska' :

'Miragreen' was planted a bit more thinly, and shares a bed with radishes I have let go to seed so I can harvest the spicy green pods:

I like to sit and watch a DVD  (I get them from the library) on my portable player while I shell -- recently I watched the 'Rosemary and Thyme' british mystery series about two middle aged professional gardeners.  I tend to sample as I shell, and my taste test confirmed that 'Miragreen' is a supersweet pea best eaten raw, while 'Alaska' is more of a traditionally mealy pea best  eaten cooked, preferably with potatoes and lots of butter!

I also have been picking strawberries -- my 20  'Seascape' plants have been producing about 2 cups of berries a day. While I was searching for strawberries yesterday, Sol starting bouncing around a spot on the lawn behind me. I went over to investigate and found a six inch long snapping turtle. Since it was too young to be looking for a place to lay eggs, I picked it up by the tail and took it to the pond across the road. The fierce little thing would have bitten me if I'd held it any other way.  Here it is-- so prehistoric!

And here's a look at the total harvest that day:

Next up for harvest: beans, early potatoes and blueberries.

Happy Rhubarb!

It's been really wet lately, and some plants in the garden have suffered, especially the ones prone to slugs and fungus. But the rhubarb is really happy with this weather. Here's a pic of Sol in front of the rhubarb patch. He's eating  a radish flower.

Broccoli rabe and strawberries

I harvested a crop of broccoli rabe last week. Here's the plants before harvest:

and a closeup of the flower heads:

Unlike it's cousin broccoli, which takes much longer to mature, rabe is ready in about 30 days, and nearly the whole plant is tender enough to eat.

Sol likes it raw:

But I like to saute it with olive oil, lots of garlic, red pepper flakes and salt and pepper, then add a little water, and cook until the water evaporates and the rabe is tender ( about 5 minutes for me-- I don't like it too soft):

Delicious as a vegetable, or great with angel hair pasta.

I'm also getting a handful of strawberries every day from my patch of seascape-- just enough to add to my  cereal or yogurt:

And here's the flower of the week-- my self sown coriander patch by the deck:

June 3 2013 tour of my kitchen garden

Here's a June video tour of my kitchen garden:

What's growing now: Spinach, radishes, peas and more...

After the cold start this spring has been great for gardening here in southeastern Massachusetts. Enough rain, but not so much that things rot, and not too many crazy temperature fluctuations.
Here's what I'm harvesting and planting now:

Spinach and radishes:

The spinach stems are so tender  I blanch them with small radishes and eat them together with butter:

The peas are blooming (and the chive flowers are edible when young...).

and the broccoli rabe is almost ready to harvest:

Summer crops are in the ground-- here's one of the dozen mounds where I planted many kinds of summer and winter squash (I use rocks as labels because Sol steals the wooden and plastic ones):

Bush beans are sprouting-- these are Burgundy, and the stems are distinctly purple:

Some tomatoes are in the ground-- this is a potato leafed heirloom from aunt Sandy via my brother in law Adam:

While others are still hardening off on the front porch-- these are Mortgage Lifter and Sweet 100, along with a jalapeno and some moonflowers:

And the late spring flowers are enjoying the good weather too. This bicolor purple bearded iris came with the house when I bought it 21 years ago, but I planted the amsonia. They are both reliable, easy care flowers.

Last Frost-- right on time, greens from the garden, and an orchid!

The estimated last frost for around here (Taunton, MA is the actual weather station, about 10 miles away) is May 15th. Despite the 'global weirdness' of the weather,  that date was accurate this year.
There was light frost damage on my potatoes this morning ( annoying, but not serious, and I know from past experience that they will grow past it).
What is annoying is that frost was not predicted last night, but the night before, when I dutifully covered the potatoes with straw, which I took off... then this happened:

This proves that nature has a nasty streak.  Only two of my five plantings of pots had damage.  The others were protected enough by nearby fences or shrubs to avoid the sharpest cold. I hilled up and mulched the undamaged blue potato plants, and Sol promptly decided to sit on them. That should keep them warm, at least:

 I picked a good harvest of greens this morning: arugula, lettuce, spinach, and my first radishes:

I also took Sol for a long walk in the woods today. I love watching the seasons change in the woods as much as in my garden, and over the years of dog walking in many local woodlands I have learned where and when many wildflowers bloom.  Today I was looking for ladyslipper orchids. I found many orchids, but they were all just beginning to uncurl their buds.  Then, at the very end of the walk, I saw this outlier in full glorious bloom:

It made me happy. I'll go back there next week to see the rest of the orchids flower.