Another Gardening Session

I’m starting yet another season of gardening. It must be the 47th? Because it’s stayed nice, I’ve finally tilled the garden space. It worked up very nicely. After my few hours running the garden tractor, I spent several more hours laying out the drip system and staking it down in place. The electric fence to protect the space from deer is not yet in place, nor are my pea fences. I’m still mulling over what’s going to planted where. I try to rotate things every year.

Of course, there are perennials in my garden: the raspberries, honeyberry bushes, the gooseberry bush, the asparagus, and the rhubarb all have permanent spaces. Those all mostly stay in the same place, although raspberries tend to roam via underground rhizomes. They’re sneaky that way. I find them encroaching in the neighboring row.

The asparagus also spreads out, but it does it by going to seed. The wind scatters that seed throughout the yard. I’ll find upstarts everywhere, not just in the garden. They start off tiny, and I’ll miss them right away. If I see them soon enough, I’ll transplant them into gaps in their row. If there are no gaps, I’ll put them in pots and offer them on Facebook, for a small fee to cover delivery.

Excess raspberry canes have likewise been sold/given to others, but I’ll be using a lot of them to fill in my own patch this year. Last summer a neighbor’s blind dog went on walkabout. I don’t know how he managed to evade the electric fence only to get tangled up in the raspberry rows. He’s a large dog, with a heavy coat, but those thorns hitting his sensitive nose must have panicked him. Many canes were broken off before he escaped. (We weren’t home for this event, but when he came up to the house later, I gave him water.) Raspberries are formed on last year’s new growth, so my crop won’t be as large this summer. I’ve been pruning the dead and broken off canes during this last week.

When my hand got too sore with that pruning, I switched over to planting. I have several hills of both purple and red potatoes planted. I’ll still plant a few hills of white potatoes soon. Also in the ground are red and yellow onion sets. I have more red and white onion sets to plant. I try to space out the onion plantings so we’ll have green onions for a longer time. We eat the thinnings. I’ve also put in shallots. Those get planted like onion sets, although they want the pointed end to be slightly above soil level. Apparently I missed digging some garlic last year, as there are garlic scapes poking through the ground where I plant those.

I’ll be enjoying my own asparagus soon. I’ve been purchasing it while waiting for our spring to arrive. I cut a couple stalks Sunday evening from the volunteer plant just off the cement walk out front. I hadn’t noticed it growing there until it was well established. It’s root system went under the edge of the cement, which prevents transplanting it. I have volunteer asparagus in a couple flowerbeds, too. And there’s some in the raspberry row. I harvest from all over the place.

The cottonless cottonwoods up here have been popping with new growth, literally. There’s a sticky case over each leaf bud, and as the leaf swells, they pop off. They’ve been all over the cement and front deck. One good thing about the drought is that they aren’t nearly as sticky this year. They tend to get tracked into the house, and when they’re really sticky, they leave greasy yellow stains on the linoleum. When we had cats, those things would stick to the fur between the pads on their feet. They must not have tasted good, either. You could just about see the cats making faces as they chewed at their feet to remove the leaf cases.

We had our first goldfinch show up at the bird feeder just outside the living room window in the morning on Mother’s Day. Now we’re watching for the orioles to arrive. I’ll have to be refilling bird feeders several times a week, as well as making sure there’s fresh water in the birdbaths for their pleasure. It’s also for our pleasure. We like watching them and listening to their songs.

The mango seeds I’ve been trying to start are germinating. Four of the five have sprouted. I’ll be googling the instructions again. I want to plant them properly. It seems like I read that the seeds, once sprouted, just need to be laid on top of planting soil. They’ll send roots down and leaves up, after which you can add more soil over the seed. But I need to double-check. My memory sometimes tricks me.

I did enjoy this side dish last week (just me, though. Dennis wouldn’t try it.) I cut it in half, since I knew it was only for one person. I used 2 teaspoons dried dill in place of fresh.

Ukrainian Cucumber and Tomato Salad

2 English cukes, chopped

2 medium OR 1# grape tomatoes, chopped

1/4 C red onion, sliced thin or chopped

1/4 C dill, chopped fine

2 Tbl EVOO

2 Tbl toasted sesame oil

1/2 tsp salt

Pepper to taste

Vinegar to taste, optional

Combine the cucumber, tomato, and onions. Whisk the rest together. Gently mix into veggies shortly before serving. Store up to 24 hours, but best consumed sooner as the cukes will water. Can make ahead, just delay adding the dressing.