While the family's away...

June has come and (almost) gone in a blur of activity. We were on vacation for a week, during which the strong sun and rain caused everything to shoot up out of the ground. My jaw dropped when we pulled into the driveway in the middle of the night and the headlights illuminated our quickly-growing squash plants. "They're HUGE!" It's fun to watch the yellow blossoms (which are tempting not to pick and eat, for anyone who's ever been lucky enough to have had them stuffed with ricotta cheese and basil, battered and fried) turn gradually into tiny pale fruits. We ended up with five plants; I'm not sure how many are pattypan and how many are zucchini, since a few were late-blooming seedlings that I had given up on and thrown away the labeled stakes.

The pepper plants are happy; there is one tiny red one and a bevy of tiny green ones waiting to ripen into red. I also mishandled the labeling of these, and since I purchased them from a couple of different places as well as starting some of my own, we really will have to be surprised when they're ready to harvest!

The greens are growing like gangbusters. I finally thinned the lettuce plants after taking this picture; it was less painful than I'd thought it would be, especially since the thinnings went straight into the colander to be washed and turned into dinner. The spinach is starting to bolt, which I know means I should harvest and freeze the whole crop before it turns bitter. I intend to do that within the next day or so, before we leave again for a week. Does anybody know whether I can plant more spinach, now? I might try it, since I have the seeds and the space.

A few nights ago when our cat Maia was curled up on my lap, I smelled something odd on her, and it took me a few minutes to place it. Finally I realized she'd been lying between the tomato plants for most of the afternoon while Rob and I planted a new bed. Hopefully, the squirrels took note!

Time to eat

Thanks to the warm front porch and some shy bunnies, the harvest has begun around here. We made a salad the other day with the porch lettuce and the winter survivor arugula.We had to cheat a bit and throw in some store lettuce, but it was still divine.

Kansas is a very difficult place to grow greens in the summer for some reason. It's no hotter than Utah and no moister than Connecticut, both places where I had decent luck with summer greens. There must be something about our particular mix of brutal heat and frequent hot winds in summer that just sucks the life out of even the most robust greens. If anyone has advice on overcoming that problem, I'd be happy to hear it.

One way to keep rabbits out of your lettuce

Last spring, while I was obsessing nearly daily about the evil bunnies and their salad green destroying ways, I happened to stroll through one of the local garden shop's racks of spring plants. Amidst the armada of pansies and their ilk, I spotted a four pack of lettuce seedlings. I was sure I was smart enough to thwart the bunnies. Hope does spring eternal.

My theory was that by putting it in pots on the steps in front of our house it might survive. As I've said before here, most Sylvilagus can't jump despite their reputation, plus they're rather shy creatures, so I figured coming up the walk toward a door and a light might exceed even their cheekiness. Happily, this theory turned out to hold water, and the lettuce was glorious. It's even rather pretty in a green sort of way. This is the 2008 version:

Of course, it all goes south once it gets hot, plus the porch light attracts hordes of evil insects whether I use a yellow bulb or not. By the beginning of June, I have to remove all of the edibles from the porch or they get decimated.