Garden Update

Back in the spring I tore out the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the curb in front of our house. I built up a raised garden bed with compost from our bin and some bagged dirt from the store and then framed it in with some wooden posts that I staked down to hold it all in place. I also put some tomato plants into pots on the porch and filled some window boxes with flowers to add color.

Turned out to be a great thing. The garden has been a source of real pleasure for me all spring and summer. I took some pictures this morning and wanted to post them.

Black-eyed Susans, marigolds, and chrysanthemums.















A basil plant that has decided to take over a fair-sized chunk of the garden. I have made a LOT of pesto this summer. Excellent recipe:

3 Tbsp toasted pine nuts
3 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup basil leaves

Grind pine nuts and garlic in a food processor. Add salt and basil leaves. Grind some more. Add olive oil and process into the consistency you like.

Goldfinches have loved eating the seeds out of the sunflowers. They are small, beautiful birds and I can tell when they are eating because they chitter noisily to each other as they eat.





We have gotten dozens of juicy, sweet tomatoes that don't quite look as perfect as the tomatoes for sale at Stop and Shop, but they taste far better. Must be all the flavonoids.











I put in just one pepper plant, since we don't use a lot of heat in most of our cooking. Well, that one pepper plant has put out dozens of VERY hot habaneros--far more than we can use. I am just throwing them in the freezer so far.

Garden Patch

Our roof is falling apart, our basement floods with some regularity in heavy rains, and the paint is
flaking off the walls outside, revealing bare wood beneath. Most of the flat surfaces inside the house collect stuff each time any of us walks in the door.
So, one of the first things I do each day is go outside and look at the front garden patch. We have no yard at all, just a little patch of dirt in front of the porch, a few big planters, and some flower boxes. But somehow that little patch of dirt gives me so much pleasure. Basil thrives, tomatoes grow by the dozen, flowers bloom. Many days a certain older woman from down the block comes and just stares at all the plants with an angelic smile on her face. I think maybe she is what makes things grow so well out there.