In My San Diego Garden and Kitchen
It is spring in my garden. The winter broccoli and cauliflower departed long ago. Spinach, chard and lettuce thrive as the days lengthen and intermittent rains continue. The carrots and beets are selectively harvested as the roots enlarge. The sweet peas climb to the top of the trellis and spill over their bountiful blooms. Direct seeded Rosaine lettuce takes off.
Space in the garden opens and the warm season garden plan emerges. The Dwarf Rosella Purple and Black Cherry tomatoes moved up from six-packs to quarts last week. The containers of Yukon Gem potatoes send bushy growth higher. In a few weeks the soil will be warm enough to plant beans for drying and Emerite green beans.
In the meantime, I’ll direct seed more spinach and arugula as half-season crops in the rain-drenched soil. I’ll continue to harvest the cut-and-come-again Bright Lights chard which delights my friend. This week the first artichokes will be ready.
I led with the small harvest of Golden Sweet snow peas as a reminder that almost every season one crop under-performs or fails altogether. This season it was the snow peas. Daily harvests can look like this. I’m smitten with the purple flowers. Next year.
Spring garden salads are a thing now.
Spring onions, planted from sets in the fall size up and come in handy.
Five celery plants produce abundant stalks but as the season wanes, their best use is in cooking. I still slather a stalk in peanut butter with lunch occasionally.
For Easter dinner I made a melange of spring vegetables with purchased asparagus. I recalled the twenty years when I harvested my own asparagus for this spring dish. Mix-ins before serving included lemon zest and toasted sesame seeds.
Between downpours on Saturday I gathered ranunculus, calla lilies and feverfew for the Easter bouquet at the church entry.
Check the What I’m Planting Now page as I transplant and sow seeds in the spring garden and plan for the summer garden. Then head today to Harvest Monday, hosted by Dave at Happy Acres blog and see what garden bloggers around the world harvested last week.
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