Triffids

Hello, friends. Every spring, I feel like it’s been a long, hard winter. (To be fair, I live in Ontario.) Every spring, I worry that the plants are behind. And every June, things kick into high gear. I really should stop worrying.

Here’s a bowl of garlic scapes I snipped the other day. I added some basil leaves and toasted almonds and turned it into a massive batch of pesto. I love digging little tubs of summer from the freezer in November.

Here’s our kale, before I made the mother of all kale salads. We have 3 varieties this year: curly, Red Russian, and Tuscan.

We have a very generous neighbour who periodically pops round and says things like, “Could you use a very healthy zucchini plant?” Yes, we can. We always can. Thank you, Bob!

Our raspberries are doing well, too, despite the lemon balm that’s competing for space in that patch. Our children tend to bolt out the door first thing each morning, stake out the raspberry patch, and come back only when it’s picked over. One day I, too, will eat raspberries from our patch.

(In fact I did, right after taking this photo. The kids were asleep.)

We’ve harvested the first round of our snowpeas, but as you can see, the scarlet runner beans are just starting to blossom now.

And we have high hopes for tomatoes. Again, our children graze most of the ripe cherry tomatoes right from the vine, but last year we had enough full-sized tomatoes to last us through the winter. We’re hoping for a repeat.

And that’s our garden at the moment. How is July treating you? What are you up to?