In years past, by mid-June my garden has always been in full production, but this year it made a late start because of the cold weather, and it's still struggling a bit. Gardening is an enriching experience - if you can take the humility you get along the way. Gardening teaches patience: even when everything goes right, weeks go by between sowing and harvesting. And gardening teaches that you never stop learning: each year the same type of vegetable will grow differently, and even within the same year, each plant of the same type of vegetable will develop in its own way - and you have to figure out what's going on. Thirteen years of gardening have taught me this much.
(Oopsy! I missed that side shoot - I'll pinch it off first thing in the morning!)
So I water, weed, trim, rake, support, tend, and try to figure what the new brown spot on that leaf might be, while waiting for my plants to grow and start producing. Slowly, at their own pace, things are beginning to happen, even on this slow year. Blossoms appear where none were the day before, little baby fruits start growing, and each time I come home my garden basket is a little fuller and a little heavier.
Yesterday, for the first time this year, I came back with enough chard, new potatoes, baby zucchini, and borage to make a steamed mixed vegetable, marjoram and cheese omelette. Served, naturally, with a side salad - always a side salad.
