Volunteers, lush growth and ugh! Harlequin bugs

We've had almost a whole week of constant rain. I visited the garden on Tuesday and was amazed, I picked a lot of greens. Went I went down to take photos and pick greens for dinner on Thursday, I swear the kale grew 6".
I love volunteers. They come up hither dither. Places you wouldn't expect and they make juxtapostions that are surprising. The red perilla next to fuzzy clary sage for example. Many herbs are periennial in our garden. The sage, marjoram, thyme tarragon to name a few. Some have to be started from seeds every year like basil and parsley. Epazote, perilla (shiso) and coriander (cilantro) reseed all over the place.
This week the little red perilla volunteers are coming up under and around the bamboo shade structure and epazote seedlings are thick around the chimney pot and next to the concrete walk. The epazote is one of those herbs that is hard to tell visually from a bunch of our Pennsylvanian weeds but I always know it by its smell. It very distinct, like no other herb, once you get that smell, you'll always know it. It also comes up between the bricks in my back yard and sometimes in the tree lawn beds. I pick a place for the perilla and epazote patches and thin out the other seedlings. With perilla since it's such a cool looking red plant I leave some here and there for syncopation.
The kale has been great. I plant it thick so that I have plenty of thinnings for dinner. I cook it with lots of garlic in olive oil. Last night I made quesidillas with pinto beans that I accidentally defrosted, garlicky kale, epazote and cheese. Garnished with coriander from the garden. I topped them with Frontera Tomatillo salsa -really tasty. Good eating - as my mother would say- she was talking about a cassarole called Missouri but..

I plant the kale thick knowing that sooner or later it will have to be eaten quickly because the dreaded harlequin bugs get it. We can manage them by squashing them until there becomes a critical mass and it is time to yank everything up. Happens every year might as well plan for it. Usually we begin seeing them in late June. This year there here now. I've only seen and squished a few- I keep bricks handy by each plot for this. they target mostly the cabbage family and love mustard but don't even notice chard so I grow plenty in the wings to have summer greens. It was so cold for so many days last winter that I thought the population would have been decimated- guess not.

We had our first radishes form the Elliot plot this week, plenty of turnip and mustard thinnings in salads.

Georgia has discovered Naomi's secret entrance to the garden. I found her wandering outside of the fence. She's a clever little poodle. I'm adding escape artist to her resume.