The Delimma of the Volunteer Plant groups vs Turnips and Epazote Plans

There are always surprises in my garden. I plan a layout, plot successions of plantings, think about form and color, food and recipes and then I'm overwhelmed or mesmerized by a big group of borage plants. They were so lovely, so strong and I let them be. They grew enormous then in the last bout of rainfall which lasted at least two weeks fell over on top on the radicchio and shadowed growing lettuce and arugula seedlings. I'm too easily wooed by these volunteers that seem to be plopped into strategic corners of my plots. It's like each plot is it's own living form. I can only do so much editing and adding the the plot does the rest. I know how Egyptian walking onions work yet I have a difficult time yanking them out It's too cool to watch them take hold where ever they please. So maybe I need to get tough, or find more Egyptian walking onion recipes that feature borage. I yanked the borage from the middle of the Chris plot and as luck had it I had packets of seeds in my pockets at the wet workday last week and realized, when the weather broke, that they were soaked and should go in somewhere. I started with the spot where the strawberry spinach didn't come up. Trying again with that in the middle of the plot. Yanking the borage created a nice open space. I planted a row of lettuce one that was described as standing heat well and the rest of the packet of the strawberry spinach.

Also in the Chris plot, Mary Sue's Lebanese cucumbers are beginning to climb over the rusted wine cask rings and the cedar berry stakes to the twine trellis I made last week. The Tomatos are florishing bigger ones every day on almost all the plants. The Tomato plants that went in late in the Elliot plot are a bit behind but the turnips make up for this. I read, on an alottment site years ago that the best food for tomatos is a tea of compost. I started a batch last week it takes about 3 weeks to go through the phases from stinky to yeasty. I picked a big kitty litter bucket full, covered it and I'm waiting.
Maybe it was planting the turnips twice that did the trick. This is my third big bunch. Lots more to come. I had a nice surprise when I came to the garden last Thursday, my garden friend Jessica left me a recipe for Asazuke or Japanese lightly pickled turnips we spoke of the week before. She also enclosed a packet of the Japanese instant pickling powder that she likes, it's kombu flavored. I sliced up this bunch of turnips and tried her pickling powder easy and tasty. They're ready in an hour but I liked the ones that I kept till the next day. the salty sweet kombu flavor became more infused into the turnip slices. I've grilled them, pickled them, made a red wine/ sage and rosemary based roasted vegetable with them and the Madhur Jaffrey mint/coriander/tomato wonder. What next?

The Elliot plot is ripe with volunteers there's the tomatillo patch at the end by the beans. They were the best tomatillos last year so I'm letting them be as long as the beans manage to climb past them. This week I noticed the first nicotiana seedlings. This variety of nicotiana is the unvarnised huge variety that grows to 4 feet and has long flowers that smell sweet in the evening. I'll keep a few plants. Their so amazing.

I made California roll sushi with red perilla tonight. It has a wonderful fragrance and makes a nice maroon line complementing the nori line in the sushi.

Epazote is all over the place. I'm weeding it out and keeping select plant near the epazote sign and chimney pot. It's getting taller and eventually I'll need to select a few and get rid of the rest. I used the epazote and big dandelion greens (from the Chris plot) in quesidillas with cheese and pinto beans on Saturday. I'ts a funny strong tasting Mexican herb like nothing else. I first read about it in a Diana Kennedy Mexican cookbook. We ordered seeds but they didn't grow so I wrote her. Whe sent me a leaf and a nice note encouraging me to try again. What really would have worked was a scratch N sniff epazote blotter. The flavor is so distinctive that once I knew it I can pluck a tiny seedling and identify the patch. It reseeds just as well as perilla in Philadelphia which is to say it's all over the place.

Georgia, the turnip smelling poodle patiently waited while I took photos of the Carlolina silver bell seed pods. She had a little turnip greens treat in her dinner.

Egyptian Walking Onions Walking

The Egyptian walking onions in the Chris plot are on the move. Sneaking into the path on one end and trying to take over the chard at the other. Scallions for all soon. Here they are walking. They have big tough hollow stems. As the onion sets form on the top they start to sprout. When they get heavy enough they sway the stem, it bends and cracks. They land a foot or so from their source.

Workdays in the Rain, Burritos at 8

Workdays in pouring rain can be theraputic. I was so soaked that I sloshed. I pruned the sage and Maxmillian Sunflowers. The sage flowering stems were getting brittle and new growth should start in a week or so. The Maxmillian sunflowers will branch and thicken they bloom in September and are glorious. The rescued wrought iron fence had become incorporated into the sage mass and required delicate yanking to free. Ideally it keeps the sage back to the oregano and thyme can thrive.

I pulled a huge bunch of turnips today. The greens will appear in burritos tonight. I'm going to roast the turnips with garlic olive oil and lemon juice to accompany the burritos. I nabbed some epazote that we thinned for the pinto beans. I managed to get some coriander leaves. So much has gone to seed. I like to use some of the green seeds, they have flavor that is a cross between the dried seeds and cilantro.

The walking onions are walking, trying to root in the coffee bean bag path. They have these tall hollow stems that support the heads until the heads start to sprout and become heavy. the stems bend and eventually crack, the sprouting heads of onions root quickly where ever they land, starting the cycle again. The tender stems are used like scallions.

Other news. The mint is trying to take over. It's so agressive and determined. I spent some time yanking it back to the edges of the basil mint plot. This is lovely mint, there is so much that agressive thinning hardly makes a dent. Now the basil will thrive. I also spent some time freeing the sorrel. The new plants are thriving they seem to like the wet.

It feels like we need some warm sunny days so tomatos and basil can shoot up. The tomatos are flowering but not getting very tall. Well see.

Truth be told I like the rain.

I managed to get trellising up for beans and the Lebanses cucumbers in the rain. I didn't want to wait another week for the bean trellising because they were winding around the volunteer tomatillos. I don't like doing this when the plants are wet but there hasn't been dry days lately when I've been home.

Turnip Time and the Magnolia Virginana is in Bloom

Blooming now -clary sage. Huge pink spikes, kind of funky scent attracting honey bees and other beneficials. Volunteer Tomatillos are blooming in the Elliot plot; they were volunteers last year too and grew better than the one's I planted, I'm keeping them, selectively. Its time to get serious about all these turnip greens. I spent three hours in the garden today, moving this, weeding that. The thyme alone had perilla, nigella, motherwort, galinsoga and that blasted bindweed. I did what I could, I'll revisit it on the workday next Saturday. I had lemongrass in a bucket in my studio. Rather than potting it up for the winter I just plunked it in a bucket and watered it now and then. More often than the dearly deparated avacado tree, how you forget to water a tree- I think this was a subliminal message about lugging that heavy plant to the third floor. The lemongrass survived and I planted it out on Saturday, now we have three plants.

Many of the turnips are ready, other need thinning to thrive. I thinned a big bag of greens which will become a layer in lasagna later today. Jessica told me about a Japanese way to pickle turnips. It sounded good and fast, I'm researching it I found one recipe that uses lemon, lemon rind and salt. The turnips will appear on the grill Monday night. Last time I cut them too thick and had to resort to pan frying them after grilling them. they'll be nice with the pork in lemon, garlic sage, thyme marjoram and rosemary marinade. I also pulled the rest of the arugula and some mustard greens. I kept the stalks with the biggest leaves and composted the rest. I now had a cleared space for those two remaining tomato plant, flowering in their pots.

It's Monday and despite huge thunder storms I grilled my dinner, on the front porch. It's quite possible to do this with a nice open porch. There was a bit of driving rain on the porch rails but the grill started fine. Georgia enjoyed the freedom of hanging out on the porch, where was she going to go in the driving rain. She enjoyed looking through the porch rails at the rain. I debated about starting it in the back yard but there was thunder and darkening sky - easier to move the grill before it started pouring I thought. The grilled turnips were brilliant. I also grilled eggplant, zucchini and mushroom/onion.bell pepper (aka mango - a North Eastern Pennsylvanian thing, I discovered the derivation of it in William Woys Weaver's Sauerkraut Yankees) kabobs. Also garlic, lemon rosemary, pork chops that were really tasty.

The Egyptian walking onions are walking, Ill try to get them in action next time I'm in the garden with the camera.

I looked at the pictures of the Chris plot from Thursday; too many conflicting shapes and texture, it's time to do some editing,or thinning. I pulled the remaining kale, also destined for that lasagna. I thinned the huge borage plants that were surrounding the tomatoes. I staked the tomatoes with the tall windy stakes, they kind of work. We bought them years ago and I like the way they look. The idea is that you train the tomato's main leader up the winding rod. This works to a point but I always find myself tying the rod to bean supports and around other stakes.The rods are an interesting addition to plot.

The mint is trying to reclaim the mint and basil plot. I'm adding a lot of mint to salads these days so the basil will thrive. It looks fine so far.

We have kiwis, little ones are forming on the vines. They are hardy kiwis that ripen around Halloween small hairless and sweet. The elderberries are coming in also. There are still some elderflowers. I didn't get around to battering any this year. I'm determined to make elderberry jam when they ripen.

The Alaska nasturtiums are making a big splash at the front of the herb garden, a nice contrast to the flowering lambs ears.

As Georgia and I were leaving the garden I was taken aback by the scent of the Magnolia Virginana. It's a sweet smell akin to waterlillies. This is the tree we got from Bartram's that has grown to at least 30 feet. I think there is a special something down in the rubble.

Borage domination

I was at the UARTS Hybrid book conference this weekend and didn't get down to the garden until Sunday. From Tuesday to Sunday the borage shot up several feet. It goes from being an fuzzy oval leaved plant to a high stalk of cornflower blue flowers, or it should be borage blue a kind of ultramarine cerulean mix. nice as an accent in a salad.

I was a thinking that my garden is a book. There is the spine or border, content, codex pages or groups or waves of plants, content, narrative, texture contrasting juxtapositions, conflict, linear definitions. A flow of plants through the seasons. And I can eat it.

I had my first basil sandwich on Sunday. Cowgirl Creamery Mt Tam cheese, Metropolitan Bakery Organic Spelt bread toasted so it tasted nutty and several basil leaves. Summer is here.

Flowering now: coriander, drifts of coriander tall with abundant small white flowers. Arugula with cream streaky flowers, Tall white umbels of Valerian. Yellow sorrel spikes, White nigella on top of feathery stems. Blue borage. Lettuce is bolting as is early arugula and radicchio. there is so much volunteer borage in the Chris plot that I've been selectively pulling it out to not crowd the Tomatoes and the Egyptian walking onions are doing their curling waving red and green thing.

The lemon grass is growing stronger. I'm not yet sure about the transplanted rosemary. We'll see. In my yard I have a pot of Chervil and a few plants in the front bed of the garden. I've never eaten this before, it's a test. The Vietnamese coriander is holding its own, getting stronger. Tonight I made a salad of leftover grilled onions, chicken, zucchini and eggplant. This was on a bed of lots of garden greens lettuce. mustard greens agrugla and borage dressed with a nam pla, lime ricewine vinegar garlic, grilled garlic ,sugar and onion mix. I added some shaved habaneros from the freezer they are intense. a half is enough.