Tomayto, Tomahto

All four of the tomato plants have green tomatoes on them now!  The plants smell heavenly, too.

Mama Leone (A red paste tomato)

Black Icicle  (purple tomato)

Costoluto Genovese (red tomato)

Djeena Lee's  (orange tomato)

A jungle of tomato plants and borage in the center of the garden.
In the foreground are leeks (R) and celery (L).  

Does this image make you yearn for a pot of homemade soup or a Bloody Mary?

Nearly ready to be pickled.

Now, that's wee!

Mother Nature is the finest architect.

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Growth spurt

Suddenly there is fruit on the vines!  It never ceases to amaze me how much growth can occur in the garden in a single day.  Saturday afternoon I spotted the first of the Black Icicle tomatoes as well as a single tiny green orb that will become a Mama Leone tomato.  Today, these same tomatoes are literally twice the size!

Everything in the garden continues to grow rapidly.  Even a couple of the soybean seeds have finally sprouted.  The borage and bergamot blooms are in full swing and attracting many different types of bees to the garden, as well as dragonflies.  So far, with the dragonflies on patrol, there aren't any pest problems.

I suspect that by this time next week the garlic will be ready to harvest.  The warmer temperatures earlier in the season have really moved growth along.

Borage

Mama Leone

Watermelon

Muskmelon

Collard greens

Cucumber
C'mon, how cute is that little lady?

Black Icicle

Butternut squash

Pie pumpkin

Red beet with a couple golden beets in the background.

Bergamot

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Introducing Wright Garden Recipes!

Ladies and Gentlemen: Wright Garden Recipes

Garlic scapes

Seemingly overnight scapes appeared on the garlic plants.  Scapes are the would-be flowers, but we want the focus of the plant to remain on producing a bulb of garlic, not flowers.  Once the scapes are long enough that they  curl, cut them off, but don't toss 'em into your compost bin.  Save them and cook with them.

The stem of each scape contains loads of flavor and can be used in a myriad of ways.  In the past, I've thinly sliced the stems and have used them in soups, stir-frys, marinara sauce, and pesto in lieu of garlic cloves.  Where you would use garlic, the scapes make an excellent substitute.  This year, I plan to use them to make a compound butter.  In fact, the scapes will be ground to a paste in our new molcajete!  The compound butter can then be rolled and frozen in wax paper so we'll have a supply of garlic butter on hand.  Hmm, this gives me an idea.  Perhaps I should maintain a tandem food blog that includes recipes for foodstuff such as this?  In the meantime, back to Wright Gardens...

Four collard green plants are growing in the patch of straw.
The 2' square beds are home to a (L to R) Minnesota Midget Melon (muskmelon) plant and a Golden Midget Watermelon plant.

Tomato flower

Potato flower (Yep, those delicious starchy tubers)
My Bonus-Mom planted a couple potato eyes last year but nothing much happened.  One plant returned this year and is thriving!

The appearance of garlic scapes signifies that the garlic is approximately two weeks away from being harvested.  Shortly, the leaves will begin to brown one-by-one from the bottom working toward the top of the plant.  When there are only 4-5 green leaves remaining, it's time to harvest the garlic.  Seed Savers Exchange provides an excellent Garlic Growing Guide at their web site.

To keep critters from munching on our strawberries, as if the bed is a sweet buffet, netting was added around the bed and secured with stakes.  I don't mind loosing some fruits and veggies to wildlife but every time a berry is a day away from being ripe, I anticipate picking and eating it.  The following day, when I reach the strawberry bed, the berry is gone or has been half eaten!  Hopefully, the netting works to keep birds and animals out.  It would really be a drag if an animal made it's way underneath one end of the net and then couldn't manage to easily get back out after they've had a snack.  They'd likely make a mess of the bed and plants trying to get out. We'll see how this turns out.

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Fresh and fruity with a side of mantid

The weather is perfect and everything is growing vigorously.  It seems like in the course of one week everything in the garden has doubled in size.  With the exception of the French green bean seeds and the soybean seeds, everything else that was planted in the garden has sprouted and is doing well.

The tomato plants each have numerous flowers, and even the okra plant is sporting a couple flowers.  Two handfuls of red raspberries have been pulled from the bush (the first handful on Sunday and the second today) and boy are they sweet!  A couple strawberries will be ripe and ready to eat before the end of the week, too.  Many of the red raspberries will be turned into jam.  In fact, our kitchen will be a part-time canning factory throughout the summer.  Whole fruit and vegetables, sauces, jams and pickles will be canned and stockpiled in the basement.

Sparkle strawberry

Burgundy Okra

Toro blueberries

Red raspberries

Jam-in-the-works

Spencer found the strawberry bed comfy.

Garden friend - Twelve-spotted skimmer

The butterfly bush started blooming late last week!  We're eagerly awaiting our first butterfly and hummingbird sightings.

Mantids are everywhere!  They're becoming easier to spot now as they've doubled in size.  They're still relatively small by comparison to how large they become but they're growing fast.  

I wish this blog had a zoom feature because the second mantid photo is crystal clear.
When zooming in on my laptop, you can see the mantid's details, including his pseudo-pupil!
It was very brave and patient while I moved the camera closer and closer to snap this photo.  I thanked it and then left it be.
We love these amazing creatures.

We hope you're enjoying this amazing weather, having great success with your gardens, and discovering wonders of your own.

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