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Steven and I shared some time at the garden on a very hot Wednesday afternoon (May 24) but few families came by and they mostly wanted to enjoy the sprinkler and have water for their pails.

About 10 families came by Monday and Tuesday for short periods. One grandfather and small boy entered where the grandfather remarked his charge didn’t like veggies. But upon seeing the red of the radish the boy responded, “But I do like radishes!”

I was on hand Thursday and Friday from 2:30 to 4:30, more or less. On one, two 7-year-old girls walked all the paths as a maze. I showed them the new bean and squash seeds just coming up, and crushed a mint leaf for them to smell.

With a Chinese woman carrying a baby, I exchanged the names of the veggies in our respective languages, and also I gave her a mint leaf and a pea tendril.

We planted two different kinds of basil on May 1st.  We planted Green Lettuce Leaf basil, from Seeds of Change, and Sweet Petra Dark Red basil from Burpee.  Both emerged about 10 days ago, although there are some fairly large holes in the rows of basil.  This problem is probably due to the fact that not all seeds germinated.

We waited until May 1st to plant the basil, as basil likes warmer soil.  The green lettuce leaf basil has the largest leaf of any basil and the sweet petra dark has a mild, sweet taste. 

When the plants are about 2 or 3 inches tall it’ll be time to thin them to 4 to 6 inches apart.  The leaves grow in pairs on either side of the basil.  When there are 3 leaf pairs, it’s time to pinch the plant back right above a set of leaves.  The best time to harvest is after the morning dew dries, but before the heat of the day.

It’s important to start harvesting the basil before the plants flower.  Once you see flowers you should pinch them back to two sets of leaves below the flowers.  The flowers release a hormone change within the plant that greatly reduces the flavor.  Therefore, pruning regularly is important.

Pre Lady Bird Johnson

Post Lady Bird

We planted sunflower seeds on April 24, Russian Mammoth from Seeds of Change. After waiting a few weeks, the germination looked weak, so I planted more seeds on May 14. Now in both sunflower patches, we have two big 5-week old plants, and a bunch of 2-week old seedlings. I think I’ll thin them down to two of each and see what happens. Time to bloom is around 110 days, so we can look forward to seeing them in bloom around mid-August.

Sunflowers made the cut in our "all vegetable" garden because the seeds are, after all, edible and delicious. More than likely though, the birds will get them all. No problem – birds eat the bad bugs, too. We like birds.

Mike P. planted the pepper seedlings on May 29, Memorial Day Weekend, three varieties:

Lady Bell, a sweet bell pepper from Busa Farm.

Carmen, a Mediterranean sweet pepper from Waltham Fields.

Jalapeno, a hot pepper, donated by a neighbor, Robin.

Mike planted the seedlings using a standard successful method:

1. 1. Scoop the soil out of the planting hole, a little bit bigger than the hole you need;
2. Throw in a handful of compost and a bit of fertilizer;
3. With some loose soil in the bottom to correct the depth, position two seedlings* so the soil lines match the surrounding ground level;
4. Fill the hole halfway with soil;
5. Fill the hole with water to soak the soil around the seedlings’ roots;
6. Fill the hole the rest of the way with soil;
7. Build a little dike around the stem to help catch water.

* We doubled up on pepper seedlings – two to a hole, an inch or two apart. Pepper plants are kind of “loose” and let a lot of sun through the leaves. Growing two side-by-side helps shade the fruit from sun scald, and practically doubles the yield in the space available.

 

There is no more to say…