Hello heat wave!
On Sunday afternoon it was too hot to walk barefoot on my front deck so I stayed on the back deck, but the point is it was too hot on the front deck. Damp cool spring has transitioned.
Coinciding with sweating more is itching season. When I wake up in the morning this time of year, first I find my glasses and then I scratch. Don’t ask. I have learned my garden is a vector for chiggers. Wearing tall boots helps, but it’s ninety-plus before noon, and who wants to wear boots? But I do anyway.
The transition from spring toward summer is also the transition toward jungle in a partially tended garden. Pathways suddenly show signs of honest inattention.
So the gardener in cap, shorts and tall boots (righteously anointed with smelly stuff) notices the soil in some beds has packed in a bit. This development calls for a cultivator to gently scratch around the plants and let the air in.
A side effect of cultivating is gathering the unwanted flora which are harbingers of the impending jungle. However, on my rocky hillside, among the plants which appear without warning are purslane, plantain and lamb’s quarters, each nutritious, tasty and self-seeding wonders. So I pick some for dinnertime and the others go in the compost.
The plants that go in the compost decompose and eventually return to the garden beds where the cute little molecules are absorbed by roots of things I will eat, so I am those plants. I’m a walking lamb’s quarters.
Cultivation allows new air into the soil and water to begin penetrating. Tomatoes and peppers also prefer a layer of mulch because they won’t flower if the soil gets too hot.
I have five blueberry plants and two raspberry clumps in a long bed, and the mulch called for was a mixture of lawn clippings and old pine needles topped with organic straw.
This is the time early maturing vegetables are finished. The first crops are out, so the soil gets renewed or it takes a nap just like me when I get home from work. When a batch of turnips, for example, is harvested, I replenish the spot with whatever I have – magic compost, leaf mulch or more garden soil – and work it in. This is a transition time, and I get the soil ready for next time.
Like radishes, some Asian greens mature in a month or so. Choy sum and Hedou bok choi can be planted in vacant replenished spots. They are in and out fairly quickly, and they don’t ask for much. Mibuna, also. Too hot for lettuces now unless you have a 65° corner in your garden.
A plant that likes warmer weather is Malabar spinach. It is not spinach but suffices for it in your fanciest recipes, and this is the time when seeds from last year sprout unannounced. I transplant the seedlings to a trellis or fence so they can climb, and they will produce nutritious leaves until the first freeze.
This is also the time when oregano runneth over, and dehydration is our friend when it comes to herbs and edible leafy things. Also spearmint. If my experience is an indicator, spearmint will reach Alpha Centauri before humans. Its root system works harder than John Henry and is smarter than a Rubik’s Cube.
So now’s the time to make the first big herb harvest and dehydrate. Sprigs of oregano or spearmint will dry easily on a plate on a shelf or in bundles hung somewhere. They have a calming effect. Leafy things like plantain, lamb’s quarters and amaranth will dry in the sun on the dish of your choice. I put a tray of them on the dashboard of my truck.
Next month most everything in the garden will need a mid-summer pick-me-up, and by then I’ll be eating tomatoes and beans until the next transition.