It doesn’t look like much now, but once the pumpkins and gourds start growing, this will be a mass of vines.

A few potential obstacles that I am slightly concerned about:

• The bags of soil seem sub-par, rock solid already after baking in the sun yesterday. It’s Hyponex potting soil – I probably should have added some loose material – too late now.
• The soil beneath the landscape fabric is rocky for the front bags. Just how rocky, I’m not sure, but the pins were tough to push in. Again, too late now. Maybe pumpkins like rocky soil?
• I grew squash near this area last year, so the potential for vine borers increases. Last year, I had very few problems with these pests – but once you notice their presence, it’s too late.
• Jake and Buddy don’t seem to understand there is a newly planted bed here – they like to run through it.

It is fun to watch the growth in the garden. And it is especially fun to watch the peas take off. And it is even more fun to eat the peas. It has been such a long cool start to summer, the peas are going nuts. The tomatoes and peppers don’t much care for the cool weather, but they can wait a little bit.

I also fixed the damn mower today. Now if things would dry out a little, we could take back the lawn.

The garlic is growing rather well. It seems we did not plant enough. I can tell, and so can Peaches (the cat).

Just beyond the garlic is our first sugar snap pea blossom. It won’t be long now before we can eat some peas fresh from the garden.

I think it’s funny that my first real thoughts of spinach involve a formless canned green I watched Popeye consume in order to gain strength to defeat his tormentor. I’ve never really seen spinach sold in a can. I presume this happened at one point in the history of spinach, but I cannot imagine why.

We’ve been eating Spinach by the bowl-full lately. Other greens too, but spinach is the big producer. One way Anne has discovered to make use of large spinach quantities is a spinach pesto. It’s quite good on either pasta or pizza (in lieu of tomato sauce). Here is a rough break-down of the recipe: spinach, olive oil, garlic, pine-nuts, lemon juice, salt and pepper, Parmesan cheese. Smash it all in a food processor and you’re done. We’ve even frozen a bunch in little pesto cubes (without the cheese added).

Spinach is also very good in lasagna, but we have yet to do this.