Do you want some lettuce? We have eaten lettuce daily, shared it in huge salads at each meal of a 4 day family gathering of 18, fed it to the chickens, and still there is lettuce. It is now bolting, so soon we will move on to another garden bounty. This year's lettuce, especially the butterhead type, was the most spectacular ever. Thick, crispy, flavorful, colorful leaves. I have been overwhelmed with it, but oh, I will miss it when it is gone.
It has been very dry here. My gardens need water, and I have really been using up the rain barrel stores. Surrounding areas have gotten some pretty good rain recently, but my house has had only light showers, barely enough to wet the surface of the soil. I am astounded at the burst of growth each time I do water the garden. You know, when the plants aren't wilting I don't usually think of water as a limiting factor in growth, but maybe I need to rethink my "water only in desperate times" practices now that I see the response.
With the rain barrel supplements, the garden is slow, but oh so beautiful. Here you see rows of green beans (a second and very late planting after returning from our trip), blueberries starting to turn blue and not yet protected from the birds (!), the first little tomato, sitting next to snap peas, and purple top turnips about ready to harvest, against a row of very slow beets. And, just for your viewing pleasure, a little ladybug on a rose leaf, and one of my honeybees in the flower of a feijoa bush (the thick, white petals are sweet and edible).
