So Much Promise

Friends, it’s here: If not in the weather forecast, at least in our hearts - Summer! Can you feel it? At the end of last week, I turned in my final papers, presentations, and tests; the next two weeks stretch in front of me like an open road (my summer class begins June 1). Garden, here I come.

And there is so much promise in the garden right now. There’s not much to actually eat (this is the ‘hungry gap’ after all), but all the ingredients are there, and in a month we will be eating like kings.

Our bees swarmed twice in April (one of them was boxed up by my dad and given a new home in his backyard) and during Tom’s last hive check, he decided to take some honey, so at least we have several jars of that!

I dug out all the compost from the chicken pile and added it to the tomatoes, then clipped them to their growing strings. I harvested the garlic, which is now drying in the garage. I cleared the last of the peas and carrots and planted five varieties of winter squash, ten different kinds of basil, and several kinds of cucumbers. Oh yeah, and some pole beans. Gotta have beans.

I’ve been watching the fruit start to flower and form. We’re going to have berries - so many berries! - marionberries, and loganberries, and blackberries, and blueberries. We’re going to have apples - I made sure to prune our tree quite dramatically over the winter - and now we have what looks like a bumper crop on the way.

We’re going to have peppers - several serranos and a couple of bells have already formed nicely. We’re going to have cilantro and dill - volunteer plants have been coming up all over the place. Cosmos has likewise seeded everywhere as well as borage.

The gulf fritillary butterflies are going quite mad, and the passionvine is full of eggs and caterpillars and flowers. My new perennial pollinator garden is doing very well, with the grasses and coral bells flowering next to foothill penstemon and wooly blue curls.

Some of the soil in our raised beds was quite compacted, which I found mysterious as I add compost every year (and those beds produced a great crop of peas!). To improve it, I used the hunks of clover cover crop that I cut out of some other beds, and laid them down on the surface of the questionable soil. Soon we had worms coming up to work on it and simultaneously aerating the soil. Now pumpkin and cucumber seedlings are coming up through the dead and dying clover, and I’m thrilled. This was a good reminder for me to plant clover in ALL the beds, between ALL the veg in the winter. I really noticed a difference in the soil where it was growing.

You may remember the saga of the disastrous winter garden (I planted it up five times. FIVE TIMES! And still I had very little success. Just the aforementioned peas, some carrots, some arugula, and a little kohlrabi - not nearly the bumper crops we usually have over the winter). I was worried that this summer might just continue that trend, and I wondered if maybe my gardening luck had run out.

But so far, the summer garden is chugging along just as it should, so I’m breathing easier.

In other news, during my last week of school, we had a solar system installed. I’ll write in detail about that experience (spoiler alert - we are very happy with the entire process) as soon as I have some hard data to share with you. More soon!

Mount Diablo Fairy Lantern

Friends, I promise: Soon, my semester will be over, and I’ll be free to write long rambling posts about the garden again. Oh, I can’t wait! The garden is calling me powerfully, but for a time yet I must resist and stay at my computer, only emerging to take walks for my mental and physical health. I’m presenting my capstone project titled “Facilitating Native Bee Populations in the Urban Bay Area,” on Friday, and I am hastily editing and refining (and biting my nails).

Meanwhile, I wanted to show you this pretty little flower that is only in bloom for a short while each year, in a very narrow endemic range. Isn’t it sweet? This is the Mount Diablo Fairy Lantern, Latin name Calochortus pulchellus, and I’ve only seen it on one other trail, and that many years ago.

Calochortus is an interesting genus, with several fascinating local species. To learn more about it, you can’t beat this article in Bay Nature, published in 2015. The entire story is cool, from the way they were ‘discovered’ (by Douglas, of “Douglas fir” and “Douglas iris” fame), to the way they grow, to the places in which they grow. I thought you too might want to learn more about these pretty little ephemerals!

Side note: Tom, the kids, and I have all had our Covid vaccinations, and it feels like freedom. I am looking forward to in-person garden tours, in-person plant sales, and hugs from all gardeners in a 20 mile vicinity!

Another side note: A month ago Tom and I decided to section hike to the top of Mt Diablo (the western side) from our house, over the course of several weekends. This can be done because there are roads going to the summit on the west side, so we just had to figure out where/at which points to hit a road where we could stop and start again. It took us a few weekends, about 14 miles up (and 14 miles back down), and a gain of about 4300 feet in elevation. It was a fun project to figure out how to get up there from here. Now we want to hike the east side, but there are no roads there except the one at the staging area, so we’ll have to do about 10 miles (round trip) and 3600 feet of elevation in one day. So that’s a summer goal!

A New Trellis

Last year, I planted a new clematis (Clematis paniculata, also known as Sweet Autumn Clematis), which turned out to be a very vigorous grower with really amazing flowers (seen in the photo above in September). We enjoyed it so much, all the way through December, as it went from millions of white flowers to gorgeous winged seedpods that looked like little plumed helicopters. I was hoping that it would scramble up on top of the garage roof, but it seemed to want to grow the opposite way, towards the chicken coop and over the gate. So, this spring, as it’s putting on a lot of new growth, I asked Tom to make me some sort of arch for the gate; this way the clematis can grow the way it wants to. Tom went into his wood-store and found some reclaimed redwood, and cobbled together a fetching little trellis.

I’m excited, because this means that the clematis can grow up and over the gate, and across the wire fence on the other side, mingling with the blackberry and loganberry we have growing there. It should be beautiful, come September!

A word about pruning this kind of clematis: Sweet Autumn Clematis belongs to Group 3, which means it blooms on the current year’s growth. It needs to be pruned vigorously in late winter, and the new growth in spring will produce that year’s flowers. Clematis come in three groups. Group 1 includes the ‘Montana’ types and should be pruned after flowering in the spring as it creates flowers on old wood, and you want it to have time to grow through the year after pruning - it’ll bloom the following spring. Group 2 also flowers on the previous year’s wood so should be pruned after flowering in the summer; this group has the largest and showiest blooms.

A great source for clematis (other than your locally owned nursery, which would be best) is Brushwood Nursery. They have varieties from all three groups, and dozens of each kind. It’s hard to choose one!

In other news, I broke down and put the pepper seedlings in the ground. The soil was quite warm, and the plants were getting too tall for the makeshift greenhouse. So far, despite temps at night in the high 40s, they are doing just fine! I’ll wait until early May to get the tomatoes in the ground. The rest of the summer garden can be sown in batches, as I have time and space - beans, cucumbers, herbs, and squash, will all do best with warm soil, but if you’ve got that, it’s just a matter of walking that fine line of nighttime temps.

Freezing Peas

I can’t think of a better spring supper than peas, briefly warmed in a saucepan with salted butter.

I have realized something. Every vegetable, every fruit, and every flower, is my favorite on the day when they are at their peak. One day asparagus might win the prize, the next it might be a tomato or a dahlia. I just can’t pick a favorite, so I will have a different favorite every single day.

And today, peas win.

Food production has not been a sure thing the past eight months in our garden, but one thing that’s done quite well is shelling peas. With one kid away at college, we are picking far more than we need. So for the first time ever, I can freeze some for the off-season!

The National Center for Food Preservation recommends blanching the shelled peas for 30 seconds in boiling water, then draining and freezing them in jars. So, that’s what I did! It could not be more simple. I’m excited to have sweet peas for the off-season, either to eat plain, or in one of our favorite dinners, pasta carbonara. Peas are not authentic to this dish, but we love them here.

Pasta Carbonara ala Poppy Corners

1 lb. pasta (we prefer thick long noodles for this, like linguine)
1 lb. bacon (preferably pastured), chopped
1-2 cups peas (fresh or frozen)
3 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 eggs (as fresh as possible)
1 C parmesan (plus more for serving), finely shredded
salt and pepper

Get some water heating for pasta.

In a very large skillet, cook the bacon until crisp and all the fat has rendered. Do not drain. Add the garlic and fry for 30 seconds until fragrant. Add the peas, and turn the burner down to simmer. Let that go for a bit.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with the parmesan. If you have very large eggs, two will be enough. For smaller eggs, use three. Add salt and pepper. Set aside.

Cook the pasta according to package directions. When cooked al dente, drain, then add to skillet with pea mixture and toss pasta so that every strand is coated with bacon drippings, garlic, peas, and bacon.

Add a scoop of the hot pasta mixture to the egg mixture, stirring vigorously (you want the eggs to warm up without cooking. This is not pasta with scrambled eggs!). Add a little bit more of the pasta, stirring all the while, until all the pasta is in and mixed.

Serve in large bowls with extra parmesan.

Some Recommendations

Rin and I took a brief trip to Savannah, Georgia, to visit the Savannah College of Art and Design, which is her #1 choice for college (she’s been accepted already, but I couldn’t let her attend school so far away without seeing it first). We loved the town; it’s flat and very walkable, with beautiful architecture, trees, and green spaces. We enjoyed some southern cooking and seafood, and even got to visit with some dear friends who were coincidentally in the area.

While on the flights to and from Georgia, I listened to a few really great podcasts which I wanted to share with you. One was NPR’s Fresh Air, with Dave Davies interviewing Scott Weidnesaul about migratory birds. I found this episode fascinating, especially how the biology of birds changes to prepare them for a long flight.

Another was Joe L’mpl’s (Growing a Greener World) podcast Joe Gardener, with scientist Jake Mowrer, talking about Regenerative Agriculture and Permaculture. I thought this discussion was one of the best I’ve ever heard that explains why these methods of planting help mitigate climate change, along with how they improve the soil.

The third podcast I want to recommend is A Way to Garden, in which Margaret Roach interviews Doug Tallamy (someone I’ve mentioned before, because he’s an insect guy) about the epidemiological value of oak trees. I love oak trees (that’s a Southern Live Oak, above, with Spanish moss), and it’s one of the best trees you can plant/nurture for wildlife, no matter where you live.

I have also been using a new app a lot, both at home and on the road, called BirdNET. It’s from Cornell, and it records the sounds of birds and then identifies them for you. If, like me, you hear a new bird and find yourself standing stock still while craning your neck trying to spot the dang thing, this app will help you no end. I can’t get enough of it and highly recommend it.

And because I’ve talked to several people lately about this app, I must again recommend iNaturalist. This app will allow you take a photo of anything natural - birds, bugs, flowers, moss, lichen, animal footprints - and identify it for you. If you get the app, follow me @poppycorners and I’ll follow you, and we’ll be able to see what the other is finding and identifying. The only thing that iNat hasn’t identified for me is scat, but I’m sure that will be corrected soon.

Before I left on this recent trip, I managed to pot up the tomatoes and get them in the ‘greenhouse’ for hardening off. The weather here was quite warm while I was gone, but it has cooled off some, so I don’t plan to plant out the tomatoes until the end of the month at the earliest. Tomorrow I will purchase 50 pepper plants from the Master Gardeners, which I will also likely stash in the greenhouse for a few weeks yet. Soon it will be time to plant out cucumbers and squashes and beans! How’s your summer garden coming along?