Independence Days: The Catch-Up Edition

My last Independence Days update was April 7. Where have I been? A lot can happen in a garden during the month of April, so I should have a great deal to report–and even though I’ve been busy with many things other than gardening, I do. This is a condensed version.

Plant something: Transplanted a few tomatoes outdoors; direct-seeded more lettuce, arugula, spinach, mustard spinach and Osaka purple mustard to fill in gaps.

Harvest something: Kale, lettuce, pea shoots, bok choi, arugula, and some thinned mustard greens. And flowers. Lots of flowers

Preserve something: Kale. I’ll probably freeze some more cutting celery this weekend. I’m not sure how long it will hold out and the celery seedlings I’d been nurturing since February…well, they and some chard seedlings were outside on the back steps hardening off one day last week–and the flats literally blew away. I found the remains of the chard, too late to save the babies, but the celery flat is still missing.

Waste not: The usual composting and eating of leftovers We’re having a yard sale this weekend, which must count for something

Want not: Nothing unusual.

Eat the food: lots of salads and braised greens. Tonight’s dinner included kale and home-canned tomatoes

Support local food systems: Joined a CSA, because our mammoth garden isn’t mammoth enough. When we went out for my fancy-schmancy birthday dinner, it was to a restaurant that buys from local, sustainable suppliers; we were amused to realize we knew their lamb-provider.

Skill up: Attended a writers’ conference, which has nothing to with the overall theme of the Independence Days challenge, but is good for me. Next area of focus on the home front: soil amending. Some of my raised beds have been gardened so intensively for the past few years that the soil is in rather sad shape, especially the small bed that, through poor planning on my part, became the year-round bed for two years running. I noticed the spinach I planted there looks rather smaller than the spinach in the other bed. Time to figure out how to make happier dirt there pronto!