The Green Grass Grows All Around

I don’t remember signing up to live in a jungle…and yet, here I am. It was unbelievably rainy this spring, and we’ve got the vegetation to prove it. Our grass isn’t quite as high as an elephant’s eye, but definitely getting up to pony level. We have a symphony of bird and frog sounds going pretty much nonstop (actually, the birds are pretty quiet at night). Our pond appears to be the favored hangout for a bunch of very tropical looking redwinged blackbirds. Also have a very cute bluebird who seems to have adopted us. Just hoping the cats don’t eat him.

All that rain has done wonders for our greens. We’ve been enjoying the fruits of our first crop in: Black Seeded Simpson lettuce, spinach, arugula and swiss chard. (I swear Coco said arugula the other day.) Some insect appears to dig the arugula as well—we don’t really mind sharing as long as he doesn’t go overboard. Our second wave recently just started sprouting: baby spinach and mesclun.

The ever lovin’ has turned into quite the devoted gardener. He’s built these super little boxes for our greens and spends hours out there mulching, watering etc. Christian is sometimes hard to motivate, but capable of kicking ass when he puts his mind to it. He’s been looking into this crazy Indian technique called Three Sisters, which involves growing squash, corn and green beans together. I’m definitely down with the corn and squash but mostly keen to get the green beans in as they are always a big hit around here. Also need to get our cukes in. I’m not so much about cucumber in my salads but I like to juice them. They are especially refreshing in the summer and are proven to have cooling properties. We’ve been embarrassingly delinquent on the juicing front this year. I’m sure that’s part of the reason I’ve been feeling like absolute crap this spring. But am determined to turn things around. Oh and look for a post from me every day in June (after a paltry 3 posts in May). Should be interesting.