Mother Nature Hates Me

It was the 20th of May (last Monday) and we were two thirds of the way through May. I checked the weather forecast and it said we would have three days of 80F weather with a few 70s in the middle before it turned hotter again on the weekend. It certainly looked like summer had arrived. I planted my first two beds of beans. The first one was my beloved Cherokee Trail of Tears and the second my Tiger Eye Beans.

I knew something was wrong on Tuesday night. Tuesday was one of those hot and humid days. But I went outside Tuesday night and it was cold. It was supposed to stay in the 60Fs all night long. It was not in the 60Fs anymore. On Wednesday a day the was destined to be 82F never got out of the 60s. My weekend that was supposed to have a warming trend is now predicted to be in the low 50Fs. My poor beans. Beans won't germinate unless the soil is 60F. It did make it to that on sunny days. We won't see the sun until Monday. It is rainy. I think my beans might all rot in the ground. Mother Nature hates me. It's either that or the weathermen are playing tricks on us gardeners. But I'm going with Mother Nature because even with all the wet weather we still haven't gotten much rain at all. When it rains we get like a tenth of an inch. We still have gotten less than a third of our normal May rainfall.

I was going to make some flavored vinegar out of my chive blossoms. But they are were damp yesterday morning and are damp again this morning. Maybe tomorrow morning they will finally dry out enough to pick. I can't wait too long to pick them. The English thyme is ready to preserve too if it ever dries out.

Yesterday's chore was ripping out the old winter spinach bed. I had lot of volunteers in the bed - chamomile, cilantro, romaine lettuce, and dill. Oh and lots of Johnny-jump-ups. I swear they would take over the garden if I let them. I figured all the leaves would be horribly disfigured by now as the leaf miners are out and this bed isn't protected. But many of the leaves were fine. So I picked a small basket before ripping them up. My townhouse mates have taken in some stray college kids (including their own son) for the summer. They are vegetarian so are looking forward to veggies from the garden. I sent the spinach over with some salad greens, radishes, and turnips. One said he would work for food. My townhouse mates thought I'd put them to work in my vegetable garden. But I love taking care of it, so I just showed them weeds that need to come out in the other part of the yard.

I've noticed I took a few photos of food, but never put them on as I don't need the extra photos for Harvest Monday anymore. I'm getting enough harvests as it is. This is my typical lunch. I made a squash and black bean salad to add to my typical green salads. I sent half the black bean salad over to the college kids. The rest I'll eat over a few days.

When I cleaned out my pantry I noticed that I had some strawberry syrup still. So I made myself some blueberry pancakes and used up one of the small jars of syrup.

The first grilled burger of the year. With homemade mustard and relish and freshly picked lettuce. The sides are a garden salad and grilled bok choy.