Two Months
Posted: 4/13/2009 1:24 AM
It's been two months since I planted the garden. The beds are full of vegetables and there's something to harvest almost daily.
The right side of the garden has finally filled in. The beets are about eight inches high now and the arugula is large enough to begin snipping the outer leaves.
Beets
Arugula
Unfortunately, snails have also been doing some harvesting. Today, I found four of them among the lettuce and spinach plants!
A friend of mine, who is a master gardener, told me how he handles snails. He removes the snail from the plant, puts it on the ground and steps on it. Then, he puts the squished snail in the garden soil, claiming it makes great fertilizer. I couldn't bring myself to do that. So instead, I picked the four snails off the plants and hurled them onto our hillside, as far as I could throw them. I also sprinkled Sluggo Plus on the soil around the lettuce and spinach plants.
This week I harvested lots of lettuce, spinach, parsley and cilantro, plus a bit of thyme, chives and arugula. I made Baby Spinach Omelets (www.allrecipes.com), Beef Brisket With Merlot and Prunes (www.epicurious.com), Denise's Peanut Chicken (www.allrecipes.com) and Green Salad With Goat-Cheese Vinaigrette (http://www.nytimes.com/ recipes). The last recipe called for arugula mixed with lettuce and parsley. My husband and I enjoy the spicy bitter flavor of arugula. However, our kids didn't like it at all. Since there's a lot more arugula on the way, I'll try to search for a kid-friendly way to prepare it.