I’m back from my emergency trip to Phoenix, and just off two weeks of self-quarantine. Alaska has had relatively few cases of COVID-19 and the city in which I live requires travelers to stay put for 14 days.
How I’m doing:
Happy to have had the chance to offer some emotional support to my daughter.
But also apprehensive that Arizona’s skyrocketing virus cases are going to continue to erode Abby’s well-being.
Feeling a constant low-level dread about COVID’s physical, emotional and financial impacts on the country.
Also feeling very, very happy to be back with my dearest partner, and back here in the coolth. The temperature in Phoenix was routinely more than 100 degrees, and as high as 113.
By contrast, we’ve had a few fireplace insert nights since I returned, a continuation of our cooler-than-usual spring. (It was 43 degrees this morning.) As a result, the garden is growing rather slowly.
Except for the English cucumbers. When I got back they looked like this:
And continued to look like that for what seemed like five or six days. Then came a streak of sunny days. At which point they suddenly looked like this:
You turn your back for what feels like five minutes and those Chelsea Prize cukes turn into porn stars.
By the way: That cucumber, and others like it, have grown another two inches since I took this picture a couple of days back.
Greening up the greenhouse
The tomatoes are making, too: little green balls of happiness swelling daily on our Black Prince, Sweet 100, Stupice, Czech’s Bush and Cherokee Purple varieties.
Some people are crazy cat people. We’re crazy tomato people, although we skipped a couple of varieties (Tumbling Tom, Patio) this year. In part that was to make room for those English cucumbers and also a pickling variety called Endeavor, both of which came from Renee’s Garden.
In the past we’d grown regular slicing cucumbers, which were eagerly eaten by DF’s grandchildren. Pretty certain they’ll be wild about the English versions, too.
We’re looking forward to making pickles from the smaller cukes, with help from the pickling spices kit that DF’s younger son gave us for Christmas. None will be turned into Koolickles, though. We’ll savor their dilly perfection with sandwiches.
All these were started from seed, either from Renee’s Garden or from seed that DF saved from last year’s garden. And all are doing so well that he moved some outdoors, despite the chill. There’s only so much room in the greenhouse, and he didn’t want them to be so crowded that they’d develop fungus from a lack of air circulation.
(Note: As a Renee’s Garden affiliate, I will receive a small fee if anyone buys seeds using my link.)
The old and the new
Renee’s Garden was also a source for several more fun experiments this year:
Purple Moon kale, which is doing well since it likes cool weather. We’ve eaten some leaves in mixed salads.
Edamame fresh soy beans. Yep, the variety is called “Edamame” even though the word is also kind of a generic term.
Super Sugar Snap peas, which we expect will be devoured entirely by the kids – but I do hope to get a couple for myself.
Golden Sweet onions, a Spanish variety. DF has never had much luck growing onions in the past, but these seeds did sprout and the stalks are slender but tall and green. Hoping this is the year for him.
A friend gave him a couple of seedlings: a pepper plant (not sure whether it’s a banana or a bell) and a Japanese pumpkin, which apparently are more squashlike than jack o’lanternish. About that last: DF put out several pumpkin starts but they didn’t do nearly as well as last year’s voluminous vines; one is clearly dead and the other two might or might not survive.
DF also put in some red cabbage starts, which we plan to turn into a sharply flavored, ruby-red pickle. (It’s really good on burgers, and makes a palate-challenging side dish in the middle of winter.) Last fall he planted garlic from a bulb bought at last year’s Alaska Botanical Garden clearance sale. The stalks are huge and sturdy, and we’re hoping for good results beneath them.
Over the last 14 stay-at-home days, being in the garden helped keep me sane and centered. Things looked a little slow but also quite wonderful. In addition to the items listed above we’re growing potatoes, more peas (a variety called “Alaska” – how could we not?), red romaine lettuce, spinach, celery, strawberries, rhubarb (I canned 11 pints of compote), chives, carrots (a four-color mix), raspberries and apples.
With luck we’ll wind up preserving the harvest to enjoy for the rest of the year. That is, assuming a moose or his grandchildren don’t get there before we do.
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We prefer the pickling type cucumbers for fresh eating – they are more crisp and have a stronger, cucumber flavor. But they make great pickles too!
The garden is one of my happy places, too. Your garden looks great! 🙂
Most of my tomato plants froze, but I do have 1 real healthy one and another one that is a potted one that survived. I have 2 green (?) pepper plants that survived. Planted some flowers that are doing well, and flowers from bulbs are doing well. Cucumbers planted from seed are doing OK. Pumpkin and watermelon plants are doing well. I tried onions again this year; we will see. Of 2 lettuce plants, 1 looks good. Rabbits got to the other one, so it is struggling. Peas – put the seeds into a large garden pot and put a tomato cage in the middle of it, and they are doing fabulous. I ate one of them already, with the pod. Time to get some of them off the vine. The red rose bush has come back to life, with the help of Sevin to get rid of the worms, used coffee grounds and crunched up egg shells, and some rose and plant food. Bought some small yellow roses, but should have transplanted them sooner; we will see how they do. Already had the first eating from the lone broccoli plant. If I could just remember where I planted stuff, and what it was….I know pinto beans are in one of the pots, first time planting them. There is still time to plant some more stuff here.
We eat some of the peas pods-and-all, but later in the season we let them fill up and shell and freeze the peas. The pods go into the boiling bag:
http://donnafreedman.com/boiling-bag/
Did not cut the lettuce in time; one day of 90+ and one plant looks dead and the other soon to be. Watermelon or pumpkin plants (can’t remember what I planted where) are doing really well, and creeping over to the neighbor’s yard.
How was the airplane experience? I am considering a jaunt up to Seattle with my daughter. They have a boat a Anacortes so we would have our own little B&B. Sounds delightful except to getting there and back.
The airport wasn’t super-crowded, and people kept their distance. On Alaska Airlines all the middle seats were left empty. Neither of my flights was full; maybe 100 people on each one.
The only bummer was the fact that since Alaska has canceled 70% of its flights, I had a seven-hour layover in Seattle. On the way to Phoenix back in March, I took a direct overnight flight that got me there in a little over five hours. On the way home, the trip took about 16 hours door to door.
But I’m here, and I’m not sick. #winning
Thanks. If the trip happens we only have one hop. Probably refuse food or drink if they even offer. Long time to be in a N95 mask but I think I can do it.
We were told several times that nothing would be served onboard, and that it was a good idea to bring your own food. I believe that a limited beverage menu was offered but I was working on going to sleep and didn’t actually see it happen.
Good luck!
Donna, watch out with the pepper plants. A friend gifted me a six pack of what he said were bell peppers. They grew nicely and were finally ready to harvest. I decided to cut one up to add to a salad and at some point during this I must have touched my face and my eye. Can you say FIRE! It took a couple of minutes to set in and when it did my cheek and eye were burning. After flushing it with cold running water the pain finally subsided. But never did I pick one again. My husband mowed them into mulch for the lawn. Surprised the grass grew there.
Ouch.
Congrats on making it home in one piece. Traveling during a pandemic is not easy…Always enjoy hearing your gardening “adventures”in Alaska.
Glad you got home safely. Please keep us posted on Abby.
Your garden sounds like a good place to spend time. We got ours up after getting a new deck and just did tomatoes and herbs this year. I know I will be missing the lettuce, green beans, peppers & onions.
I am glad to hear that your flight was a good one and your still healthy. I have a son in Florida and I want to see him. We have talked about flying on the direct flight which is only 2 hours vs driving which is 21 hours with several stops and a possible stay in a hotel. Florida also is now getting more cases at this point in his age group. It truly is hard to decide which is safer.
Our daughter in Florida told us to stay home; it was safer.
Hottest July on record and what do we have? Orange pumpkins in our backyard, many pumpkins from the 2 seeds I planted. The deal is the neighbor gets to keep whatever grows on her side of the fence.
Nice. If you know any little kids, they’d no doubt be glad to take the gourds off your hands closer to Halloween. If your schools are open, teachers would probably like to decorate classrooms with them.
I just made another pumpkin pie with some of the puree from last year’s crop. The gourds can also be cut up and roasted like any other squash. No matter what you do with them, have fun.