Lettuce and Strawberries...on repeat.

Aside from Wednesday's crazy weather of severe thunderstorms and tornados, the weather has been sunny and mild. It has been great to spend so much time outdoors. This week's harvest continued to be all about lettuce and strawberries. I harvested a few more ounces of Salad Bowl and Boston lettuce, in addition to six perfect Junebearing strawberries, which are really living up to their name.

The Everbearing Strawberries look just like they did last year - not very appetizing. They are supposed to be more of a small, alpine berry (compared to the Junebearing variety), but I am not sure why they look so bad. I have not tried eating one yet - but maybe that will be the true test since it is the most important factor!

Other news...

The first pea flowers came out this week. They always remind me of birds...

I moved the largest of the mystery volunteer tomatoes to an open square near the rest of the tomatoes. I hope that it proves to be a successful transplant so I can find out what variety it is. I hope to move the remaining three from their current and crowded location, but need to get more soil to put them into containers.

My Golden Summer pepper plant is getting a little ahead of itself. At only 8" tall, I noticed that it had at least 4 peppers starting to grow. There is no way that it could support them, so I pinched off a few to encourage growth upwards!

Garden overview 6/4/11

Rosemary & Thyme Flatbread

My rosemary and thyme bushes are really starting to take off. So, I wanted to figure out how I could use a lot of each herb at once. I remembered a recipe from smitten kitchen (one of my favorite cooking blogs) that I made a while back - rosemary flatbread. It was absolutely delicious - and easy as she says it is. Since she commented that other herbs like thyme could be substituted for rosemary, I decided to make a batch with thyme.

Due to a limited parchment supply, I cut four 8" x 6" squares - which made the flatbread a little thicker than a thin cracker. However, both versions were very yummy!

Links of Interest #2

Crafts/Projects/Ideas
Terrace Herb Display (made from Ikea GORM shelf)
A Space Saving Vertical Salad Garden
Host a Green Garden Party
Vegetable Patch Centerpiece
Three-layer Worm Composting bin (made from Ikea TROFAST bins)

Articles
The Farmers' Market Myth - cheaper or more expensive?
Can Eating Local Honey Cure Allergies?

Food/Drink
Homemade Herb-infused Vodkas
Five Ways to Eat Sugar Snap Peas
Hibiscus is in - although I have never had any food with hibiscus, it is one of my favorite flowers, reminding me of my time in Bermuda. I am excited to see it making a presence in drinks & food!

Plants
Using Plants As Air filters

Event : Garden Party & Flower Arranging at Frog Pond

Venture down to Frog Pond in the Boston Common on Saturday, June 4th from 10am-2pm for a free flower-arranging demonstration and workshop. Pre-registration is encouraged and can be done here.

In anticipation of Boston’s hosting the World Association of Flower Arrangers (WAFA), the Frog Pond will host a free flower-arranging workshop taught by a designer from the Cass School of Flower Design in Watertown. Create your own beautiful flower arrangement at no charge.

It looks like it is going to be a beautiful day - cool but sunny, and there should be plenty of baby ducklings and geese to see!