Vegetables! And flowers!

Partner, who is President of Grocery Shopping in our house, is under orders from the Supreme Dictator of Gardening (that would be me) not to buy any more vegetables, indefinitely. Our first crop was (not counting our 12 spears of asparagus) arugula, followed closely by rainbow chard. Now carrots emerge as the front-runners, with cabbage, beans, and zuccini close behind. I love this time of year; my taste buds (and bank account!) love it too.

This year also is fantastic for flowers, especially cut flowers. I adore picking my own bouquets; two years ago I set myself a goal of picking a new bouquet of my own flowers once a week for the whole summer. I managed to succeed for the most part. I don't think I'd be too ambitious setting myself the same goal this summer.

I started saving eggshells this winter/spring to crush and put around slug-vulnerable plants. Then I stopped because I thought they weren't having an effect. Partner pointed out the one cabbage which had eggshells surrounding it looked at least half as holey as the non-shelled ones a month later, so we began saving again. In fact, I've been collecting them from work--we use a lot of eggs at work--and I hope to see less damage in the coming months.

Undaunted by the ground resistance however, are the new caterpillar attacks. I think I need some sort of anti-aircraft defenses to keep these at bay. As it stands, my gardening gloves once again turn green and slimy with each day's encounters (ewww).