Time To Eat Already?

It's the start of May. In most places that means planting season is just creeping into high gear. The frost is finished, the ground has thawed, maybe your seeds are starting to sprout, maybe you’ve just put them into the soil…

Either way it’s a long way still ‘til harvest time.

I guess I’ve been spoiled growing up in Southern California and now gardening here in North Florida, but to be honest I don’t know how you all have such patience! It’s an inspiration, really, to think that you can keep motivated, sitting on your trowels at it were, all through the long, snowy Winter, and then the teasing, never-quite-warm-enough Spring.

Why, I was going crazy back in February!

And so I rushed to get everything into the ground (or pots, as the case may be) holding my breath as the uneasy springtime temperatures rose and fell, a phantom frost threatening constantly...

And now, I’m astonished to announce, that at the start of May it’s harvest time in my little garden!


In fact several of my plants are already done for…

The potato discovery of my last post lead to several delicious meals all last week and the end of my potato plants. So long!

My mustard greens have been finding their way into stirfrys and soups all season and now they’re spent.

The lettuce seeds I planted in March have provided plenty of salads and have now said their goodbyes.

Others are just now on the verge of ripeness.

The eggplant is just laden with lovely dark fruit (getting bigger by the day!)


The tomato vines I planted way back when are exploding with green (and a few orange) tomatoes…


And the pole beans are racing up their tethers faster than I can even photograph.

The one sad part is that I'll be out of town for the next two weeks and will miss a lot of the action. A few friends have offered to come by and water and I'm happy to imagine them munching on fresh, warm tomatoes and red, ripe strawberries, I only hope there's something left for me when I get back into town!