What a difference a week makes in June

Garden is still on the puny side, but hey look at how much it has grown in exactly one week. I am now happy to say that the radishes are ready and that I can begin harvesting salad greens. Summer salad season is here! It looks like the kale and brocoli need some more time. ... .. In my other beds I have carrots, beets and swiss chard, and another huge area devoted to potatoes with some herbs in the planters.

Kodiak does have long springs, and it takes a while before our gardens start to produce. But the same maritime climate that blesses us with a long spring (also means we keep our snow longer!) also extends our fall. While Anchorage and Fairbanks and the northern tier of the lower 48 enter the big deep freeze in early October the relatively warm waters of the Gulf of Alaska keep the temperatures on Kodiak moderate. We are often still harvesting brocoli, kale, swiss chard and brussles sprouts from our garden well into November and even, on occasion, into December.

This year to make up for the 'spring gap' of no garden veggies we ate more wild greens. The wild greens are ready by early May. This year we made meals of nettles, fireweed shoots, and fiddleheads. Zoya and the kids really like the nettles and there is a ready supply of them at an undisclosed location close by. I think we will be eating nettles for another month. I just wish there was a close by source of lambsquarter. Nettles and lambsquarter are actually better than anything you can buy at Safeway, and I sometimes ponder if I should grow them in my garden. Patrick