radish freakshow

Step right up, folks:

A shiny quarter will get you a little closer:

That's not the only weird thing in the garden this year -- the massive amounts of rain have brought out some curious creatures that I definitely wasn't acquainted with last year. Giant orange slugs, which so far haven't done any damage I can see, and cucumber beetles, which most certainly have. The adults are eating lacy holes through my squash leaves, but the larvae are apparently the real concern. If they get into the roots and stem, you're toast. And not toast with delicious grilled squash on it, either. You are produce-less toast. I'm going to get some floating row covers, and those bugs had better float on by.

I have to say, I am feeling not so fine at the moment. Some bad and/or stressful and/or scary things are happening to some people in my life who don't deserve them, and I feel guilty over how whiny I am about my own lucky-ass life, because this is the first time that school is really changing my exceedingly comfortable existence here. A few times during this last year, I've felt stressed or out of time, but this is different. No vacations (unless you count a one-night family wedding in Chicago, a library conference also in Chicago, or a weeklong class in Syracuse)(and I do not count those things), no random weekend trips, turning down invitations to hang out on weeknights, skipping dance class to do schoolwork, neglecting the garden, not returning phone calls, forgetting birthdays, letting too many things slide. I am totally mystified at how people manage to go to school while working full-time and maintaining their sanity and also raising children and running marathons and solving crime and who knows what else. I've been trying it for four weeks now and am pretty much done with it already.

dude

Like, where have you BEEN all my life. I have been interning and writing papers and working and not sleeping enough and certainly not blogging ever. I often complain that my graduate program isn't haaaaard enough and I am not intellectually chaaaaaaallenged and it's expeeeeeensive and whiiiiiiiiine. I need to stop doing that, because the class I'm taking on telecom and information policies? It is hard. And my life would be easier if it were... easier. Fortunately, though, it's interesting, as is my internship, so I can't really complain. But I do miss bad TV and knitting and calling people back. (Sorry about that -- I really will, soon.)

Something else I haven't been doing enough? Weeding. Seriously, if this were a war, the weeds would be doing victory laps around my defeated lifeless body in chariots made of gold.

Here is the garden this year: Those pretty yellow flowers by the door? Weeds. A brief garden tour, starting at noon and going clockwise: trellis for growing bush beans, currently supporting 40000 weeds because the beans still haven't been planted; giant trellis with snow peas in the back and sugar snap peas in the front; just behind that is a flower bed with zinnias, nasturtiums and wildflowers (I know, right? weird and I still don't believe they'll actually grow); two rows of basil; 10 tomato plants going along 5, 6 and 7 o'clock; three mint plants (spearmint, variegated peppermint, pineapple mint (who knew? also, what am I going to do with it? pineapple tea?)) in the back corner against the fence; 3 zucchini; 3 yellow squash; 3 butternut squash; 8 bell pepper plants with space for two more; in the upper left corner, spinach; arugula; radishes; back to the weed/bean trellis. In the center of the circle, hopefully for maximum bug-repelling activity, is the herb garden -- cilantro, oregano, flat-leaf parsley, rosemary, sage, chives, dill, I am forgetting one or two.

Tri-color basil: I see purple and green... what could the third color be?

Am kind of in love with the peas: I had no idea how much fun it was to grow them. I love the tiny shoots that spring off and grab whatever they can reach. Sometimes they're grabbing on to weeds, and you have to gently twist them free. The weeds are not your friends, wee pea plants! Do not cling to unhealthy relationships to support you!

The squash cohort: Note that I am trying straw mulch this year. Not as much of a weed deterrent as I'd hoped, but it at least makes the paths through the garden clearer and gives me a better chance of not trampling my chives all the time.

Hm, I seem not to have taken a photo of the radishes in the actual ground where they grow, but here they are in cleaner form in J.'s hand: Radishes seem to mature really, really quickly, and we have been eating the ones I've had to thin. Delicious and spicy.

Send radish recipes, if you have any good ones. I have one for pickled radishes that a friend recommended, but I'm not sure. Let's put it to a vote: Pickled radishes, yes or no? And can anyone come help me weed? I will pay in radishes and baby arugula and eternal devotion.