Inman Square, Somerville: Like a Heat Wave

Early harvest.

I recently got back from almost a week down in Chatham on Cape Cod. It was hotter than blazes even on the Cape, which worried me, since Boston is always roughly 10 degrees warmer, if not more. It was weird to be worried about the garden. We had someone coming by, but I was really afraid I'd come back to a dustbowl. Our little patch of grass definitely went poof, but I'm happy to report that the garden was looking damn good. See?

Things are exploding -- almost impossible to snap shots of any one plant.

Although lately, actually seeing the garden is pretty tough, thanks to the daylilies below. I have a love/hate relationship with them. On the one hand, they are so pretty, but on the other they are huge and things get real messy when we have to pull the car in on street-sweeping nights.

The real torture is that I'd love to cut them and bring them inside to enjoy, but there's nothing our cats, Beep and Ghostface, love more than eating flowers. Nothing. They are connoisseurs of all houseplants, really, but flowers really get them pumped. It's sad -- every spring I get all French market in my thinking and bring home armfuls of tulips, but it always ends in pastel-colored massacre, or with the flowers sitting in the fridge, and really, who the heck wants that? No one. Anyhow. Lilies are poisonous to cats, as far as I know, and so here they sit -- getting in my damn way:

I know it's tough to see past the weeds, but my greens are starting to come up. I weeded after this photo, I swear. The lettuce and the turnip greens are looking very good, despite the temperatures we've had. I'm shocked. They aren't supposed to tolerate heat, but so far, so good. The only thing that isn't making much of an appearance is the spinach in back. I think I'm seeing two cotyledons in among the weeds, but that's really not anywhere near what I should be seeing. Also, I may have stepped on those two today, while weeding. Okay, I definitely did. Hopefully they're tougher than they look.

The Black Cherry heirlooms have a real lust for life. With their color, it's sort of hard for me to tell when they're ready, but Justin and I made the executive decision to harvest some today.

These Celebrity tomatoes are completely going for broke, too, but so far they're not even close to pickable. I love the ghostly green/white color they are now. It's how I imagined the White Beauty tomatoes looking, but so far that plant, while looking totally robust, has yet to produce even one green tomato. Pemberton Farms, I want my money back.

Here is a terribly unflattering photo of me in the garden!

Whatever, it's Sunday and I don't really need to look good while covered in dirt. The Brussels sprouts appear to be in a state of suspended animation, as pointed out by my husband Justin. They just aren't really getting much bigger, but I have hope:

Speaking of Justin, check out this beautiful flower of a man. Ha! He pretended he didn't like having that flower tucked behind his ear, but I think he did:

I moved some of the radishes up to the pot that was supposed to be growing marigolds. Not sure what happened with the seeds I got from the community gardening class I took at MIT a while back, but they appear to have been blanks, because nothing happened. I was nurturing a couple of weeds before I got smart and realized I'd been had. So, now it's a radish home.

I've never grown radishes before, so I don't really have any sense of when they're ready, since all the action happens underground. So I was sort of psyched to pull a few out and see what was going on. They are nowhere near ready. I should just read the seed packet for the growth cycle, but I'd rather feel around in the dark, I guess. But the roots are filling out a bit and looking distinctly radishy, so that was exciting.

Check out this weird ghost pepper. It is literally growing upside down, which is totally weird to me. I think this plant is a carnival mix, supposedly meaning there will be all sorts of colors going on, but for now it's just this one pepper. The pepper is almost as big as the plant itself, so I fail to understand how more peppers will eventually find purchase on the plant, but I'm hoping they do.

I honestly can't recall what kind of pepper this is, but it's looking good:

Aaaaand, cucumbers. So excited that the plant is climbing the trellis this year. I tried so hard to get it to do that last year, but it just wouldn't give in. This one's got ambition: