The Daily: 10 June 2025

Herself has been much occupied…

At work, we are down to one person doing my job. Again. Seems to be a solstice thing.

In the poetry world, there have been readings and talk of publishing. We’ll see…

In the garden… well, all the things have been done. In a whirlwind, over the last three weekends. Mostly in the rain. Because we don’t have dry weather anymore. And when it’s not raining, there is smoke. Because apparently Canada is on fire again… But who’s worried…

However, there is reason for celebration here in central Vermont. We have finally broken free of the ridiculously long winter. No frost since mid May. Now, except for a couple days, it has not been warm. The highs are usually in the 50s. But the garden can work with that. The gardener can too.

But this is so late. The problem with late planting years is that everything must be done at once. So now it’s done… But… oof! Every part of me hurts. And there are no coherent words left in my head. One long fugue of Ooowwwww!

So here are more pictures to show that things have been happening.

So, progress… I have everything in the ground. I have eaten greens and asparagus, radishes and overwintered carrots. The rhubarb is huge, though I’m giving it one more year before I harvest the stalks. Weeding has not been a problem. It’s been cool enough to work outside comfortably; however, with all this rain, no roots can hold, so it’s hardly work… though every maple seed from the last two decades decided to germinate this year. I’m pulling up seedlings by the fistful. (Not hyperbole…)

Because it’s so late, I started the winter squash and melons in paper pots in the basement. I don’t have time for second sowings to make up for hog damage or drought or cold soil or whatever will be thrown at us in the coming weeks. I also started the sunflowers down there. I just put most of the brassicas on hold until late July. If summer actually does start here soon, brassicas would hardly germinate before the heat causes them to bolt to seed. So there will be cabbage in September… which seems a better time for cabbage anyhow…

In any case, I will have a breather before it’s time to start harvest. The strawberries won’t be ripe for a week or two. There are peas and radishes and greens, but in manageable grazing quantities, not “WHAT DO WE DO WITH ALL THIS VEG?!?” And I haven’t seen the zucchini yet. I only planted two plants this year. I still expect there will be surreptitious dumping of squash… on my co-workers’ desks… in my neighbor’s VW (which lives in my garage)… on the doorsteps of strangers…

Despite the smoke and the damp and the late start, it is still breathtakingly beautiful out there right now. Roses and iris and poppies are rioting. The honeylocust is covered in pendulous blooms that scent the whole neighborhood with mouthwatering sweetness. Anchusas are opening their cobalt petals in the front bank and stopping traffic (true story…). And the herbs in the hugelkultur mound are taking off this year, led by that monster comfrey which ought to make a whole bin of nutritious compost this fall.

Comfrey, being as deep rooted as it is, gathers all that is good for plants into its fleshy leaves. You can make compost tea for a concentrated fertilizer boost, chop the leaves up and use them as mulch, or toss the whole plant into the compost bin. The flowers attract a whole host of beneficial insects. And the dense growth keeps the undesirable weeds from germinating. The whole borage family is great. (Anchusas are in there also…) I use them near my fruit trees as living fertilizer and pollinator food. Bees love the blue, bell-shaped flowers! As an added bonus, the large leaves can be used as a poultice on sore muscles and bruises to reduce inflammation, and nothing is quite so calming on a sunburn as a cool comfrey leaf. (This is one herb that I do not recommend ingesting though… it can cause liver damage, but that’s rare and probably in rather unlikely high doses… the real problem is all those pokey hairs on the leaves…)

So, things are happening… but maybe the pace is slowing now. I do hope so… because I’m tired! And my whole spine is in dire need of comfrey leaves…

---

©Elizabeth Anker 2025