First harvest

The sugar snap peas were good this year, even though for the first time I had aphids.  They washed off easily and didn’t seem to affect the crop or the flavor.  Aren’t they sort of amazing?  Here they are with a ladybug and something else common whose name I should know (sowbug??). You will have to click on the image to see what I’m talking about.

And here they are clustered on the pea trellis after the spent peas were pulled up.

Ladybugs are a natural predator of aphids, but clearly I could have used more of them.

Now that you’ve seen some bugs, whet your appetite with the delicious harvest of lettuce (bug-free).

Yesterday I added some crunchy, peppery radishes to the salad.

The carrots seem to be coming along fine – I’ve thinned them once and need to do it again.  The potatoes in a bag, an experiment, are growing exuberantly. I didn’t hill them up as soon as I should have, so we’ll see what happens.  Once they bloom, I think I can search for the harvest.

My clever tip for growing spring vegetables:  WATER.  That, and the absence of the groundhog my neighbor relocated to the wilds of Stafford County, have made  this a successful harvest season so far.  But when I plant my beans later today, I’ll enclose the seedlings in netting, just in case.