It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. It was a light harvest week here for me. Cold weather turned salad season into soup season, though I did harvest a bit of Slobolt leaf lettuce for salads.
Slobolt lettuce
I made a big cutting of parsley to make a batch of tabouli salad one day for lunch. The overwintered parsley in the greenhouse is beginning to flower, so it will soon be time to pull it up and plant a fresh batch. The tomatoes from the grocery were a bit blah, but the parsley had more than enough flavor to make up for it. I also love the red bulgur wheat I use, which is a bit more substantial than some I’ve used in the past.
flatleaf parsley
tabouli salad
I also cut what will be the last of the collard rapini. Any new ones coming on now are tiny and not really worth harvesting. We’ve surely enjoyed this seasonal treat though.
collard rapini
And speaking of seasonal treats, my wife found the first spear of asparagus poking up. It won’t be long before we are enjoying them on a regular basis now. We usually cut the asparagus for 6-8 weeks beginning in April, so we are pretty much right on schedule.
first asparagus of 2021
Since harvests were slim last week, I’ll close with photos from the shade garden where many things are currently blooming and budding out. The azaleas are putting on a great show.
azaleas blooming
One of the red ones is especially full of blooms this year.
red azalea
The hellebores are about done for, but we’ve enjoyed them for some time now.
hellebores
The tiarella is usually thought of as a foliage plant, but I like the delicate flowers too. The deer and rabbits leave this plant alone, which is a big bonus since we have problems with both.
tiarella flowers
And finally, the first iris is blooming. This is a shade tolerant iris that is native to the Eastern U.S. Like the tiarella, the deer and rabbits generally leave it alone. The plants are quite tiny, but our plants has taken off and is doing quite well in the shade garden.
iris cristata
Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to share, add your name and blog link to Mr Linky below. And be sure and check out what everyone is harvesting!
Def. the best parsley i’ve seen for making tabbouleh. Coriander, parsley and basil are three herbs that i never seem to grow well, in such abundance.
I like the look of the tabouleh. Your azaleas provide lovely colour and despite not being as spectacular I love the tiarella.
Tell me more about your asparagus placement and your mulch. Looks like that’s just shredded household paper; how do you keep it from blowing away? Or is my garden just windier than most?
It’s been so long since I planted the asparagus bed I’m a bit fuzzy about the spacing. We do have three rows that are about three feet apart. The mulch is shredded newspaper, and we will cover that with straw later. Between the rows we use cardboard for mulch, covered with straw. Once wet a few times, the shredded paper and the cardboard stay put. I use both for mulch in the veggie garden too
One of my favorite small perennials in my Massachusetts garden was Tiarella cordifolia. It is such a sweet little plant. Do I recall the flowers have a slight fragrance? They’re like little stars and come just when we need a little cheer. Your other plantings in the shade garden are lovely. Thanks for including them.
I’ve not gotten down to see if the Tiarella flowers are fragrant or not! They are delicate and pretty while they last though.
Our asparagus is up too Dave, almost to the day, the same as yours, this is probably the point at which you over take me! : All the best – Steve
Wow – that iris is beautiful! I’ll be looking into that one as well as the tiarella, which I also have not heard of before but is simply gorgeous! We’ve had a cold spell over the past few days as well – in fact, we are now under a blanket of mid-April snow – an annual event 🙂
We had a dusting of snow here Margaret, but it has melted already. The Iris cristata really took off after planting in 2018. This variety is called Powder Blue Giant.