At this point, the garden feels like it’s on the verge of some kind of explosion. Every day, one plant or another has begun to flower or bear fruit, or it’s doubled in size. We have a couple of slow-growers, including the chives and basil I bought at The Vagary, but if the beautiful sun and occasional good, soaking rain keeps up, I think the exponential growth will continue.
Memorial Day was brutally hot, so we brought the plants home that I bought at The Vagary and left them on the back porch overnight. The next evening, after work, I went out and shoehorned them into the garden. I tucked the alpine strawberries along the edge near the peppers, which I’ve now heard was a less-than-good idea for disease reasons. I flanked the two chive plants around the leeks on one end of the garden, and Steve and I added some peat to one corner so there’d be a little more room to squeeze in the garlic chives.
“Tomatoes and basil go together,” I told Steve, displaying my usual shaky gardening logic before I plunked the basil near the Big Bertha tomato plant. Hopefully it’s not so near that the tomatoes will overshadow the basil.
The rosemary plant went in a small pot that used to hold one of Steve’s houseplants. It’s probably going to need to be repotted, if it shows any sign of growth at all, but hey, it’s in more dirt now than when it arrived in Iowa.
That night, Steve and I discussed pulling the cucumber plant. It struggled early on, and, as you can see in this photo from May 21, spent some time in a state of diseased-looking wilt. Even though it wasn’t expensive, and we certainly could stand to open up a little space in the plot, it saddened us both to think about actually pulling it out. Admit defeat this early in the growing season? Never! We decided to grant it a week’s stay of execution.
It turned out to be a good decision. Shortly after we agreed to let it live, the cucumber plant began growing, and now is big enough that Steve gave it its own cage this week. Go, Marketmore, go!
The Inadvertent Gardener 
tomatoes DO go with basil. I plant my basil in with the tomatoes and they do great together. There’s some folk wisdom about one keeping the flies away from the other, but I can’t remember which.
Found your site via my friend Napfisk’s blog.
Having a garden has always been my experience. Growing up in Nebrasaka will do that to you.
Interesting to see we’re not far from each other – I’m in Des Moines.
So a blogger on the other side of the pond has two readers from Iowa. Who would have imagined?!
Around here, summer, and the glut of fruit, and the low prices, and the beautiful colors and smells, means jam. Apricot in June, raspberry whenever they’re magically abundant and cheap, which seems to happen at different times during the summer. I don’t make a lot, because we mostly like to eat it then and there, but I love the small copper kettle I make it in and the beautiful jars lined up on the shelf.
And good for you for commuting that sentence on your cucumber!
Steven, excellent–I’m glad to accidentally help keep pests away, even if I didn’t mean it!
Michael, hello from one part of Iowa to another! Glad to hear others from Iowa have discovered Napfisk’s blog — it’s good stuff.
Bloglily, incidentally, thanks for that mention on Best Blogs on WordPress — I really appreciate it! Your jam aspirations impress me — I’ve been thinking that maybe next year is the year I’ll try that…we’ll see. I love the sound of your copper kettle!
Genie
Hi in advertent gardner, am trying to find some Big Bertha Tomato seeds, did you buy the plant or start by seeds..all I keep finding are Big Bertha Peppers. Any suggestions? Heidi P.S. I love Iowa..”If you build they will come”.