Growing my own vegetables has always seemed like a doable thing. In February I start looking at seed catalogs. I am wowed over the beautiful chards, striped tomatoes and unusual gourds. In March, I think about starting seeds but usually don't get them going til April.

This year, I decided to try out Four Square vegetable gardening. My garden looks so well organized. Is is a method of intensive gardening whereby each squarefoot holds a certain number of plants depending on what you're growing in that square. For example, one square foot for one tomato plant. One square foot can hold 4 lettuce or 6 pea plants. The lettuce seedlings I bought from the Tricycle Garden did so well and were delicious.The greenbeans, cucumbers,pepper plants and chard looked  lovely until last week.....

I find that I am not match for the critters. 

We have the groundhogs, Percy and Mazzie. This year they have not been quite so bold....yet.

 
 My biggest rival right now is a very rascally raccoon. The raccoon has remained unnamed unless you count what I call it under my breath. She (or he) not only deflated our fun inflatable pool but also  had a blast tearing apart the new $8 Slip and Slide. I know because she left prints everywhere. She woke me up three time this week rummaging through the recycling. Little creature really wanted to open the peanut butter container. Raccoon has also nibbled all the tender tendrils of my greenbeans and swiped several cucumbers. She made my pepper plants and ruby swiss chard disappear.

You can deter a groundhog to some extent but what can you do about a raccoon? Smart little badass.

All I know is I'm thankful these critters don't have a taste for butternut squash, granny plum melons, tomatoes or basil because I would cry.

photo by Kimmy Certa, Howdershi in his Catnip Pot , 2008

my red oriental poppies, which I grew from seed, have finished blooming.
the clematis are long gone and the mulberry trees are free of fruit.
they have all yielded the way to the giant azure pom poms of hydrangea,
yellow and orange daylilllies, bright eyed daisies and scarlet bergamot.
i am no longer taller than the sunflowers.

today we sampled the first ripe wild blackberries and today,
as always, I was surprised by a wee little snake
living under the driftwood in the garden. she hissed inaudibly and I yelped,
quite audibly, scaring her away.

i can hardly believe how quickly the beans and tomatoes
climb to the sun.

when i am no longer surprised by these things, I will be dead. 

photo: Kimmy Certa, Bergamot, 2008 

We ate the bamboo but one can only eat so much bamboo. Mulberries, however, won't be a problem. I've got plans for these under appreciated berries. Today we made muffins. Tomorrow, mulberry wine !

You may also notice that some of the mulberries are white. For a few days I wondered why the mulberries on one tree in the alley weren't ripening and then I noticed that some of the berries were large and soft. I tasted one and it was sweet and ripe. Then, I recalled from my readings that there is such a thing as white mulberries. They taste just like the black ones to me.

"The best way to control bamboo is to eat it."

~David Fairchild, American Botanist and plant explorer 

In order to distract myself from my foul mood and temper, I decided yesterday that I was going to go with the flow. It was overcast and cool and I needed a day of nothing. It was urgent that I do so.

I sent the kids out into the yard to kick over bamboo shoots like I do every time this year. There is a huge stand of it in our neighbor's yard but every year it sends out more roots and shoots. They are impossible to destroy. The incredible growing grass was planted by the previous owners and now they are gone and know not what they did.  Every spring bamboo shoots emerge on our side of the fence. They grow with amazing speed, sometimes several inches in a day.  If we were to move out of our home there is no doubt in my mind that the bamboo and honeysuckle would take over the house in short order. Not only would these invasive plants bust through the foundation and cover the roof but I reckon Percy, the groundhog, and all the little songbirds would move in. It would be a lovely little ruin.

Each year as we kick over the shoots I tell the kids that you can eat bamboo shoots. Indeed, one of our neighbors used to come over and collect the shoots to cook in his outdoor kitchen. They have since moved from the neighborhood, but I was always fascinated by Fred because he could find Chanterelle mushrooms growing on stumps in the alley and make a gourmet meal in his backyard without heating up the house. He was a mountain man.

I'm an amateur mountain woman , except I fancy I'd live near the shore....

I've always been very interested in identifying plants and wildlife. Bugs , like the fluffy centipede crawling on the wall of the pizza shop on Friday, get me giddy. Finding a Ladyslipper is cause for celebration, and being able to make a meal from foraged plants is something I aspire to. So, when Ane said, "Let's cook the bamboo," I decided to go with the flow.

She collected a few shoots and I peeled all of the tough outer leaves off until I found the soft yellow/white center. I chopped it and boiled it for 20 minutes. I read that boiling it takes out the bitter. Then I made a bamboo gratin with milk a little butter and flour, garlic and bread crumbs. It was very tasty and Ane (4 years old) had three servings for dinner: little Panda Boo.

This week I will make a bamboo slaw with sesame and ginger dressing. 

Meanwhile, I'll try to cast off this foul and angry mood that April has bestowed upon me and try to make sense of it all through creative cooking and foraging.