Hattie’s Garden welcomes the month of June and the beginning of Meteorological Summer. We certainly felt it last week.

Here in the garden it always amazes us how incredibly fast things begin to grow as the soil and the temperature warms. Add some rainfall and it is almost like you can stand and watch things grow, including the weeds.

The harvest of spring crops is beginning in earnest as we scramble to finish planting the main summer crops — you know, things like tomatoes, beans and squash, and here at Hattie’s Garden this year, lots and lots of wonderful flowers for months of beautiful bouquets.

Of course, we plant arugula every week for you and we try hard to have as much mixed young lettuce as we can throughout the summer. We seem to plant a little of everything and the diversification makes for a healthy mini ecosystem.

The honey bees in our backyard (tended and owned by Dave Baues of Baues’ Bees) are making good use of all the clover, flowering herbs, vegetable blossoms and flowers.

We have hummingbirds, squirrels, rabbits and one groundhog this year. That is a lot of critters to feed and still feed all of you, but so far, so good. Mr. and Ms. Fox seem to keep things from getting out of control. I know there are a few good snakes out there too, doing beneficial things for the garden, but frankly, I do not look too closely for them!

Where and When

You can find us on this week on Thursday at the Garden Shack Farmers Market from 2 to 6, at the Historic Lewes Farmers Market (HLFM) on Saturday from 8 to 12 and on Sunday at Hattie’s Garden from 11 to 3.

If these times / dates do not work for you, please email Hattie to make arrangements for an appointment. We can accommodate most requests.

Available Produce This Week

Our produce is becoming more bountiful every week.

• Arugula — Triple-washed and bagged, young and very tasty.
• Lettuce — Young Black-seeded Simpson and Red Sails loose leaf for quick salads. Triple-washed and bagged.
• Mesclun — with wonderful young Asian greens and beautiful lettuce. Triple-washed and bagged, of course.
• Head Lettuce — Beautiful heads of tasty varieties you won’t find in the supermarket.
• Kale — Young leaves, tripled-washed and bagged.
• Herbs — This week we will harvest the first of our beautiful flat Italian Parsley, as well as fabulous Dill, wonderful “mojito” Mint, savory Sage, fragant Rosemary and gorgeous Cilantro.

Plants, Plants, and More Plants

We are all a little later than usual getting things planted and Hattie’s Garden wants you to know the plants are still coming.

Herb Plants

In another couple of weeks, we expect our Sweet Marjoram, Stevia and Lemongrass to be ready. They are starting to come alive after the cooler temperatures we experienced in May that they have not liked. However, we finally have all our basil varieties ready for you this week. In addition, we will have:

• White Sage — Also known as bee sage and sacred sage, this is accented with showy spikes of lavender-tinged white flowers appearing in summer. Besides being a cleansing, purifying, and protective plant used to make the smudge sticks common in Native American ceremonies, it also attracts hummingbirds and bees.
• Chives — These have been unstoppable this year and will be offered on sale this week. Although you may read chives want full sun, I have found these plants thrive in this region only if they can be given a good deal of shade. A partly sunny area is perfect for them and they always survive the winter for us.
• Thyme — English and Lemon varieties.
• Rosemary ‘Arp’ — A delightful culinary rosemary.
• Berggarten Sage — The flavor of this common sage is excellent.
• Greek Oregano — If you want to “true” oregano, Greek Oregano is the one to plant.
• Parsley — Flat ‘Giant of Italy’ and Curly ‘Krausa’.

Flower Plants

• Gomphrena — A “real” Amaranth in the style of “Love-Lies-Bleeding” known as Coral Fountain. This 3–5′ tall plant will liven up almost any garden setting with its soft, drooping, peachy-coral-colored inflorescences. (Very exciting for us.)
• Double Click Cosmos — These beautiful cosmos grow to 4 ft. tall and provide lots of frilly double blooms for cut flowers. Cosmos need only average soil and are simple to care for. No need to fertilize. You may also plant them close together. Mixed, Cranberry and Rose Bonbon varieties available.
• Benary Giant Cutting Zinnias — In mixed or individual colors, these grow 4-5 feet.
• Cut and Come Again Zinnias — growing just to about 2 feet, the Pumila Mix Zinnia aka “Cut & Come Again” is the shortest of the cutting zinnias we offer and can be a beautiful fit for many flower beds.
• Colorado Yarrow — Beautiful multi-colored perennial.
• Marigolds — We have a good supply of very healthy open-pollinated French Marigolds. Most will grow to about a foot tall, except our little Lemondrop, coming in at 6-8 inches. For a tall Marigold, we do have a stunning African Marigold known as Crackerjack Mix. These orange, gold and yellow double flowered marigolds grow to 30 inches tall, but do not need to be staked.

Vegetable Plants

We have a nice new selection of tomato plants to bring you this week, including hybrids, heirlooms and cherries.

There are large healthy half-price pepper plants and Asian & Italian-style eggplant.

We have just planted more Little-leaf and Marketmore Cucumbers and you can expect them in about two weeks. Fast growing, you will still have plenty of cucumbers by mid-summer.

Yours in the garden & the market,