A Little More Salsa in the Making

As usual, Lori was right.  It didn't make any sense to keep pining over bare stretches in the garden.  Some of the seeds I planted in this inaugural season of my backyard trenches simply aren't going to sprout, regardless of how mightily I am pulling for them.  To be sure, there are a couple of rows I have held in reserve for the summer planting of fall crops.  Unfortunately, those aren't the only unproductive areas.  Some, of course, are merely the leftover feet of economies -- I didn't have quite enough of this or that to fill a row.  The hard fact, however, is that some things simply didn't spring up the space allotted. 
Or wilted in the transplanting. 
Or were grazed by the rabbits. 
Or simply didn't like where I put them and refused to budge. 

There are trenches where stems are flourishing with impressive vigor, and there are those that are tardy, but hanging in there.  But there is more open dirt than I should settle for. 

Yesterday afternoon, then, we stopped by the nursery and browsed the vegetable remnants.  We picked up some oregano (I'm not sure why I hadn't planted that in the beginning), plus some rosemary (another surprising omission).  I certainly couldn't justify anymore basil or tomatoes than I already have well under way, but I can always use more peppers.  I filled a few orphaned ends with more jalapenos; in intermezzo spaces, between two other varietals, I squeezed in some red bells, some purple bells, and a few other sweet peppers thus far unrepresented, specimens late enough in the season to already have fruit well underway. 

I'll admit it feels a little bit like cheating -- buying transplants from the nursery rather than growing them from seeds; like the delusion that adding your own oil and eggs to a boxed cake mix makes it homemade. While I will be stirring in my own dirt and water, it isn't quite the same. But unlike the cake mix, I suspect when we bite into their harvest we won't remember which is which, grateful instead for the harvest. 

Meanwhile, the tomatoes continue to inch taller, and the variegated green balls ornamenting their branches continue to swell -- golf ball size, some of them.  The spinach and the lettuce seems to be making a rebound after their recent reprieve from rabbit nibbling.  It's too soon to tell about the swiss chard, and the shell beans are anybodies guess.  I can't tell for sure -- my planting map is a little muddled on this detail -- but I think the okra is making some headway, and the squash, tomatillos and collards are simply showing off.  As far as I can tell the potatoes are hard at work beneath the surface, though I see no signs of life from the beets.  The rest?  Well, I'm not optimistic. 

I have plans, however, for a second round this fall. 

In the meantime, the new additions are a welcome augmentation.  We may have salsa to can after all.