Fire Flies and Garlic Scapes

Without wishing to jinx the weather and shorten this year's growing season any further, I would dare to dream that this week's balmy days, bbqs and sun means that summer may be upon us. Farmers are haying and dropping by at odd hours to borrow pieces of rusty machinery that we never knew existed and I think our flowers may be growing. The garlic is doing well and since the scapes are beginning to curl into that lovely green pig's tail, we have been cutting them and selling a few along with our fresh herbs for folks to add to their barbie.
Rather annoyingly our beautiful field of squash and pumpkin has been hit by the beastly cucumber beetle which is chewing its way through the leaves and blossoms. Being organic, picking them off and squashing them is really the only method. It is as monotonous, back breaking (and murderous) as it sounds. The ageratum and oh so gorgeous veridiums are in bloom and are truly delightful, not long now for the asiatic lilies, eryingium and snap dragons to follow which will hopefully kick off our season. So in the meantime we are chugging away, braving the bugs, battling the weeds and when the daylight fades and we are drawn inside, we are able to look out into the pitch black night at tiny sparks of magic. Fire flies are here, flickering in the darkness, bring on the summer!