Victory garden update: ladybug love nest

I've already rattled on about the fuel we burn to truck produce around the globe. And how we can support energy independence by growing at least some of our own produce.

So here's the update on the victory garden.

After crazy amounts of rain, our cilantro plants are four feet tall. One got so heavy it fell over. I would cut them down, but they're blooming and I want to save seeds.

Also, the cilantro plants are the ladybug equivalent of Inspiration Point. You can hear the sweet sounds of Marvin Gaye out there. There's incense burning and tiny, empty wine glasses all over the garden bed. You can never have enough ladybugs to eat your aphids and whatnot. So the love nest, overgrown and shaggy as it is, stays. I hope it'll become the ladybug nursery, the wineglasses and Marvin Gaye replaced by tiny legos and Raffi.

The first strawberry: Yes, Rocketboy did try it rolled in sugar. He ate a little, I had some, Hombre had a bite, and then Hurricanehead gnawed it down to the stem. It was a little sweeter than I'd expected, and there are more on the way. Soon we can each have our own!

Lettuce, as always, is growing like crazy. I don't understand why nothing eats it out there. It's a mix of oak leaf and green leaf (I weeded out all the red leaf b/c I think it tastes funky) and we're savoring it before the weather gets hot and it bolts. Yes, I will try to save seeds.

Green onions: I planted about 100 Texas 1015 sweet onion sets in January, and we've got good size green onions now, so I am thinning the herd a little. Sauteed a big one to add to Hombre's crass-yet-beloved mashed potatoes from a box, and they tasted like real food. Perfect with locally grown, grass-fed steaks, salad from the garden, a good Texas blush wine and a clear evening. Patriotism never tasted so good.