Happy Race Day to all. Oh, you don’t know about race day? Well, in Indiana, race day is the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. For many, it’s a day to actually go to the Indianapolis 500 race. For many others, including me, it’s a good day to start on or finish up a few gardening tasks or other outdoor projects.

Like many in central Indiana, I’ll be listening to the race on the radio. We don’t get it on TV live. In fact, it wasn’t until I went to college and talked to people who weren’t from around here that I realized the race was broadcast live on TV around the world, and only in our little world in central Indiana is it “blacked out”. We all just assumed that everyone was doing what we were doing, listening on the radio, generally while we were outside working on projects or grilling food or just relaxing. I usually just listen to the start of the race and then move on to other things. You’ve got to hear Jim Nabor’s sing “Back Home Again in Indiana”, or you feel you’ve missed something that’s part of the beginning of summer!

Harvest Update: Already this morning, I’ve been out harvesting radishes (just about the last of those), lettuce (need to finish it up before it bolts in the heat) and green onions (plenty of those, still). I’ve got them all cleaned up and ready to eat.

I remember shelling peas on Memorial Day weekend with my Dad. I don’t know what’s wrong with my peas, but that haven’t even started to bloom yet, let alone have pods ready to pick. Well, I know what’s wrong with half of the peas, the half the rabbits ate down to six inches. Otherwise, I think I am planting them too late. Dad tended to push it in the spring and plant just as soon as he possibly could, which is probably why he had peas on Memorial Day weekend, and I don’t.

The picture above is of the raised bed with the early spring vegetables in it. Behind it, you can see part of the new strawberry bed, which I covered with white cloth to keep the rabbits from eating those plants, too. The peas are growing on the trellis on the far side of the bed; the ones on the right have been munched down by the rabbits, the ones on the left haven’t bloomed yet. (You know, with all the troubles I have with rabbits, I think I am showing amazing constraint by not adding adjectives or symbols from the top of the keyboard in front of the word “rabbits” whenever I type it. But this is a “G rated” blog and I intend to keep it that way.)

The weathermen are predicting we will reach 90 degrees today, so any work I do outside will probably be done before lunch, so I better get at it! Break time is over, I’m heading to the garden to weed.