Cold Weather Gardening

My winter garden is doing okay.  Tried Brussels sprouts for the first time.  They look pitiful  The broccoli is okay, but the cabbage is not doing too well.  Gave everyone some fertilizer this afternoon and hopefully they will buck up.

The volunteer plants are doing fine fine fine.  I have lots of cilantro, endive and lettuces.  The elephant garlic is about 18 inches tall and ready for me to eat some.  I was really worried about the garlic because the bulbs stay in the ground dormant all summer.  Because of the drought, I couldn't water properly this year.  I was afraid they had completely dried out and died, but they are just fine.

I'm going to make an effort to be more of a presence here.  I got so discouraged when Manly was sick that everything just seemed too hard. Then the horrible heat and drought of last summer sucked the life out of gardening here in Texas.  I'm still dealing with a little apathy towards things I generally love.  This too shall pass.  The Monkeys are healthy, I am losing weight and Manly's blood clot has finally cleared.  Count blessings.

Rebuilding

This has been the worst summer heat and drought wise since 1980 here in Texas.  My garden suffered major damage because we could not keep enough water on it.  I am afraid I have lost two hardy hibiscus and I know I've lost at least two antique roses most likely a third.  The City of Tiny Town Texas also decided to start a major road construction project on the streets bordering our house.  The mess is indescribable.  I've never seen this much fine, silt-like dust in my life.

Between the heat, drought and construction I sort of just gave up on the vegetable garden this summer.  The only things that survived were the pepper plants. Everything else just died including my amazing tomato jungle.  It has been heartbreaking.

We had our first major rain in months last night.  We got at least an inch of rain, probably a little more.  Unfortunately, I did not have all of my rain barrel taps shut and one of the barrels was blown over before it could fill  up.  All I managed to catch was 55 gallons in one of the tanks.  STINKS.

The weather has cooled off considerably yesterday so I was back out in the garden full force.  I payed for it this morning when I could barely get out of bed I hurt so bad.  The cure for that soreness was more gardening of course.  An hour of weeding and I am all loosened up.

As I look around our area I see so many dead trees and shrubs.  It is going to take a lot to get our landscape back in shape.  This is one of the reasons I am so happy that Michael Nolan and Laura Mathews started The Regrow Together Project.  It is a worldwide effort to help gardeners who have lost or been harmed by our crazy weather be it from drought, flood, heat wave, hurricane or tornado.  Obviously, my efforts will be to help those who have been harmed by our extremely hot dry summer.  Please join us in helping gardeners worldwide regrow from natural disasters.  We are all in this together.

No More Slime

I love fried okra.  I dearly dearly love fried okra.  Now, I am really not supposed to eat fried anything, but especially breaded fried things.  I cannot stand okra cooked any other way than fried or pickled.  At least that was the case until the Best Boss in the Universe ran across a Cajun dude at her sisters house.  Mr. Cajun Man told her that you can saute okra in olive oil until it quits sliming and it is quite good . Mr. Cajun Man was right.  The okra stays slimy for a few minutes and then it just sort of cooks off.  With a little garlic and some crushed tomatoes it was sooooooo good.  

Where I Go On and On About My Tomatoes

We have tomatoes, lots and lots of tomatoes.  I wish I was one of those organized persons who weighed their harvest and could give you an exact amount on my tomato bounty.  That's probably never going to happen. 

I am turning the extra fruit into canned salsa.   Finally read up a little on it and it turns out my sauce wasn't keeping because tomatoes are not acidic enough by themselves.  That is why my previous attempts at canned tomatoes spoiled.  It will be wonderful to open up a can of summer salsa in the middle of next winter.

I have a few varieties of tomatoes that came from the seed swap with Monica Milla of  Garden Faerie's Musings.  This first mistake I made was misreading the varieties and making up new names for a couple of the tomatoes.  Avivvi is actually Aviuri and Ladano de Panicchio is actually Ladino di Panocchia.  Found my errors when looking up my varieties and on Tatiana's Tomato Base.  There is one that has not been identified yet.  It is round and flat, barely lobed and orange mottled in color.  I can't for the life of me figure out what it is.  Nothing Mons has suggested sounds like any type of seed I've had.  Wonder if something crossed.  The second mistake I made was labeling them with wooden markers, which faded. Why, oh why can't I remember to just label the containers with a grease pencil or china marker. 

The best producer so far has been Gajo de Melon, which has given me lots of cute, pink, cherry tomatoes.   The next best seems like it is going to be the mystery tomato, although it does appear to have an issue with blossom end rot.  The Aviuri, Green Zebra and Turks Mutt are all giving me enough fruit to make it worth my time to plant them again.  Better Boy and Early Girl both are doing okay, but nothing special.  Who was that crazy man who compared heirlooms tomatoes to losers?  Of my ten tomato plants, four of them are hybrids and they are producing the scrawniest yields. 

The Monkeys have been eating tomatoes whole with a little sprinkle of salt.  At first I was afraid they were going eat them all before I could make salsa.  I caught the Teenage Monkey with one of the first big ripe tomatoes in his room.  That's right, my kid was sneaking a tomato. 

I can't praise the container in the ground method of growing tomatoes enough.  If you want to see how, go here. 

Happy Summer Everyone

Squash Happiness

My garden is going gangbusters this years.  The raised beds are wonderful and very productive.  The container in ground in raised bed tomato experiment has been a fantastic success.  I ate so many perfectly ripe tomatoes today that my lips hurt. 

Me behind the Tomato Jungle

My squash is doing fine as well.  Usually the squash bugs get them, but this year the pumpkin vines have worked great as traps and I've been able to manage the bug situation.  The vines really are just beginning to produce, but The Best Boss in the World has plenty of squash now and she is sharing. 

Today I ate yellow squash and Noonday onions sauteed in butter again.  Yummy.  It is so simple - just saute the onions in a little butter on low heat until they are slightly brown and add the squash.  Cook until the squash is tender and eat it up.

I am also making zucchini with tomatoes again.  Saute the onions add zucchini and tomato sauce as well as a little brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce.  Cook until the zucchini is tender and again, eat it up.

More recipes to follow as the squash rolls in :)

Pumpkin Blossoms are Good Eatin

I have let a bunch of pumpkins over grown the garden again.  I'm allowing it, not because I expect to get great pumpkins.  I'm allowing it because the pumpkin vines are great squash bug traps and I am eating the pumpkin blossoms. 

The pumpkin leaves seem to confuse the squash bugs.  They are mostly laying their eggs on top of the leaves instead of safely underneath.  I've just been cutting off the infested leaves and throwing them in fire pit to be burned.  One clutch of eggs did hatch.  I just lifted up the big leave and sprayed them all down with soapy water.  They were very dead very quick.  I'm hoping this activity will give my actual squash plants a fighting chance. 

I remember making fried squash blossoms last year and they were yummy.  Because of the diagnosis of MODY 2 diabetes, I have been on a very strict ADA diet for the past nine weeks.  I decided to try to fry the pumpkin blossoms with beaten egg whites instead of breading them.  The results tasted good, but were far to greasy.  I may make them with breading for Manly and the Monkeys, but I'll keep out of it myself. 

A better alternative for me was pumpkin blossom soup.  Just chicken stock, chopped up pumpkin blossoms and a little lemon juice.  Easy peazy.  I will put the soup through the food processor next time to smooth it out.  The texture of the blossoms was a little too spiky. 

Today I made a Noonday onion, pumpkin blossom, pepper, cheese and bacon frittata.  It was extra yummy.  The pepper and blossoms were from my garden, the eggs were from local chickens and the onions from Noonday, Texas.  The only things not local were the bacon and cheese.  I think I can find local sources for those for next time :)

Anybody else eating out of the garden yet?

Terrific Tomatoes

I'm having a wonderful year in regards to tomatoes.  In past years, they have been hit or miss because of the weather and rainfall.  This year, I switched the back half of the vegetable/flower garden to three large raised beds and two smaller side raised beds.  One of the side beds has large pots of citrus trees sitting in it instead of being planted.  We are in the middle of a deck demolition and I needed the storage worse than the vegetable planting space.

I read and saw pictures somewhere on the interweb about growing tomatoes in containers sunk into a raised beds.  I've tried every which way I can think of to keep the water near the roots of my tomato plants instead of running off somewhere useless.  There were a bunch of abandoned 3 gallon plant containers junking up my potting bench, so I decided to give the sunken container contraptions a shot.

First thing - Cut the bottom out of the containers.  This is hard.  My trusty Felco pruners got it started, but I ended up have to saw them out with a serrated steak knife.

Second thing - Dig a hole inside of the raised bed and sink a pot into the hole leaving about 3 to 4 inches of pot above the soil level.  Repeat until all pots are buried.

Third thing - Plant tomato seedlings in the pots with potting mix and compost.

Forth thing - Water each individual pot. Repeat as needed. 

Fifth thing - Fertilize once a week with liquid fertilizer.  I'm using fish emulsion this year, but prefer Hastagrow.  (Hastagrow doesn't stink as much).

The results have been stunning.  My tiny seedlings planted April 1st have already outgrown my very large tomato cages.  I've already eaten two ripe tomatoes.  The plants are healthy, disease free and covered in blooms.  The water stays right in their root zone and I believe the containers are helping keep soil from splashing up on the leaves of the plants. 

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