So I’ve finally gotten a little motivation to take on a few of my garden chores. The temperature has dropped to a mere 90 degrees, and there is even a bit of a, though balmy and thick, somewhat refreshing breeze.
I won’t bother you with the details of the clean up. I did harvest the first of my snow white eggplant yesterday, and the peppers are finally turning color. I also threw a few pumpkin seeds in the ground last week just to see what may be. I’ve had a big problem with powdery mildew this year, so I’m not expecting much.
The big news is what’s been going on while I’ve been cleaning up. This past spring the squirrels had a bumper crop of babies. Well the babies only stay at home for so long, and then it’s time to go. Squirrels are also very territorial. So as the young squirrels leave the nest, they of course would rather find a place that’s move in ready than one that needs to be renovated or dare they have to begin new construction. And so, the war begins.
It can be very entertaining to watch. All of the squirrels get in on the action. They usual leave the largest squirrel to guard the nest, but it can be a challenge when you have three or four juveniles running circles around you. Occasionally they even, if only for a moment, find victory.
But don’t let these cute little rodents fool you. They can be brutal to their enemies. Two years ago I was watching TV late at night when the squabbling, that usually ceases for the evening, started up. I lifted the window to get a better listen and was greeted with the loudest of all squeals and then a loud thud on the ground. I got out my flashlight and took a little walk outside. Lying there in the grass I found the sweetest eyes staring back at me. It really must have known that I was there to help. I went and put on a garden glove and gave it a little nudge. It didn’t move an inch, but continued to stare at me in desperation as I gave it a gentle petting.
I fretted over what to do. I mean it was a squirrel. So I found a bucket and scooped it up. It scrambled a bit, most likely from the pain of being moved. Further inspection revealed a large gash on its side. I had decided to leave the bucket on top of my car, and should the squirrel make it through the night I would see what I could do.
When I woke up the next morning the squirrel and the bucket were gone. On my way to work I found the empty bucket a half a block away.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
A Gardener's Work Is Never Done
The time has arrived.... harvest season is over here in Florida.
The veggie patch in the driveway garden has been composted and mulched over. I used a simple “lasagna” layering technique. The only thing that remains are the Rosa Bianca eggplants that are just reaching peak season, and the small meadow of Susans and Cosmos at the bottom.
The patio is overflowing with herbs. I’ve had a lot of success this year starting plants from seed, including my all time favorite, basil. I have so much basil now that I haven’t even had a chance to get it all into pots. I also have a pot of peppers that has decided it also loves the heat. In the past if I didn’t have peppers by June, I would cut the plants back to about 8 inches and wait for fall when they will generally take off again and produce well into December.
The side garden is a mess. The tomatoes are ready to be cut out. The vines are sprawling everywhere and are over run with aphids and wilt. Any remaining tomatoes have rotted and are creating a huge mess. On the opposite side of the same bed is a cover crop of cow peas. I thought it would be fun to have fresh cow peas, but shelling them is not easy work. So for now I will just continue to stock up on fresh bags of $5 peas from the farmers market. I have a huge respect for anyone who takes on the task of shelling that many by hand and will gladly pay the steep asking price with gratitude. The vines are not a complete waist though. I will use the vines as a layer of compost when I begin my “lasagna” layering. Beans are unique in that they fix nitrogen into the soil at the root, so they are great to till in.
Harvest: No harvest this week.
Chores:
Remove tomatoes from side garden raised bed
Cut down cow peas and “lasagna” layer the raised bed
Pull vines from Azaleas in front yard
Cut back roses
Cut back any plants showing signs of heat stress - ok all of them
Clean out and mulch over remaining earthboxes
Discard any dead annuals and clean out pots
Start broccoli seeds inside for planting out at the end of August for November harvest
(did I mention that it’s been 98 degrees out everyday)
The veggie patch in the driveway garden has been composted and mulched over. I used a simple “lasagna” layering technique. The only thing that remains are the Rosa Bianca eggplants that are just reaching peak season, and the small meadow of Susans and Cosmos at the bottom.
The patio is overflowing with herbs. I’ve had a lot of success this year starting plants from seed, including my all time favorite, basil. I have so much basil now that I haven’t even had a chance to get it all into pots. I also have a pot of peppers that has decided it also loves the heat. In the past if I didn’t have peppers by June, I would cut the plants back to about 8 inches and wait for fall when they will generally take off again and produce well into December.
The side garden is a mess. The tomatoes are ready to be cut out. The vines are sprawling everywhere and are over run with aphids and wilt. Any remaining tomatoes have rotted and are creating a huge mess. On the opposite side of the same bed is a cover crop of cow peas. I thought it would be fun to have fresh cow peas, but shelling them is not easy work. So for now I will just continue to stock up on fresh bags of $5 peas from the farmers market. I have a huge respect for anyone who takes on the task of shelling that many by hand and will gladly pay the steep asking price with gratitude. The vines are not a complete waist though. I will use the vines as a layer of compost when I begin my “lasagna” layering. Beans are unique in that they fix nitrogen into the soil at the root, so they are great to till in.
Harvest: No harvest this week.
Chores:
Remove tomatoes from side garden raised bed
Cut down cow peas and “lasagna” layer the raised bed
Pull vines from Azaleas in front yard
Cut back roses
Cut back any plants showing signs of heat stress - ok all of them
Clean out and mulch over remaining earthboxes
Discard any dead annuals and clean out pots
Start broccoli seeds inside for planting out at the end of August for November harvest
(did I mention that it’s been 98 degrees out everyday)
Sunday, June 6, 2010
A Tribute to Alton Brown
(lemon) Tomato Sauce or Roasted (lemon) Tomatoes with Fresh Herbs, Sea Salt and Goat Cheese
Ingredients:
20 or so (lemon) tomatoes halved
1 small onion quartered
2 big hand full of herbs (I prefer lots of basil, thyme, oregano and a few sprigs of tarragon) finely chopped
course sea salt
olive oil
1 clove garlic minced
goat cheese
Place halved tomatoes skin side down on a silpat lined baking sheet with onion quarters mixed in at 4 even points. Drizzle with olive oil. Spread herbs over tomatoes and onions evenly and sprinkle with sea salt. Roast in oven at 300 degrees for two hours. Remove from oven.
If making the second recipe stop here. Place a sliver of onion on each tomato halve along with a small dollop of goat cheese - I prefer Sweet Grass Dairy Chevre - and serve.
Moving on to the tomato sauce. Remove onions, chop finely and put into a sauce pot along with the garlic. Place a food mill over the sauce pot and begin milling tomatoes until all have been pressed through the mill. Stir sauce.
Serve over pasta, use as pizza sauce or serve as a soup with a dollop of softened chevre. Can’t possibly eat it all? Freeze in batches for a taste of spring when the season is long gone.
Garden update: Squash are gone and I spent a good portion of the day yesterday making garden lasagna and putting those beds to rest for a few months. Cucumbers are not far behind the squash. I have a few left to mature, but they are coming in smaller and smaller and the plants are not looking so healthy. The corn is puny, and will probably come out in a few weeks. I’ll have to do some research and try again next year.
The tomatoes are going crazy as you may have noticed from the above recipe. I am harvesting a dozen or so a day with no end in sight. Hard to believe that this time last year tomato season had already ended due to a horrible weekend rain storm.
Peppers and eggplants are coming in as well with fruit ready in the next week or so, and finally my neighbors get a little eye candy as the wild flowers in the bottom of the driveway go bananas.
Ingredients:
20 or so (lemon) tomatoes halved
1 small onion quartered
2 big hand full of herbs (I prefer lots of basil, thyme, oregano and a few sprigs of tarragon) finely chopped
course sea salt
olive oil
1 clove garlic minced
goat cheese
Place halved tomatoes skin side down on a silpat lined baking sheet with onion quarters mixed in at 4 even points. Drizzle with olive oil. Spread herbs over tomatoes and onions evenly and sprinkle with sea salt. Roast in oven at 300 degrees for two hours. Remove from oven.
If making the second recipe stop here. Place a sliver of onion on each tomato halve along with a small dollop of goat cheese - I prefer Sweet Grass Dairy Chevre - and serve.
Moving on to the tomato sauce. Remove onions, chop finely and put into a sauce pot along with the garlic. Place a food mill over the sauce pot and begin milling tomatoes until all have been pressed through the mill. Stir sauce.
Serve over pasta, use as pizza sauce or serve as a soup with a dollop of softened chevre. Can’t possibly eat it all? Freeze in batches for a taste of spring when the season is long gone.
Garden update: Squash are gone and I spent a good portion of the day yesterday making garden lasagna and putting those beds to rest for a few months. Cucumbers are not far behind the squash. I have a few left to mature, but they are coming in smaller and smaller and the plants are not looking so healthy. The corn is puny, and will probably come out in a few weeks. I’ll have to do some research and try again next year.
The tomatoes are going crazy as you may have noticed from the above recipe. I am harvesting a dozen or so a day with no end in sight. Hard to believe that this time last year tomato season had already ended due to a horrible weekend rain storm.
Peppers and eggplants are coming in as well with fruit ready in the next week or so, and finally my neighbors get a little eye candy as the wild flowers in the bottom of the driveway go bananas.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Ugly is as ugly does...
Summertime is the ugly time to garden in zone 9. Gone is the pretty that had emerged about a month ago. Instead leaves are beginning to yellow and distorted and annuals are starting to dry up and die.
I have been doing an endless amount of tomato pruning. The leaves are tattered and hole ridden from their battle with aphids and caterpillars, but gratefully with a few applications of BT, it seems so far that we have won - the tomatoes and I. As a reward, my heirlooms that had been doing nothing but dropping blossoms in a sign of disgust have begun to fruit blossom after blossom as to say thanks for the help.
To my dismay though, my war on pests is not over. I had discovered entire limbs of one of my tomatoes missing and wouldn’t you know it. The infamous tomato hornworm. There is a reason why this little creature has earned a reputation of being quite a character. He is ornery and doesn’t like to be messed with. And to make matters worse he’s not easy to kill. I thought that I would take care of him as I had the caterpillars by smashing him. But he is thick and filled with goo so I didn’t want to ruin my shoes or squirt it all over the place. So I thought I’ll just pierce him. Well every time you go to poke him he rears his head up. It’s quite scary. I finally got up enough nerve to just do it and thought - huh - take that. Then I came back a while later only to find him trying to crawl away. My final attempt was to put him in a plastic bag, tie it up and throw it in the garbage. Either way, at least he will be removed from the property tomorrow along with the garbage.
Also, with my take no prisoners approach to my pruning, I can finally walk again in the side garden.
The cucumbers are also pretty ugly right now. The box elder bugs have decided that they enjoy sucking the life out of the older leaves. So far it has not been detrimental to the production of fruit. And as long as I have cucumbers coming out of my ears, the box elder bugs can stay.
In my last entry I had been belly aching over whether or not to let the artichokes bloom, and I’m glad I did. One plant has made all of the ugly worth while. Keep in mind, I wouldn’t exactly call it pretty, but it is pretty amazing!
I have been doing an endless amount of tomato pruning. The leaves are tattered and hole ridden from their battle with aphids and caterpillars, but gratefully with a few applications of BT, it seems so far that we have won - the tomatoes and I. As a reward, my heirlooms that had been doing nothing but dropping blossoms in a sign of disgust have begun to fruit blossom after blossom as to say thanks for the help.
To my dismay though, my war on pests is not over. I had discovered entire limbs of one of my tomatoes missing and wouldn’t you know it. The infamous tomato hornworm. There is a reason why this little creature has earned a reputation of being quite a character. He is ornery and doesn’t like to be messed with. And to make matters worse he’s not easy to kill. I thought that I would take care of him as I had the caterpillars by smashing him. But he is thick and filled with goo so I didn’t want to ruin my shoes or squirt it all over the place. So I thought I’ll just pierce him. Well every time you go to poke him he rears his head up. It’s quite scary. I finally got up enough nerve to just do it and thought - huh - take that. Then I came back a while later only to find him trying to crawl away. My final attempt was to put him in a plastic bag, tie it up and throw it in the garbage. Either way, at least he will be removed from the property tomorrow along with the garbage.
Also, with my take no prisoners approach to my pruning, I can finally walk again in the side garden.
The cucumbers are also pretty ugly right now. The box elder bugs have decided that they enjoy sucking the life out of the older leaves. So far it has not been detrimental to the production of fruit. And as long as I have cucumbers coming out of my ears, the box elder bugs can stay.
In my last entry I had been belly aching over whether or not to let the artichokes bloom, and I’m glad I did. One plant has made all of the ugly worth while. Keep in mind, I wouldn’t exactly call it pretty, but it is pretty amazing!
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Hot Hot Hot!
I was checking my dashboard to see how many views I’ve had (WOW 60) and realized I hadn’t updated in a while.
Summer is in full swing here and I’m having to water many things - especially those in pots - twice a day. That said my cut worm problem has finally begun too diminish (thank god) and my squash plants have survived a bout of powdery mildew. The biggest problem I’m having now is blossom drop due to the intense heat. The one tomato that seems to be thriving regardless of the current environment is the lemon. Everyday I walk out and there’s another 10 or 20 blossoms that have turned to fruit.
In addition my Black Krims have begun to change color as have my sun gold cherries.
The artichokes are going crazy. The two have now turned to 5. I even decided to harvest one even though I had read that for the first year you should let them flower in order to strengthen the overall plant since it’s perennial and will continue to produce for years to come.
Probably one of the biggest pleasures I get from gardening is watching the overall landscape change as the seasons change and things grow and die. This season may be one of my favorites. I decided to give up trying to weed out the bottom portion of the driveway garden. Instead I had sprinkled a tube of wildflower seeds (courtesy of my mother in-law) amongst the weeds and wouldn’t you know it, they are really taking over. My theory was that they would be equally as invasive and eventually push out all of the weeds and so far it seems to be working.
I’ve also enjoyed watching the corn grow as it’s fluffy pollen laden tendrils have emerged. They will be a great benefit in providing some much needed afternoon shade for parts of the driveway garden.
Other notable garden events:
The okra is slow growing. I may try starting some indoors in case the ones I direct seeded don’t make it.
The tomatillos have grown into two very large bushes and have dozens of fruit.
The cow peas and scarlett runner beans are just now starting to take off. It’s supposed to rain a bit over the next few days so I’m debating wether or not to tie them up.
Lastly, it is all about cucumbers right now. I have harvest 3 so far and this morning counted another 10 that have pollinated and are getting long and fat. Anyone have any good ideas for cucumbers?
Summer is in full swing here and I’m having to water many things - especially those in pots - twice a day. That said my cut worm problem has finally begun too diminish (thank god) and my squash plants have survived a bout of powdery mildew. The biggest problem I’m having now is blossom drop due to the intense heat. The one tomato that seems to be thriving regardless of the current environment is the lemon. Everyday I walk out and there’s another 10 or 20 blossoms that have turned to fruit.
In addition my Black Krims have begun to change color as have my sun gold cherries.
The artichokes are going crazy. The two have now turned to 5. I even decided to harvest one even though I had read that for the first year you should let them flower in order to strengthen the overall plant since it’s perennial and will continue to produce for years to come.
Probably one of the biggest pleasures I get from gardening is watching the overall landscape change as the seasons change and things grow and die. This season may be one of my favorites. I decided to give up trying to weed out the bottom portion of the driveway garden. Instead I had sprinkled a tube of wildflower seeds (courtesy of my mother in-law) amongst the weeds and wouldn’t you know it, they are really taking over. My theory was that they would be equally as invasive and eventually push out all of the weeds and so far it seems to be working.
I’ve also enjoyed watching the corn grow as it’s fluffy pollen laden tendrils have emerged. They will be a great benefit in providing some much needed afternoon shade for parts of the driveway garden.
Other notable garden events:
The okra is slow growing. I may try starting some indoors in case the ones I direct seeded don’t make it.
The tomatillos have grown into two very large bushes and have dozens of fruit.
The cow peas and scarlett runner beans are just now starting to take off. It’s supposed to rain a bit over the next few days so I’m debating wether or not to tie them up.
Lastly, it is all about cucumbers right now. I have harvest 3 so far and this morning counted another 10 that have pollinated and are getting long and fat. Anyone have any good ideas for cucumbers?
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