Weekly Update: August Week 3

I spent most of the time this week trimming up the never ceasing ivy plants and trying to tame the grape vines which never make grapes but insist on attempting to dominate the fence line and everything in a five foot radius. Not exactly the most photogenic of developments, so I figured I'd just give you a couple of visual updates. The photo at the left is of the two large pots along the street. If you remember (or visit older posts) these were originally planted with the red fountain grass and the red coreopsis. The coreopsis eventually bloomed themselves out and all I had left in there was the grass. One day we had a few sweet potatoes that had gone to sprout and I was taking them out to the compost and for some reason I decided to try just tucking them into the pots with the grass. Several weeks later, and they're growing like crazy. I'm really liking the combination of the green of the vines with all the red... probably the lowest maintenance effort of the year!

Lastly, just a quick comparison shot. I realized the other day that I haven't posted any "overall" shots of the garden for a while. This one deliberately cuts off the white fly trauma of the tomato plants on the left side, but you can see just how far things have come from earlier this spring!

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New This Week: August Week 3

On the non-consumable side this week was the installation of a new evergreen specimen the cryptomeria japonica:

This is a beautiful slow growth cedar native to Japan (as the name might suggest!). This particular cultivar has a very unique branching habit. The branches extend out into what to me looks like pom-pom clusters of the needles. Eventually this should be a nice round mound. I needed to get some more winter-hardy stuff going so that as the summer/fall flowers die off I'll actually have something to look at this winter! I saw this plant featured on The Garden Guy with Paul James on HGTV a couple weeks ago and decided that I'd give it a shot. It's hardy in Zone 6, but I'm not sure how it will do in a pot. My other evergreens seem to do fine, so here's hoping!!

From an edible perspective this was the week of the pepper. I know this photo isn't the greatest... but it does give you an idea of the scope of the pepper varieties now coming to the table (clockwise from lower left):

• Another huge crop of banana peppers. I've already pickled this bunch since the last effort was so successful!
• Beautiful and yummy bell peppers.
• Jalapeno peppers that also ended up pickled (most of them).
• Orange habanero peppers... nothing yet... but they're destined for salsa as soon as the next batch of tomatoes ripens.
• Red sweet peppers. These guys (and a few of their colleagues) were roasted up for the baba ganoush and fresh spaghetti sauce we made this week.

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Weekly Update: August Week 2

Just a quick week 2 update since we're already half way through August week 3! (Slacking I know!)

I know the photo is a bit blurry, but I thought I'd post a quick snapshot of one of the other critters enjoying the garden. Jason was impressed by the size of this guy, according to him its the largest spider he's ever seen "in the wild". (I told him that it was obvious that he didn't grow up in Arizona! I've squished much bigger!) I'd peg his size at about a half-dollar size, you can kind of tell how big he is by the size of the ivy leaves too. He is actually quite stunning and we took quite a few pics while he sunned himself. There were already a couple of things wrapped up in various parts of his web, so I guess he's doing pretty good for himself! I did a bit of digging and learned that officially he's a black and yellow Argiope (Argiope aurantia for you sticklers). It is pronounced ar-GUY-oh-ee. Totally harmless to humans, so

we left him alone. Now if I could just figure out how to train him to take out the white flies I'd be all set!

And the comeback of the year award goes to the Mona Lavender... This is one of my favorite anuals to grow. Last year I had a great specimen at the beginning of the year, but I didn't realize that they really need part shade and it basically got fried by mid-summer. This year I found the PERFECT spot for it so that it could get morning sun and then have mostly shade in the afternoon and it looked great this spring. In late march though it started looking shabby and I was traveling so much I just couldn't figure out what was up. One weekend though we had a storm and I went out to find it standing full of water. Basically the holes in the bottom of the pot became clogged so the poor thing was just constantly saturated and the over watering was causing it to die off. It was in such bad shape that I considered pulling it out and just waiting until next year and starting over. I have a hard time getting rid of anything that still shows some life, so I unclogged the pot and hoped for the best. Over the last couple of weeks it suddenly seemed to turn the corner and started perking up and putting on new growth. This weekend I noticed that there were even a few blooms popping up. I'm so excited! Hoping that it will give some great color right up until frost now! Keep your fingers crossed!

Overheard on the porch when discussing the mona: "It's not a comeback - it's a return!" (Norma Desmond)

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New This Week: August Week 2

Ok.... so I'll admit that I'm starting to get a bit worn out by ALLLLLL the fresh produce! (Really? Did I say that???) Well maybe just tired of the weekly photo session. This week I admit I just started washing, packing, and eating stuff instead of gathering everything together for the obligatory photo. (Hey... I had to cram the entire weekend of work into 4 hours... so take it easy on me!)

I did capture a few interesting things though:

• After one rather serious thunderstorm the cherry tomatoes were obviously out of control and threatening to take down everything around them. I did some SERIOUS pruning this weekend. Keep in mind that we only have two plants... still I filled 2 1/2 55 gallon trashcans with vines. Some of them were 15 - 20ft long. YES, that is feet. YES, I did measure. I know! I didn't believe it myself. In the process I managed to harvest a whopping 6.5 pounds of chocolate cherry tomatoes! CRAZY! This is on top of what we've already picked. I think at this point I'd estimate that we've managed to pick about 40 lbs all together. All from two tiny tomato seeds.... I know! Hard to believe. Anyway, the evil white flies have found them now, so I'm not sure how much longer they'll be going. We'll have to see. I'm sure the big trim probably didn't help much either, but at this point I figured we've certainly enjoyed them for long enough that if they don't keep going I'm not going to be terribly disappointed.

• The okra continues to be the surprise of the summer. I mentioned before that I've never grown it before... so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, but I swear the stuff grows like crazy and is just producing non-stop. I don't know how tall it is "supposed" to be when it has reached full maturity, but this stuff is now taller than me! (MUCH taller than Jason as you can see in the photo.) It's not a camera angle thing. He's literally standing right next to the stalk. Wacky! Boy are the fast at setting pods too! I picked four last night and by tonight another four were ready to go. I've never seen anything like it before in my life! The only thing I'll do differently next year is to plant them all at once so that there's a consistent amount on hand. This year I planted two and then another four a few weeks later. They're all going strong, but it is taking a couple of days to get a pound or two for cooking. Next up on the okra rotation is a Cajun okra/shrimp/tomato dish. Then maybe pickled okra??? Who knows!
  
• Overheard in the Martin/Whetstone kitchen this week: "Is there any way we haven't had eggplant?" (And the answer ended up being yes... but not for long... Jason unearthed a recipe for Baba Ganoush... hmmmm we'll see how that goes.)

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Weekly Update: August Week 1

Lots going on this week to be sure!

I turned a vast portion of last week's tomatoes, onions, and peppers into some fresh salsa. It was delicious. I think next time I'll add a bit more salt, but other than that it was pretty good for my first ever attempt! (I forgot to take a picture... but trust me... it looked good too!)

Not a lot new on the veggie front, everything is producing like crazy, but not much new to see. There are some other fun developments on some of the less-edible fronts.

ABOVE: A monarch butterfly came by to check out the crazy blooming nasturtiums. He hung around for quite a while, so I'm hoping maybe he'll tell his friends and we'll see more! At the base of the nasturtium tower the ornamental marble peppers are starting to take on some color too. They are ornamental, but Jason insisted on tasting them this weekend, and according to him they are "hot" very hot!

BELOW: My dwarf lilac shrub is just growing beautifully. I was a bit nervous since it showed up last fall as about three dead looking twigs. I planted it and hoped for the best. I was pleasantly surprised when it budded out this spring and now it is in full bloom and looking very healthy. It's a huge favorite of the local bee population. Hanging out above the lilac are the gerbera daisy's. These two are the tallest from the plant this season with stems about 8' long or so. Finally, the Easter egg plant is loaded down with eggs. No color yet... but they REALLY look and feel just like eggs. It's really fun!

FINALLY: A shout out for some "volunteer" impatients. They are coming up like crazy in the area under the hose. I planted them out there last year (before the pine tree from out front was given a summer home there) but decided not to put in any this year because they were constantly battered by the hose and never did very well. Well apparently they did well enough to re-seed themselves and these little guys have been just going to town and filling in all around the tree. I've NEVER had impatients come back from seed, so this was a doubly big surprise. The other interesting thing is that they seem to have adapted as a dwarf form somehow. They're no bigger than the groundcover but absolutely full of flower. It's really something. I've been really surprised in many ways this year by the way the plants seem to be able to adapt instantly to changes in the environment in ways to make themselves as successful as possible. Truly amazing!

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New This Week: August Week 1

This has been another VERY bountiful week. (I'm getting very good at coming up with things to do with eggplant at this point!

Here are a few snapshot's from the haul... (Clockwise)

• Carrots round two. This batch as a whole wasn't as big as the ones from last week, but still very yummy!
• 5 giant black beauty eggplants, some banana peppers, bell peppers, okra, and a couple more zucchini. (Austin was over this weekend and we made a batch of zucchini bread which was a huge hit!)
• A huge bowl of the chocolate cherry tomatoes. Probably a good 3 POUNDS worth. Half of these we shared with Jason's sister.
• Over 15 Pounds of tomatoes!!! Jason pureed the Romas and froze them so he can make some homemade sauce later on. We gave some away, and cooked up almost all of the rest.

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Weekly Update: July Week 4

I got so wrapped up in trying to get everything done before the rain I forgot to take a picture of the week's harvest before splitting it all up and handing it out to random neighbors, Jo, and whoever else would eat it.... another pound or so of beans, 4 more big eggplants, a couple smaller eggplants, half dozen bell peppers, a dozen jalapenos, 8 tomatoes, 2 and a half pounds of carrots, and a ton of the chocolate cherry tomatoes... yeah... a TON! (Jason is still amazed that there are only two plants and they grew from single tiny seeds!)

A few fun sights from around the garden this week:

FROM LEFT: One of the sweet red pepper plants LOADED with huge peppers... I can't wait for these guys to ripen up and throw them on the grill! The other plant is just as loaded. Some of these are about 8 inches long. CENTER: one of the beautiful okra blooms. The flowers are just amazing. I'd almost grow the plant for just the blooms alone. Did I mention that the okra plants in the the right bed are now almost 5' tall??? RIGHT: The horticultural mysteries continue... a two-legged carrot?? You can imagine the surprise when I pulled this guy up! The main root is about 6" long.

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New This Week: July week 4

I was super excited to pull up the first of the summer harvest root veggies this week!

On the left are the first of the beautiful carrots. I've never grown carrots before, and I've heard that they can be tricky.

These guys performed like champs! This is just about one plot worth, I have three more to go, and I'm so excited! (for perspective, the boards on the deck are 6" wide... so you can see most of these guys are about 6 - 8" long. That's just about as long as they can get in the raised beds before bottoming out. The flavor is GREAT. Just perfect for snacking! I was so inspired I headed online and ordered up a bunch more seeds for next year!

On the right is the first batch of the onions. They're not all that big... about the side of a tennis ball probably... but they look good. I still have about a dozen more that I didn't pull yet... I'll let them get a bit bigger. They take FOREVER... I'm not sure if I"ll grow them again next year. For all of the time and space I don't know if it really pays off, but we'll see. These guys are going to get mixed in with some jalapenos and tomatoes for a nice salsa at some point this week!

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Weekly Update: July Week 3

With so many banana peppers I had to come up with something to do with them. We've already had them raw, stuffed, baked, and sauteed.... time to take action!

I found a recipe online for pickled peppers... so I cut up the 2 pounds of banana peppers and a dozen or so jalapeno peppers, attempted to seed them, and canned them with the pickling liquid. I've done a bunch of canning with my Grandma in the past, but this was my first attempt at canning peppers.

Jason also let me know that you don't have to go buy the can rings and lids, you can actually re-use the original jar lids to these spaghetti sauce jars. Neat! we boiled them right up, sealed them, and in a matter of minutes POP... they sealed up tight. Now the peppers just need to sit for at least two weeks to get fully pickled. Can't wait to try them!

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New This Week: July week 3

Running a bit late with the July week 3 updates, but last weekend was CRAZY with an unexpected detour to do an emergency washing machine repair and packing to head out to Milwaukee... Needless to say, the blog post had to be set aside.

Here's a snapshot of last week's harvest. You'll note the massive amounts of banana peppers, the first of the season's zucchini, and 10 POUNDS of tomatoes... WOW! More egg plant, and the first of the fairy tale eggplants (the thin purple & white one in the center right next to the albino bell pepper).

YUM!!!!!

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