2.7.10

My soaker hose is doing a little too much soaking. So I'm going to patch it. Yes, it would be cheaper to replace it, but that would mean I would have to take it out of the bed, and now it's all wound up around a million plants! So instead, I'll spend way more than a new hose costs in repair parts and bandaids for the inevitable busted fingers. Grrr!

Step 1: Turn on soaker. Cleverly point the screw driver and the scissors toward the hose, on each side of the leak.

Step 2: Run back to the spigot and turn water off. Run back to the hose and cut it as indicated by the cleverly used screwdriver and scissors.

Step 3: Tools of the trade. A 1/2" ...eh, repair-er thingy and two clamps. Hey, Guess What Home Depot?! When I ask for 1/2", I really do MEAN 1/2". Stop trying to sell me the damn 3/4" hose repair kits, because they don't fit on 1/2" soakers!!

Step 4: Slide the loosened clamps onto each side of the hose.

Step 5: Insert the plastic thingy.

Step 6: Slide clamps toward center and tighten. Be sure to lose your grip on the tiny wet clamps and scrape your fingers all to hell. Several times.

Onions, buttercrunch lettuce, rogue arugula, and garlic. This arugula planted itself.



Radishes. Yeah. Not much going on here.







Cleaned the heck out of this bed and put down a new layer of mulch. And Trent found me that cool bowling pin. It's HEAVY! Good for whackin' moles!

Trying to get ahead of that nasty, weedy grass. I went through this entire bed with a fine toothed comb to get out every inch of grass and root that I could. Hopefully this'll help keep that stuff from getting such a chokehold on this bed later this year. Fingers crossed! Also, planted 5 new roses right by the street in the hopes that once they're grown, people will think twice about walking through this bed. Yes, I KNOW this is city property, but still, it's planted to the hilt! Stop walking on it all! Yeesh!

Brassica Bed Numbah TWO! Raddichio and red lettuces and beet and endive, etc, etc, etc!

Onions, Mibuna, more beets, French Sorrel...

Lots herb. The legal kind!

Brassica Bed Numbah ONE! Yeah, I flipped 'em on you. Kale, kohlrabe, and a buncha other stuff!

Weeds, an artichoke (dead center), and the once-hot-pink-now-pale-pink snakie from Toy Joy. To scare all the birds. And, um. Other things.

A better pic of the artichoke. A couple of those other green things are ornamentals that I'll move to the sidewalk bed later this spring.

This is that same ol' bed that I always take pictures of for no reason. Nothing hidden in it. Look at the arugula in the front row, second from the right. Respectable, but manageable, right? Just wait a few more weeks... Arugula does REALLY well in my garden. Too well.

Strawberries and mint - a good combination for a refreshing dessert, but not so much to plant together. Yes, I know how invasive mint is. But I got cuttings of about 10 different varieties, and thought, "I'll just root them here, and move them before they take over". Looks like I didn't manage to get to it in time... The varieties I have include chocolate mint (mmmm, smells JUST like an Andes mint), orange mint, candy mint, pennyroyal, pineapple mint, sweet pear mint, spearmint... I'm going to have to dig this whole bed up and try to salvage cuttings of the mints, as well as the strawberries. I might even have to "solarize it" after I clean it out. That is, cover it in black plastic and let it cook all summer. I can't BELIEVE I was so naive about mint!

Rogue arugula, getting ready to take over the world!! Look how it OWNS those onions!

This is my potato bucket. I read about this method of growing potatoes where you plant them in a deep bucket, but in only a couple of inches of good soil - just enough to cover the potato bits. Once they begin to grow leaves/vines, you raise the soil level. Then the vine puts on more 'taters in the new layer of soil as it continues to grow skyward. So I'm going to try it out. There are red potatoes in here. I'm going to do another bucket with multi-colored French fingerlings.

1.17.10

Some "afters"...

The non-producing rose bush is gone, but not much else is changed here. Oh, yeah, I pulled out the remains of the pumpkin vines.

The weed looking thing at the bottom center of this picture is an artichoke plant. Actually, it's two of 'em. I'm hoping it's a green one and a purple one, but only time will tell. Under the chicken wire cage is another one. It's a little smaller and I've caught a local tom cat sniffing a bit too intently at it, so I put the cage over it to protect it until it's big enough to be annoying to the cat. Believe me, it won't take long.

The yellow circle at the top of this picture shows you were a lot of very long branches from the neighbor's tree used to be. Last spring I didn't get them trimmed and they cast a LOT of shade. Of course, I might find out this year that it was the shade that made my melon vines so prolific, but we'll see. The orange line just shows where I used my laser beam to cut the branches.

About 1/5th of the bed has been cleaned here. More work to be done. LOTS more...

1.16.10

It's mid-January now and I'm eager to get to work on things that MUST be done before the heat comes. And while it may seem like that's a long way off, it really isn't. I need to be aggressive.

Unfortunately, a lot of the activities that need to happen now are heavily dependant upon other activities being completed. For instance, I need to build my compost pile, but the area where it is going to go is still covered with a pile of mulch that I am trying to use up. I need to get my blueberries container planted, but I don't want to do that until the area where they are going to live is paved over, as it will be easier to pot them where they are going to go, than pot them elsewhere and then move these huge, heavy pots into place. I need to dig up and container plant the blackberries, but it's the same story here - need to pave the ground they're going to sit on. They're going to go into even BIGGER containers, and I just can't move those around when they're full. And so on...


So, I started with this bed, adding the final 4 or 5 feet of cedar bed edging in this corner. (Obviously this is a "before" picture). I weeded the whole bed, relocated some plants, and added a thick layer of mulch (whittling away at that pile that's impeding the building of the compost pile).

I moved those three lavendar plants closer to the driveway so that I could plant something else in the middle ground. Maybe 'maters... I removed a rose bush that never produced. I think it was a grafted plant where pruning had removed all vestiges of the desired stock. I added a new bare-root rose. It's a climber with apricot flowers with hot pink tips on the petals. Can't wait.

Another "before" picture.

From the "street end"

This is another big issue. This is the "sidewalk bed". About mid-summer last year, this insidious grassy weed started spreading all throughout this bed. I pulled out as much as I could, but it was aggressive. It grows from roots and runners. It's the hay-colored mess roughly in the center of this picture. The cold weather has slowed its growth, and I spent some time this weekend with a weeding fork and a garden claw, pulling up as much of it as I could. What's above ground is dead, but there is plenty of live roots and buds just below the surface. I'm hoping to get a lot more flowers growing in this bed, a lot earlier this year. This'll help choke the weed out. For right now, I have to dig up as much as I can, and plan where to plant my spring/summer additions. I can't use a pre-emergent to help with the weeds because I do want to plant some things from seed directly into the bed. Plus, the enemy weed didn't ever seem to go to flower/seed. The runners root wherever they hit the ground. While I try to dig out the roots and get a feel for where I want to put things, I have to figure out where I need to patch the soaker hose (needs LOTS of TLC). I also want to use up some more of my mulch pile here, but if I add it now, it'll just give the bits of weed-root that I don't dig up a better chance of coming to life. So I have to wait to mulch until I've planted it out. Yeesh! It's a whole lot of hurry-up-and-wait.

Taking inventory of what lived and what didn't. My lavendar is looking sickly, and my lamb's quarters finally gave up the ghost. There are some mounds of dianthus that look good though, and I think some thyme in there too.

Lots of little dianthus mounds right along the fence. I need to bust out the weed eater and cut in a dividing line, but that's one of those things that can happen whenever time allows. It's not a priority.

Yeah, there's the thyme (the bright green in the middle) and the flagging lavendar. Come back to me, Lavendar!

Looks like a weedy mess, but the dianthus will start to color up soon, and I'll put in more plants... I also intend to add that short cedar edging to keep the soil from going all over the sidewalk like that. It doesn't look too bad here because I just swept, but when it rains, the soil washes all over the sidewalk and it becomes an ugly, messy, slippery mess. I've been toying with the idea of using pea gravel as mulch in this little strip (once the edging is in place) and removing all of the herbs and replacing them with succulents. That can be done in due time.

This is a particularly trying little bit of ground. I can't get much to grow here. I gave up on my jasmine because although the plant gets huge and is a glossy, gorgeous green, the flower production was next to nothing, and it only lasted about a week each year. If that! It was nothing like when I bought it. Hardly any fragrance. I'm going to move the goldfish plant here to add color. There are verbena and sage and salvia and pansies right now. None of which are looking spectacular.

I want creeping thyme to grow in the sandy crevices of the little path I laid. That or creeping jenny. Something bright and pretty.

Another hot mess. Getting ready to dig up the weeds here, turn the soil, decide if the bulbines and the salvias are going to come back or not. I'm also going to move that rock rose and the xioras. And the burberry, if it lived.

I pulled out the dessicated zinnias and was happy to find lots of little dianthus mounds sprouting. Yay, volunteers! (This is still a "before" pic. "Afters" to come.)

That's my goldfish plant. I have no idea if it's still alive or not (I don't like doing the "scratch test" on the bark). If it's alive, I have no idea if it'll survive being moved. But it's going to get moved nonetheless. Godspeed, Goldfish Plant!

1.1.10

The mini pumpkins and an acorn squash that I picked in mid November ripened further on the counter in the kitchen. I finally dissected all of them. Seeds went to the worm bin (after cooking and cooling - seeds often sprout in the worm bin and are sort of hard to deal with). I lightly rubbed the squash slices with olive oil and roasted them at 350 for about an hour, maybe more. When a fork could easily pierce the flesh and flake off a tastey morsel and they didn't taste raw, they were done!



After I removed the skin and pureed the flesh, I made pumpkin muffins. They were delicious. I gave up meat just before the new year, so I altered a recipe in my Betty Crocker cookbook to accomodate. I used lite coconut milk in place of milk. I may have used real eggs as I was still going through groceries purchased before I switched over, but in the future I'll either use egg replacer (not egg substitute, which is still made from eggs) or cinnamon applesauce. I'm betting the cinnamon applesauce will be dynamite. I made a little crumble of brown sugar and toasted pumpkin seeds that I topped the muffins with. The resulting muffin had a great texture - a tad on the crumbly side but I'll bet that the apple sauce in future batches will correct that. It was sweet but not overly so. You could just barely taste a hint of coconut. I think most people would have missed it altogether. I had added some extra spices - cardamon and clove - in addition to the regular pumpkin-y spices.

Here's the recipe with my alterations:

• 1 C whole wheat flour
• 1 C packed brown sugar
• 1 T baking powder
• 1 t ground cinnamon
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/4 t baking soda
• 1/4 t ground nutmeg
• 1/8 ground ginger or ground cloves ( or cardamon)
• 1 C pumpkin puree
• 1/2 C lite coconut milk
• 2 "eggs" worth of egg replacer OR cinnamon apple sauce
• 1/3 C vegetable shortening
• 1 C whole wheat flour
• 1/2 C chopped walnuts
• 1/2 C raisins

1. Spray a non-stick muffin pan with cooking spray and set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl combine 1 cup whole wheat flour, the brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, and spice of choice.
3. Add pumpkin, coconut milk, egg replacer or apple sauce, and vegetable shortening.
4. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed pr hand mix until blended.
5. Once blended, beat on medium to high speed for 2 minutes, or simply contine hand mixing until fully incorporated.
6. Add the 1 cup whole wheat flour, blend.
7. Fold in the walnuts and raisins.
8. Spoon batter into muffin pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven 30-35 minutes (cooking time might require adjusting) or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

For additional flavor, cut together 1/4 cup of brown sugar and toasted pumpkin seeds. Sprinkle a spoonful on top of each muffin before baking.

Sorry no pics. We ate 'em all too fast. Maybe next batch!

12.20.09

Playing catch up on the blog. It’s late January, 2010, and I’m filling in captions and notes for draft entries for months past. Cheers!



We did a white elephant gift exchange at the office where we were to spend no more than $10.00. So of course I would use this as a perfect opportunity to share my love of gardening! A few winter veggie starts from The Great Outdoors did the trick. I got a plastic bin at the dollar store, drilled drainage holes, lined it in cardboard, filled it with soil, and poked the plants in. I also typed up some "how to" notes. It was so fun to put together. I'm not 100% sure that the recipient was as thrilled as I was, but what can you do?

Let's see...curly endive, raddichio, firecracker lettuce, mibuna, another lettuce, and another veggie - can't remember what.

12.7.09

Playing catch up on the blog. It’s late January, 2010, and I’m filling in captions and notes for draft entries for months past. Cheers!


This is a big ol' turnip that I dug up. I grew them in the summer, but I left them in the ground too long and they became fibrous and woody. Not good for eating. Unless you're a worm. I fed my summer turnips to the worm bin.

Big ol' mess of turnip greens. Hadn't ever fixed them before so I was up for the experience.

Buncha herbs I picked to play with. Looks like thyme and some mint and some oregano.

I made turnip and red potato hash browns. I found a recipe online for potato hash browns and tweaked it a bit. Luckily, some online reading before this culinary experiment informed me that turnips hold a lot more water than 'taters, and would need to be pressed to expel water to help the hash patties hold together.

So nicely browned. They tasted a lot like potato hash browns, but with a slightly astringent flavor. Sort of bright and crisp. Different. I think the experiment was a success.


Here's my recipe:

• 2 medium turnips, cleaned and shredded (reserve greens for another dish)
• 2 medium red potatoes, cleaned and shredded
• 1 small radish (optional – this one was a “volunteer” in the yard and thusly made it into the mix)
• 4 oz shredded parmesan
• Olive oil: 2T for root veg mix, plus extra for the pan
• Garden herbs (or dried) to taste
• S & P to taste

1. To remove excess water from the potatoes and turnips, I put the shredded root veg mix by the handful into a clean cloth napkin and squeezed as mightily as I could. (Saved the run-off for the worm bin)
2. After squeezing out as much water as I could, I mixed in a handful of chopped herbs (onion leaves, oregano, sage, and thyme) and peppered the mix liberally. Drizzled in the olive oil. Tossed by hand.
3. Next I threw in about 4 oz of shredded parmesan. Real stuff, not the salty powder that comes in the green cylindrical can. Tossed one final time.
4. Heated a non-stick pan over med-high heat and drizzled in a little olive oil for extra stick-protection.
5. Added two mounds of the mix, shaping and flattening to about ½ inch as quickly as I could.
6. Had to keep playing with the heat – too low and the cheese would melt and bind but the veg wouldn’t cook all the way through; higher heat to help the patty cook better but sometimes blackened the cheese. Med-high is best, but you may have to play with it some.
7. To achieve a nice texture to the turnips and ‘taters and a crispy, golden brown from the cheese, cook 2-4 minutes on each side. Gently lift a corner of the patty with your spatula if you’re unsure. Try to flip only once, but if you turn one prematurely, don’t be afraid to flip it back over. I found that the resulting cake stayed together fairly well – certainly well enough to transfer to paper towels to drain, then to plate. They weren’t quite as crispy as a traditional potato hashbrown patty, but still a pretty fair approximation, given that this was my first attempt. I liked the flavor – sort of spicy but still familiar. Served it with sautéed mixed winter greens (kale, chard, and turnip) with onions and mushrooms.
   
   
   

12.06.09

Playing catch up on the blog. It’s late January, 2010, and I’m filling in captions and notes for draft entries for months past. Cheers!

This was the "Caprese" bed. Now it's chock-a-block full of brassicas and other cold-loving veggies. The yellow plant spikes are the markers from The Great Outdoors. They have a ton of info on them, so when I made the metal plant spikes, I made sure to punch a hole in the bottoms of the yellow plastic stakes and thread them onto the hanger wire along with the metal tag. If I were TRULY efficient, I would have taken the yellow tags into the house and put them in my planting binder so the info would be at my fingertips, but I live in a state of barely managed chaos, and that's getting a little advanced!!

This is an artichoke plant (in the dead center of this box). It's supposed to over-winter well, then become a big, three- or four-foot by same bush by summer-ish, with the artichokes growing on stalks throughout. The other plants around it are rudibeckias (sp?). If they make it through the winter, they'll be moved to the "sidewalk" bed so the artichoke doesn't overtake them.

Brassica bed with metal stakes and the yellow info markers. One of my brassica beds was mostly grown from seed, and the other was mostly planted with starters from my favorite nursery, The Great Outdoors.

I think it's so cute, with all of those little tags standing sentry over the baby plantlets!!

The color of that firecracker lettuce is to die for!

It's fun to make these plant tags because precision is NOT the idea. I love the imperfection of them!

"FIRECRACKER LETTUCE"

"ENDIVE"

Which I found out, wasn't. Apparently TRUE endive refers to those little blanched football shaped heads of succulent crispiness, and requires a multi-faceted approach to growing. I will, of course, be doing this, but not this year. It'll have to wait until after ALL of my hardscaping is finally completed.

I forget the story on this little radish. I think it was a volunteer that just appeared in the middle of the yard. That's pro'lly it.