Here you can see the stakes that I am trying for the first time this year with my tomato plants. I have always used cages in the past, and they do work well, but if they are proper cages they take up a great deal of room in my small garden, and if they are not proper cages, then they are too short and weak to be of much use. So this year I am going to try staking the tomatoes as an alternative. Currently the plants are small enough to be difficult to see in given the abundance of parsley, but they are growing fast so I will need to get to tying them up soon, probably within a week or so.  

This is a plant near to my heart. This plant has been in my family for several generations, and as far as I know I have the only remaining samples. This is horseradish, and I do love horseradish, but I have not harvested this, preferring to let it grow so that I may take some of it to my father's farm for him to enjoy as it came down through his family. Of course I hope to propogate it so that I might enjoy some of it myself, though this is far from ideal conditions for growing horseradish. Horseradish prefers cooler climates, so by the end of summer the plant looks ready to die, yet each year it comes back up even to the point where this year it looks to be three plants..  

The same seedlings moved to the new bed, mulched with newspaper and oak leaves.  

The beginnings of squash and cucumber plants 

Changing seasons..

Since the last posting I have managed to mulch the new squash plants, plant basil, and thin the parsely (by using it in another batch of my spelt-parsely-spinach salad). The peas are gone, and the change of growing seasons is upon us here. All of the planting is geared towards summer crops, some of which are yet to be planted in my own garden. Time is not on my side..

I have added composted manure, humus, and leaves to the new beds as the soil there is lacking in organic matter. Each plant that went into the ground was fertilized with natural fertilizer, as well as Biozome, a powder containing organisms gathered from "prehistoric" areas such as volcanos. I believe that this product along with the organic matter in the soil are responsible for the improved yields I have enjoyed.

Time for some photos..

Into the ground and onto the plate

This past week saw the introduction of tomatoes as well as a couple varieties of squash added to the garden. I planted several heirloom tomatoes, including a purple variety which I look forward to enjoying. As is my custom, and is one of those well known tricks of kitchen gardeners, I planted the tomatoes deeper than they had been planted in the pots, allowing the plant to create new roots right off of the stem. Tomatoes are one of the very rare plants that can do this. Planting most plants deeper than they were planted in the pots, will result in suffocating the plant, or bringing on rot to the stem.

I put in eight squash plants of tw varieties into the new area prepared just for this purpose. I still have two mounds to go, which I will put to use as soon as I am able. Some back pain from on old injury has slowed me down a bit this weekend, but nonetheless I hope to get some more plants into the ground.

We have all heard the expression that our eyes are bigger than our stomachs when it comes to food, but I am quickly discovering that my eyes are bigger than my garden. I have used up half of the newly prepared area and I have not used half of the plants that I wish to put in there. The time is soon coming when I will have to have a much larger area than my current home allows.

The harvest from last weekend was put to good use. I ate fresh peas for a couple of days, sent some home with a friend who had never tried peas directly from the garden, and I froze the remainder. The harvest was larger than I suspected, but a welcome abundance. I also harvested much of the cilantro as it was trying to bolt. This too was sent home with a dear friend, but much of it was blended into a paste which was then frozen in ice cube trays for later use.

Finally I picked up some fresh tomatoes from a local farmer's market and made a batch of tabouleh using the fresh parsely from the garden. I used spelt instead of bulgar which creates a different texture and a slightly different flavor. With this I added black olives, cucumber, the tomatoes, some green onion, and severl handfuls of fresh parsley. I large bowl of this barely lasted two days as I am not able to set it down.

I hope that all of my gardening friends are able to at lesat begin the preparation for the season. All the best,

Brian

I had to break new ground to allow for an area for squash. Unfortunately this area is full of tree roots, rocks, and soil that is in dire need of some amending. Still, this is the beginning of the expansion of the garden.  

You can see one of the challenges I face in this small garden, that being the trees. This is the most clear place in the yard of mature oaks and cedars, and the only place that actually gets enough sun to allow for a productive vegetable garden. That is not to say that I do not try to garden in some other areas which get less sun..  

Harvesting and planting anew

The pictures I promises will be coming, maybe even a few more of the recent harvest.

Which quickly brings me to the first topic of this entry: harvesting. This overcast morning I went out to the quiet only found on a sunday morning, and began to harvest some of delights of the garden. First came the cilantro en masse so that I might send some home with my houseguest, the rest to be made into a sauce to be added to chili, to salsas, to eggs, or to whatever seems to need the extra bit of earthy kick that cilantro offers. I left some of each plant, cutting only the thickest and tallest stems. I suspect that I will not be able to baby the remaining along much longer because of the summer-like heat that we get early on here, but no harm in trying.

After bringing in the bundle of cilantro stalks, I returned with a bowl to harvest a few peas, thinking that I did not have enough to make much of a meal, rather just a simple snack. I discovered that I was sorely mistaken. After filling a large salad bowl with only the best of these peas, a variety of snow pea so the pods too are edible, I brought them in to be cleaned and either cooked for lunch today, else frozen for future enjoyment.

During this process I snacked on the lone spinach plant that managed to come up between the pea plants, a late bloomer which survived the rains that destroyed the remainder of that planting. All is not lost on the spinach front however as I intend this year to finally be the year that I get ahold of some malabar spinach, which though not a true spinach not only tolerates the heat, but thrives in it.

Yesterday saw the purchase of some heirloom tomato plants which should go into the ground today, as will the lavender, basil, and perhaps even some of the cucumber plants that I raised myself from seed. More on all of this later, appearing with the promised photos.

All the best to my gardening friends, let us all begin to enjoy this time of renewed energy, new growth, and new beginnings.

A bit more

I have some new photos coming!.. I have managed to till the expanded garden area for squash, though without amendments it is still too rough for even transplants, though I hope to have enough ready for some planting this weekend when a dear friend vists this weekend. I have also tilled the secondary garden area and will certainly plant much in it, as I have amended it over time and the soil is friable and wonderfully easy to work.

Recently at a farmer's market I love, I came across some agave sweetner, probably unknown to most folks, certainly to the damn yankees who read this. :) Agave is the plant from which tequila is made.. The sweetner is a bit sweeter than sugar (sucrose) and in this instance is amended with lavender essential oils. Turns out that this is a wonderful addition to either herbal teas (green tea and chamomile with this is delightful) or ricotta which makes for a wonderful and healthy dessert. If you find it try it.. wonderful and unusual product.. interestingly enough, it was sold by a great little german man, who at least has the appropriate hat (gotta love hats!) and a love for the baking which he does.

I believe I have the first signs of some sprouts from the cukes and squash I planted in pots, though I will acknowledge that I am just overly hopefull..

It is late at night, as this is the only time I have to type, but nonetheless I hope to have the photos online very soon, and show the new beds, the mulching, the landscape fabric, and other measures I have taken to try to get the beds ready and still prevent weeds. With that in mind, I will admit to having gone ahead and tilled the new bed areas without removing the sod, the grasses, which I know will eventually come up again to haunt me, but I hold that it is better to get the new beds prepared, even it it is not ideal, than to not to prepare them at all, or not in time...

So the new bed is tilled, even raked into four mounds for squash, and then covered with newspaper and landscape fabric. The recovered area is also covered in paper and fabric, though I have not yet created beds out of it. I am considering one long narrow bed instead of four beds as I have done in the past. This area gets less sun than the other areas of the garden, so I am not sure what I will grow there. I have not had very good luck with anything but the heirloom horseradish that I am not harvesting but just keeping it going until I can get it planted farther north in another family member's garden. This plant has been kept alive for at least four or five generations, and so I want to keep it going forever...

Enough for now gardening friends...

Brian