Monday Miscellany
I was intending to do a mega-post about either the garlic or the shallots today, but I guess that’s going to be put off until another day. I have three smaller items of some interest that I wanted to share before moving on to other things later this week.
First, hail damage:
This poor, shredded pepper plant is about the worst of the damage in the Demo Garden. I consider us very lucky with regards to storm damage.
I’ve been reading Annie’s Kitchen Garden blog for a couple of months now, and I’m always inspired by the gardening efforts this gal! Today she has a post about a variety of things, but what I just had to share was the part where she dried her lettuce harvest in a pillowcase and then used the damp pillowcase to store her lettuce in the refrigerator for the week. I know I just gave most of it away, but do go see the pictures. I’m going to have to try that method next time I have a lot of lettuce or spinach to wash.
And, for what it’s worth, a website has listed this little blog as “#47 in the Top 100 Gardening Blogs to Follow in 2013″… There are a lot of gardening blogs that are not listed here, so I’m not going to let it go to my head! Speaking of gardening blogs, I’m always interested in finding new ones to follow. Do you have any good suggestions?
An infographic by the team at CouponAudit
Friday PhotoEssay
I guess we had a week of spring and now we’ve moved on to summer! It’s okay…the weather is more normal for this time of year and our newly planted eggplant will appreciate it.
The whole garden as of today, May 17th. The main visible difference from last week are the trellises. Oh yeah, and the signs. The signs were a ton of work, but I’m glad we got them done and they look good.
Since the Demo Garden is on Garden Tour this weekend, I decided to pull one of each of the garlic and shallot varieties to show the differences at this time of year. I took pictures of each one because there are some very startling differences. Watch for that post next week. This is the ‘Maiskij’ variety, which is getting relatively close to harvest, especially compared to the others. It is a really pretty color too. I know that’s an important factor for an underground vegetable!
The variegated Ginger Mint was really small when we planted it. It’s still really small, but it has about tripled in size in the last 10 days. The variegation is really pretty.
The sugar snap peas in the container near the Kids’ Snack Garden all of a sudden started blooming. I don’t know if they just came on quickly or if I just wasn’t paying attention.
The Easter Egg radishes have also doubled in size this week. The chewed on spots are bigger too. Ugh.
This is the ‘Tiny Tim’ tomato that the Hort Therapy group planted in the accessible garden. It is our first blooming tomato plant! The plant is still really small, but it is supposed to stay only about 12-15″ tall. It’s got a lot of blooms for a small plant.
Have a great weekend! Come on out to the Garden Tour if you are looking for garden inspiration!
Marinated Mozzarella Cubes
This recipe takes cheese and snacking to a whole new level. I have made this numerous times and each time it has had rave reviews. Great for summer parties and events. Did I also mention that it was the bomb at Herb Day!
(serves 16)
1 lb mozzarella cheese, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 jar (7oz) roasted red peppers, drained and cut into bite-size pieces
6 fresh thyme sprigs
2 garlic cloves, minced
1-1/4 cups olive oil
2 Tbsps minced fresh rosemary
2 tsps Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Bread or crackers
1. In a quart jar with a tight-fitting lid, layer a third of the cheese, peppers, thyme and
garlic. Repeat layers twice.
2. In a small bowl, whisk the oil rosemary, Italian seasoning and pepper flakes. Pour into
jar; seal and turn upside down. Refrigerate overnight, turning several times. Serve
with bread or crackers. Yield: 4 cups.
Nutrition Facts:
1 serving without bread or crackers
Calories—121
Fat—10g, Cholesterol—22mg
Sodium—224mg, Carbohydrate—1g
Fiber—trace, Protein—6g
Accessible Gardens in the Demonstration Garden
I haven’t written very much yet about our Accessible Garden area because it was still in the process of getting underway. This area is being cared for by residents of Via Christi Village on Ridge and the Master Gardener Horticulture Therapy Committee.
This area has the tiered raised bed and several smaller planters. Here’s the map for the tiered raised bed. The tomato varieties are both super compact container type tomatoes. One of the residents really wanted to have a cantaloupe, so they are going to be growing the ‘Honey Bun’ variety that we tried a few years ago.
Here’s what that raised bed looks like right now. The shorter tiers are a good height to sit at and the taller one is perfect for standing and gardening.
This is the larger of the two barrel planters. Right now it has a couple of potatoes in it as well as the remainder of some spinach. There was spinach in the raised bed until this morning, but it was starting to bolt and was covered in aphids (and ants that were farming the aphids). The spinach in this planter is still looking okay.
Our wheelchair accessible container garden has a bell pepper and onions planted currently. The third pot will be basil once it is a little bit warmer.
The smaller barrel planter is planted to green beans. I know, it’s not a very “space wise” thing to do, like I preach all the time. But…part of this area is therapeutic, so high yields aren’t necessarily the first priority.
I suppose I should have posted this at the top. This is what the interior of the barrel planter looks like. We have a publication that has more details and a plan for building the planters: Wheelchair Accessible Gardening.
I’ll keep you updated on this garden area throughout the summer along with the rest of the garden.
Planting Day 2!
Today was our second big planting day, and after this we are going to have a bit of a lull for a couple weeks. I hope so, anyway!
The biggest vegetable area we had to plant was Bed 4, which is the Eggplant Trial and the Vertical Garden. Here we have all the eggplant laid out for planting. We planted 2 each of 7 different varieties. Most of the plants were looking a little rough, but they should perk up quickly after being planted. I haven’t seen any signs of flea beetles or cucumber beetles yet this spring, so that should be helpful. Last year we replanted two or three times because the poor eggplant kept getting eaten up by the cucumber beetles. We’ll keep an eye out!
This year we only have 2 of the cattle panel trellises in our vertical garden area. We wanted to take a break from so many vine crops this year. The third trellis is the one that is acting as our vegetable arbor between the Kids’ Garden and the Vertical Garden. The arbor trellis will have a cucumber and a tomato on it. The other two trellises are planted to melons, one variety on each side of each trellis. We have a couple of watermelons, which should be fun to try.
One of the watermelons, the Yellow Mini-Tiger, is a seedless yellow-fleshed watermelon. Seedless watermelons require planting of a pollinator. The seed packet had a separate envelope inside for the pollinator seeds. We planted the pollinators in the middle of the trellis and the variety seeds on either end. We market the pollinator with a stake so that we are sure to replant if the seeds don’t germinate. The seeds only had a 56% germination rate, so the company sent us an extra packet and we planted a couple more seeds than normal in each spot.
We planted the basil sections of Bed 1, even though the plants were so small. I hadn’t even put them out to get hardened off yet, so we’ll see how they like the 93 degree heat today! I hope we don’t lose too many of them.
We had time, so we put the tomato cages in place. We aren’t quite ready to mulch yet, so we didn’t put the stakes in and tie them up with zip ties. We’ll probably mulch and do that in a couple more weeks.
We also planted the Prairie Star Annuals today. They primarily went in the different containers around the garden, in the Quiet Garden, and a few in other nooks and crannies of the garden.
We made sure to give everything a dose of starter fertilizer and then a good drink of water in addition, since the forecast is predicting hot weather today and for a few more days this week.
