New Year, New Focus

Behind the quilt, the Potager is undergoing a transformation. So is this blog. My interests lie in so many places, that just concentrating on gardening bored me.
This year you'll get more posts on more areas of my interests.
As for the Potager, that may wait to be revealed in the early spring, but it is undergoing a radical change. That cute little tool shed to the right of the quilt is part of the change.
More will be coming shortly.
Happy New Year to all!

In the Garden

There are new and interesting (to me anyway) things in the Potager this week.
We are continuing our hot days, big rainstorm routine and it is making the garden grow incredibly fast!

The rain gauge doubled as a japanese beetle trap today! That's fine with me!








The Mammoth Sunflowers are living up to their name. They are huge!

When they finally bloom, I'll only be able to see them from the second story window!

I am hoping to collect seeds to eat. I know you have to wrap the seed head in something so the birds don't eat them all.

I'm gonna need a bigger ladder!

Some of the Freckles lettuce has bolted. I am going to try to collect seeds from it.
This was my favorite lettuce this year.
We are still eating the ones that haven't bolted.
I am amazed how heat tolerant this lettuce is.
The leaves seem to be a bit thicker, but they are still tender and tasty.

I have about three spinach plants that I hadn't picked yet. I always seem to notice them after dinner and say, tomorrow, but then eat something else the next day. Poor planning on my part.
I guess ithey're bolting, but instead of getting flowers on the top , it's getting broccoli looking like things up and down the stalk! That's different.

I need to pick these and saute the leaves for dinner.

I've never grown onion before. Are they supposed to form on top of the soil like that?

Look at the size of this Black Krim tomato! And no bottom rot! I can't wait to eat this guy!
No signs of turning red yet.

This looks like it will be my first White Scallop Squash. I've had other little ones, but they all had blossom end rot. This guy looks pretty healthy!

And I love the little curly-cues this plant makes!

If you look past the leaves, you'll see two (there are actually three) Eight-Ball Squash.
These were my favorite new vegetable last year.
They get eaten when small so they are only a few days away from dinner!
Stuffed squash - yummy!

The spaghetti squash plant looks healthy, but there is the tell-tale damage along it's stem that a Squash Vine Borer may have made a home inside the stem. I will clean it out and bury the damaged part. Hopefully the rest of the plant will send down roots and survive the onslaught.

We are eating cucumbers already. They are so wonderful this time of year - a taste of summer. I remember having so many by the end of last summer that I could not keep up with them. But at this time of the season we anxiously watch each one, anticipating being able to harvest a true "summer" vegetable.

Our church has Vacation Bible School this week, so the garden may get ignored a bit. I'll have to make an effort to get up extra early to get the gardening done before work.

Clematis

Last summer I purchased two unmarked clematis post season - one at my grocery store, and one at a garden center. I paid $5.00 for one and $2.00 for the other. Both grew enough to have a few blooms last year. One was purple, one was white. I researched Clematis care and found that some get trimmed back and some don't, so I left them alone all winter.

This spring I have noticed that they are two different types, because the white one looks dead at the roots, but has leaves coming out on the top...

while the purple one is dead on the top, but has growth coming out from the roots!

I'm looking forward to their sweet flowers blooming by my swing this summer!

It's a Small World

To the casual observer, the garden looks like nothing is growing. But that's not true. There is a lot growing, it's just very, very small now.

You might notice the little radishes, but in between, you have to get very close to see the carrots coming up.

You may notice the onions (which are not looking that good) but you have to look hard to see the baby spinach coming up between the onion rows.

It's easy to see the towers for the peas, but you have to observe carefully to see the peas coming up!
And the lettuce, beets and turnips were too small to see clearly in a photo. Yes it's a small world now, but give us a few weeks of warmer weather and see what we become!

Seedling Update

Just to keep up to speed on what's growing inside, these are the onion seeds I planted on January 22. They are about 5 inches tall and are looking healthy. I had to make a decision at this point whether to pot them up individually or leave them in the flat until I plant them outdoors. I decided it would be less stressful to leave them in the flat. These are Spanish Yellow onions.

That same day I planted scallions - Evergreen and Red Baron. None of the Red Baron germinated. The seeds were two years old. I know better now. Onion seeds don't keep.
This is what the Evergreen look like today.

I find it funny that several still have their seed "hats".

Both the onions and the scallions will be moving to the Potager at the end of the month. They are in a sunny window in my guest room/sewing room with no heat on. I'll harden them off in a few weeks.

Sharing the cold room with them are the broccoli seedlings. Aren't they adorable? They will be thinned out when they get their second set of leaves.
I planted these on President's Day, Feb. 21.

To the left of them are the Red Globe onions I also planted on President's Day.

They are growing nicely.

In the bay window in my living room, I have the warm room seedlings. In the foreground are Black Beauty Eggplant and behind them Rosa Bianco Eggplant. Both were started on March 1, but the Rosa Bianco took a bit longer to germinate. Only three of them have sprouted.

This sad little seedling is one of two lavender seeds that have sprouted from my sowing on February 26th. I tried lavender a few years ago and had no luck. I have also winter sown a bunch out in the yard. I'm hoping a few will make it to a plantable stage.

The Delphinium I started on the 26th has not sprouted at all and is still in the heated cabinet, along with my peppers. I planted King of the North Bell Pepper, California Wonder Bell Pepper and Jalapeno M Peppers on the 5th of March.

They should be making an appearance later this week.

I really need to plant some cabbage tonight. I should have done that last week. So little time, so much to do! I need to quit working full time and garden full time!

"I'm not really a career person. I'm a gardener, basically."-- George Harrison

Seedlings and Caterpillars

It was chilly in my garden yesterday - in the 40's when I went out to work in it! I hope we don't have an early frost!
The radishes I planted between the carrots are looking good. These are a blend of Black Spanish, Cherry Belle, China Rose, Easrly Scarlet, French Breakfast, Long Scarlet, Minowase, Sparkler, White Hailstone and White Icicle. It's fun to see what you get when you pull one up.

These are purple top turnips.

I pulled out the dill and put in lettuce. Now I have a bunch of dill seedlings growing with the lettuce!

Dill is one of those plants you only have to plant once!

I stuck some mint at the edge of the woods and it looks good. Mint is too invasive to keep in the garden. The deer and rabbits don't eat it, so it will flourish here.

And just when I thought the asparagus I had transplanted was dead, this little sprout appeared.
I hope the frost holds off until he grows a bit bigger.
I'm not sure what the Asparagus bed will look like next year.

Cabbage -- not so good. I need to find a way to keep the bugs out of these. They are starting to form heads, but the heads are full of bug scat and holes. Yuk! Not just the green caterpillars but also these brown guys. They are ruining my crop! I spend most of my time picking them off lately. And all the gardening books said cabbage was an easy crop to grow!

The parsley has caterpillars too, but these will turn into Black Swallowtail Butterflies. They are different from the Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillars the parsley had before (which got eaten by birds!)
There are three of them. Maybe I should put a netting over them to help protect them.
Why don't the birds eat the cabbage moth caterpillars?

Thinking Fall

I can't believe it is the last week of August already.
The summer flew by.
It is time to think about the fall garden.

Since the eight-ball zucchini bit the dust, I removed it and added 5-10-5 fertilizer to the soil.

In this space I planted to the right, Golden Beets, Tall Top Early Wonder Beets and Detroit Dark Red beets. These are all old seeds, so I'm hoping they will come up.
I planted Swiss Chard Bright Lights in the center, and Purple Top Turnips to the left. The turnip seeds are also old seeds.

The cabbage plants I impulse bought at Lowes two weeks ago are looking good, in spite of the fact that the day I planted them, cabbage moths were fluttering around them. (Do they just hang out waiting for someone to plant cabbage?) I haven't seen any egg masses yet.

As for the Asparagus in the future lawn, most of it has been moved to a berm of soil behind the garden. Deer and rabbits don't like Asparagus, so this should be okay. When he has a minute, my husband will build a box around the plants and we'll fill it in properly.
They seem to be doing fine. I know it was totally the wrong time of year to transplant them, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Homegrown Asparagus is so much better than store bought!
Binx doesn't care for Asparagus, he just likes walking around the garden with me!

The Melon Patch

When I planted melons, my husband said they would take over the garden. I told him I would contain them. While it seems a daily battle to keep them somewhat neat, I love the look of the melon patch spilling over into the paths.
I stuck in a makeshift fence for them to climb to contain them somewhat. Within 15 minutes they had wrapped their tendrils around the wire fencing.
I have cut off some vines that threaten to obscure the path and I make use of ground staples to gently guide the vines where I want them to go.

 But in spite of my best efforts, the vines spill out and happily grow everywhere.
And the melons grow daily! We will be sick of melons by the end of the summer!

But I'm hooked.

I love the melon plants in my potager.

This year cantaloupe, next year I would like to add honeydew and watermelon.

I may need a bigger garden!

Some like it hot!

In the corner of my garden, tucked away in the back, are two jalapeno pepper plants. Tucked away in the corner because one year I planted them in my pepper bed and all my bell peppers tasted slightly hot. Two because that seems to be the right amount for me and my husband. These plants are prolific!





A peek under the leaves reveals lots of  peppers ready to be picked. Only four days ago I picked 8 and made Baked Jalapeno Poppers. I still had some leftover filling so....

I picked some more and a cubanelle pepper too.
I made Baked Jalapeno Poppers and fresh Salsa for tonight's dinner.
Here's how I make my Jalapeno Poppers.

The peppers need to be halved and de-seeded - the seeds are really hot! I would wear rubber or latex gloves when you do this - or get your hunky husband to do it for you!

Fill the halves with a mixture of softened cream cheese and shredded cheddar cheese. I also mixed in a little cumin and cayenne pepper too.

Dip the filled pepper in flour, then in a mixture of eggs and a splash of milk, and lastly in plain breadcrumbs, mixed with cajun seasoning. I use Penzey Spice Cajun Seasoning.
Place on cookie sheet sprayed with oil.

Here they are - all dipped and ready to pop in the preheated oven.
Spray with oil to keep the top from being too dry and to help with the browning.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes or until browned and the cheese starts to run.

Try to remember to take picture of them before everyone eats them all!

These are so good!

Cucumbers!

Yummy Cucumber Salad
This is so easy to make. I never measure anything in it and it always turns out great.
Slice cucumbers (I used 3) and add salt (maybe a teaspoon). Add sugar(maybe 1 1/2 tsp.) and white wine vinegar (maybe 1/4 cup). Add chopped parsley and dill (also from the garden!) and add water to barely cover. Taste to adjust taste. Stir and let sit a few minutes. Enjoy!


This year I planted Eureka Cucumbers. They are doing really well in the Potager.

This is the cucumber bed. The Cukes are climbing the fence. There are marigolds to the left and parsley in front of the cukes. All of my potager is in raised beds.