Jesse Jenkins

May 25th

Its Memorial Day weekend and summer’s around the corner. Our spring garden is wrapping up its abundance. The beans have been harvested, the peppers are producing, and the eggplant does love all the rain but our squash not so much so. The cantaloupe is running over the garden with lots of blooms. We’re picking tomatoes every few days to keep the birds, and other critters from getting them and ripening them on the window sill. All in all it’s been a great spring garden. So now I’m letting my passion for food gardening take a rest.

Now…There’s still plenty to do in your garden. If you love okra, you should try “Baby Bubba Okra.” Sally Gill is growing it and having great success. We have the seed from Burpee Seed Co. Peppers will produce all summer and worthy of a new planting. The climbing Malabar spinach is a great warm weather green and as beautiful as it is delicious. Eggplant will also provide food all summer. If you want to change things up, seed out some zinnias, cosmos, or sunflowers and watch your garden turn into a flower extravaganza you can cut and share. Flowers and food always make people smile!

I hope you have enjoyed following our garden as much as I’ve enjoyed sharing it with you.  I’m already thinking about what to plant in fall!

Blessings,
Debbie

 

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May 12th

Our garden is growing with lots of produce heading our way. We spent some time last Saturday pulling and hoeing weeds. It was not long that the mosquitoes found me. So I grabbed the Mosquito Beater Repellent Granules and sprinkled in and around the garden, waited 10 minutes, went back out, and presto…no mosquitoes! I love these granules, they smell good and work! We are starting to see some powdery mildew on the squash foliage. I trimmed most of the bad off and then sprayed with Serenade. It’s an organic fungicide made from Bacillus subtilis. It suppresses and inhibits bad fungi like powdery mildew, fire blight, black spot, rust and a host of other nasty fungi that give our plants grief.  Our cantaloupe is growing, blooming but no fruit set so far. I may have to become a bee to help with pollination.  The rain showers that came through Monday were a great blessing!

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May 5th

I love our spring garden; everyday is full of delicious surprises. I sprayed my squash for blossom end rot last week and IT WORKED!!! I have already harvested 2 scallop squash since I treated, it was that fast. The zucchini plants are loaded with blooms and….surprise…I found a beautiful ready to pick zucchini hiding among the growth. Our pinto bean plants are loaded with beans. The wood bees are taking up residency in the bamboo poles. I reassure them every day we mean them no harm. The celery that was hanging on has finally surrendered to the season’s temps. I’ll do some more cleaning, weeding and another dose of Hasta Gro this week.
Life is good…in our garden!

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April 28th

The rain has been a huge boost to our garden! Beans are climbing everywhere, peppers are sizing up and the Roma tomatoes are starting to have a little color. We have been picking handfuls of cherry tomatoes, roasting them with onion, garlic, olive oil and a little seasoning…OMG is it good. The secret to roasting tomatoes is you have to squeeze their guts out. Otherwise you end up with mush. We have developed a real issue with blossom end rot on the 1st scallop squash plant. Every time I think they’re good, I flip them over and there’s a rotten spot. Now I knew about blossom end on tomatoes, but on squash? GRRRR…! It’s caused from a calcium deficiency. Easy to correct with crushed egg shells sprinkled around the base of the plants or use Fertilome Tomato & Pepper Set. Since we do not eat a lot of eggs, I’m going for the spray!

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April 14th

Well I took a break last week from working in our garden much. I had a few skin spots frozen and removed last week. Oh the price for spending too much time in the sun. All is well and healing…very grateful! I finally removed the last of our kale. It was getting a little stinky. You cannot imagine the strong root system they had formed. No pulling them, I had to get a shovel! I credit this to using Bio-Tone With Mycorrhizal Fungi. I forked the soil, re-made 3 mounds and have planted cantaloupe. After seeing how good the Scallop squash is doing, decided to add another one. Added one more pepper…another Grande jalapeno. This time I purchased a 1 gallon even though the other wimpy ones are looking better. I may be peddling peppers this summer or at least making lots of salsa…lol. Of course everything got a handful of the Bio-Tone and a foliar feed of Hastagro. All is looking good!

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March 31st

Well our garden is really growing! The beans and zucchini have already sprouted. The scallop blend squash is loaded with blooms and little baby squashes…they are so cute! I rigged some tie supports for the tomatillos just in time…they have tripled in size. The Japanese eggplant is starting to bloom. My only concern is for the last couple of peppers I planted. They are not looking so happy so might just start with new ones now. Here’s hoping April brings more delightful weather…a little rain, a little cool, and sunshine!

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March 24th

I have managed to have a decent crop of carrots in spite of the critter trampling that happened earlier this season and plan to share them with our family Easter Sunday…

The tomatillos and magic mountain basil have turned out to be a nice combination. The lavender blue basil blooms are highlighted by the lemon yellow flowers already appearing on the tomatillos. I wish I would have got a few more but alas even a buyer can’t make growers have what she’s looking for….I did get the pinto beans, zucchini, sweet basil seeded in the garden. A friend wondered why I would plant pinto beans, they are so reasonable to buy. Well like many things we grow, they just taste better. Plus I have never grown them, so why not.

I have had to spray for the harlequin bugs I found while purging the rest of the broccoli. I am using Natural Guard Spinosad. Need a couple more Pine Straw Bales to help with weeds.

All this rain has made everything grow! Happy Easter!

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March 17th

Planting has been a breeze since we got some much needed rain last week with more in the forecast! With the rain I do not have to add much compost to help with soil compaction.

I pulled a bunch of carrots and now have a place to seed some sweet basil. I have finally surrendered to pulling most of the broccoli, parting is such sweet sorrow. It will be the space for a hot jalapeno & grande jalapeno. I love using those grande’s for stuffing. Yummy! Our nasturtiums are spectacular even though they’re in the middle of my rows to plant. Our Meyer lemon tree is blooming and the fragrance is pure sweetness. Life is good!

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March 10th

I purchased our first plants for our spring garden and got them planted finally on Sunday afternoon. I started working outside Saturday morning with the best intention to get the garden planted. But the trimming, weeding, and fixing broken things in other areas around the yard postponed my goal. I planted 2 tomatillos near the fence so I can train them up. I added 2 more tomatoes to our volunteer Cherry tomato, a Roma tomato and a Valley Girl. Roma is a paste type and Valley Girl is an early slicing type. I also planted an Ichiban Eggplant, a Poblano Pepper, & Magic Mountain Basil to attract bees. Everything got a handful of Espoma Bio-tone in the hole. It is the fertilizer with the Mycorrhizal Fungi that boost root development, very important going into spring and summer. I will be adding a hot jalapeno plant this week. The zucchini squash, sweet basil, and pinto beans I am starting from seed. Let the growing begin!

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March 3rd

I have cleaned out the turnip/radish/lettuce bed and pulled the remaining green cabbage. I am leaving the kale, chard, carrots, celery, broccoli, and herbs until I deem we want to plant there. Part of the beauty of leaving end of season veggies is watching them mature to their flowering stage. Our cilantro is bolting and begins to flower tiny white stars. The volunteer lettuces are setting their flower stalks as well. The culinary sage is showing off with periwinkle blue flowers. All of these help provide food for butterflies and bees, both of which we desperately need to pollinate other food we plant during spring.

Broccoli is one plant that has beautiful yellow flowers and a pungent smell. Bees love them! But leave them outside. I made the mistake of cutting older broccoli heads and putting them in the fridge. The next day our fridge smelled of stinky broccoli past their prime….puuuwee. Best to let nature enjoy their beauty…outside.

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February 25th

In our garden, sticks and stones are always helpful! Here’s a rustic trellis I built for our volunteer tomato plant. I used some old cedar sticks collected from a hill country trip years ago. Our broccoli just keeps on giving…here’s one of our 8 plants full of florets ready to harvest!

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February 18th

Just came in from cutting more celery, thyme, and broccoli to make a little chicken soup. I did not plant anything new just yet. I plan to turn the rows, add Medina Growin Green Fertilizer, Dried Molasses and water. The ground is quite dry so a good soaking will help before we plant again. As we are coming to the end of winter, I always assess what we did and how it’s done. Here are a few notes worth remembering; writing them in my garden book so I will… remember!

• When planting carrots, always cover with wire to keep 4 legged critters out. Fertilize a little more with Hasta-Gro For Plants.
• Plant in early October in order to have food ready sooner. Start in mid-September with cleanup/soil prep.
• The benefits of using Espoma Bio-tone With Mycorrhizal Fungi are visible more now as our garden has matured. Super strong stems and dense white root systems show how valuable it is.
• Growing turnips, lettuces, radishes from seed was somewhat successful but would have been better with more sun. Not bad for our first try at growing them.
• Soil prep and fertilizing was good; we will do the same this fall.

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February 11th – To Keep or Not to Keep?

As we enter the transition season from winter to spring, I am always in a quandary. Do I keep this winter plant or pull it in order to start my spring garden. For me, a spring veggie garden is limited to my time or lack of to spend caring for it. New plants take more time and a watchful eye during spring when insects and disease are more active. Still it’s hard to pull a plant that is still growing and producing food. I spent Saturday pulling up the cauliflower plants; they were done. My red cabbage plants were looking wimpy and some of our carrots are ready to harvest, as well as a few turnips and radishes. It’s the kale, Swiss chard, and broccoli that can hang on for a while longer so those are the ones I pull when we’re tired of eating them. For now we’ll keep harvesting and sharing. And with the removal of those few plants, I have some room to start a couple of tomato plants, maybe a squash or two. Peppers and other hot weather veggies will come later in the month.

 

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January 28th

In just a couple of weeks, we’ve harvested most of our Cauliflower and will begin pulling plants up soon. I had someone ask about the plant mixed in with our broccoli. It looks like giant dollar weed but is actually nasturtiums I seeded as a cover crop a few years ago to control weeds. Now they return every year and have at times overrun the garden, acting more like a weed…although an edible, blooming one! Lots of other weeds are showing up and I will be spending some time this weekend pulling & hoeing. Warm temps and sunshine are the forecast….looks like spring is starting early!

January 21st

It’s been a couple weeks since we did an update on our garden. Holidays and weddings have kept us busy but we are still enjoying the fruits of our labor, as you can see! Our celery has gone nuts, broccoli and cauliflower getting bigger every day and we’re finally seeing a few radishes and tons of chard and kale. There are still no shoulders showing on our carrots. I found several of our carrot tops smashed down by some critter. Note to self…PUT THE WIRE OVER THE CARROT PATCH NEXT YEAR. The best part of growing food is eating it, sharing it, & using it in some culinary creation! One of my favorite recipes is from Cooking Light magazine. It is a recipe makeover of lemon squares…delicious!!! WARNING -you may want to make 2…they can mysteriously disappear! Bon Appétit!

Lemon Squares – August 2012 Cooking Light

Serves 16: 124 Cal; 5g fat

• ¾ cup all-purpose flour (3.4 oz.)
• ¼ cup powdered sugar
• 3 Tbsp. pine nuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 2 Tbsp. chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 2 Tbsp. canola oil
• Cooking spray
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. grated lemon rind
• ½ cup fresh lemon juice
• 2 large eggs
• 1 large egg white
• 2 Tbsp. powdered sugar
• Preheat oven to 350°.

Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Place flour, ¼ cup powdered sugar, pine nuts, and salt in a food processor; pulse 2 times to combine. Add butter and canola oil. Pulse 3 to 5 times or until mixture resembles coarse meal. Place mixture into the bottom of an 8-inch square glass or ceramic baking dish coated with cooking spray; press into bottom of pan. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Reduce oven temperature to 325°. Combine granulated sugar and next 5 ingredients (thru egg white) in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Pour mixture over crust. Bake at 325° for 20 minutes or until set. Remove from oven, and cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours. Sprinkle squares evenly with 2 tablespoons powdered sugar.