My garden plan for 2012 will be based on the disaster that was 2011!

January is approaching and as the cold of the winter months begins in earnest, I find this period of time is a great opportunity to sit down in my easy chair and make my plans for what I'd like to do in 2012. Like many plans we make, sometimes it's best to look backwards before moving forwards.

In this case, I wanted to review some of the challenges I faced in the spring and summer of 2011 to help me make some changes that might improve my harvests. Last year was not all I had hoped it would be as one crop after another failed for various reasons. Following is a list of some of them:

Too much moisture early on in the spring!

As a warmer than normal spring progressed in southwest Missouri in 2011, I had made a great start on plants like romaine lettuce, radishes and carrots. They had sprouted and, though still small, were looking good. Suddenly, towards the end of April, the rains came and came and came. All told, a narrow band of real estate from about the Arkansas border north, up to Ozark, got upwards of thirty inches of rain when fifteen would have been more the norm for the three month period Mar-May. That much rain, in such a short period of time really set back the plants that didn't outright drown!

It got hot hot hot!

After the flood, came the heat of summer which was also way above normal. The month's of June through August averaged over four degrees above normal with many days topping the hundred degree mark. All that heat when combined with average moisture helped to create a bumper crop of hungry bugs!

When bugs attack!

2011 saw three waves of bugs in my garden area and that's not counting the locusts that made hearing difficult! The first wave occurred in June with the appearance of the Japanese beetle, a bug with an appetite for just about every veggie and flower. Then came the cucumber beetles followed swiftly by the squash bugs that finished off whatever crops the other bugs had missed.

By mid July, I had retreated into air conditioned comfort and contented myself with watching the carnage through a window that over-looked the back yard. Outside I could just make out the audible crunching sounds of thousands of insects who were busy reducing my plants to stems and twigs.

After a bad year like that, I plan to make some changes in the 2012 garden that will be posted later in January. Happy gardening!

My lost and re-found amaryllis!

Last year about this time, my sister had bought an amaryllis which produced three beautiful white blooms. After these had gone by in January, I transferred the bulb to a spot in the garden and basically forgot about it.

As the summer wore on, I did notice that the plant had put up some beautiful green leaves. Then, I forgot about it again until it was late fall and I was doing some cleanup in the back yard. That’s when I decided to dig it up, place in a paper bag and tossed it into the lower part of my refrigerator. Then, you guessed it, I forgot about it yet again.

Only now, on Christmas Day did it come to mind. Sure enough, there it was right where I had left it; in the back of the vegetable bin. I rescued it this morning and low and behold, it looked to be in pretty good shape! So, I figured what the heck and have re-planted this Christmas bulb back into a pot to see what happens.

If this bulb produces anything at all, I’m sure it will be sometime in February or even later. But, what the heck, if it does I’ll enjoy it just as much!

Update: This bulb never made it. I threw it out on January the 14th.
Update: Actually, as I was preparing to dump it on the 15th - lo and behold.... a bit of green!

Growing onions are popular! Who knew?

For many years now I've made it a habit of grabbing a small bag of onion sets in late winter at my local frocery store to plant in and around my two raised beds. Each bag generally contains something like 40 to 50 minature onions that, once place in the soil, require very little maintenance. Then every summer and fall, I have had a continuous supply for salads, soups and burgers.

But, imagine my surprise when a short video I made on YouTube two years ago, became popular. In fact it has received over seventy thousand views so far, to date. That was amazing to me, at first, but after thinking about it for a while maybe it's fitting. When you take home gardening as a pastime, it far surpasses most other hobbies by an incredible margin. Someone once told me that the money spent on home gardens in America even surpasses all the money made in professional sports!

This coming season, I think I might even consider doing a few more videos that focus on garden basics. I've come to realize that there is a whole new generation of young people out there who want to learn to garden but who lack some of the basic knowledge required to do so. So, we'll see what I come up with.

January is the pits for us gardeners!

Forsyth Mo. - At least for many of us here in the Midwest, and even though my birthday falls in the month of January, it's still my least favorite time of the year. Sure, the days are getting marginally longer (from Jan 1 a day will be 19 hours and 39 minutes to Jan 31 when they will be 10 hours and 19 minutes), but so what? I mean who can jump up and down when the average temperature is the same as the freezing point of water? Give me July and those nice and hot fourteen hour plus days!

At this time of year the garden out my window looks to be beyond repair. The ground is frozen and pretty much the only thing growing (outside of my cold frames) is a couple of hardy kale plants! I guess I could spend my time looking at garden seed catalogs per chance that I might dream of a garden yet to come… but that’s not as fulfilling as the real deal.

Speaking of catalogs! Have you seen the price they are charging for seed? Add in the hefty shipping charges and I don’t see how anyone would want to buy anything over the internet. This year, like the last, I’m planning to go to a garden center like Home Depot where I can get the same seed for half the price! I also need to plan on buying some more soil and compost to rejuvenate what's already in the raised beds. Every year the amount of soil seems to go down and I have no idea of what happened to it!

One of my other challenges for the coming spring will be what to do about the wooden borders on one of my raised beds. The lumber is rotting and needs to be replaced. Trouble is, the cost of lumber has gone sky high also. I may elect to make some trips to a nearby river where I can haul up some rocks to use instead. Hey! The exercise couldn’t hurt either!

Cost of making a loaf of white bread!

For fun, I computed what it actually costs to make a loaf of bread in a bread maker from West Bend. I used a traditional recipe (see insert), containing bread flower, sugar, salt, 2% milk and bread machine yeast. Here is the result:

Ingredient	Amt in grams	Unit cost
Yeast	10	$0.40
Flour	549	$0.33
Butter	28	$0.26
Milk	312	$0.32
Electricity	.5 kWh	$0.05
Total		$1.36

When compared to the cost of a regular loaf of commercial bread this seems quite sane. Also, there are no preservatives in the bread, which will shorten the shelf life, but that’s OK with me!

Here was the end result!

Where is winter? Not in my cold frames!

It’s mid November and after a string of seventy degree days, the temperatures have dropped all the way down to the sixties! Wow. I can hardly believe how nice it is right at the moment! A quick excursion out to my small cold frames disclosed some very happy campers in the forms of lettuce, kale and even basil!

Now, I’m aware that it’s going to get cold at some point with even some frigid days thrown in when January hits, but all the same, it’s great to get some added food on the table this time of year.

A mini November harvest!

Actually, it's still fall and will be until December the 21st! But, after going through a few frosty nights now, I was surprised once again by how vegetables do endure. That came home to me when I went out back to harvest some kale to make for my dinner tonight. I harvested a few leaves and then noticed a nice bell pepper hanging on a pant that was devoid of leaves. I then discovered three beautiful and ripe cherry tomatoes! And just when I thought my cup had already 'runnith over', I cam across radishes that were huge! I brought a few inside thinking that they must be pretty tough, but again I was wrong. They tasted fabulous!

OK, I am now ready for winter! Maybe....

Free tulips from a very nice lady!

One afternoon, recently, I had just finished raking leaves and had sat down to rest when a Champaign colored car stopped in the road in front of my place. A pretty young woman looked at me and asked if I would like some tulip bulbs she had left over. I said ‘sure’ and then later on that afternoon when I got home from the grocery store, sure enough; there was a plastic bag full of bulbs by my front door!

Now, I’ll admit that though I’ve seen this lady in the past, I could not for the life of me come up with either her name or in which house she lives on my street. My bad. I would have like to ask her a few questions as to how and when I should plant them (if you read this, please leave me a comment so I can get in touch). In the mean time, the net came to my rescue. Turns out the ‘now’ is the right time and that tulips are pretty tolerant of soil conditions.

So, trowel and bag of bulbs in hand, I went out and planted bulbs all over the front area of my house where I already had other things growing. The few extra’s I had left over went into the backyard. Now, hopefully all I have to do is wait patiently for spring to arrive and I’ll see just what kind of tulips they will turn out to be!

Fall weather is a perfect lettuce growing time!

As most people know, lettuce likes cool weather. And, while most gardeners plant their lettuce crops in early spring, it’s actually even better if they think to include these in the fall months as well!

If you think about it, the fall provides plenty of warm weather early on to get seedlings up and growing, while providing cool and damp conditions later on. The lack of insects later in the season also helps the plants to reach their fullest potential. Most forms of lettuce, especially the romaine’s are not affected even when the temperatures dip below the freezing point. That makes them perfect for growing in cold frames where a harvest can be extended even into the winter months here in southwest Missouri! I also like to plant a few radish seeds as they mature fast enough to harvest before the real cold sets in!

This picture pretty much sums up my life!

The rose is probably the last one of the 2011 season and it got stuck in a generic olive jar cause I couldn’t fine where I had stashed my small vase! The green tomatoes are there because I can’t decide if I want to make fried green tomatoes or not. And the picture is rather blurry! So you see, I’m a cheap late bloomer that never got vine ripened, and I have poor eyesight. Hmm. That's me alright!

Lettuce starts go into Cold Frame for the winter!

Since I had a few romaine lettuce plants that were doing pretty well in the general garden, I thought it might be fun to transplants them into one of my two small cold frames for the winter. I call them CF1 and CF2 so I can keep them straight in my garden diary.

CF1 already had a couple of small kale plants growing in it while CF2 had two small basils. The basil will be a real challenge to keep alive this winter I can tell you that. Anything much below 40F and they’ll be goners for sure!

I also thought to place a wireless temperature sensor in CF1 to keep an eye on just how cold they will be getting. Generally speaking, temperatures are not a problem until sometime in December when things can get a little dicey. But, right now, the daily highs normal in the mid fifties, the growing conditions will be just right for them to get some growth on prior to winter.

Better late than never!

Like most men, I have a tendency to put things off until the very last minute. That goes double for my garden which has basically sat neglected for much of the fall. Now, just two days before a major cold wave that is sure to kill all my basil plants, I’m under the gun to get as much dried or frozen as possible.

For this job, I got out my trusty dehydrator, cleaned it up and then cut up a bunch of basil to go into the multiple tray thing-a-ma-jigs. I set the unit for 125F and will let ‘er run until late in the evening. On Monday, I hope to get another batch processed although I may end up chopping and freezing them in my deep freeze. Either way, I will be just a step ahead of a killing cold that is expected to drop into the low thirties by Wednesday. One advantage to drying basil inside is the wonderful aroma that fills a kitchen when the dehydrator is running.

Added to my list of chores will be moving all my plants that currently reside on the front porch inside. If I can get those two things done, I’ll count myself lucky and then go out and sit on the porch while it’s still warm!

Fall radishes from seed of spring plants!

These radishes have answered one question I had. I found that you can plant a spring crop of radishes, let a few go to seed, collect the seeds and then re-sow them in the fall. That's pretty good to know!

A cherry tomato plant in chicken wire!

This picture hurts my eyes every time I look at it, but the chicken wire is what saved this last remaining plant as all the others have been eaten up by critters. Amazingly, it’s also still producing fruit!

Everything else is pretty much kaput for this year. Even my late planting of romaine lettuce hasn’t panned out. Maybe the seed was too old, I’m not sure. In any case, I’ve decided to turn all the beds over in preparation for the coming winter. A winter that is forecast to be long, cold and snowy by the way. It would get a chance, do read the forecast carefully. I’m in agreement that things may get a little wacky with climate extremes due to some of the things going on with the sun (solar minimum) and with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Remember how this summer was? That’s also part of the same pattern, so you have been forewarned!

Time to plant some fall lettuce!

As I have some romaine seed left over from the spring plantings, I thought it might be a good idea to great a few fall heads before the serious cold sets in. Since I have two small cold frames, I know from experience that I can raise the lettuce to the point where they will go into a form of hibernation over most of the winter months. If I time everything just right, I’ll be eating lettuce right through the month of December.

To start my seeds, I will be using a couple of six pack growing cells which will get two seeds each and I also plant to direct seed in a small area out in front of my home. The starting mix for the indoor trays will be Miracle Gro’s potting mix, or in plainer language, some mix I had left over from the spring. I let these sit in warm water for a few hours then planted the seed very close to the surface. I’ve found that lettuce seeds, in particular, respond to a process called ‘photo-activation’. Doing it that way, I get really fast germination, typically two to three days!

Once the seeds get to be about two inches high, they will go into the cold frames which are open at this time of year. I’ll do a short blog on that process in a couple or three weeks when my seedlings get to proper size.

Update: This is a fine how do you do! Nothing came up! Hmm, maybe the seed was too old. It could also be the gardener....

Dried basil is the best!

This time most every year, I have a decent crop of basil plants growing here and there. I always try to plant some for drying purposes since I love to use dried basil during the winter for both my chili and spaghetti dishes. Basil is one herb that retains its essential oils rather well over the winter time if they have been properly dried first.

My method of drying involves a simple process. I gather the leaves then cut them up unto small pieces with a knife. Note that I do not wash the leaves first! That would remove the very oil you are trying to preserve! Inspect them carefully and remove any foreign matter. Next I take a cookie pan from the oven, cover it with paper towels and then will sprinkle the leaf pieces evenly over the top. Over this will go a cooking drying grill that helps to keep the dried leaves safe from the winds. That done, all there is left to do is leave the tray in a sunny location for the day and voila, you have dried leaves that can be crushed by hand and then stored in a suitable container.

A meager, but fitting, harvest on a fine Sunday in August!

OK, I know this is not much to look at, especially when my neighbors are now bring in bushel baskets full from their estate gardens. It is August after all, the month of high harvest and plenty. But, perhaps God is sending me a message.

Perhaps the Lord is reminding me that I will be taken care of to the extent I need caring for. After all, the animals outside also had a hard summer of too much heat and too little water. They were also taken care of and were given the major portion of my labors this season. And, just maybe, that is also a good thing.

A new beginning: Fall plantings!

After weathering stifling heat, all summer with little to show in my humble garden (it all burned up), I have bravely gone out and planted anew. The moderating temperatures helped get me out there again. Also, something ate the rabbits which were eating my crops, so that was another good point in favor of a renewed effort on my part.

As a cooler regime seems to be headed this way, it being late August and all, I decided to plant some radishes and lettuce. I did this last week after clearing out the weeds I’d let accumulate in both raised beds. I used a space of about four feet square and used up pretty much the remainder of my Little Caesar romaine seed. I also went ahead and planted a row of Cherry Belle radish as well as a row of kale, using seed that I had harvested from a single plant earlier in the growing season. To my amazement, many of the seeds germinated rather quickly and now I actually have hope of salvaging has been a meager growing season. I’ll just have to wait, water and weed now until the late fall harvest (I hope)!

The rising cost of vegetables at our stores!

Here is a table that compares the cost of vegetables at a local grocery where I live in Forsyth Missouri. Note the 21% increase in just one year. This is not a scientific study, but a casual comparison.  Yet, it's just another good reason to raise your own!

Moringa leaves make a great powder!

I had occasion to harvest a couple of branches of leaves from one of my Moringa trees this week. After drying them under the sun for a few hours, I was amazed at how well they converted into powder form. For the process, I crumbled the leaves into a mortar and then ground it quickly into powder form. Finally, I placed the powder into a seal-able plastic container for storage until use. As you can see, there’s not much here. Still, it will be fun to experiment with and see if I can actually derive any of the rumored benefits (darker hair?) that are talked about on the internet.

Moringa trees, I am told, can grow as much as fifteen feet per year in tropical locales.  One of mine, just before I lopped off the top had made it to six feet in about four months, so maybe there's something to what I read. That the leaves are extremely nutritious there is little doubt. It is called, after all, the Miracle Tree!

My Moringa trees are now over six feet tall!

Well, it seems there’s at least one kind of plant that seems to enjoy hundred plus heat. My two Moringa trees have really grown this summer with one that is now over six feet in height! I may even have to buy a larger pot!

What’s even more exciting are the flowers that are now out and may produce some seed pods before too long. Interestingly, all parts of this tree are edible. The leaves are so nutritious that they are fed, in powder form, to starving children in other countries to help provide a balanced diet.

Both plants have been located, part time, on my balcony in full sun and then other times in my screened in porch where they have received only afternoon sun. Either way, they seem to like the conditions just fine!

I’ve had to water them each and every day as they seem to go through a lot. My one concern, right now, is how well they will fare this coming winter. These are true tropical trees and, as such, don’t respond well to temps lower than 50F.

Even if they don’t make it, they’ve been fun to watch and if I do get a few seeds from them, I’ll have some to plant next spring!

Mini Stuffed Zucchini - Part 1!

‘I had myself a mini stuffed zucchini

on a day of rain and gloom.

Found it in a blogger's entry

and made it up at noon.

The taste of this gourd is rather lame

not much pizzazz brought to the game.

But, still it provided a tasty lunch

zucchini, you see, has loads of crunch!’

DanO2011

This summer of 2011 has been a challenge on many fronts for Americans living in the Midwest, especially where it has concerned the elements. The weather here, where I live in southwest Missouri, has been exceedingly hot and dry for the entire month of July. While most of my vegetables just dried up and went away, I actually thought I had a chance at redemption with two zucchini plants that I started in June from seed. The plants attained full size, but did not (?) produce very much in the way of fruit. Pictured here is one, of only two, that I have been able to harvest so far. (Not very big is it)? Call me an optimist; I still thought that there might be enough here to try a stuffed zucchini recipe I came across while surfing the net. Of course, this will be a very mini-meal-deal as there is just not much to work with.

Now, before I got down to the actual recipe, I thought to write down some thoughts concerning this popular member of the gourd family; one that I have just recently made an intimate acquaintance with. It’s true! Only last week, I had my very first taste of cucubuta pepo as part of a combo dish I posted called ‘Pasta y calabacin’. The meal was very good and I was intrigued enough by this initial foray that I decided to continue experimenting a little more.

The zucchini, (did I mention this before), was a bit on the smallish side. But, I’ll assume that it’s still representative of a fully developed fruit. (Zucchini envy)?  Picking it up, I noticed that the feel of the skin is very similar to that of a cucumber. (Amazing what your hands can tell you through intimate tactile sense). My probing fingers informed me that this is a ‘firm fruit’ that does not yield easily to pressure. Also, I could detect the presence of something like salubrious oil on the surface and though smallish, it still had heft to it. (OK, I admit this is beginning to sound a bit too erotic. Sorry ‘bout that)!

Surprisingly, lifting this little guy to my nose did not reveal much in the way of smell… I couldn’t detect anything, actually. So, in my mind, I already began to assume that there might not be much here in the way of aromatics. (Unless, that is, they were tightly locked up inside somewhere). As a side note, it’s a fact that many of the foods we find so pleasing depend on volatile oils that are released during consumption (mastication) which help excite our senses. And so, I wondered about that. Sadly too, our tongues can only discriminate between salt, sweet and sour tastes, and so, are somewhat limited. (If you’ve ever had a cold, then you know just how bland foods can taste)! Bottom line! This veggie seemed as bland as sand!

OK, so it’s about time to see what’s inside this little dude.Fortunately, I found another fragment left over from the calabacin dish from a day or so before.  I carefully trimmed off both ends and then sliced the remaining section in half, long ways, to see what was what. This is the result of that operation.  Hmm. Yes, not much to see! I’ll assume that the reason zucchini is popular is all about it have great texture from which to pile other stuff upon. If you want a well built home, you have to have a good base. And guess what? Sometimes, that’s really a good thing! Pasta, when you think of it, is also a non-entity with little intrinsic taste, and yet some of the best dishes in memory are built upon it. Lasagna anyone?

Coming soon! Mini Stuffed Zucchini Part 2. Click here! (Note: Don’t try clicking if the word ‘here’ is not orangish in color – duh!) On the other hand, if you really want to spend some time clicking on a word  with no link, go for it! Anyone who gets up past a hundred clicks, please drop me a line. Densa is always out looking for new blood!

Mini Stuffed Zucchini – Part Two!

In part one, I had one small zucchini that had been freshly harvested and one fragment left over from a day or so before. Together, they represent my entire crop of this fruit so far this year. Somewhat disappointing to say the least. However, this has not stopped me from forging ahead with some stuffed zucchini even if they will be smallish. Following is the way I had envisioned making this recipe. Due to the small amount of zucchini, I had loads of meat filling left over. This will not be wasted but shall the basis of another of my favs – stuffed bell peppers!

Ingredients:

2 med zucchini, sliced in half long ways

½ lb ground beef, browned

¼ cup red onion, chopped

2 tbsp bell pepper, minced

2 garlic cloves, chopped

4 tbsp instant brown rice

1 tsp fresh basil

1 dash of oregano

1 6 oz can tomato sauce

½ cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 tsp olive oil

Directions:

Set the oven for 350F. Slice each zucchini in half, long ways, and then scoop or cut out the interior leaving about a quarter of an inch of flesh. Chop the pulp up and set aside.

In a skillet over medium heat combine the oil, beef, onion and garlic and cook until beef is just brown. Drain off the excess grease. Add the zucchini pulp, basil and oregano to make a meatloaf looking kind of mix.

Next, add the mix to each zucchini boat, and then place these in a 2 quart covered baking dish. Finally, top off each creation with a little tomato sauce and cheese. Cover and place in a 350F oven for about 30 minutes or until the zucchini feels fork tender. (I like mine on the well done side). Remove and let cool.  Serves 2.

Nutrition Facts: 2 shells equals ~500 calories, 25 g fat, 80 mg cholesterol, 900 mg sodium, 45 g carbohydrate, 5 g fiber, 30 g protein.

Remember that cooking is just a touch of science to a sh**load of art. The world will have long since gone cold before the last recipe permutation can ever be created!

Pasta y calabacin

If you wander out into the ‘net’ and enter an inquiry for ‘Calabacitas’ you will find about a dozen recipes for this popular dish out of Mexico. In English, the word calabacin means zucchini, a vegetable that forms the base of this tasty creation. Since I had some ripening on the vine, I thought I'd give this a try! It was worth it!

The main ingredients consist of the aforementioned zucchini; garlic, onion and some form of broth, be it vegetable or chicken. It’s what you can then add that will make this side all that it can be. That might include chili peppers for some zip or even green olives for an added dimension of tartness. It’s your call chef!

I made this creation today using pasta as a side and found the combo to be awesome. Next time, I’m going to try a ‘westernized’ version with some brown rice and cubed beef. Should be interesting…

One measly cherry tomato, a stunted onion, an anemic pepper & a really short cucumber!

What to do with these lone survivors of a sun parched backyard garden? Why, make a salad of course! The head lettuce had to come from the local grocery, but that aside, I had enough veggies to make a passable salad mid-summer style!

 Low yields from the garden are a sad reality for me this year. The heat wave that has plagued much of the nation has also done a number on my growing efforts. What with water bills on the rise, I just don’t feel comfortable letting the sprinkler run for an hour or more as in days gone past. (In the frivolous 80’s, I remember actually watering just the grass. Seriously)! These days, it’s a quick squirt in the morning and then maybe another dribble in the late afternoon. (Like an old man with a bladder problem, my water pressure is also little on the weak side). The plants have responded accordingly and now have all wilted with many moving on to plant heaven. Can’t say I really blame them.

What hasn’t yet wilted and died from thirst has been ably consumed by hordes of rabbits that I no longer quite see. (They must come at some ungodly hour when, exhausted, I get some much needed sleep). The carrot crop has been nibbled to the ground and are completely gone while the few remaining tomato plants receive drive-by nibbles. (Ah, the laments of the heat and bunny beleaguered gardener). Yet, there is a bright side… of sorts.

When you only get a small handful of harvest, you also learn to appreciate every morsel. That’s the lesson I've learned in a year when the produce coming out of my beds is still a luxury and not a necessity. (Were times to get tough and were I to have to depend on the garden for my sustenance, then the game would take on a whole new flavor). Thankfully, that was not this year. Maybe next...only Obama may know for sure!

Be sure to check out my soon to be released blog entitled “The ins and outs of fresh rabbit on the grill!”

It's a baby zucchini! I'm so proud!

Golly, it seems garden my journal for 2011 has begun to take on a monolithic tone as all I seem to talk about are my efforts at growing squash and zucchini. (That could well be because the only things now growing in my sun parched garden patch are members of the gourd family).

My first plants located in the back yard were immediately and savagely attacked by stripped cucumber beetles in conjunction with their alley, the squash bug. Before I even knew what was going on, they had all wilted and then left the planet for squash heaven.

While this was going on, I also managed to lose track of the other plants I was raising, and they too faded away. So, the back yard was a total loss! Now, I have little or no desire to go for a fall garden (i.e wounded ego). I may change my mind, but if I do so, it will have to after the current heat wave decides to let up.

The front yard area, however, has been another story. A success story! Earlier in the year, I had thrown all my extra veggies and herbs in that location and what to my wondering eyes, they have done pretty well. For some reason, all those bad bugs & beetles missed this one spot. Nary a one spotted in the last few weeks and the zucchini picture here are at the absolute height of well being and happiness. Dare I say it, but I just might get my very first ever zucchini from one of these plants very soon. I'm now wondering what the right size a zucchini should be for me to harvest for peak flavor?

Squash or Zucchini Anyone?

It’s now late in the game and the score is Bugs – 2, Me –Zip. Both my crooked neck squash and zucchini plants succumbed to a terrifying backyard press by legions of squash bugs and striped cucumber beetles.  (Adding insult to injury, the beetles were carrying bacterial wilt).

Yet, not all is lost!  Unknown to my foes, I’ve got two more plants hidden away in the front of my place. So far, they have escaped the notice of both bugs and beetles. I just have to wonder for how long that will continue?

In a year that has already seen torrential rains, hordes of cicadas, Japanese beetles and, most recently, hundred degree plus days, is it too much for me to ask for a couple of healthy fruit?

Eee Gads! It’s a bagworm invasion!

Here in southwestern Missouri that bagworm invasion is on. It pays to go outside during the early weeks of July and check your trees and evergreens for little objects that look like Christmas tree ornaments hanging form the branches. This is the larval form of the Thyridopteryx ephemeraeformis or bagworm. Heavy infestations can do damage to trees and shrubs, so it pays to hand pick them where you find them and make sure they get destroyed!

Today’s menu will be carrots, onions and cabbage!

It’s about that time of the year when the heat of the day makes me want to hole up inside and scrounge my lunch out of whatever is available. This generally includes a trip or two to the fridge and then a glance out the window to see if there is anything growing in the garden that might be worth eating.

Today I was lucky in finding a small group of onions that never got very large. I brought these inside and added them to some carrots and a small leftover wedge of cabbage. After peeling the carrots and cutting them into equal sized chunks, I tossed everything into my steamer. After about fifteen minutes, I had the making of a pretty good meal. In the back of the cupboard I also found a can of cut green beans that got nuked in the microwave and voila! Lunch vegetarian style! This filling meal totaled just over a hundred calories including two pats of butter!

It's summertime. Yahoo!

Awe, summertime! A time that brings the occasional overnight shower (last night half an inch) followed by cool delightful mornings that quickly turn into sizzler hot days. Certainly, a good time to be out and about amongst young veggies in the making. And even though my raised beds don’t amount to much in terms of space, they make up for it in the diverse crops that become welcome additions to my cash strapped grocery budget.

Today, a first for me! I harvested two bunches of garlic! I’m so proud too. These will be allowed to dry out and then will become part of a recipe I have planned for later in the month when my zucchini and crooked necked squash get large enough to harvest. While the zucchini has not been a problem, my squash has tended to rot before getting very large. Anyone have any ideas out there? Maybe I should put up a small trellis to get them off the ground. Don’t know for sure.

The recipe I’m planning to make is called Calabacitas which I understand is the Spanish word for zucchini. The recipe combines squash, zucchini, onion, garlic, green chili and cilantro along with some herbs to make a real south of the border taste treat. I’ve elected to make this my first ever taste of squash or zucchini. (That deal will be the subject of another blog). Right now, everything’s ready to go except members from the aforementioned gourd family.

Wide variation in Moringa leaf color observed

I have two Moringa plants that were grown from seed in identical soil and pots. The interesting thing to note, however is that the two plants look very different. One has dark green large leaves while the other has much lighter green smaller leaves. I also have another friend who is growing a plant and she reports that hers is very much like #2.

I’ve included a picture of leaves taken this date from each plant for comparison. If anyone has any idea of why the coloration would be so different, I would love to hear from them.

Swallowtail and Hummingbird Moth

It seems that the onion plant I allowed to go to seed this spring is attractive to all sorts of insects. Here is a picture of a swallowtail butterfly and a hummingbird moth both at the same time. Pretty cool!

Romaine grows very quickly!

This beautiful half pound head of romaine lettuce I harvested this morning, was a small transplant into my raised bed in early May. That’s it there in the picture, the little guy that doesn’t look like much.

Then, just a month later and thanks to lots of sun and water. Here is the end result. Not a bad return from one little seed!

First Japanese Beetle of 2011 season now out and about!

While out walking this morning on a beautiful June the 14^th, I observed my first Japanese beetle of the 2011 season on a miniature rose in my front yard in Forsyth Missouri.

While I’m sure this will only be the first of many sightings, it’s definitely time to get out the row covers and protect the plants you consider the most valuable. In my case, that would be the bean plants that are just now getting ready to bud out. I may also elect to cover my purple coneflower, but will wait a little to see just how attractive they will be to a bug that likes to eat most everything it sees.

Let’s see. I know it’s a squash. Isn’t it?

This season, due to a mix of sloppy record keeping, inattention and a touch of senility I seem to have quite a few ‘mystery plants’ here and there in my backyard beds. This lack of detail is a recent development for me. I used to be oh so picture perfect when it came to what went where. I even used to put those cute little plastic markers next to each perfectly aligned row. Using a magic marker, I would painstakingly write out the name of the vegetable and its variety. That way, when harvest time rolled around, I knew exactly what was what.

These days my methods are, shall we say, a little more loosey goosey. This spring, seed packet in hand, I would often sow the seed and then look around for a small twig or stick to mark the row thinking I would remember what went where. I called it my ‘stick it and forget it’ method of planting. Problem is, now I have no idea of what the heck is what. Take my squash plants for instance. I have this nice little guy now growing rather quickly and can only guess that it’s a crook-necked squash.

So, that’s the deal for 2011. I don’t mind all that much. I’m always thankful for anything that comes from nature and God.

Purple Coneflowers are enjoying the heat!

After a wet ending to April here in southwest Missouri, a month that also saw cooler than normal temperatures, June did a 360 and has turned out hot and dry. The combo, however, seems to have had a good effect on my plantings of Echinacea purpurea or Purple Coneflower. I have two plantings that were started from seed a few years ago. Once established, I understand they can also be easily divided.

I planted them originally to experiment with, health wise. I’ve heard the roots can help prevent or lessen the severity of colds if prepared as an infusion. So far, I haven’t gotten that done, but would love to hear form anyone that has. Studies that I’ve read seem divided as to this plants immune system stimulating ability. I did notice that American Indians used the plant as part of their medical culture and think that lend some credibility.

Cicada Love Songs

Nasturtiums: A great addition to summer salads!

Here’s an easy to grow plant that can be started anytime in the spring or summer. It produces beautiful flowers that will add a splash of brilliant color to any garden. The really good news, however is that both the leaves and flowers are edible.

For years now, I’ve grown this plant as a colorful addition to my summer salads. I use the leaves also which add a light peppery taste to the salad mix. The seeds are readily available at most seed stores.