State of the Vegetable Garden, May 2013

Whew! I know I haven't written about gardening lately, but that doesn't mean I haven't been toiling away! So here's a post to catch you all up. Warning: it's long!

The seeds I had leftover from last year, and the ones that I ordered have all been started, and I've got some of the seedlings planted in the garden boxes. Sadly, not all of them yet though!

Just in the past couple days, the garden has seen great improvement! I spent a good bit of the day planting herbs (sage and basil) in pots to put around the retaining wall

The rhubarb was already there, but I have plans to make strawberry rhubarb pie next weekend!

And my ever-helpful buddy Patrick came over to help me build another garden box, so now I have three, and we have plans to build another one on Monday! We were going to build both yesterday, but ran out of light by the time we got the first one finished.

Oh! and may I introduce my newest garden helper? Meet Betsy Lou.

She is a sweet, young (only a year and a half) rescue. I have been fostering dogs for an East Nashville rescue called East C.A.N. and was fostering Betsy for them, but the hubs and I talked, and we decided she's home :-) Seger loves having a little sister (even if she is MUCH bigger than him...she's 70 lbs!!) and the two of them spend lots of time in the backyard running and playing.

Ok....back to gardening....I harvested my first crop of peas yesterday. Those are going gangbusters. They've actually grown taller than the trellis.

 You can see where I've planted some lettuce. It's not very big yet, and it looks like it maybe got dog smashed....*sigh*

These are the lemon tree tomatoes (not all of them....there are more planted elsewhere, and still to be planted!). 

These (to the left) are trionfo violetto beans. Even their stalks are purple! I can't wait to see what they look like as they get a little bigger.

These (to the right) are a variety of onion sent home with me by Patrick. I guess they grow onions at the top of the plant as well as growing them as a root. My mom says they might be Egyptian walking onions....anyone know for sure?

Bonus shot of the garden box layout. I think the fourth one is going to end up on the far end of the line. Eventually I'd like to have a total of eight, but we'll see what happens!

The blueberry bush has gotten a lot bigger, and is already putting on berries. Hopefully I'll have a good crop this year.

In the retaining wall bed, I planted various herbs and flowers that are coming up. There's dill....

....and sage....

...and nasturtiums....

....and I think these might be asiatic lilies. Not sure yet. I kept pulling them last year because I thought they were weeds, but I'm pretty sure someone actually put these here on purpose haha.

 The tea rose is putting on buds. The ones in front have already finished their first round of blooms and are getting ready for a second. Doesn't this one look like it's ready to burst open?

Oh, and I keep waiting and waiting for the garlic to be ready to pull. I thought it was supposed to be ready in the spring, but I also know you aren't supposed to pull it till the leaves die, so I guess I'll keep waiting....

I dug up this spot just this morning to plant the faerie watermelon, and a few sunflowers. I have a lot more digging to do to plant all those sunflower seeds though!

 My lemon balm has come back with a vengeance! I'm seeing more cocktails in my future....maybe a jelly? Anyone have any ideas??

This mint was, I think, accidentally passed along to me by my voice teacher and his wife. They gave me a bunch of flowers to put in my flower beds out front, but I'm not sure if this was supposed to be in there or not! It looks a little sad right now....probably because it's a clump of dirt sitting on dry leaves (need to fix that), but knowing how hardy mint is, I think it'll be alright until I can get my hands on some more potting soil.

Oh, and here are the first of my container tomatoes. I need to prop it up with something....hmmmm....

Kudos to you if you seriously just read all that. How is your garden looking? Did you plant anything super neato/unusual this year?

Seed Order 2013

Since doing my seed inventory last week, I decided I could fill in some holes to round out my garden this year. Here's the run-down of what I ordered.

1. Caballero Pepper - I've been wanting to try some chiles, and this is a variety of poblano.
2. Ancho 101 Pepper - more chilis...maybe I went a little overboard? This one is supposed to be sweeter.
3.  Watermelon (faerie hybrid) - This is a yellow-skinned, small watermelon meant for smaller gardens....hopefully that will hold true and I won't have a yard full of watermelon vines!!
4. Tomato (Lemon tree) - from the pictures, these actually do look like lemons. Supposedly they have a lemony flavor as well.
5. Tomato (Maskotka hybrid) - This one is a cherry tomato that is supposed to grow well in containers. These will go on the back deck.
6. Dwarf White Sugar Peas - a bush habit pea similar to the ones I grew last year
7. Pole Beans (Tionfo Violetto) - these guys are purple! I'm really interested to see how they taste.
8. Cayenne Pepper - because my husband REALLY likes spicy food.
9. Beet (Touchstone Gold hybrid) - a yellow beet.
10. Echinacea (Purpurea, Pow Wow Wildberry) - These I will sow in the next week or so (indoors) and hopefully will have some coneflowers in my near future!
11. Sage
12. Lavender (Munstead) - This one is an experiment. I've heard that lavender is difficult to grow from seed, so we'll see how this goes.
13. Feverfew - this herb is supposed to have medicinal properties regarding pain relief and fever reducing. It is also supposed to drive pests away when planted around roses. Guess where these are getting planted?
14. Zinnia mix - I didn't plant these last year, but two years ago, the flower beds were nearly taken over by the 6 foot tall zinnias! I had cut flowers all summer long, and the more I cut, the more they grew.
15. Marigold (Tiger Eye)

What are you planning to plant this year?

More Fall Plantings

The rest of my fall planting order has arrived! Woo hoo! Here's what I've got:

Moon River Peony
California Hard Neck Garlic
Naturalizing Daffodils
Apricot Beauty Tulips

With that, and the fall season, comes some to-do's:

1. Find spots for and plant my new goodies!
2. Plant bulbs given to me by my voice teacher and his wife (I have a giant tray full of bulbs! Mostly daffodil...they think)
3. Plant more green onions, lettuce and mustard greens
4. Clean out pots. I have some iris and daylilies in containers from the apartment that I have been waiting to plant in the ground. Others are just past their prime and are looking scraggly or need to be brought inside before it gets too cold.
5. Stir compost and add leaves as they fall and are raked up

What does your fall clean-up/to-do list look like?

Now Accepting Volunteers

I have my very first volunteer!....Volunteer plant, that is.

I have a tomato that has randomly sprouted from one of my flower pots. It even has tiny tomatoes on it! Take a look.

 

Have you ever had volunteer plants in your garden? Were they welcome, or did you feel like they ruined your "master garden plan"? What kinds of plants have you had volunteer themselves?

Quick Update

I've been a little bit absent from the blog lately and with good reason....I've been packing my home preparing to move into our first house that's officially ours!! Closing is tomorrow and we will be spending the rest of the week moving. Don't worry....there will be plenty of gardening (and probably a fair amount of home improvement...especially during the winter) at the new place. More to come. Stay tuned!

LOTS of Basil!

I know my basil plants haven't looked huge and out of hand in pictures, but trust me, they were......were being the operative word here.

I've used basil in tomato sauce and in a few other dishes, but I needed something that would use a lot of basil all at once. So yesterday evening, I got busy looking up pesto recipes. It was pretty straightforward. Every recipe I looked at was pretty similar: lots of basil, olive oil, garlic, parmesan cheese, pine nuts, maybe some salt and pepper or other optional ingredients. Research done, I pulled out my food processor and got to work.

Here is a picture of one of the basil plants. The other was fairly similar in size. Obviously, it was starting to bolt.

I got my kitchen scissors to work and soon had a sink full on basil!

This picture was actually taken after I was about half way through the process (and thought to myself "Hey! You really should be taking pictures of this for your blog!!"...Oops...). There was twice this much when I started.

I decided to forgo the pine nuts in my pesto (the idea of eating something that smells like Pine-sol really just doesn't do it for me), but at the end, I really didn't miss them. I used all the basil leaves, olive oil, garlic, parmesan, and a little bit of salt and pepper. As the world's worst recipe writer, I didn't measure anything. Oh well. It's pretty easy to adjust the flavors so you get exactly what you want. I tasted it a couple times through the process to make sure everything was right. This is what I ended up with. Yes, a sink full of basil really does condense itself down to a small-ish tupperware container!

First Tomato of the Year!

Woohoo!! My first tomato of the year is forming! It's still green...definitely not ready to eat yet, but I'm looking forward to many, many more of these.

Also, on the subject of tomatoes....anyone know what those creepy crawly things are that photo-bombed in the picture above? I have no idea what they are, but I'm guessing they're up to no good.

Also, look at the pretty hosta blooms! It's treating us to two bloom stalks this year, with waaaayyyy more flowers than last year.

Blooms Day

Still on a role with cheesy blog post titles....I think the heat is starting to go to my head.

There are lots of blooms in my garden right now.

I've only gotten one bloom from the ranunculus tubers I started in my tiny greenhouse back in February. *sigh* It is lovely, though I was definitely hoping for more of a show!

The nasturtiums are really going to town. As many blooms as there are on this one, there are that many more buds ready to pop open!

The hydrangea is kind of a showoff. It blooms green and then turns pink, looking something like a disco ball in the process.

You can see there are many more blooms coming on this one!

Truthfully, I thought violas were not heat tolerant. It has been in the mid-high 80's though, and if anything, they are blooming even more vigorous than they did when it was still cool outside.

The ivy geranium has been giving wave after wave of these pretty clusters of white and pink blooms

The hosta hasn't bloomed yet, but I am hoping for more lovely purple flowers this year! Any suggestions yet on how to move this lovely?

The iris I dug up from my student's yard have finished their blooming, but this lily (also from my student's yard) is just getting started. There are several more buds on this one that have yet to open. Isn't the orange and yellow happy looking?

What kind of show are you getting in your garden? Any ideas on how to pack up and move my garden??

News, News, News

I hinted a few weeks ago here that I had some pending news to share. Well, it took a little longer than I expected, but here it is....

WE'RE BUYING A HOUSE!!!!!

Just in case you couldn't tell, I'm a little bit excited about it. The property is still in Inglewood, so we're not going far, but now I have to figure out how and what to move from the garden. I have purposely put off transplanting my started seeds into the ground, but what about stuff from the flower bed?

I am considering digging up the still tiny boxwoods and putting them into containers to put by the front door.

As for all the bulbs planted in this bed, should I dig them up? Just get new ones? The same neighbors that gave me these offered to let me dig up more from their overcrowded beds.

What about the daffodils that bloomed for the first time this spring? Should I dig those up and take them with me? Is it worth it?

I definitely want to take this hosta with me. I think it needs to be divided, but I'm not sure that would be a good idea while it's in the middle of it's growth cycle. Any thoughts on this?

Have you undertaken a garden move before? Did you take everything with you, or did you decide that some things would be too much trouble to move? HELP!!!

Steals and Deals

Oh the beauty of yard sales!! Our neighbors had one last weekend and I noticed they had a bunch of flower pots out for sale. I asked how much for all of them (there were about 15 of them)....are you ready for this??.... $5!!

I'm thinking they would have been $30 or more had I bought them at the store, so yay! Here's a few of them. Seger is checking them out to make sure they're gonna work alright.

 

More Blooms

There are a couple things in the garden that are about to bloom. A couple of them are even opening their buds to put on a show for us!

I walked outside the other day to find a nasturtium budding out.

 

And here it is this morning.

With a few more buds on the way.

I also noticed the hydrangea budding out.

Here's a close up of one that's just starting to open up. I guess it blooms lime green initially and then changes to pink.

What's blooming in your garden?

The Fruits of My Labor

I decided my cereal needed a little perking up this morning, so I just took myself out to the patio to pick some of my newly ripe strawberries! Aren't they pretty? They certainly were a lot less expensive than the ones at the grocery store!

Recipe: Lemon Balm Syrup

A few days ago, I mentioned that I wanted to experiment with lemon balm in cocktails, so I got busy making lemon balm syrup. This was super easy to make and could be used to sweeten and flavor tea, punch, or could go in club soda for a refreshing lemony drink. My husband has decided that it's tasty with vodka, club soda and a slice of lemon.

Just to give you an idea, the syrup came out tasting like lemon heads candy! Who knew?

Without further ado, here is the recipe I used (it came from The Joy of Cooking):

2 cups sugar
1 cup water
a couple large-ish cuttings of lemon balm (still on the stem), washed and patted dry

Combine the sugar and water in a pot over low heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved (this part can take a while). Add the lemon balm, cover, and let steep for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, fish out the lemon balm and let cool before putting in a container (I use a glass jar, but wish I had something with a pour spout). Keep it in the fridge.

See? How easy is that? Do you have any great recipes for drink flavorings? Care to share?

New Addition: I'm Feeling Balmy

When my friend Jessica showed up at my door Monday night with a large bucket of lemon balm, I was ecstatic! She and her husband have a large vegetable garden and the lemon balm was taking over one of their garden boxes, so they passed some of it along to me! Here is a picture of it in its new home...

I've never grown lemon balm, but I knew it is in the mint family, so I decided to keep it in a pot to avoid the take-over situation Jessica ended up with. It has a lovely lemony/minty fragrance and I knew that it is edible. However, I wasn't sure what lemon balm is used for, so I did a little bit of research. Here's what I found:

1. Lemon balm is an herb in the mint family (already said this). This means it will grow EVERYWHERE and invade an entire bed if planted in the ground. I've even heard stories of mint growing UNDER driveways and coming up on the other side! That said, it should be contained.
2. Lemon balm is often used as a flavoring for ice cream (this sounds amazing) and tea. I'm also thinking of infusing a simple syrup with it. I think it would be stunning in a cocktail!
3. You can rub it on your skin for natural mosquito repellant!
4. It is self-sowing.
5. It attracts bees.
6.  Greek folklore recommended lemon balm as a cure for poisonings and mad dog bites (random fact of the day).

If you want to read more on lemon balm, here is the Wikipedia article I found. It has quite a bit of interesting information. There is also an interesting chapter on lemon balm in Herbs Demystified by Holly Phaneuf. You can pick up your own copy, or you can probably also find it at your local library.

Bloom and Bust

Sorry....had to make a corny pun with this title!

Remember the blue orchid my hubby gave me for Valentine's Day?

 

It had been dyed blue (my understanding is that you put blue food coloring in the water), and I knew it would re-bloom white. Today, I got my first glimpse of what it will look like! The blue blooms have been slowly dropping for the past week or so. There's a few of those left, but there's new buds in their places and one started opening today!

Isn't it lovely with just the tinge of blue around the edges of the petals? I can't wait to see the rest!

Good as My Word

Remember how I said I was done trying to start basil from seed? Well, today those peat pots and tp tubes turned seed cups went onto the compost heap, and away I went to Home Depot for two basil plants....already started and on their way to success. Here's a couple pictures....

I may have to add a little more potting mix to the one on the left. That one settled a lot more than I expected!