Earthbox Beats the Heat August 27, 2010

I’ve been chronicling my Earthbox adventures since Spring, when I gave myself one (OK, two).   I figured if we were going to sell them, I should be able to talk about them from experience.  The Spring tomatoes in my Earthbox were the most productive, of all the tomatoes I planted, and the least afflicted with pests, although I’m not sure the Earthbox gets credit for that.  They turned into a wild tomato jungle, just two plants in one little box.  I attributed the difference to the fact that the Earthbox holds water in a reservoir, that the plants can seek out as needed.

Now, I’m doing the same experiment with Fall tomatoes which I planted a few weeks ago.  Not surprisingly, the tomatoes planted in the Earthbox look better than those in the raised bed.

Tomatoes in an Earthbox

Tomatoes in the raised bed

The most interesting thing about this is that the tomatoes in the raised bed almost didn’t make it at all, during those triple digit days, and had to be covered.  They are spindly and just don’t look good.  The tomato plants in the Earthbox never even needed to be covered, they just soldiered through the triple digits, sucking up water from the reservoir, I guess and are greener and much heartier.  I wish I’d invented it, I think they are amazing.

State of the Garden, Surviving the August Heat August 7, 2010

The last week of 100 degree temperatures has stressed some of the garden plants, yet some seem unfazed.  I’m watering pretty much every day, and spritzing the plants in the heat of the afternoon.  The Lemon Cucumbers look horrible, but there are so many flowers on them, they are covered with bees.  Basically, at this point, I’m leaving them in for the bees.  The Purple Hull Peas are gorgeous, and seemingly sprang out of nowhere.  They will be ready to pick when about half of the pod has turned purple, so very soon.

Purple Hull Peas

The one Celebrity plant I left in from Spring, looks like Hell, but true to form, is still setting fruit.

Celebrity Tomato

I also have another watermelon. This one is from a different plant than the last, and is a different variety.  It’s very cute though.

Watermelon

The peppers, of course, are happy as can be and getting hotter by the day.  Heat begets heat, so they are fiery.  I’m going to make homemade Siracha (not spelled right) with the Thai Chiles.

Thai Chiles

The Three Sisters Garden is having mixed results.  The corn looks fantastic, but shows signs of stress at the heat of the day.  The beans and pumpkins are not doing as well, and I can’t predict their outcome.

Three Sisters Garden

The lemons and limes are ready to be picked, I just need to decide what to do with them so none of these precious gems go to waste.

No sign of the potatoes yet, I’m keeping that site slightly damp.  I planted them deep and they are slow, so I’m not looking for signs of life for another couple of weeks.  Hopefully not until it is cooler.

The tomatoes I put out a couple weeks ago are hanging in and a couple have flowered.  I’m pleased with the garden as a whole, but wish this horrible heat would end soon.

Here’s the big garden:

the big garden overall

June Planting Guide, Zone 8, Austin June 2, 2010

June is really more of a harvesting month, than a planting month, although there are some things to be planted in June.  It is also a good time to start planning for the Fall Garden, and revitalizing the soil for Fall planting.

From seed: chard, corn, cucumber, eggplant, okra, black-eyed peas, salsify, New Zealand spinach, Malabar spinach, summer squash, winter squash, tomatillo, lima beans, beets.

Transplants:

Okra – you can plant okra until around July 1.

Peppers – They like the heat.

Tomatoes – cherry varieties do best in the heat

Sweet potatoes – these can be planted until around June 15.

Herbs, basil, bay, catnip, chives, comfrey, epazote, lavender, lemon balm, Mexican mint marigold, mints, oregano, rosemary, sage, winter savory, thyme

I’ll be pulling up the strawberries, adding compost and worm castings to that patch of garden, and preparing it for Fall.  I’ll also plant black-eyed peas and possibly some New Zealand spinach, although I’ve had no luck with it so far.

I’d love to hear what others are planting this month.

No Grocery Store, Days 149 and 150 and Garden Terrorists June 1, 2010

Day 149, Sunday, I got up to to photograph the largest and most beautiful tomatoes I’d ever grown, to post on this blog.  They were fine the night before, protected from squirrels, still green, and huge in a cluster of 3.  Once outside, I discovered to my horror, that all three had a bite out of them.  They are high on the vine too, about shoulder height.  At first I feared birds, but there are  teeth marks.  Maybe a possum or racoon, or perhaps the squirrels outwitted me and are using my barrier as a climbing fence.  So far this tomato season hasn’t turned out as I’d hoped.

So, too distraught for breakfast, I had coffee.  I was invited for a cookout at the Kocureks, so late afternoon lunch was Morroccon spiced burgers, and tater tots.  Even chefs eat tater tots.  There was also a lovely fruit pastry, but everyone was too full to even contemplate it.  It was my parents wedding anniversary, so we went to Jeffrey’s for dinner.  I had flounder, the lightest thing on the menu, because I wasn’t very hungry.

Day 150, another disappointing garden day, I headed out first thing to pick peppers – serranos and jalapenos, and picked a bowl full.  I found more tomatoes with blossom end rot, and found the huge, oblong and beautifully striped Speckled Roman tomato, just gone.  Squirrel barrier breached, and perhaps the most interesting tomato I’ve ever produced, gone for good.

So, I headed over to spend the day with Christian and Jamie, with plans to clear out my freezer of some of the hoarded Kocurek and Dai Due goods.  I took Boudin Blanc from Dai Due, and some unmarked sausage from the Kocurek’s.  Christian made carmelized onions, chopped homemade pickles, and sauteed some peppers and squash, and we made really tasty sandwiches from it all.

Sandwich fixins

We had a relaxing day, that we finished at Trudy’s with another sandwich.  They have an amazing mister on their deck, and sitting outside was cool and comfortable.

Almost Summer in an Urban Garden May 27, 2010

It feels like summer, already – the only time I enjoy being out, is in the morning and late evening.  The garden is very productive and I’m excited about the good things to come.  The strawberries are about done, and I’ve decided to pull them up, as I usually do.  I thought about getting another season out of them, but then I’d just be watering them for another 8 months before they produce again, when I could be growing something else that will produce before time to plant strawberries again.  I’ve pulled up all the onions and garlic, which all did fine.  I’ve decided not to plant purple onions again, because so many bolted.  I did manage to grow the biggest onion I’ve ever grown.  It really looks much larger in person.

Personal Best Onion

The corn seems to be doing what corn should do, and the larger stalks are sending up shoots, whatever they are called.  If I actually get corn, I’ll be a happy girl.

Aside from the pestilence, detailed in my earlier post the tomatoes are looking good, however I believe the two tomato plants in my Earthbox have become one, so it looks like 2 kinds of tomatoes growing on one plant.

tomato confusion

I’ve been eating Chocolate Cherry tomatoes all week, and they are wonderful.

The peppers are taking the production lead and there will be plenty to eat, make salsa, pickle, and share.

Peppers

jalapenos

Ancho Pepper

I’m still waiting for more lemon cucumbers, those were so good.  The eggplants aren’t looking good, having been choked out by the cucumbers and the watermelon looks a bit sad as well, but I just planted it last week.  I don’t think the black bean experiment is working, so that is a lesson learned.  The potato grow bag experiment may be a lesson learned as well, but in the grow bag’s defense, I didn’t mound the plants like I was supposed to, because I got too busy.  I’m giving them a couple more weeks.

Tomato Cafe, Now Closed to Squirrels May 21, 2010

Dear possessive and intrusive fluffy rodents.  The tomato cafe is now closed to you.  You have taken your share of my tomatoes, squandered them, and tortured me for far too many years for this to continue.  I will continue to feed you the damaged tomatoes, those that crack and have blossom end rot – and I think I am generous for that, since you only ever take a bite or two then leave them, useless, except for compost.  If you even attempt to get past my barriers, I have no guarantees for you, or your friends.  The gauntlet is down.  Make my day.

Take that, squirrel beast!

protecting the prized Spotted Roman tomato

The Spotted Roman tomato is getting big, and there are two others on that small plant.  I’m greatly interested to see what that will look like at maturity and what it will taste like.  It is a paste tomato, like the Romas, so it will be interesting.  My cluster tomatoes appear to be ripening as Chocolate or Black Cherries, which makes me happy.  I need to make markets for the tomatoes that I continue to plant, so that I’m not always guessing what I have.  There are a couple of Yellow Brandywines that should ripen soon, but I’m not sure how you tell, other than feel, since they start yellow, and stay yellow.  I’m a simple girl, and need a color coded garden.

In other good garden news, I left several onions alone, well after their projected “date to maturity”.  They didn’t bolt, so why pull them.  There was one onion, that I’d been so curious about, because it was apparent that it was the mack daddy of them all.  And it was.

Big onion

It isn’t the biggest onion I’ve ever seen by far, but it certainly is the largest one I’ve grown.  I’m impatient, and am proud that I let this one get as big as it did.  (It looks much larger in person, like most caught fish, I guess.)

Garden Pest of the Day – Squirrels May 20, 2010

It never fails, the one tomato I’ve been watching for weeks, waiting until the perfect time to pluck it from its vines, and naturally, I go out to pick the lovingly grown,  mouth watering orb, to find it half eaten, and conspicuously placed next to the garden, as if to taunt me.

In years past, I’ve planted enough tomatoes for me and the squirrels to each get our share.  The low hanging tomatoes are theirs, the rest are mine.  But, it never really works out that way, they always take the one I really want.

So, before I allow myself to be defeated, once again, by a rodent, today I will solve the problem.  I’m going to buy a couple of rolls of polypropylene mesh, and cut a section for each tomato plant.  Since the plants are all caged, and the mesh comes in a roll, it should just curve itself around the tomato cages and provide adequate protection.  If not, I have zip ties.

I’m also pondering providing some food more appetizing to the squirrels, but I’m not sure what that would be, and I don’t want to attract other beasts to my yard.

And, to whomever took a bite out of my ripe blackberry, I’m coming after you next.

Garden Trinity May 17, 2010

I love to cook, although lately I haven’t had as much time to cook as I would like.   If I can make something entirely from my garden, that makes me happy.  During Spring and Summer, many dishes start with tomatoes, onions, and peppers, as did my brunch yesterday.  And I grew them all.

Tomatoes, onions, peppers

I’ve had 5 or 6 ripe tomatoes already, but they didn’t last long enough to accumulate.  I have a box full of onions, and more in the ground still, and many more peppers on the way.  I jumped the gun a little on these, and they tasted mostly green and fresh, but not too peppery.

Once I’ve accumulated enough tomatoes, I’ll make some salsa, too.  Food from the garden rocks!

And, I was just in the other room getting my coffee, and the story on the news was that frozen blueberries and strawberries were found to contain up to 28% organophosphates, a pesticide, found to cause ADD in children.  One more reason to grow your own.

And here’s the link:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37156010/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/

Tomatoes Are Coming on Strong May 6, 2010

My tomato plants are all big, green and lush, but I feared a meager crop this year (I realize it is early) because I hadn’t seen that many tomatoes.  I just hadn’t looked well enough as many seem to be hiding deep within their lush vines.  I discovered all manner of tomatoes emerging, many to remain mysterious until they ripen, since I can’t be bothered to mark them.  It’s a weakness.  I love how different they all are, each beautiful in its own right.

Striped Roman

No idea, but I love it's roundness

Large Red Cherries, probably

I love how these line up in a row, like little tomato band of brothers.

Trying to hide

Another Mystery

Then, someone always has to show off and be first.

Celebrities first to start ripening

I’m looking forward to the best tomato crop yet, I hope.   Squirrels, watch out!

Snacks from the Garden, Day 123 No Grocery Store May 4, 2010

I’m not much for snacks.  It’s too bad, because it is supposed to be healthier to eat little amounts all day.  I need to change my ways, because I had a crazy blood pressure reading at the Dr. today.  Inherited problem, both of my parents suffer from severe hypertension.  Anyway, I’m going to try to change my diet a bit, and see if it helps.  For breakfast, I had a carmelized onion, egg white omelette.  I cooked the onions off the night before, so all I had to to was toss it together.  I had a very late lunch with my mom at Julio’s, a chicken taco.  I skipped dinner because of the late lunch, but for a late night snack, I came up with this:

Strawberry, Blue, and pecan

It is not a pretty picture.  My camera is still messed up and won’t be fixed.  I just have to get a new one.  But, these little bites were pretty before they all fell over: Garden strawberries, Pure Luck Hopelessly Blue, and pecans from my tree that have been in the freezer.  It was awesome.