Garlic scapes

Today I cut the first of the garlic scapes from the plants that were the first to emerge after a most snowy winter. They're huge and looking good. At one point about a month ago, I noticed some of the lower leaves of the garlic plants was looking a little yellow.

I did some research and found that it could be due to low nitrogen levels in the soil. So I got some bat guano to try which is very high in nitrogen. It seemed to work. I spread a small amount around the plants in the soil, used the edge of my trowel to turn it in a little and then watered.

Typically by now the leaves start to dry up and the garlic is ready for pulling. But, we had such a late spring here that I have a feeling we might not be pulling the garlic out until July this year.

Now that I have the scapes, Hubs wants to make some scape pesto. I've recently gotten him on the pesto wagon (finally!), and I'm sure they'll be delish.

Thai Chili Peppers

This is the first year we grew Thai Chili Peppers. They seemed to do well. To preserve them, you can dry them and also freeze them whole.

First of the garlic

Extend your picked herbs

Use the glass part of your french press to store and extend fresh herbs from the garden. Add enough water to cover the cut stems.

These are almost a week old. If it's super hot you can also put it in the fridge.

Links: In the Garden/In the Kitchen

In The Garden:
How to turn a pallet into a garden. Neat idea, especially for small spaces.

An idea I will be trying! EngineeredGarden shows how to use upside down tomato cages to prop up squash.

In The Kitchen:
Truly easy homemade cheese.

Apple dumplings that look delicious and chic.

Need to defrost meat you have sitting in your freezer? Try a hot water bath.

Chilled Double Chocolate Torte - the no-bake version, sounds perfect for hot summer days.

Leek toasts with blue cheese from the goddess at Smitten Kitchen.

Yum. Falafel & Tzatziki.

Shallot Scapes

End of last week, I noticed that our shallots had flower buds. This being the first time I've grown shallots, I wasn't sure what to do with them.

Today I did some research to see if you treat them like garlic scapes--cutting them off and noshing on them. There was not a lot of info at first in the books that I had or immediately online, but the deeper I dug, I found that quite a few suggest taking them off. Which, makes sense.

The reason you remove them from garlic is so that the plant puts the energy into the bulb, not the flower. And garlic scapes are tasty.

The question is what will shallot scapes taste like? I'll have to let you know after dinner tonight. ;)

First sunny day in over a week

After a week or more (it sure felt like more) of rain and gray skies, I was super excited to get back into the garden today. I started off by heading to the nursery to pick up some plants.

I picked up this cute little succulent for my office, and I love the kitschy pot I got for it too. They also had bigger ones that resembled tea kettles.

I got most of the herbs all situated.  Pic on the left is Dill, Rosemary and Sage. There's either Parsley or Cilantro in there too (I forget). I am always disappointed with how strawberries do in the strawberry planter, so this year I decided it would be a fun to try herbs in it instead. Thyme, Tarragon, Vietnamese Cilantro and Curry Plant are in the middle pic. And on the right is my Oregano (which I repotted today) along with some Parsley, Chives and Cilantro which I started from seed.

Below are the beds. Left pic: Lettuce, Beets, Beans. Middle pic : Tomatoes (Early Girl, Brandywine & 2 Roma), Basil, Cubenelle peppers. Right pic: Cucumbers, Fairytale Eggplant, Ancho peppers, Jalapeno peppers, Parsley, some baby herbs.

                            

The hubs started to clear out an area as well. On the right you can see what he has done and on the left you can see the type of progress that he made. Stupid rocks are everywhere. I'm going to put the pumpkin, zucchini and leeks (I think) here.

The Shallot and Garlic seem to be doing well. I think they all got a good growth spurt with all that rain.

 

Below is the flower garden area. I picked up a butterfly bush to plant...we'll see how it does. I also found licorice plant--YAY! It's great cover and once it gets going, it's awesome. Low care, etc makes it even better. I also got these funky purple and white splattered flower...I think it's a type of verbena. I have to look again at the name of it. The salvia and delphiniums are coming back strong. I'm amazed how HUGE the lupine is again this year. I thought it was a biannual, so I wasn't expecting too much from it. Damn rabbits keep nibbling on it though. Grr. As you can see in the last pic, it's starting to get read to bloom. Woot. That's always a good sign. :)

 

Semi-Volunteer Cukes

At the end of last season, the sea of cucumber plants were dying back and there was one that had gotten kind of nasty as it was starting to rot. I left it because I kept meaning to go back and pick it up with something that wouldn't get the liquified cuke all over me. But, that never happened. In March, when the snow all melted, I finally picked up what remained--a papery shell filled with seeds.

This year, the cucumbers are going in a different bed so I thought, "What the heck, let's see if these seeds do anything." I roughly planted them in the new location, just tossing them into the bed, and covered them with soil. This past weekend, to my surprise, there are about 13 of these little cuke plants! I think they are Armenian Yard Long variety. At least I think that was what the cuke was that had been left behind. If it ever stops raining, I will need to divide them up a little. Whatever was digging around in the beds has spread the seeds around too much, and a few are coming up on top of each other.

There are also a couple cuke-looking plants coming up in the bed they were in last summer. I'm keeping an eye on those to see what they turn out to be...they might just be weeds, but they look a lot like cuke seedlings. If they are, I'm hoping they one of the other varieties. But, we shall see.

Tasty Links: Growing Tomatoes

How to plant tomatoes from seed.
Starting tomatoes from seed.
Should you prune out tomato suckers?
Tomato companion plants
Who knew you should plant tomato plants on their side?
Some good tips on transplanting plants grown from seed.
Martha Stewart's How to make a cold frame. Want to build one of these this year.

Hello Little Seedlings

One week after getting my seeds started, I'm able to see some progress! It's exciting and hopefully I'll be able to keep them alive and see them through. Still waiting on the Ancho chilies to pop up, along with the cilantro and parsley come to the party. But it looks almost all of the beet seeds I've planted have germinated, which is cool. Last week I also direct sowed some lettuce seed and beet seeds, but have yet to see anything popping up in the beds. It doesn't help that the birds keep shifting the soil around there looking for their worm snacks.

Beans sprouting 

Roma Tomato Sprouts

Mortgage Lifter Tomato sprouts

Beets!

Basil is starting to sprout.

Chives

Nasturtiums!

Things are blooming

The first daffs are almost ready to show
off their flowers

The forsythia has popped.
Yay for pretty flowers.

Garden Prep

After an insane week at work, and having to continue into the weekend, I'm happy to say I was able to get some gardening fit in as well.

Yesterday, I cleaned dead marigolds, dahlias, and licorice plant out of the far bed, as well as cutting back the dead stems from the salvia and delphinium. I saw some little bits of green around the salvia, which is exciting.

I also found who I think was the culprit that was nibbling at my garlic sprouts. He hung around for a few hours. Thankfully, we put up some fence. I had figured that since they don't tend to like garlic and onion, they would be safe. I was wrong. Oh well.

Little bunny was mostly going after the grass, which is fine by me. He can have it as long as he stays away from my(our) veg.

Thursday when I came home from work, there were two bunnies (I like to call them bunges), in another part of the yard, mowing away at the grass.

We spent some time picking up the oodles of sticks that had come down over the winter in the various storms. I tried not to get too frustrated considering none of the trees that these sticks were once part of are on our property. Such is life. (Drives me batty in the autumn too when I have to pick up 15 bags of leaves).

Today, I was able to get even more done, which was great. While hubby raked out the backyard, I got some seeds planted.

Beet Seeds. They look a little
 like Grapenuts!

Herbs: Cilantro, Parsley, Chives and Basil. I already have thyme, mint and oregano that will come back. The oregano is already starting to, which makes me happy.

Veg: Roma tomatoes (bush variety), Mortgage Lifter tomatoes (an indeterminate heirloom), Ancho/Poblano peppers, Beets (Detroit Dark Red variety), and Green Beans (Kitchen King, a bush variety).

Flower: Nasturtiums.

We'll see how they do. I have good luck with the herbs, but less with the veg plants. Worst case, I'll just buy plants like I'm expecting I will have to do anyway.  I tend to forget about them or not pay enough attention. Hard to baby seedlings when you're working 60+ hours a week.

We also got the veg beds prepped with some conditioning stuff tilled in. I went ahead and sowed some lettuce seeds in there. I also tried sowing in some beet seeds to see what happens. There was a parsley plant from last year that seems to have survived the winter. I transplanted it (as I had to take it out to be able to turn the bed properly), and we'll see how it does. The garlic that I ripped out in the fall (which was the remains of a trial experiment our first year here), which some how came back. We found a leek trying to come up in the bed that they were in last year as well.

The weather was so beautiful this weekend, it's hard to imagine that it still isn't safe to plant many things here yet. I'm resisting temptation, but getting this stuff done has definitely fulfilled part of that drive.

Damn you Mother Nature

Funny April Fool's joke.

Potato Planning

Last year we grew potatoes from potato seed which we purchased from Wood Prairie Farm. We tried the All-Blue (a late season potato) and Cranberry Red (early season potato). Additionally, I threw in some Yukons purchased at the supermarket.

All in all the All-Blue seemed to be most prolific in terms of quantity and were tasty, as well as pretty (blue mashed potatoes were interesting!). The Cranberry Reds were OK, but I think I want to try something different this year. They claim to be a heavy yield, but we just didn't have luck with them. The few Yukons did well too.

Since it's about that time of year again, I'm thinking of Yukon Gold, and maybe their exclusive Prairie Blush. Might do the All-Blue again as well, depending on space.

Guess I need to start figuring out the beds, so I can figure out quantities.