Value of harvest as of 7/20/10: $563

A kitchen gardener's blog

Making Use of Every Inch

August 27, 2010 - One of my gardening goals this year (and I had many), was to make good use of every inch of space in the vegetable garden. To accomplish this I used techniques like intercropping and succession planting. When I did not have a food crop to fill an empty space, I planted flowers to attract beneficials or cover crops to improve the soil. Some combinations were more successful than others.

This bed, where walking onions recently sprouted, worked very well. In March... MORE

Shady Kale

August 23, 2010 - This year, I am experimenting with a new technique for planting fall greens. Looking for something less time consuming than starting transplants in the cooler-than-outside-house, I direct seeded kale and collards under a shade tunnel.



Half inch PVC pipe holds up green mesh shade cloth. Since the shade cloth also keeps flying insects out, I closed the ends of the tunnel with row covers, to make a totally pest proof enclosure. Now I don't have to fight off cabbage butterflies and their larvae, which can devour a small transplant in no ... MORE

Indulge me while I show off...

August 08, 2010 - Look at the melons I grew. The huge muskmelon, called Old Time Tennessee, is very tasty. And I think the little Emerald Gem is just the prettiest melon I have ever seen. I assume the name refers to it's unripe state.





While most things in my garden either failed to germinate, died or were eaten by pest this summer, the melons have thrived. Usually they do poorly for me, however, to date, I have harvested ten. The biggest problem I've had, is cracking, due to long dry spells followed by gully washer rains. I lo... MORE

Getting a Good Buzz from Cosmos

August 28, 2009 - According to the most recent issue of "Organic Gardening", gardens full of flowers such as cosmos, sunflowers, borage, cilantro, zinnias and clovers have fewer problems with leaf-eating caterpillars. This summer I have all of these intermingled with my veggie plants. I planted the flowers to attract bees which help with pollination. Well it turns out the bees do more than pollinate, they scare caterpillars. The caterpillars confuse the vibrations caused my the bees with hunting wasp. Fearing for their lives the caterpillars stop eating or even drop to the ground. Wow, and to think I have... MORE

To Catch a Cantaloupe Thief

August 25, 2009 - I have only once, successfully grown cantaloupes, that was about four years ago. Despite a cool rainy summer, this year was looking promising. That is, until a few days ago, when I found one of my two young Emerald Gem melons separated from the vine. And then this morning I found the remains of the other one. Since the suspect is nocturnal, I am guessing raccoon or opossum.





I still have another chance at home grown cantaloupes. I have two Old Time Tennessee melons on the vine, and I am not taking any chances. To... MORE

A Fort for the Boc Choy

August 11, 2009 - While this may look like a fort that my kids would have built when they were younger, it's not. I constructed this to protect my boc choy transplants. Even thought it's hot here, it's time to start the fall and winter garden. Several weeks ago, I started seeding root crops like, scallions, leeks, carrots and beets. And I have been starting flats of transplants, like raab, kale, collards, cabbage, lettuce and the boc choy that is tucked under this "fort". The green is shade cloth, it will be removed in a day or two once the plant roots have settled in. The white is floating row cover. It ... MORE

My First Ever Watermelon

August 06, 2009 - Well, actually this is my first ever eatable watermelon. For years I have tried to grow watermelon. Sometimes the vines die. Other years the melons never develop. The one year I did get a watermelon, I picked it before it was even red inside. But this year my three vines have 5 watermelons. This is the first one to ripen, and it's perfect.

This variety is a Blacktail Mountain watermelon and I chose it because it is one of the earliest watermelons. The seed packet said it should weigh 8-12 lbs, this one was much smaller, but that's ok with me.

Signs of a ripe melon are when ... MORE

A Great Year for Sunflowers

August 02, 2009 - This has been a great year for sunflowers in my garden. They must like lots of rain and cool temps. I recently picked these four heads and now have them in the potting shed to dry. Every time I walk in and see these, it makes me smile. I just love sunflowers.... MORE

Yard Waste or Soil Amendment?

August 29, 2008 - A few of my trees are turning and dropping their leaves. It seems early, however I welcome the opportunity to collect this valuable soil amendment. Every organic gardener knows that leaves are just way too valuable to throw out. I even troll my neighborhood looking for bags of leaves on the curb. One year I brought home over 70 bags collected from my neighborhood. It got to the point where I carried a tarp and a pair of gloves in the back of my car, so I could stop anytime and put a few bags of leaves in my car without making a mess. I have one particular house that I watch for the leave... MORE

Out With the Old In With the New

August 24, 2008 - Yesterday it was out with Triple Play Sweet Corn, in with Georgia Collards. The seeds I planted were saved from last fall's planting).

Today is was out with Vermont Cranberry Beans, in with Bloomsdale Spinach.

I believe the key to a productive 4-season garden is succession planting. In mid June when I removed the aphid and cabbage looper infested kale, I planted Vermont Cranberry Beans in the empty spot. These beautiful beans only need 60 days to mature, which means they would be done in time to plant a fall crop in their spot. Like all legumes, they fix nitrogen, thereby i... MORE

What to do with all the extras?

August 23, 2008 - As I sit here writing this my food dehydrator is full of trays of cherry tomatoes and paprika peppers, there are 6 quarts of refrigerator pickles fermenting in my kitchen, and my freezer is filling up with containers of pizza and pasta sauce. The funny thing is, just this week I was trying to convince my mother to plant a winter garden. She claimed that she did not have time for planting right now because she was too busy canning green beans, peaches and crookneck squash. Oh the memories of childhood dinners ... MORE

Deer Are Eating My Apples

August 22, 2008 - This year, for the first time ever, I will harvest apples from my garden, I hope. In November of 2005 I put in three apple trees that I am training as espaliers on the edge of my vegetable garden. One variety, Susie, a sweet, juicy apple with yellow skin, set fruit this spring. I have been anxiously waiting for it to turn from green to yellow. However it seems the deer enjoy them green, they have eaten half my crop or about six apples. Although the apples are inside fencing, it seems the deer have found a way in. This morning, I made a few changes, and this evening I will turn on my MORE

Zucchini Flower

August 20, 2008 - My kids started back to school last week, so now my mornings in the garden don't begin until after I get them fed and on the bus. And it is still hot here, so by mid morning I usually give up gardening and head indoors. Yesterday I was able to transplant 100 leeks that I had started indoors a few weeks earlier. Today I barely had time to water a few things and harvest the following:

-7.5 lbs lemon cucumbers-- Yummy, I can make more Cucumber Lime Sorbet
-5 lbs Roma tomatoes-- It will be pasta with marinara sauce for dinner... MORE

Cold Hardy Vegetables

August 17, 2008 - Today, I transplanted kohlrabi, purple peacock broccoli, jersey cabbage, parsley, calendula, and dill. These seedlings were started inside in July. Since I have trouble with cutsworms I put cardboard collars, made by cutting toilet paper tubes in half, around all the brassicas. These tiny plants have already been plagued by cabbage loopers, so I will sprinkle them with Bt (Bacillus Thuringiensis). This is a safe organic way of controlling caterpillars.... MORE

Bugs in the Garden

August 12, 2008 - "None of my favorite gardening magazines ever had a garden on the cover that was swarming with bugs. And I never heard anyone praise a garden by saying, 'you won't believe all the bugs She's got out there! It's spectacular!' A garden, it seemed, should be neat and clean and free of insects of all kinds."
--Amy Stewart, From the Ground Up

With all the bad things I have posted about insects lately I am afraid some people might think my goal is to have a garden that is free of insects. Nothing could be further from the truth. I have loved bugs since I was a child. I cannot imagin... MORE

Leaffooted Bug

August 06, 2008 - I lost a pepper plant today due to Leaffooted Bugs sucking out the plant's juices. As I was dropping them into soapy water, I could see the leaf shaped foot, for which this bug is named. I am sorry that I was not able to captured a good photo of the feet. The orange nymphs are often found clustered together. For several years I have seen these bugs in my garden, I just now realized how much damage they can do.... MORE

Is This Tomatoe Ripe?

August 03, 2008 - This is a question I seem to be asking a lot this year; and usually finding the answer by trial and error, i.e tasting.

Strawberries fully red, with no orange are sweeter. Blackberries should give no resistance when pulled from the stem, otherwise they will be tart. As a peach ripens, the part facing the sun gets a reddish blush and the part not exposed to sun turns from green to yellow. And tomatoes, well they should be picked when no green is left, right? Well not always.

I feel kind of stupid, having left about 10 Cherokee Purple tomatoes on the vine to rot. I goog... MORE