Week: 24 & 25 Tomato Madness

When it rains it pours! And it’s raining tomatoes in my garden. The first that began to ripen were the cherry tomatoes.

 

Then came the grafted San Marzano and regular Roma tomatoes. The grafted San Marzano tomatoes were said to be beefsteak in size but still have the rich taste of a Roma.  I grew both varieties from seedlings and both by sight and taste, I cannot tell the difference.  They’re equally delicious.

 

Since the tomato supply is never ending I decided to can these tomatoes in the same way I did last year, pureed. Read all about how to can tomatoes here. I’m hoping to maybe can some salsa. Though it’s much more time consuming than pureeing tomatoes in a food processor. If you’ve got any good recipes feel free to share!

    

You’ll never guess what else just popped up in my garden…green beans! (and more tomatoes) I can’t wait to munch on these. Maybe I’ll even freeze some!

I leave you with a picture of Pepper chilling on the couch….See you next time!

Week 23: Where Have I been?

Hey Friends! Sorry I’ve been absent these last few weeks, I got married and went on a honeymoon in Mexico so there’s no way  I could’ve gardened or told you all about it. 😉

Upon our return two weeks later, we have ALOT of weeds. It’s been tough maintaining a well manicured garden as we’ve been preoccupied with all the wedding maddness. But the good news is that we are beginning to get lots of Tomatoes and with that I give you… a random recipe.

Kim’s White Bean- Corn Roasted Veggie Salad

Ingredients:

• 8ish Cherry Tomatoes sliced into bite sized pieces
• 1 – 2ish Peppers (in this case pepperoncinis) diced
• 2 – Ears of Corn Boiled and cut (Local Grown Lancaster County corn from Stauffers of Kissel Hill is the best!)
• 1 – can of Cannellini Beans (though you can use any kind)
• 1 – Lime
• 1/4c olive oil
• 3T of chopped Cilantro
• Salt & pepper to taste

1. Pre heat oven to 350.
2. Whisk together Olive oil, Cilantro and Juice from the lime, Pour over top of chopped veggies.
3. Mix with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Roast for 20 minutes on 350

BAM! You’re done. You can eat this with corn chips, on salads or even AS a salad. It’s yum tacular.

More to come! What are you making with your garden tomatoes?

 

Week 20: Veggies Are Ready for Pickin’

PHOTO MONTAGE! 

 

 

Oh and some day lily. 😉

 

 

 

What’s in your garden?

Week 19: I Grow Flowers Too

This last week I’ve really noticed my flowers coming into bloom. The hydrangea are really spectacular and my container garden of wave petunias and zinnias is getting full as well.

I started my zinnias from seed. The variety is called “State Fair” and the blooms get s big as your fist. The anticipation with these is killing me!!! I just recently started seeing buds.

The daylilies out from are just coming in as well. They’re a rich yellow color. I like to think that my curb appeal is pretty good:

 

Back in the veggie garden I’m harvesting a lot of strawberries from our little patch and some cherry tomatoes & peppers. They’re great for salads.

In conclusion I leave you with my owl vase and two hydrangea that I cut. It’s too bad these don’t live longer in water! I’d love to stare at them all summer long.

Week 18: Planting Shrubs

This past weekend I went to my parents home in the Poconos and subsquently to our lakehouse.

I snapped a few pics of mom’s window boxes, hanging basket and her flag out front. She always does a great job!

Unfortunately I forgot to take picture of Dad’s garden. But trust me when I say it’s awesome! He’s got lots of lettuces growing. I sampled the romaine and can tell you it’s delicious.

At our lakehouse this weekend, I planted two Wedding Gown Hydrangea and a Rhododenron. There were two Rhododenrons already established:

So my goal was to plant one other on the other side of the steps out front, and to plant the hydrangea near the front steps.

The Wedding gown hydrangea are a dwarf hydrangea that spread about 3 feet wide and tall. They like part shade so this was an ideal spot. I measured out the distance from the wall (roughly…) and dug a hole as deep as the container. This was easy. Then I wrestled the hydrangea out of it’s container with an exacto knife.

I didn’t want to rip the flowers out. 😛

  

The Rhododendron was even easier. I did the same thing, dug a hole as deep as the root and then  popped it right in there. I did bury it a little with the existing dirt.

 

I believe that I will need one more Rhododendron to go on that newly planted side.

Now for the tough stuff. I went to plant on the side that already had Rhododendron there and encountered lots of rocks. They were super annoying during this digging process. It’s something I didn’t even think of but it is certainly a real factor in frustation while planting. Consider yourself warned.

I learned how to plant trees and shrubs from this Video on Stauffers of Kissel Hill’s website.

Here are a few keyshots from the on the lake that evening… the one on the right is of the supermoon.

Have you ever planted a tree or shrub?

 

Week 17: Picking some veggies

Well we’re in the 17th week of the garden and I’m happy to report I have been harvesting some veggies!!!

Peppers are popping up, pictured here is the jalapeno, peperoncini and bell. I used the bell pepper in a stir fry with diced tomatoes and zucchini (store bought), and the pepperoncini was diced up and added to my salad.

Speaking of salads, I read somewhere that adding fresh herbs to salads gives a little zip so I’ve been adding basil into my fresh picked lettuces. 

 

And mint to my cut up fruit, cantaloupe is store bought but these strawberries are from our little patch outside!! Soo good!

 

Finally, out of curiosity I pulled out a carrot, just to see what’s going on there, and it looks like they’re still growing and will need a few more weeks to develop.

What veggies are popping up in your garden?

 

Week 14/15: Blooming! Growing! Almost Harvest!

My garden is really bursting with salad-y goodness!

My mesculin mix is at the end of it’s run and the romaine lettuce is coming in nicely. Though as you can see the arugala is really crowding the romaine so I’ve got to harvest that ASAP.

The Onions are looking beautiful but I am not pulling them out until the leaves turn brown. I learned that in this video on how to grow onions.

 

Herbs are spreading in their containers looking lush! I’ll be posting recipes soon 🙂 Any that you care to share?

The pole beans were planted by seed two weeks ago and have already sprouted. I have three plants right now so I hope I get lots of beans.

And you’ll never guess who made an appearance: my pepper & tomatoes!!

 

On the fruit end, we’re rocking strawberries and nectarines! My fiance says we can have nectarines next month (fingers crossed). Last year our strawberries were eaten mostly by birds but so far they’ve not raided what’s ripened. I think we’ll have a lot more to enjoy this next week. FYI– This strawberry patch has rebloomed from last year and grows right next to  my peppers and the spinach.

In other news, Pepper and I have been getting fashionable and pose-y in the garden. Growing our own egos. 🙂

 

What’s growing in your garden?

Kim’s 2013 Veggie Garden: Pond in a Pot!

This past week I had replanted the veggie garden (Pics to come) and added a container watergarden to the backyard. It’s super easy to do if you’ve got a small space, or if you’re like me and don’t want to commit to maintain a large water garden.

First I bought a DIY Container Fountain Kit and ceramic pot at Stauffers of Kissel Hill Garden Center. The LED Lit Container  Fountain Kit has everything you need to get started. It offers three different water pattern options as well as extensions to make the spout longer if you have a particularily deep container. There is also light that glows at night, so that’s pretty cool!

I put together the unit, which took all of 3 minutes and then strung it through a hole in the container. To plug up the hole there is an epoxy that you can mix together and use to plug in holes. The box does suggest you use gloves, John just used a screwdriver.

Once you’ve got your epoxy all mixed up you can fill in the hole with chord. If you don’t have a hole in your container that the plug fits through, you can always drill one and fill it in later.

Let the epoxydry overnight.

The next day just add water and plug in. Adjust your spray as you’d like it, this is the water bell pattern. It can be adjusted to be wider, but this seemed just right for me. This will stay plugged in and running all summer long. Mosquitos won’t nest in this as the water is consistently moving so have no fear of that!

Check back next week when I showcase my re-planted garden and Dad’s summer garden.

2013 Week 11: Pepper is Digging the Potatoes

The summer garden has been put through the wringer. Last week we experienced heavy rain and hail at our home, which destroyed all of the peppers, tomatoes, cucumber and broccoli plants. The hydroponics kit was out on the patio as well when this storm happened so the cocoa mulch and herb seedlings overflowed and spilled out onto the patio.

Survivors included the zucchini seedlings, potatoes and early spring crops.

The weekend following the storm, I planned on going out and purchasing replacement plants from Stauffers of Kissel Hill Garden Centers. It was raining and on that Saturday morning I sipped my cup of coffee and sized up the backyard when I noticed…a spotted dog, digging furiously to get underneath my tater tower.

I went outside to look at what she was trying to dig out. Perhaps a rabbit? She had killed a bunny most recently and gifted it to me on the back steps.

For fear it was a bite-y creature, I stuck a stick under the tower and banged it around and hoped a rabbit/groundhog/mole/vole/anything that isn’t a snake would bounce out. Alas, nothing emerged.

The pup and I went inside. Later, Pepper needed to escape the vacuum cleaner and begged to be let outdoors. After a bit I again looked outside and saw her at the tater tower… but this time she was in it! Her speckled tail waving furiously as the dirt flew behind her. I screamed out to her, “HEY!” She stopped the digging. Then I proceeded to explain that she was “killing me” and asked, “Are you nuts?”. She didn’t have much response. It seemed to me, she thought that if she couldn’t get the animal she smelled from beside the tower, she’d go in from the top.

Let’s not forget that the potato tower was wrapped in chicken wire to keep animals out. Now the wire was bent and ripped out due to her jumping in and on top of it, as well as scrambling out. Oy Veh! It’s almost like Hurricane Pepper all over again.

I buried the potatoes back in the ground. I have no idea if they’ll live. *sigh*

Later at the garden center I picked up 1 Roma Tomato, 1 Grafted Roma-style Tomato I think it’s a moscato. I’ll be curious to see the difference. 2 – Cherry 100 tomatoes, 1 – Italian Long Pepper, 1 – Bell pepper, 1 – Jalapeno Pepper, 6 – Marigolds, 1 – cucumber and herbs.

Though I bought all of this I found out I couldn’t plant any of it. The following 3 nights were dipping into the 30s. Since the herbs were in containers I could just move them in and out each day.

Do you see my rescue basil in there? It’s pretty happy! There’s basil, rosemary, oregano, mint and thyme.

Unfortunately the zucchini’s didn’t survive the frosty evenings and they also died. This next week I’ll be headed to the garden center again for more plants.  I’m attributing all this craziness to a Mother’s Day curse. It is said that one should wait to plant until after Mother’s Day. I put eveything in about 5 days too early and therefore was jinxed! 😛

Check back next week when we plant again! Here’s hoping this round lives…

Until then, beware the spotted dog and the Mother’s Day curse!

Bad Girl Pepper

Week 9/10 2013: Kim’s Destroyed Veggie Garden

Since we’ve been having really beautiful weather, we decided to plant the garden one week before Mother’s Day.  The rule of thumb is that one should wait until right after Mother’s Day to avoid all frost, but since the plants are so healthy and leggy, we put them out.

This includes the herb hydroponics. As you can see in this photo one of the herbs did not grow. I think this was due to lack of sunlight the way the box was angled in our kitchen window. Hopefully it being outside should help the seeds germinate. It is still plugged in with the air pump.

The spring mesculin mix lettuce, spinach and bok choy are about ready to harvest! I am thinning out out carrot and beet rows.

John was my assistant in planting, yes that’s an official title in my world. We noticed that the roots of our seedlings were poking through the cocoa pots and it really was time to plant!

 

If there’s any advice I can give about planting your seedlings , it would be to dig a hole that just covers the pot/root ball so that the stem isn’t buried. That and wear stylish gloves while you do it.

There’s a small bet going on between John and I about the Red Cherry pictured here. John believes that this plant is going to die because in the process of moving it, the stem snapped. However, I think that plants are more resilient than we give them credit for, so I’m rooting (pun intended) for it to live. We will see!

Please note John’s watering technique, it’s our irrigation system that he’s using to spray. Am I the only person that finds this hilarious?

Anywho, the seedlings were planted and ready to go!

But this isn’t when the story ends…. it’s when it gets SCARY.

Four days after I wrote this, pre- publishing, I got a call on my cell phone from John saying, I’m calling to prepare you for when you get home. We had a hail storm at the house.

What does this mean for our garden? DEVISTATION! When I arrived I saw piles of ice near in the yard. I was dumbfounded. It’s May! It’s supposed to be mild but nice outside NOT hailing on my baby plants! What’s next?! Frogs, locusts, more of that awful William Hung She Bangs song again?! (I mean that’s in my version of the end of the world…)

The hydroponics kits overflowed (despite the drainage holes) onto the patio and the seedlings and existing plants have been pummeled. Some ripped with holes in them. The peppers are completely gone. The larget leaf zucchini plants look less messed up:

In a few days I’ll take inventory to see what will survive. 😦 Though I have a feeling I’ll be buying everything new from Stauffers of Kissel Hill Garden Centers. The good news, this years devistation was not from Hurricane Pepper.

Did you have any hail at your home?