The (not quite) End-of-Season Update

Last weekend, Mr. Scoakat retired the tomato plants to the compost bin. I would have done it myself, but the BIGGEST SPIDER ON EARTH was living in a web between the two plants. So, naturally, I couldn’t go anywhere near that side of the garden! Mr. Scoakat says he didn’t see the spider. I say the spider saw Mr. Scoakat and decided it was in his best interest to relocate.

Once I was convinced the spider was gone, I was able to get close enough to plant garlic, harvest the carrots and some thyme, and remove the last basil plant (which provided a few final sprigs before meeting its end).

Between the garlic I purchased and the head I saved for planting from this year’s harvest, I had enough to plant two rows of 15 cloves. As you can see in the picture below, the garlic is covered by one of the awesome garlic/strawberry covers Mr. Scoakat made a few years ago, and so far, it has not been disturbed.

The carrots ended up in beef stew. And the beef stew ended up really tasty! The last time I made beef stew (probably at least 15 years ago) it was not great. The thing is, the beef stew is beef stew. The recipe I used 15 years ago cannot be that different than the recipe I used last weekend. Lesson here – I am a much better cook now than I was 15 years ago! 

Did you notice that small green thing behind right side of the garlic cover? Just in case you didn’t, here it is again.

Yes, that small green thing behind the garlic is a tomato plant that started growing from seed… all on its own. Because when I try to grow tomatoes, I get nothing but trouble (and the BIGGEST SPIDER ON EARTH), and when I’m not even trying, they grow on their own.

I am being mocked by a tomato plant.

Les écureuils sont Bâtards

Squirrels are bastards… but it sounds so much nicer in French. 

In case you missed what the fluffy-tailed suburban rats did to my strawberries last spring, you can see it here. This time they left the strawberries alone and went after the tomatoes. All of the tomatoes. Even the green ones. 

I came home from work one day a couple weeks ago (just a few days after my last post) to find all of the ripe and almost-ripe tomatoes gone, and all of the green tomatoes scattered on the ground around the plants. I didn’t take pictures of the destruction so you’ll just have to imagine it. I’m not growing tomatoes next year.

In happier news, I made a whole bunch of Italian cocktail meatballs last weekend, using garlic and herbs from the garden. I found a recipe several years ago (I’ve tweaked it a bit) that I make every year when it’s time to harvest the herbs. And it was time to harvest the basil several days ago before the overnight temperatures dropped into the 50s. So, it was time to make meatballs!

Of course, meatballs have to simmer in something… so I made marinara sauce too. Not with my own garden-fresh san Marzano tomatoes (les Bâtards!), but with my own garden-fresh thyme, parsley, basil, and garlic.

I know it’s been awhile since my last post. It will probably be awhile before my next post. I’m taking a class this semester at a local community college and that’s going to take up a lot of my time. But there’s still garden work to do this year and I imagine there will be a few more posts before the season is over.

Maybe when it’s time to plant garlic???

 

Catching Up

In my last post I failed to mention the arugula and micro greens I planted behind the basil. Both have started to sprout, as have the radishes and carrots. There’s still no sign of the lettuce; I think I can safely throw the rest of those seeds in the trash.

A couple days after my last post, we ate the peas I harvested a few weeks ago. There weren’t many, so I sautéed them in butter, added some left-over rice, and mixed in some parsley (also from the garden) at the very end. It was a nice side dish. The peas had that super-fresh taste you only get from your own garden.

I’ve partially solved the mystery of the failing tomatoes – its blossom end rot. But is it due to a natural lack of calcium in the soil or is something preventing the roots from absorbing calcium? My best guess is the latter, caused by inconsistent moisture levels in the soil.

I thinned out the radishes today and the green onions are coming along nicely.

Something small stole the last few ripe strawberries. I’m not sure what (It definitely wasn’t a squirrel, they can’t get under the awesome cover Mr. Scoakat built!) but I suspect a field mouse. I haven’t seen any mice in the area, but the idea of a little mouse munching on a strawberry makes the loss easier to handle! On the bright side, the plants are doing very well. They’re producing so many runners, I might not need to buy more plants to fill the space currently occupied by the purple raspberries (which will be coming out very soon… maybe this weekend).

So that just about covers everything that’s happened in the garden since my last post. I’ll try not to be away for so long again…

Mid-June Update

It's been a week and a half since my last post and a lot has happened in the garden...

Late last week, I harvested just enough cilantro to try a new salsa recipe. I've never made a salsa with canned tomatoes before, but I thought I would give it a try since it looked like a salsa Mr. Scoakat would enjoy (and he did). In addition to the cilantro, I used a garlic clove harvested last fall (dried and hung in the basement over winter, then frozen), and instead of the jalapeno the recipe calls for, I used a lemon pepper harvested last fall (then frozen). The salsa turned out great and we enjoyed some of it with friends who came over Friday night.

In other news, I had planned to plant cucumbers this year but I've decided against it. Last year, the cucumbers and the tomatoes were afflicted with bacterial wilt, which is usually caused by cucumber beetles, though I've never seen one in the garden. After deciding against cucumbers, I was considering planting green beans but on Monday I noticed signs of bacterial wilt on the peas! So, I harvested all the mature peas, pulled out the plants, and removed the trellis.

I think I'll pick up some new lettuce seeds, and plant some carrots and a second crop of radishes in the space between the garlic and the green onions. I'm thinking about getting a couple new basil plants too, since the original plants still haven't recovered from the unusually cold temperatures we had a few days after I planted them in the garden.

On Wednesday, I harvested the rest of the cilantro before it could bolt. There was a lot of it, so I had Mr. Scoakat contact a friend who enjoys cooking to see if he's like some. He said yes so we met him at a local watering hole last night; we had a few beers and gave him some cilantro (and some thyme - also harvested Wednesday).














The tomato plants are still doing well. The plant in the bucket continues to do even better than those in the garden. I pinched suckers off two of the plants again, but I think we're past the point where suckers are a real threat.

We've enjoyed a few more strawberries. And it's looking like we'll enjoy even more next year. The purple raspberries are not doing so good; if they don't improve significantly by the end of summer, I'll take them out and plant more strawberries.

That's it for now. But since it's now officially the weekend, there will be more gardening to do, and more to post soon.

Garlic Scape Pesto! Tomatoes, More Strawberries... More Weeds

I've grown a hardneck variety of garlic the last few years. In previous years, I've cut the scapes off and thrown them in our compost bin. This year, I decided to find a recipe to use the scapes. The recipe I found, garlic scape pesto, is so good. If you like pesto and you really like garlic, you should try this! I opted to use half basil and half garlic scapes, and only used lemon juice, no rind.



The tomato plant in the bucket seems to be doing better than the two in the garden. This might be worth paying attention to. Buckets are ugly, but I'll put up with ugly if it means a good tomato crop!






Not much else to report on. We're still getting a few strawberries here and there. And I spent another hour pulling weeds! I'm beginning to think they might be my most successful crop this year...