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???

 

Ever Bearing, Summer Bearing

I finally got around to harvesting the arugula, and planting the strawberries and spring (or maybe winter?) onions.

Most of the arugula was too large and woody to keep, but there were enough small leaves to use for salads or sandwiches. I also took out one of the basil plants; it never really came back from its cold start and after the heat we had last weekend (temps in the 90s) it took a bad turn. It wasn’t a complete loss; I got a handful of leaves from it.

In my last post I mentioned my plan to plant spring onions; a friend gave us some ready to plant from their garden. However, a few nights ago Mr. Scoakat told me he thought they were winter onions. I’m pretty sure the friend said spring onions; he’s pretty sure the friend said winter onions. I guess we’ll find out in the spring. Or we could just call the friend and ask… The spring/winter onions are planted in three rows at the back of the west garden.

The new strawberries are an ever bearing variety. They went in between the established strawberries and the raspberries. Speaking of raspberries, I finally found the email from my order and now I know they’re summer bearing. That means they’re not going to produce fruit this year. Oh well, there’s always next year.

I covered the newly planted strawberries with the awesome strawberry cover Mr. Scoakat built. Here’s hoping it keeps the squirrels out; there’s almost nothing I hate more than re-planting strawberries. And speaking of squirrels, they’ve been stealing my tomatoes ad soon as they’re ripe! Again! The marigolds are useless! Okay not completely useless, but also not the squirrel repellent I was hoping for.

Green onions are done for the year. I harvested the last of them yesterday. I’m still waiting on the carrots. The thyme and parsley are looking good. I’ll be using some of both and some basil to make meatballs soon!

Mid-August Jerk

A few days after my last post, the tomato plants in the garden perked up. For a while, they were doing much better than bucket tomato, but then bucket made a bit of a comeback, and the garden tomatoes lost their perk.

It’s not all bad news though, I actually harvested my first ripe tomato a couple nights ago from bucket tomato. It ended up in a salad I ate yesterday – YUM! Bucket tomato lives in the garden now, still in the bucket but slightly more protected from wind and rabbits. 


The carrots are still growing and the basil is doing pretty well considering its not-so-great start. I did finally make the basil potato salad I mentioned last time around. It wasn’t bad, but I probably won’t make it again. The parsley is growing faster than I can use it. I need to find the motivation to make some chimichurri… A nice beef roast or a couple good steaks might provide that motivation!

The radishes have all been harvested (and I ate the last of them in that salad) and most of the green onions too. I made a double batch of jerk marinade to use up some of the green onions, but there’s still a lot left. I anticipate more jerk marinade in the near future; that’s not a bad thing.


I harvested more thyme recently, and I really should harvest the arugula… perhaps this weekend when I plant more strawberries and some spring onions!

Good News – Bad News

I harvested the garlic a few days ago and it looks great – some of the largest heads I’ve ever grown! A big part of this success is due to the type of garlic I’ve planted. It does very well over cold winters, and we definitely had one of those! But I think cutting the scapes early also helped, and since I now have a wonderful garlic scape pesto recipe, I’m sure I’ll cut the scapes early next year too.

In other good news, the basil has finally started to perk up! In fact, I had to stake one of the basil plants last weekend to keep it from collapsing under the weight of all its new leaves. This is especially good news because Mr. Scoakat found a recipe for a basil potato salad several weeks ago; I’ve wanted to make it but the grocery store we usually shop at doesn’t keep a steady inventory of anything, and they don’t seem to know how to store produce, so we haven’t been able to buy any decent basil. Now, I’ll be able to use basil from the garden, and I’m sure the salad will taste so much better.



The green onions and radishes are also doing well. I harvested some of both and all of the micro greens a few days ago. The carrots aren’t doing as well; only about half of the seeds sprouted.

In news neither good nor bad, I finally got around to removing the purple raspberries that were going nowhere. The red raspberry plants still look great.

And now for the bad news – even the tomato plant in the bucket has blossom end rot. On the bright side, I’ve solved the “soil or roots” mystery. It can’t be the soil; the soil in the raised beds is top soil mixed with (many years of) compost, the soil in the bucket is a garden soil/potting soil mix. So, the problem must be the roots; something is preventing the roots from absorbing nutrients... I guess that’s another mystery to solve.
 

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…

Radishes, Lettuce, & Carrots

I planted three rows of seeds today in the space between the garlic and the green onions. Closest to the garlic, is a row of radishes; then a row of lettuce; and in the front, a row of carrots. The seeds are left-overs from last year, so we’ll see what grows.

All of the tomato plants have a few small, green tomatoes starting, but the plants in the garden are making me nervous. One day they look fine, the next they’re wilted, and then they look fine again. I’m almost certain the problem is in the soil. But is it bacterial wilt or lack of nutrients???





Over on the berry side, we removed the raspberry trellis from the middle of the garden. The purple raspberry plants show no sign of improvement; they’ll be coming out before long to make room for more strawberries. The red raspberries in the back continue to thrive. To accommodate the growth, I moved the back support wire of the top arm of the trellis to its widest position.

Flower Pictures

Pictures of all things flowering right now in our yard, after the break!

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...

Tomato Cages, Raspberry Adjustment, and the First Strawberry

It was time to get the tomato plants caged up for the season. I’m growing grafted tomatoes this year, so before I could cage them, I had to pinch off suckers growing from grafting scars to prevent the scions from rooting.

 

 

The raspberries in the back continue to spread, as do the weeds growing amongst them. After a lot of weeding, we moved the back support wire on the bottom cross arm of the trellis to its widest position. Eventually, we will need to move the back support wire on the top arm too.

 

And, as promised, Mr. Scoakat enjoyed the first ripe strawberry of the year!  It looks like we’ll have several more ripe berries by the end of the week, and the runners on the new plants have already rooted so we should have many more plants by the end of the summer.