Garden in the Beginning of Fall

The Brandywine and Roma tomato plants were beginning to wither at the beginning of September. They had produced some tasty tomatoes in a satisfying quantity for our household. Seeing them, made me realize the growing season is just about over and I didn't feel like I had really used the garden to it's full potential. Thanks to some cooking episodes (Thank you PBS & Food Network) I was inspired to amp up the amount of herbs I had been using in my recipes. Now I realize I had been much too conservative with the quantities of herbs up to this point and they do make a big difference in flavor. Some herby recipes that I have been using most recently are:

Herb Roast Chicken (America's Test Kitchen)

Carne Asada (my version: Soy Sauce, Thyme, Rosemary, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Olive Oil & No Tequila & No Cilantro & No Butter)

Porchetta (my version: No Pork Belly, included small bit of lovage)

Halibut Vermicelli with Dill & Pineapple-Anchovy Sauce

Vietnamese Spring Rolls have included some to all of the following ingredients: slices of rolled lettuce, matchstick carrots & radishes, thai basil, cooked shrimp, nasturtium leaves/flowers, & mint.

Basil Pesto that I keep in the fridge for a week's use at a time includes just olive oil, garlic, salt and as much basil leaves as can be kept under a protective layer of olive oil in whatever jar I use. I add hot pepper flakes & Parmesan cheese just before serving.

Salsa (of course!!): roasted tomatoes or fresh chopped brandywine, cilantro, hot peppers, roasted garlic, lime juice and onions. Added Avocado to turn into Guacamole or mangoes to make it a sweet and spicy sauce.

Instant pickled veggies for the fridge have included 1 part cider vinegar to 2 parts water and some to all of the following: olive oil, salt, pepper, cloves, bay leaf, rosemary, oregano, thyme sprigs, garlic, red onion, yellow onion, sliced serranos, sliced jalapenos, sliced poblanos, carrots, and cauliflower.

Lovage salt: 6 tablespoons salt to every ounce of Lovage. Adapted Recipe from Celery Salt (Time Life CookBooks 1981)

Herb Butter Recipes (I've been creating sage & parsley butters for the winter)

Bread Recipes: I've adapted bread and pizza recipes by including sage, rosemary and/or thyme.

Bread Recipe that included finely chopped sage. I topped the loaf with whole sage leaves.

Other recipes that have used harvests from the garden have included:

Pho Bo: Beef Noodle Soup (used Thai Basil, Scallions, Radishes & Jalapenos as Garnish)

Moon-Viewing Noodles in Broth & Spinach steeped in Broth (scallions, collard greens, swiss chard)

Chicken with Roasted Coriander in a Coconut Curry Sauce (adapted to use small halved eggplants instead of chicken, tomatoes, hot peppers)


The state of the garden at the beginning of Fall 2014: A collection of pictures

I dug around the sweet potato plants last week to find the roots still too small for eating. These may not be ready until December.

Sweet Potato plants interspersed with Thai Basil & Italian Basil

These eggplants only grow to three inches long

The Honey Yellow Tomatoes grew so large in September that I wrapped them around the vacant cucumber teepee trellis. Now the new cucumber plant is growing up on the tomato vines. It seems to be working well.

Parsley has been growing at the base of the teepee over the season but not as well as in full sun.

Honey Yellow tomatoes growing around the teepee with the cucumber vining it's way around them

Poblano peppers (top), Eggplant (right) and Radish/Cilantro seedlings (lower left)

Radishes and Cilantro

Second attempt at a zucchini plant (top left) with swiss chard that has been growing dependably all season (middle) and poblano peppers (right) and carrots (lower left)

I recently planted collard greens near the carrots in the row with the zucchini plant. The roma tomato plants died away in early September and I planted a container tomato plant to see if it would still give fruit. One more tomato is growing.

Warm Days

We are experiencing some warm days after some wet weather. The garden keeps on growing.

Sweet Potatoes & Eggplants with Cilantro, Basil & Thai Basil scattered around

Cucumbers, Brandywines, Yellow Honey Tomatoes with Bell Peppers, Parsley & Lettuce scattered about

Roma & Southern Night Tomatoes with Calendula, Radishes & Carrots scattered about.

Chamomile (front), Onions, Rosemary, Oregano, Collard Greens (top) & Swiss Chard (top left)

Roma Tomatoe (right) and Southern Night (center)

Baby Cucumber

Marigold

Sage

Growing Jalapenio

Coriander Seeds

Broccoli Raab harvested

The high today was 87F. The Broccoli Raab is supposed to grow in cooler temperatures than what it has been recently. It seems like we skipped spring and went straight from winter to summer. The Broccoli Raab unfortunately sent up shoots when it was only 2 inches tall and very thin. Next time I'll have to plant it way earlier or grow it over winter. The top little rounded pieces are the shoots and you have to catch them before they flower (My Vegetable Gardener's Bible book says you have 24 hours after they send up shoots). I'll try planting them again in the fall (hoping for better results then).

Also in the picture you can see little holes in the leaves of the Broccoli Raab. These holes are appearing everywhere: my pepper plants, tomato leaves, collard greens and kohlrabi. I sprinkled some diatomaceous earth over the weekend over the trouble areas. I have heard from other gardeners that this could be slugs and things I read online seem to confirm it too.

I am looking forward to harvesting the Kholrabi soon so I can plant some more tomatoes.

Tomatoes are finally planted

Yesterday and today I planted tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and cucumbers. Efrain and I enjoyed our first radish yesterday.

I planted Bell Peppers next to the Collard Greens. The pepper seedlings were outgrowing their plastic egg containers. I had planted their seeds March 11. I had two extra for the seedling exchange tomorrow.

Cucumber (planted seed April 7 & late April) and bell peppers planted near the cucumber teepee

Honey Yellow tomatoes, Brandywine tomatoes with Anaheim and Jalapeno pepper. To the planting hole for tomatoes and cucumbers I added about a tbsp of Gypsum which adds Calcium but should not alter PH. My measurements for PH are everywhere at this point. Originally I measured a neutral 7. Now, I get some 6.5 then I get a 5.5 and once a 5. I must be hitting chunks of things when I take the test. At this point I'm leaving it alone and let the worms work it out.

Eggplants planted after application of an Espoma Soil Acidifier.The PH readings here range between 5.8 and 7 after the application. I hope the PH will resolve itself in time for when the sweet potatoes arrive.

I decided to give up some of my swiss chard and collard green space to plant more chile and bell peppers.

PH READINGS - ROW1(Eggplants & Sweet Potatoes): 5.8 thru 7 ROW2(Tomatoes & Cucumbers): 5 thru 7 ROW3 (Zuchini & Roma): 6.5 thru 7 ROW4(Collard Greens & Herbs): 6.5 thru 7

Takoma Park Community Garden

 Today my roma tomatoes (determinate) and brandywine tomatoes (indeterminate) decided to poke out of their seed. I used plastic egg cartons to grow them from seed with Mosser Lee moss seed soil.

The seeds in the right egg carton still haven't come up; they are eggplant and bell peppers.

Brandywine tomatoe seedling

Here's a picture of my planned garden layout. It will definitely change because I want to grow some tristar strawberries. I have a 9 foot by 20 foot plot that butts up next to my neighbor. Initially it had two long rows about 4 feet wide and 20 feet long with a small 1 foot wide walkway down the center. There was no walkway separating me from my neighbor. I changed it to allow for me to access all my veggies if  and when I get pregnant. =) I decided to make them 3 feet wide because 1.5 feet is what I can reach easily. The walkways I added to maximize the planting space and give me enough room to garden. I decided to put the one walkway on the right to give some room between my neighbor and I.