The End and the Beginning

Yesterday,

I pulled up most of the garden yesterday.  It had to be done.  I had a lot of green tomatoes, which I gave to my neighbor.  His woman likes fried green tomatoes.  All that's left is a few things here and there.  I did see a couple onions starting for some reason.  I thought they were all dead!

I have a pile of dead plants in the corner of the property.  I haven't decided what to do with them.  Some of them are slightly diseased.  Most are healthy, though.  I could chop them up and throw them in the compost bin. 

Last week, I got an email from Nature's Crossroads saying that they were have a sale on all their seeds, which are all USDA organic.  50% off!  (Most of these seeds are adapted to Indiana's weather.)  So I got some.  I really haven't totally planned the garden yet, but now I have plenty to play with now.  Hey, if I don't use them, maybe my Sister and my Dad can.

So here is what I got!

Chanteney Red Carrot
Purple Plum Radishes
Snowball Cauliflower
Walthum Butternut Squash
Sugar Baby Watermelons
California Wonder Bell Peppers
Jalapenos
Red Scotch Bonnets
Aji Limon Peppers
Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce
Purple Orach Greens
Freckles Lettuce
Red Winter Kale
Red Brandywine Tomatoes
Green Zebra Tomatoes
Tomatillos
Tendergreen Green Beans, bush
Kentucky Wonder Green Beans, pole
Garlic

And I got Miss 38th Street some flowers, too:
Pacific Beauty Calendulas
Bee Balm (Monarda)
Bachelors Buttons
Aunt Honey's Black-eyed Susans
Columbines (native wildflowers)

So the garden has some options.  I'm already dreaming of the garden.  But I have a lot to do before I'm ready for that.  I have some winter projects you'll have to see.  It's going to cool!  Well, I think they're cool.

And I know what you've been saying, "Why doesn't Rafael have a gardening hat?"  I know, right.  Well, problem solved!

I think I need to get darker to wear this hat.  I'm a little too lite and not enough Mexi.

Garden Update!!!

Ok,

I haven't written in a while.  A WHILE!!!  Ok, so...

We harvested the carrots.  We had a few good ones.  Most were puny, but good.  They definitely tasted different.  Kind of soapy.  Good though. 

We've had a lot of Pakistan, Anaheim, and Scotch Bonnet peppers, still.  I've made some really hot dishes.  Holy crap!  Man. 

So I've been cleaning up the garden box a bit.  I've pulled out the watermelons, radicchio, green beans, cherry tomatoes and some other tomatoes. 

I also planted MORE BABY SPINACH and MORE BABY ROMAINE!!!  I prepped a patch of soil with Garden-tone and some organic garden soil.  This is another first for me.  I've never planted a fall crop.  I can't wait to see if works!  Undercover Garden Brother.

38th Street!

Near the End

Hello, again.

My garden is winding down the production, sad to say.  Some plants did great (cucumbers, green beans, spinach, Thai Sun Chilies).  Some plants are just now producing (Scotch Bonnet, Pakistani, and long red slim peppers).  Some plants produced, but not very much (watermelons, tomatoes, bell peppers).  And some failed miserably (peas, roma tomato, bell peppers). 

I think this picture is hilarious.

The cucumbers are still producing, but I think they are done.  Now, I've said that three times before and they kept pumping out cucumbers!  I've eaten a lot of cucumbers this year.  It's been great!

The peppers are coming around and giving me something to work with finally.  The Thai Sun Chilies and the Long Red Slim Chilies I'm dehydrating, deseeding, and mincing into flakes.  I've combined them into a dried pepper flake mix that is damn hot.  I have more dehydrating right now.  Hot!  The Pakistan Chunky Chilies are doing fine.  They are hotter than I thought they would be, which is good.  Speaking of hot, the Scotch Bonnet finally gave me four peppers.  The look awesome!  I used one tonight in a Jamaican Curried Chicken dish I made.  Holy crap, that pepper made me go into a coughing fit!  I could smell the burn when I minced it.  Then, when I washed the cutting board, the capsaicin fumes came rushing at me and took my breath away!  Wow!  Hands are still burning a bit (I couldn't find the rubber gloves.  Don't ask).  The dish was great, and Miss 38th Street and I were sweating.

The tomatoes are just disappointing.  I have only got, maybe, 10 tomatoes from the 5 tomato plants that aren't cherry tomatoes.  The cherries are doing fine.  I had a lot of tomatoes that had severely cracked skin.  So much so, that I couldn't eat over half of them because they molded over before they were ripe.  Sucks.  I'll do better next year.

I did get two Sugar Baby Watermelons!  I didn't know if I would get any, so I'll take the two.  I had two plants which each gave me one.  They tasted great.  I ate one, and I gave the other to my parents.  They said it was good, but had a lot of seeds. 

I'm still waiting on the carrots.  I pulled one and it was still pretty small.  I'm not sure when to pull them, but I hope in the next couple weeks.  We'll see!

I hope to have some more produce to show you here soon.  I hope everyone's garden is doing great!

Today's Harvest

I haven't written in a bit, so I'll do a little catch-up.  The cucumbers are the MVP of the garden thus far.  We have had to come up with several cucumber dishes.  Most have been pretty good.  The jalapenos we let ripen but they were still solid.  I had to grill them and remove the skin.  The heat varied.  Today, we got our first slim chili and Pakistani chili.  Here is what we got today:

Do you know which chili is which?

 

This all we got today.  Some Super 100 cherry tomatoes, Beef Steak tomato, Black Krim tomato, the only Green Pepper, Slim Chili, Pakistani Chili, Jalapeno, Thai Sun Chiles, and another Cucumber.

 

That's a lot of Thai Sun Chiles.  

 

 I'm attempting to dry out the Thai's in the oven right now.  I hope it works!  If so, then I'll make a Thai Sun Chili powder.  Mmmm!

State of the Garden August 1st

As of August 1st, the garden is good.  Not great, but good.  The three cucumbers are doing the best, especially the one I snuck into the landscape.  I trained it up the southwest corner gutter, right by the stairs.  We are making all kinds of cucumber dishes and giving them away. 

The Thai Sun Chili plants, two in pots and one in the southside landscape.  The two in the pots are doing better.  We are getting chilis now.  Damn, they're Hot!  We've made a Thai dish, and I'm making curry tomorrow!  The Jalapeno Pepper plant I picked up late and plopped just west of the garden box is doing well.  I prepped this soil with store bought compost, Espoma Garden Tone fertilizer and some peat moss.  we have five peppers on it.  The are hard.  We ate one tonight in the strawberry salsa on our halibut fish tacos.  Good flavor.  The two bell pepper plants are doing fair.  There is one in the garden box and one west of the box.  Each has one pepper on it and they are not big.  Lame.  The  two Anaheims,  two Pakistani,  Scotch Bonnet and the Red Slim Chilis are doing well.  All have peppers, but are not ripe.  

We've got a few tomatoes of the Stupice tomato plant.  They were alright.  The two Super100 cherry tomato plants are exploding and are starting to ripen.  The Big Beef, Better Boy, Big Boy, Black Krim have tomatoes, but not a lot.  None have started to ripen. 

The carrots are doing well.  We pulled one a couple week ago, just to see how they were developing.  Looked good! 

The red and white onion have all pretty much have been destroyed. 

The Green Beans were rockin early.  We had about eight serving of them till now.  The beans are being eaten by...

The Bean Leaf Beetle.  Stupid beetles.  The Green Bean leaves look like Swiss Cheese! 

The Radicchio is doing alright.  It's not turning red, though, so we haven't eaten any of it yet. 

The peas all wilted from the bottom up.  Turned yellow, dried up and died. 

The Sugar Baby Watermelons are disappointing.  They were doing so well and then they hit a wall.  All the small melons that were forming all stopped growing, turned yellow and black, so I cut them all off.  All the flowers dried up and went away.  The vines are still growing, but that's it.  There are two larger melons still there, but they have not grown in weeks. 

Alright.  That's enough.  I am just rambling on!  Good night, and good gardening.

Ha! No, seriously, I'm going to bed.

Indiana Organic Gardener's Association Meeting - July

Hey All,

Miss 38th Street and I attended the July meeting of the Indiana Organic Gardener's Association.  It was at Traders Point Creamery, an organic dairy farm northeast of Indy.  They had a pitch in lunch, which did not pitch in.  We were a little to busy with puppy sitting her parents new 7 week old Boston Terrier Puppy.   Which she is awesome.  Her name is Button.  Anyway, it was informative and enlightening.  I got to share my tomato problems with older, wiser gardeners, but no one had a good answer for at that time.  The problem is that I have tomato plants with lots of flowers, but they soon seem to dry out, turn brown and die.  No tomatoes.  I have heard it could be the warm weather, or a mineral deficiency.  I don't know. All I know is that I don't like it.  Any advice would be appreciated.

If you would like to learn anything about Trader's Point Creamery, then check out their link.  It seems they are good people with good ideas.  I would have done what they have done, if I inherited a dairy farm, like they did.  I really want to support any operation or individual who tries to keep it real.  I hope you try, too.

Miss 38th Street Likes My Watermelons

Ah gardening.  It's so great.  I love to see how everything grows from day to day.  The two sugar baby watermelon plants are going crazy!  One of the two grew a foot in one day.  We now have little baby watermelons starting.  Frickin awesome.

 This watermelon has run out of real estate.  I'm not sure where this thing is going next.  Well, see.

We also got our first two cucumbers.  They are beautiful!  They tasted great.  I can't wait for more. 

The new 8 green beans I planted have sprouted, well most of them.  The rest are about to poke through. 

Oh, I have a problem.  Maybe someone might have an opinion on this one.  I have seven tomato plants.  All of them have lots of blooms and very few tomatoes.  Most of the blooms are drying out and they're done.  No tomatoes!  I've read some things around the internet saying it could be the hot weather or a mineral deficiency.  I don't know.  If anyone has any advice, I would love it.  I want tomatoes!

Peace/Love.

I have a fever. And the only cure for my fever...

IS MORE GARDENING!!!            !

Today, I did another round of Espoma Garden-Tone on most everything in the garden.  It's been almost a month since it last got a good dose of fertilizer.  Some things got some fish fertilizer.  Man, that stuff smelled just like it should have.  Stank fish. 

And since I have a gardening addiction, I added some new plants to the garden area (50% off plant sale at Sulivans!).  Yes, I found another spot for some more plants.  No, not MORE pots lining the sidewalk, but a spot on the southwest corner against the fence.  We now have three Jersey Blueberry bushes living there.

I don't know if we're going to get any blueberries this year, but hey.  We have something in the front yard to make it look even nicer.  This cultivar says it's cool with having "partial sun to shade."  Nice.  I did read something that concerned me in Rodale's.  It said that if you plant blueberries, that it is important to plant two to three different cultivars to produce fruit.  If that's true, then that sucks.  Does anyone have any experience with blueberries?  If so, please lay some knowledge on me. 

I do have some nice pictures of the garden.  I had a good picture day, by my standards.

A nice overall pic of the 38th Street Garden

 The cucumbers are coming in.  Very exciting!

 This is the first sign of the Sugar Baby Watermelons.  A little out of focus, but you get the point.

 Here is one of the Pakistan Chunky Chili plants.  Filling out nicely.

 Jalapenos are looking good.  Not too long now!

 Here is the cucumber plant I snuck in by the gutter.  I'm training it up and now onto a tomato cage.  And holy crap, Chu-nation made it into the photo!  Go Chui!  (Side note:  Chui got into a bag of the organic fertilizer and threw up all over the house while we were at a friend's wedding.  Little scary, but he's doing much better now)

 Here are a bunch of tomato pictures.  Everyone loves tomatoes!

This is the Big Beef Tomato.

 

 This is the sickly Stupis Tomato.  I can't believe this has any tomatoes on it.  It looks unhealthy.

 Here is our Black Krim Tomato.  I like this picture because it looks like a butt.  

A butt.

ok, next picture.

 

Here are our carrots.  Very nice.  

Ok,  That's it for today.  It was a very busy day in the yard and garden.  I prepared soil for the blueberries, fertilized everything, harvested another round of green beans, PLANTED another 8 green beans, trained the watermelons and cucumbers more, planted the blueberries and another basil plant (to replace the one I trimmed to death.  Sorry Miss 38th Street.)  I'm tired.  I'm going to bed.

The Garden Is-A-Poppin

The 38th Street Garden is in full affect.  It is blooming, reaching and booming (thanks to my neighbor's cars).  This being my first year as a dedicated gardener, it's going well.  Most everything is producing or on it's way, Lord help me.  Plus the square foot garden experiment is pretty cool.  I know some things that I'll do differently next year with the square foot.  Mainly, giving certain vegetables more room.  The green beans, tomatoes, and watermelons need more space.  I'll plant the spinach and lettuce differently, as well. 

Harvesting is getting started.  All the spinach has be harvested and eaten.  It was the best tasting spinach I have ever had.  We just took two heads of Vivian Lettuce from the garden a couple days ago.  It's healthy and all, but the flavor is just Ok.  Not planting that next year.  And all the green beans are ready every other day.  That is awesome.  We've been blanching them and freezing them right now. 
I hope to give the garden some fertilizer tomorrow.

I have some new pictures of the garden!

The Thai Sun Chili are doing good.

 I have little cucumbers showing up now.

 Tomatoes are starting to take over.

 All the vines are doing great.  The cucumber and the watermelons are in climbing mode!

 

Green Beans!

 The carrots and the marigolds are filling out.

 The garden is just looking good.

I'll have more picture tomorrow.

Garden Extended

A few days ago, I think Thursday, I extended the garden west.  We had an area that we planted shasta daisies, foxgloves and cosmos.  The only thing that sprouted were the cosmos at the end of the bed at the fence corner.  By the way, the cosmos that popped up are right beside the ever encroaching Peppermint. 
This area was just a bare area that I just had to weed.  It was getting to me.  Now we have it filled!

There are two shasta daisy mounds and three sentimental blue balloon mounds to bring some flowery goodness to the garden area.  Plus, I have an addiction that I had to feed.  I bought some more tomatoes and peppers.  I added these to the garden and potted one.  We now have a Jalapeno and a Green Pepper plant.  We also added a Big Beef and Big Boy tomato plant. 

We had a couple garden surprises.  Good surprises!  I found these last week.  When was doing my almost daily garden maintenance, I moved a pot to reveal foot tall tomato plant! 

It's kind of hard to see in this picture, but it's in the cage.  It is right on the edge of the sidewalk.  We don't know what kind of tomato it is.  Last year we had Brandywine, Roma and Super 100 cherry tomato plants in the area.  We'll see what it is.  Pretty cool!

Right after I discovered that tomato, I found the other tomato surprise.  It was at the west end of the bed right the edge of the lawn.  I caged it and it is doing well.  The one thing about the tomatoes from last year, is they were monster producers.  They were over 7 feet tall and full of tomatoes!  It was awesome. 

I hope these new additions flourish and give us a nice harvest.  Like the spinach.  I just got our third harvest of spinach of the year tonight.  I love it!

Garden Envy?

I think I have a little garden envy. 

This is a complement to Rochelle and Brian.  A couple days ago, I stopped by to visit my sister for a bit.  Brian and Rochelle showed me how their garden was progressing.  I was impressed.  Their lettuce was abundant and healthy.  The squash was everywhere.  Tomatoes were big and flowering.  The chard was looking great, too.  And to my amazement, the peppers and cucumbers I gave them were twice the size of mine!  And I put mine in the ground before theirs!!!  Wow.  They have their garden working! 

So, today I went to Habig's Garden Center to get some organic fertilizer.  I got a few different kinds to cater to my different veggies.  We got a good rain today, which my garden needed.  Then everything got a good dose of fertilizer.  This should do them good till next month.  I hope this gives everything a boost.  I did leave the green beans along.  They're doing great. 

Also, when I stopped by Habig's, they had some peppers and tomatoes left that were doing great and were on sale.  So I might have to go buy a few more pots and add to my veggie pot collection.  I'm sure Miss 38th Street will be thrilled.  I'll report later.

We did put Miss 38th Street's upside down flower pot on the hanger a few days ago.  It looks good.  See?

More Peas

After Miss 38th Street harvested the first spinach of the year on June 4th, I planted 16 more peas the next day.  I'm puttin this info in here for my records.  The other peas are doing fantastic.  Actually, the peas, green beans, Vivian lettuce, Thai Sun chilis, and spinach are all doing great.  The watermelons are not looking good.  Something is eating away at the few leaves they have.  I didn't see any insects on them.  The cucumbers beside the watermelons are looking healthy, though.  I have to do some investigating. 

I also planted a couple things in the landscaping without telling Miss 38th Street.  She saw one, which was a Thai Sun.  The other she hasn't seen yet.  I wonder where it is?  And what it is?  Hmmm... 

First Harvest

Well, we got our first harvest of the season.  It's about a bowl's worth of spinach.  Ha!  Not too much, but we grew it.  I can't wait to have a salad!  Anyway, the garden is looking fine.  Some things look great, others look...  eh.  The strawberries are producing, but all the fruits look terrible and wilted.  I've had to pick all of them and toss them out.  I'm not sure what the problem is on those.  I'll have some more pics soon.  In the meantime, I'll be cozying up with my Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening.

Watermelons!!!

All five peat pots of Sugar Baby Watermelons all sprouted!  Yes!  Looks like I might have a couple extra.  I only need two.  I might have a couple to give out.

Garden Update:  My Roma Tomato plant is already dead and gone.  It took about two days for a perfectly healthy tomato plant to have yellow leaves with brown rimmed holes.  Evey leaf was infected.  I yanked it out and threw it in the trash.  I bought another tomato, a Black Krim Tomato and planted it in a pot.  I don't know what to put in the empty spot now.  Maybe some more green beans!  Or peas.  I don't know. 

By the way, if you type in "mexi gardener" in google images, you'll find this photo, as well as a lot of pics of Bruno?

The Garden Is Planted!

 Yesterday, we finally got the garden planted.  It

looks great.  We had all the seeds and sets in, but not the transplants.  Most of the transplants were seeds that I started.  A lot of peppers have been in little cups by the window for a while.  So I have a lot of pictures.  Lets see!  Here is the garden.  17'x2'.

The green beans have exploded!  I had to thin them today.

Here is Pakistan Chunky Chili Pepper.  I'm really excited about these.

Baby Spinach is rocking.  We lost a few plants to some cold mornings, but the ones that lived look great.

Strawberries that came back from last year.  I had to move them, but they are still doing good. Better than last year.  I also bought a frog for Miss 38th Street.

 Here are some peppers that didn't make it to the garden for a couple different reasons.  We have two Thai Sun Chili and one Scotch Bonnet Pepper.

 Here are the vine supports that I built for the cucumbers, watermelons and tomatoes. 

 Then the flowers!
We have three flower boxes of Calliope Dark Red Geraniums, Pinstripe Petunia, Mexican Heather and something I don't know.

One box that we had laying around that Miss 38th Street filled with Butterfly Dark Red Carnations and Lady in Red Salvia.  Also she has an upside down hanging pot filled with Minifamous Double Lemon Calibrachoa.







 

 This is a flower box of Persian Shield, Velocity Blue Salvia, Huego Dark Violet Verbena and Sundial White Portulaca, plus some spikes.

 An herb planter of Thyme, Sage and Greek Oregano.

We filled some empty space with Spangled Star Dianthus and Dwarf Coreopsis.  There is also Peppermint and Spearmint on either side of the garden.

Then Miss 38th put three Peppermint Hydrangeas by the garage.  We'll see what color they turn to next.











Not pictured here are the pot of Midnight Rose Coral Bells, Boston Ferns, Solomon Seals and garlic.

Now the garden list:
Better Boy Tomato
Roma Tomato
Stupis Tomato
Valencia Orange Bell Pepper
Lilac Bell Pepper
Cucumbers
Marigolds
Vivian Lettuce
Baby Spinach
Radicchio
Danvers Carrots
Alaska Peas
Baby Romaine
Blue Lake Bush Green Beans
White and Red Onions
Pakistan Chunky Chili
Anaheim Peppers
Scotch Bonnet Pepper
Thai Sun Chili
Long Red Slim Pepper
Lemon Basil
Cilantro


Plus, if all goes right, then I'll have two Sugar Baby Watermelons added next week.

This is a long post, but I had a lot to say!  Yesterday was a great day.