Sun Dried Tomatoes

Sun dried tomatoes, sounds delicious right?



Not exactly. At least not in San Antonio in August.


Our cherry tomatoes stopped setting fruit in late June (when the daytime temperatures were consistently above 90° and the nighttime temps were above 75°).

Ending the season in June is fine with me. By then, I've had all the tomatoes I can eat (and give away) and I start to loathe the idea of going outside and poking around the humid jungle looking for mediocre fruit.

The trouble is that when the season ends, the mess remains. For a few weeks now, Travis has been removing one tomato plant at a time, but this weekend we teamed up and bushwhacked the entire bed.



We encountered tons of flying leaf footed bugs (bastards!) as well as scale and spider mite damage.


Look at this little nymph injecting its digestive juices and ruining the fruit. These picture are from early July when the bug population was lower and the tomatoes weren't struggling as much. By yesterday, there were thousands of bugs in the bed, not to mention mosquitoes eating us alive while we worked.


For a more immersive look at the mess, check out Travis' video.

Veggies in the Sun

Cucumbers


Figs


Cherry tomatoes


Eggplant blossom
Here's to a fruitful summer weekend. Enjoy!

A Hot Harvest

My husband was the original garden blogger in our family, but school, work and other hobbies have sucked away most of his blog time. Occasionally he still pens an entry, like today's, which I am reposting from his blog.


The hedge to the right is, in fact, my cherry tomatoes! - All organic folks!

Black Beauty eggplant

My Celebrity tomatoes wear pantyhose to make them look less appetizing to mockingbirds who are easily turned off by this early '90s women's underwear-accessory fashion.

Eggplant, banana peppers, TAM-1 jalapenos, cucumbers, and Large Red Cherry tomatoes.

Spring Tour - Backyard

The earth is awake and alive for Spring. Before I get carried away with photos of individual plants, I want to orient you in my yard. I love wide shots of gardens. They give you a sense the space and help you picture how the plant combinations work together. Seeing plants from afar also helps me learn about their light and moisture requirements.

So join me on the tour... first up, the backyard.


When you open the side gate and step a few feet down that gravel path, you can see espaliered figs and coral honeysuckle on the left and veggie and herb beds ahead and on the right.


When you round the corner, another veggie bed and the arbor come into view.


Turn around and you will see the side bed veggies, the beginnings of our air conditioner screen and a rain barrel.

I'd love to have a bunch of sun-loving tall flowers along this wall (maybe roses), but veggies take priority. There are plenty of flowers that I can plant in part-sun, but veggies require full sun, which is in short supply, so this spot goes to them.


The view from the back corner looking toward the house. Note the beautiful Miss Bailey sitting pretty on the patio for the tour.


Our summer relief, the arbor.


The view from the back door toward the grassy area. As you can see my two-year-old xylosma hedge was hit very hard by the freeze. I hope this was an isolated incident because I am counting on those plants create some privacy from my neighbors' yards.


Along the side of the arbor is my part-sun, full-sun and even shady flower bed (depending on where you are relative to the rose bush) that eases the transition to Bailey's grass.

One more shot of the pillared rose since this is its big season and it's about to undergo a major pruning.


Bailey's grass and my slow-to-grow foundation plants.


Around the corner on the other side of the house is No Man's Land. This area used to have a horrible slope, but we added some railroad ties and leveled the ground with mulch. We also built a second compost bin out of pallets.

Every yard is entitled to its ugly area, but I'm trying make this space pretty by tucking some shade-lovers into the pocket between the railroad ties and the fence. (We left a gap so we wouldn't trap moisture or put weight against the fence.) I'm hoping that MomMom will give me some fire spike cuttings when we visit her soon. I might paint the new compost bin too. I found a can of dark blue outdoor grade paint in the garage. We shall see...


The last stop on today's tour, a view from the compost toward the xylosma.

Edibles Update

If you missed the first San Antonio planting time for cool weather crops, now is your second chance to plant broccoli, carrots and radishes (and beets and turnips if you like those). Here's a quick update on the edibles we've been growing this season.

Headless broccoli. All that green but nothing to eat.

Our schedules got so hectic this winter that we neglected our broccoli. We didn't fertilize them but once. As a result, we picked only one medium head. The rest of the plants either bolted or grew huge but never produced any fruit.


Thankfully most of our other winter edibles are low maintenance. This is dill. The rock was a Christmas gift from my friend Grace. (Thank you!) I like how the glass matches the feathery foliage.


Cilantro, I think. It could be parsley. I don't remember exactly which seeds I scattered where and I haven't tasted these young sprouts.


Butter head lettuce. Beautiful. As you can tell we haven't harvested many leaves from them. We've been enjoying spinach instead.


Cabbage. The head was small, once again due to a lack of fertilizer.


Cauliflower with a bit of discoloration. I have have no idea why it has the dark spots. They developed after a rainy freeze. The taste and texture were fine.

 
Radishes, also victims of neglect. I was excited when I planted the seeds in October, but the plants matured so quickly and I got so busy, I didn't keep up with harvesting duties. Radishes this big bite back.


Swiss chard. I don't really like chard, but I like the way it looks. The little plant in front is spinach. Its first leaves look nothing like its baby leaves, which mature into giant wrinkly leaves that look similar to the chard's.

Onions. We've been using the tops in recipes that call for scallions and thinning the rows in the process so that the remaining plants can grow big bulbs.


Sugar snap peas. These are my favorite! They are so sweet and crunchy. At the time that I needed to plant them, I didn't have any available garden space so I put them in a half whiskey barrel on the porch. Once the vines take off next month they will easily grow to the top of the tomato cage and the extension piece that I haven't added yet. Pea flowers are pretty and fragrant. I mixed the traditional white fruiting variety with some ornamental pastel ones. I'm looking forward seeing the edible topiary they create.


A few of my plants are riding out the winter, waiting for their fruiting seasons. Fig.


Strawberries


Garlic. Not the greatest picture. I was trying to capture the interesting twist in the foliage. I've seen that type of random twisting in the scapes the plant sends up in the summer, but I've never noticed it on the foliage before.


I also have some ever-present herbs. Rosemary.


Marjoram. It's very convenient to have a little of this available for cooking. Greek Oregano has a better flavor, but mine dried up in a pot this summer. The marjoram survived so I transplanted it into the yard.


Two types of mint: chocolate (in the center) and spearmint (against the wall).

My mint colony is extremely vigorous (aka invasive), but for the winter, its only bastion of foliage is in the corner close to the air conditioner drip. Don't be deceived however; runners are all over its bed. Even with with Oklahoma chopped rock and decayed granite surrounding the bed, I still have to be vigilant during the growing season to catch any runners trying to sneak out of the corral. I thin my mint heavily twice year and I've managed to keep it where I want it. If I ever let up though, I know I will regret it. It's one garden chore, I can't neglect.

At Hand

Last night, a friend stopped by unexpectedly while we were cooking dinner. He was able to stay and eat with us, and I was reminded how much I enjoy my backyard vegetable garden.

 
While we were showing our friend around the yard, the spinach looked so perfect, I decided we needed to add a salad to the menu. The ingredients were simple, just what I had on hand: feta cheese, 5 cherry tomatoes, 4 fancy olives and onion. It was delicious.


Growing up, my dad had vegetable gardens at every house we lived at, but picking produce was a little bit of a chore, a dedicated activity.

Unlike our current garden, which is seven steps from the back door, my childhood gardens were 100 or more feet away. That doesn't sound far, and it wasn't. But when produce is right at your hands, when you see it every time you walk outside, it's so much easier to incorporate it into your everyday meals. There's no need to get a pail and flashlight when you're cooking at dusk. The porch light shines enough light to see what you're doing, and if you can't hold all the veggies in your hands, it's only a few steps from the kitchen back to the beds for more.

As I grow as a gardener, I'm starting to wish I had a little bit more space, but honestly, what I have now is just right.