Week 45 Tips for the Zone 9 Garden

Well, turns out all of our recent rains did not ruin my tomatoes!  Last night I brought in 6 pounds of Celebrity, Stupice and Black From Tula.  Some of them were a little cracked but they were in mostly great condition.  Unfortunately, the cucumbers did not fare as well.  Ever since the big rains of a couple of weeks ago they have shut down and the vines have begun to wither.  I think the combination of high moisture and unseasonably warm temperatures turned on the nematodes.  I will find out tomorrow when I pull them up.

Most of those crops that we planted back in August are ready for harvest.  I am going to focus this week’s tips on the harvest and preservation of the some of the crops that are now in the vegetable garden.  On another note, don’t forget that right now is a great time to plant trees and shrubs.  It is also a great time to over seed your lawn with rye grass.

Dried tomatoes are packed with flavor.  Slowly dry tomates in a 200 degree oven, spinkle with sea salt and drizzle with olive oil.  Anzing flavor and they will keep in the refrigerator for up to a month.

Dried tomatoes are packed with flavor. Slowly dry tomates in a 200 degree oven, spinkle with sea salt and drizzle with olive oil. Anzing flavor and they will keep in the refrigerator for up to a month.

  • Harvest fall tomatoes – It is supposed to drop into the 40 next Monday. Since tomatoes do not like temperatures below 50 pull any that are beginning to show color.  I would not pull the green tomatoes yet.  I leave my green tomatoes on the vine until the night before the first freeze.  By doing this I have had years where I was still harvesting vine ripened tomatoes up to the week before Christmas.
  • Harvest squash- I think we are still a couple of weeks away from the first freeze. Be aware that all squash, both summer and winter types, are extremely cold sensitive.  Do not let these crops stay on the vine when a freeze is expected.  I use my fall “summer squash” squash to make what we call “Chow Chow”.  I’ve heard it called other things but it is basically squash relish.  When it gets a little cooler, nothing is better than Chow Chow with those black eyed peas that you still have in the freezer.  Here is a simple and tasty Chow Chow recipe if you want to give it a try:  http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/yellow-summer-squash-relish.

    I love making (and eating) homemade pickles.  There are tons of great recipes out there on the internet.

    I love making (and eating) homemade pickles. There are tons of great recipes out there on the internet.

  • Harvest cucmbers – Before my vines shut down we harvested enough cucumbers to make 10 pints of pickles. Pickles take a little work and a few supplies to make but they are easy to make and taste so much better than store bought.  To me, potato salad, tuna salad and chicken salad aren’t worth eating if they are not made with home made pickles. Here is the recipe my wife follows (kind of) to make our pickles:  http://www.food.com/recipe/claussen-kosher-pickle-copycat-249520
  • Harvest beets – When I tell people that I love beets they usually look at me funny. Because of this I am getting much enjoyment seeing TV chef use the humble beet in many of their very fancy dishes.  While I have not tried them roasted yet I do love them pickled.  Harvest beets when they are about the size of a ping pong ball for best for best flavor and texture.  You can harvest them even smaller than that if you are going to roast them.  Check out my post, Growing Beets, to learn a simple way to turn you beets into so amazing refrigerator pickles!

    Read my article on growing beets and see how my family has made pickled beets for the past 97 years!

    Read my article on growing beets and see how my family has made pickled beets for the past 97 years!

I share these posts on Our SimpleHomestead Blog Hop.  Be sure to stop by.  The “hop” has tons of great information from gardeners and homesteaders all over the world!

Week 43 Tips for the Zone 9 Garden

As I write this I am listening to the sounds of water dripping off my roof! I am also enjoying the lightning storm that is telling me more rain is on the way!.  Thanks to a whole weekend of thunderstorms, I am hoping to do absolutely nothing in the garden!  If you get rained in this weekend I recommend reading the latest issue of Texas Gardener.  This issue is really good.  Friend and co-blogger Patty Leander has an excellent article on growing microgreens.  For those of us who need to grow something all year round, her excellent article tells you how to grow these flavorful (and pretty fancy) greens all winter long.  If it is not raining on you this weekend there is plenty to do in your fall yard and garden.

Its been a while since I saw water dripping of the roof and the trees!

Its been a while since I saw water dripping of the roof and the trees!

!!!!!!!CAUTION/AVISO!!!!!!

Sally walked out of our guest house this weekend and almost stepped on a young copperhead that was coming up the steps to meet her!  Copperheads love hunting at dusk and they love pockets of high humidity.  Right now they are breeding and trying to bulk up for winter.  Since this is one of their most active times of the year you really need to wear sturdy boots and carry a stick when you are out in your yard and garden.  Please be careful out there! Just FYI, if you get bitten by a copperhead you are probably going to be ok.  If bitten, go to the hospital ASAP but know that, even though they are the most aggressive of the poisonous snakes in Texas, they are the least venomous.

beet-sprouts-1

Don’t fertilize your plants until they have developed their true leaves.

VEGETABLES

  • Plant root crops from seed – Last night I put out my second planting of beets. I also put out icicle radishes and three varieties of carrots (Danvers, Danvers Shorts and Cosmic Purple).  You can still plant all root crops from seed plus chard, kale, collards and mustard greens.
  • Make Compost Tea- I do not recommend fertilizing any plant until it is past the cotyledon size. Once your brassicas, lettuces, spinach or root crops have their true leaves, feed them!  When plants are small I really like foliar applications of compost tea.  To make compost tea, add a cup of molasses to five gallons of rain water.  Add an old sock that has been filled with compost and tied at the end.  Place outside and stir twice a day for a week or ten days.  Then pour directly on your plants or strain and apply with a sprayer.
The only thing cuter than my grandson is my grandson enjoying a playdate in a pumpkin patch!!!

The only thing cuter than my grandson is my grandson enjoying a playdate in a pumpkin patch!!!

ORNAMENTALS

  • Water your decorations! – Right now it is hard to find a yard a porch that does not have a big bunch of mums on it. Water the mums almost daily. To extend, or encourage their bloom, feed weekly with Miracle Grow mixed to 50% of the recommended rate.
  • Plant ryegrass now! – If you can beat the rain, this weekend will be a perfect time to over seed your lawn with rye.
  • Move plants – I need to move several little crepe myrtles that have popped up from seeds. Now is the best time to move them and all other perennials.  For best results move perennials when they are small, take as many roots as possible, plant them slightly higher than they were in their original location and then water, water, water!

 

I share these posts on Our SimpleHomestead Blog Hop.  Be sure to stop by.  The “hop” has tons of great information from gardeners and homesteaders all over the world!

Week 33 Tips for the Zone 9 Garden

As I write this I am sitting on an incredibly comfortable 75 degree back porch in Oklahoma City.  Sally and I came north to spend a little time with our grandson (and his parents).  Since this weekend is the official kick off of the Fall garden season I will be driving back on Saturday so I can begin planting my garden in the 100+ temperatures that we are expecting this weekend.

Roger and I having a little fun while mom and Nana do a little shopping

Roger and I having a little fun while mom and Nana do a little shopping

Vegetables

  • Plant the following from seed – While it is still too hot for transplants, there are many things you can plant this weekend from seed. Below is what I will be planting (don’t forget to check our planting calendar to get a complete list of what you can plant from seed this weekend):
    • Green Beans
    • Black eyed peas
    • Beets
    • Carrots
    • Kale
    • Collards
    • Mustard Greens
    • Squash (both summer and winter varieties)
    • Chard
    • Lima Beans
  • Prepare beds for transplants – By September 1 you can plant most transplants. Get your beds ready now by removing all weeds, rebuilding the row or beds and then applying a deep layer of compost.  Once this is done mulch heavily and begin watering on a regular basis
  • Plant tomato transplants ASAP – I know I said wait until September 1 to plant transplants, but tomatoes are an exception. Plant them as soon as they show up in stores.  Most tomatoes take so long to mature that you need to get them in the ground now if you want red fall tomatoes.  Baby them!  Give them a little shade cloth, lots of water and mulch heavily with finished compost.  Then feed them with liquid fertilizer.  Fall tomatoes need to establish quickly and start putting on flowers early in the fall season.
Now is the time to spend money on compost.  Everything in your Fall garden will benefit from the addition of compost

Now is the time to spend money on compost. Everything in your Fall garden will benefit from the addition of compost

Ornamentals

  • Prepare beds for fall – Flower beds need the same work as the vegetable garden. Remove weeds now.  Fertilize heavily with finished compost and mulch.  Begin watering regularly to encourage fall blooming bulbs to sprout
  • Plant from seed – This weekend is a great time to plant more zinnias, cockscomb, marigolds and sunflowers from seed
  • Plant from transplant – While it is too hot to plant transplants in the vegetable garden, garden beds that get some shade can receive several great transplants. Some of my favorites are pentas and angelonia
  • Refresh potted plants. If summer has zapped the plants in your pots I recommend redoing them.  Throw away spent plants and soil.  Replace with a high quality planting mix that has perlite or other water holding components.  When watering in plants use a water soluble fertilizer mixed to 50% of package recommendations.  Some of my favorite fall potted plants are coleus and portulaca
coleus-potted-plant

Coleus and portulaca are some of my favorite potted plants

Trees and Lawns

  • Prepare trees and shrubs for transplant – if you have a tree or shrub that needs to be moved, now is the time to start getting ready. The larger the tree or shrub is the more preparation it needs.  Start giving it a slow, soaking watering every third day.  This will assure the plant is full hydrated before its move
  • Continue to water trees and shrubs deeply – If your trees or shrubs are shedding leaves now there is a good chance they are suffering root stress. It has been very hot lately.  This is very hard on young trees and woody perennials.  Mulch heavily, water deeply and regularly and feed with a slow release fertilizer.

 

I share these posts on Our SimpleHomestead Blog Hop.  Be sure to stop by.  The “hop” has tons of great information from gardeners and homesteaders all over the world!

Brassicas Rule, Cannas Drool by Patty G. Leander

Cannas may be beautiful in the summer time, but they sure aren’t very pretty after a freeze. Mine bit the dust right around Christmas, when Old Man Winter showed up and decided to stick around for awhile. Of course my small bed of canna lilies dies back every year yet every year I am amazed at the contrast of the gloomy canna skeletons against the vibrant greens, purples and reds of the brassicas that shrug off the cold weather and keep on growing, proving once again that they deserve a prime spot in the winter garden.

cannas-freeze-damage

Canna lilies would prefer to spend their winter on a tropical island (me too!) but they’ll be back this summer. Photo by Bruce Leander

Seasoned gardeners are well aware of these gems of the winter garden, but for novice gardeners and those who have been on the fence about a winter garden, I’d like to share a few easy-to-grow vegetables to consider planting next fall.

Chinese-Cabbage

Mustards, kale and Chinese cabbages love the cold weather. Photo by Bruce Leander

I usually plant sugar snap peas twice a year, mid-September and late January. This year I planted a vining variety from Seed Savers Exchange, called ‘Amish Snap’, on September 17. I started picking on November 11 and plants were still producing in December even after several light freezes. On January 8th we experienced a freeze with temperatures that fell into the low 20s; the plants survived but the peas took a hit (Note: a more diligent gardener would have harvested the pods before the arrival of a predicted hard freeze!). The outer pods were damaged but many of the peas inside were perfectly edible, with a flavor slightly reminiscent of, well, frozen peas. Since the vines are healthy and the weather is mild, I’ll leave the vines for now to see if I’ll get a another flush of blooms and pods, but in the meantime I’ll seed another round of peas for a spring harvest.

Amish-Snap-Peas

‘Amish Snap’ peas: planting seeds in September, ready to harvest in November, freeze damage in January. Photo by Bruce Leander

Swiss chard, beets and spinach do not belong to the brassica family but they are ideal specimens for a winter garden.

beets-in-hand

Beets that were seeded in September have provided roots and lovely greens all winter long. Photo by Bruce Leander

Other stalwarts for the winter garden include onions, spinach, carrots and almost every herb you can imagine, except basil. We still have cold winter days ahead and any of these vegetable or herbs could be planted this month to bridge the gap between winter and spring.

multiplying-onions

Multiplying onions look grow so well in the winter garden, and they look great too! Photo by Bruce Leander

winter-mint

Brighten up your winter meals with the fresh flavor of multiplier onions, mint, dill and oregano.

Growing Beets (Beta vulgaris)

Beets are one of those vegetables that take me back to childhood.  My Aunt Sarah and Uncle Tom grew them.  At their house, no summer meal was complete without a side of cold pickled beets.  My aunt and uncle were carrying on a tradition that started more than 4000 years ago.  That’s when the people that know about these things believe beets were first cultivated and consumed in the areas around the Mediterranean sea.  These early beet lovers ate the roots and the tops.  In fact, they ate beet greens until spinach was introduced around AD 850.  The Romans used beets as a food staple.  They also used them to dye their clothes, cure their constipation and spice up their love lives (they considered beets an aphrodisiac).  Since the Romans ate them, they spread to Europe.  Most European countries developed their own recipes that embraced the beet (think borsch).  And, thanks to Napoleon, they also grew them to make sugar.  However, with all of that history, I still can’t get anyone at my house to eat them except me.

Larry and Carol Ann Sayle grow a variety of beets at Boggy Creek Farms.  Photo from their website.  http://www.boggycreekfarm.com/

Larry and Carol Ann Sayle grow a variety of beets at Boggy Creek Farms. Photo from their website. http://www.boggycreekfarm.com/

Growing  – There are two types of beets regularly grown in the home garden; var flaviscens and var vulgaris. Flaviscens is the botanical name for chard.  Many people do not realize that chard is actually a beet that has been developed more for its stem and leaves than for its roots.  Vulgaris is what the majority of us think of when we think about beets.  Most of the beets grown in the home garden have a characteristic, deep red bulb (Bull’s Blood).  However, there are varieties available that are white (Albino), yellow (Golden) and striped (Chioggia).

Freshly germinated Bull's Blood Beets.  Notice how much they look like chard at this stage.

Freshly germinated Bull’s Blood Beets. Notice how much they look like chard at this stage.

Beets can be grown almost year round in gardens a little further north than mine.  However, they prefer cooler temperatures and grow best when the air temperature is between 65 and 75 degrees.  Since it gets so hot here I confine my beet production to the fall and early spring garden.  Around mid- September, I plant my first row of beets.  I often add another row in October, November and December (they can survive all but the worst freezes that Zone 9 can throw at them).  This succession planting will keep me in beets right up to March.  To plant, I dig a shallow furrow with my trusty Cobrahead Hand Hoe, scatter the seeds, cover and water.  Within a few days, they sprout.  In fact, so many little plants pop up that I am convinced they have about a 110% germination rate!

Chard is actually a beet that has been bred for its stems and leaves

Chard is actually a beet that has been bred for its stems and leaves

Once the true leaves form, I start thinning to about 4” apart. They will mature in 45-70 days depending on variety.  For best production, keep your beats evenly moist throughout their lifecycle.  Beets will stop growing at whatever size they are at if the soil is allowed to dry out.  Harvest your beets when they are 1 ½” to 2” in diameter.  If beets get too big they become very fibrous and are not fit to eat.

Pickled Beets – Pickled beets are a family tradition at our house.  My grandparents married in 1916 and I am sure my grandmother started making them for my “Pa” around that time.  So, at least someone in my family has been enjoying pickled beets for the past 100 years.  My grandmother taught my mother to make them and my mother has now taught me.  Here’s how we do it:

 

Pickled beets will keep for weeks in the refrigerator

Pickled beets will keep for weeks in the refrigerator

Remove tops from approximately 12 beets.  Leave 1” of top on the root.  This will prevent red beets from “bleeding” as much when you boil them.  Place the beets in a large pan and bring to a boil.  Boil until the beets are soft.  Their skins will wrinkle when they are ready.  Drain and run cold water over them to cool.  Take the beets in your hand and gently squeeze.  This will force the beet out of its skin.  Remove any stubborn skin with a knife.  While the skinless beets are cooling combine the following ingredients into a sauce pan and bring to a boil.

2 cups vinegar

1 cup water

¼ cup sugar

1 Heaping tablespoon of salt

6 whole cloves (optional)

Once the mixture boils, reduce heat to simmer.  Cut beets into ¼” slices and place in jars.  Pour the vinegar mixture into the jars until it just covers the beets.  Seal the jars and place in the refrigerator.