Category Archives: Gardening

Planting, Growing, Care

by | June 1, 2011 · 4:08 pm

The Carrot Patch

When planting the garden, don’t forget about the carrots!  Carrots are often thought of only as a spring time planting, but I like to plant carrots though the growing season into early summer and then again in the fall.  Home-grown carrots have a sweet juicy flavor that can’t compare, thank goodness,  with supermarket carrots bland taste.  I plant closely and start to thin out baby carrots for early nibbles and roasted baby carrots.  When growing your own carrots you have so many more choices.  Carrots are diverse.  Some varieties are pencil thin and some short and stubby.  Colors go beyond the familiar orange.  Purples, white, and yellow are so fun to display on a white dish at the dinner table.  And who can’t resist eating a few straight from the ground.

If you have ever grown carrots and they each seem to have grown many legs in many directions, you can probably blame your soil.   Carrots grow best in sandy soils with good drainage.  Work in plenty of organic matter (compost).  If you have clay soil you can amend with perlite or vermiculite and peat moss.  This opens up the soil allowing your carrots to grow longer root systems.  If your soil is still being worked and is not yet loamy, don’t let that stop you from planting carrots.  Just plant varieties that are shorter like, Chantenay varieties.  They are also very good winter keepers.  Just let them stay in the ground over winter.  This is a great way to have fresh carrots all winter long without taking up space in the root cellar or frig.  If you live in a cold region put a layer of straw over them the keep the tops from getting damaged from frost.  Carrots require an open sunny site.  Sow seeds outdoors in early spring until summer.   Carrots do not transplant well.  Broadcast seed, tamp down and cover with a thin layer of fine compost.  You can also sow carrots and radishes in the same row.  Just be very careful when pulling radishes that you don’t disturb the carrots too much by pulling the radish with one hand and the other holding down any carrots that might want to come with.  Water with a gentle wand so as not to disturb the seed much.  Keep soil surface moist till carrots germinate.  I wait to thin my carrots until they are big enough to eat as baby carrots, 2-3″.  This does take away from the size of later carrots a bit, but I don’t mind a  smaller carrot.  You can thin early when greens are 1-2″ tall to 2–3″ apart.  Put thinnings into your compost pile.  Keep weeds out of your crop making sure not to disturb the roots too much.  Carrots are companions with onions and chives.  Now!  Go plant some carrots!

Roasted Baby Carrots With Honey and Rosemary   

     

Scrub baby carrots.  Trim off all but 1/2 inch of the greens, arrange carrots in a single layer on a foil-lined baking sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil and roll back and forth to coat.  Roast until carrots are tender when pierced with a fork, about 20-40 minutes.  remove from oven and season with salt and pepper.  Drizzle hot carrots with a little honey and finely chopped fresh rosemary.   Easy and so good!

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by | May 27, 2011 · 4:32 pm

Growing Peppers

Peppers!  So many flavors, colors, sweet, mild, hot and………WOW give me some milk fast HOT!  I grow them all.  Peppers are warm weather lovers.  Although, over 90 degrees for extended periods they stop producing fruit.    I start planting peppers starts in my garden around the first of May.  Any earlier they don’t grow and the spring winds we get howling through the garden, they seem to suffer and get torn up.  If I do get the urge to plant sooner I do cover them with row cover.  My peppers usually get popped into a spot where lettuce was grown for early spring harvest and is then cleared out.  I work the soil and add 4″ of compost.  Ahh, compost!  My peppers receive full sun until around 5 pm.  It gets hot here and I have to protect the fruit with floating row cover from sunburn.  Peppers with sunburn get a leathery, sunken look on the top and south side of  the pepper where the sun hits it the most during hot days.  Space peppers 12 inches apart.  This close planting helps the plants shade their own fruit from sunburn.  When planting, I will add a tablespoon of all-purpose fertilizer (well-balanced) in each hole and mix it up a little with the existing soil and pop the pepper plant in covering the roots ball, but not firmly.  Water deeply and don’t let the soil dry out.  I start to mulch mine when the mercury rises.   This helps retain water and keep the roots cooler.  I fertilize every three weeks until mid-fall.  When harvesting your peppers cut off the fruit rather than tug and pull.  The plants are brittle and you don’t want to pull on a pepper and end up with half of the plant in your hand.  Peppers don’t like to be planted with onions.  It seems to stunt them. Try some new varieties this year and surprise yourself. Ancho and Anaheim for roasting,  little sweet stuffing peppers with a little bit of cheese on the grill,  jalapeno for mango salsa, cayenne for making your own cayenne pepper.  What ever peppers you choose find new ways to serve them, because there are so many.  Why get stuck in a rut! 

Summer Bell Salad

  • 1 large red bell pepper cut into bite sized pieces
  • 1 large yellow bell pepper cut into bite sized pieces
  • 1 large green bell pepper cut into bite sized pieces
  • 6 green onions, minced
  • 4 cups baby spinach
  • 1/4 cup parsley, chopped
  • 1/2 cup golden raisins
  • 1/2 cup walnuts or pecans coarsely chopped
  • Mix everything in a large bowl and toss with dressing

Dressing for Bell Salad

  • 1/8 cup raspberry vinegar
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt
  • Dash of pepper
  • Combine all ingredients until blended and pour over bell salad

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by | May 23, 2011 · 8:33 pm

Planting Companions

In nature, where plants grow without the ground being worked, there is always a mixture of plant types growing in an area that are happy in there habitat.  The type of plants living in an area depends on the soil type and climatic conditions .  Most plants that grow together in the wild are mutually beneficial in that they allow for maximum light utilization, moisture and soil conditions.  This is what we call companion planting.  Plants have a beneficial effect on different garden plants because of some peculiar characteristic of their growth, scent, or root formation and soil demands.  Some plants that have strong orders, including those with aromatic oils, play a role in determining just which insects visit the garden.  While some plants repel, they can also hinder the growth rate of other plants or otherwise adversely affect them.  I have seen good results and not so good.  Yes, tomatoes like carrots, but you do sacrifice a little bit in the size of your carrots due to the shading that tomatoes cause.  I don’t mind because I like tomatoes more and I like baby carrots better!  I have listed some things that grow well together. 

  • Basil: Tomatoes (improves growth and flavor)
  • Bean: Potatoes, carrots, cucumber, summer savory
  • Beets: Onions, kohlrabi
  • Borage: Tomatoes (improves flavor & growth, deters tomato worm, attracts bees) squash, strawberries
  • Carrots: Peas, lettuce, chives, onions, leeks, rosemary, sage, tomatoes
  • Chive: Radishes
  • Chervil:  Radishes (improves growth & flavor)
  • Dill: Cabbage (improves growth & health), carrots
  • Flax: Carrots & potatoes
  • Fennel: Most plants seem to dislike it. 
  • Garlic: Roses & raspberries (deters Japanese beetle), plant liberally throughout garden to deter pests
  • Horseradish:  Potatoes (deters potato beetle)
  • Hyssop: Cabbage (deters cabbage moths) grapes
  • Lemon Balm: Here and there in the garden
  • Marigold:  Keeps soil free of nematodes, discourages many insects. Plant freely in the garden.
  • Pea: Squash
  • Petunia: Protects beans, beneficial throughout the garden
  • Nasturtium: Deters aphids
  • Rosemary: Carrots, beans, cabbage, sage
  • Summer Savory: Beans, onions, deters bean beetles
  • Tansy: Plant under fruit trees, deters ants squash bugs
  • Thyme: Plant throughout the garden
  • Wormwood: As a border, keeps animals out of the garden
  • Yarrow: Plant along borders, near paths, enhances essential oils in production of herbs.

Not only do these plants improve the growing, flavor and overall health, they also give your garden interest and character.  Don’t forget to add to your garden journal which plants thrived and which, not so much.

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by | May 22, 2011 · 5:54 pm

Creating a Succulent Garden Bench

Even here where the temperatures reach above 100 degrees for more than three months and winter months dropping in the teens, these succulents grow and spread across the bench cheering up a blank space in a corner of the yard.  Simply cover the seat of the bench and up the back a ways in burlap and then a layer of thick weed mat.  Burlap is more appealing to look at then the weed mat, so that is the only reason for using it.  Use a good potting soil to fill in the seat and up the back and start planting your favorite succulents.  They will fill in with time but for an instant look plant thickly.  Tuck the burlap in and around the plants to cover any potting soil and weed mat.  Water in!  I only water about 2 to 3 times a week here in the desert and no water during the winter unless we have had a complete drought.  Use Hen and Chicks,  Dragons Blood Sedums,  Stonecrop and anything available.  Once they start to crowd out, thin out and share with a friend for their new bench.

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