nearing the end

Not too much happening in my garden these days. We've got Red Russian kale and collards (a second planting) that are going strong. Those prolific Matt's Wild Cherry Tomatoes and Mexican Sour Gherkins, still as prolific as ever. Our husk cherries are in a race with the frost. We were spared recently but for how long?

I like the end of the season. Not too much to worry about other than the harvest. There's the surprise of a final dahlia bloom, going outside to pick greens for dinner, the pure joy of cooking with your own produce in late September and possibly even into October. And if the frost comes, the knowledge that I'm just fine with fried green tomatoes or green tomato pickles.

Our harvest hasn't been a good one for preserving. We just didn't have the quantity this year. Lucky for us, we have friends who are also gardeners, and we've been gifted a store of carrots and tomatillos (for salsa verde, which I hope to can this weekend). Nothing beats walking down to the basement and pulling out a jar of homemade salsa verde to serve with chips in the winter. If you're wondering I like the recipe from Canning For a New Generation by Liana Krissoff.

A few standout recipes we've made lately:

creamed kale
ginger roasted carrots with miso dressing

How about your own gardens? What's still going strong? Do you enjoy the end of the gardening season?

cover cropping

we had such issues with soil fertility this year that we decided cover crops were a must for us. if we're lucky, the cover crops will help take care of our weed problem, too.



i love organic grower's supply handy dandy chart, which tells you all about the cover crops available. we selected two for our two gardens.


winter rye


and morton oats.

we simply sprinkled the seeds in all of our raised beds, even if there were still vegetables growing. a great place to use a cover crop is in your garlic bed, as soon as you harvest. broadcast your seeds, watch them grow, and then turn the cover crop under the soil before planting your garlic in october. cover crops definitely give your soil a boost, which in turn gives your vegetables a boost. win-win.

do you have any experience with cover cropping?

irene, cabbage worms and hornworms, and surprises

last saturday before irene hit vermont, my husband and i checked in on our gardens and harvested what we could. dried dill seed, small ears of corn, zucchini, and a luffa sponge that we thought for a split-second was a zucchini. by the time we realized what it was, we had cut it and put it in our basket.


it's always good to inspect your gardens regularly, impending storm or not, as you might stumble upon something like a hornworm that can really wreak havoc. we've had a time with the hornworms this year, finding them on green peppers and potatoes as well as tomatoes.



we also found evidence of the dreaded cabbage worm.



can you see them? they blend in so well.

so, we stopped harvesting and made a hot pepper spray for our brassicas.



you can find a similar recipe here.

we also found some wonderful surprises while on our rounds.



after two years of trying, i finally have a peppermint stripe dahlia. isn't it a beauty?



we've had this orange tree for years. it's traveled with us to denver, north carolina, and then vermont and has never produced fruit until this year. talk about surprising!

even though our gardens made it through the storm fine, others in my community were not as lucky. one of my favorite farms lost everything due to five foot flood waters. the entire state has been affected. please keep vermonters in your thoughts. it's been a difficult week.

around the garden: successes

it's so easy for something to go wrong in the garden. there's the weather, first and foremost. some days it seems like if we need rain we get unrelenting sunshine and even if it does rain, we get hail instead of a nice summer shower. the early spring had me doubting whether anything would grow, but i'm back to share with you some of our garden successes. i hope you'll share a few of yours with me, too.




so let's talk peppers for a moment. we haven't really had any luck growing green peppers here in vermont. i think the growing season is too short. this year, we decided to focus most of our energy on hot peppers. our hot portugal peppers (pictured above) and our hungarian hot wax are both doing beautifully.

garden lesson: to save on disappointment and seed costs, plant what does well in your area. take notes. if green peppers don't want to grow after several seasons, adapt your garden plan.



and now, i'm going to contradict myself because while i'm completely happy to let my local farmers grow green peppers, i will never give up on growing tomatoes. to me, it wouldn't be summer without tomatoes in my backyard. we've had mixed luck with them in vermont (including one brutal season of late blight), but i'm happy to report that this year, we have strong, healthy tomato plants.

garden lesson: grow what you love. try blight resistant varieties (read those seed catalogs!) and be vigilant. a daily walk through your garden may help to avert a disaster.



okay, now this is my favorite success story. sure, we've grown broccoli in the past but usually it's been nothing but a battle with cabbage worms. this year, not the case. i'm not even sure what we did differently. i am in LOVE with this variety, and of course, i want to share it with you. this, my friends, is an organic hybrid called fiesta. it can tolerate cold and heat, produces gorgeous heads, and i've heard it produces plentiful side shoots. the only downside to this variety is that you can't save seed because it's a hybrid. however, it's the best broccoli we've ever grown so i'm making notes to buy more seeds next year.

garden lesson: try new varieties. take notes to remember what performed well. celebrate the harvest by making a special supper with your homegrown produce.



i think i'm the most excited right now by this new variety of cucumber we're growing. this is the mexican sour gherkin that i first read about over at you grow girl. they are tiny cucumbers with a beautiful pattern on their skin much like a watermelon. the vines are thin and fragile but they seem to be producing a ton of cucumbers. we're excited to try these.

herbs

it has been raining non-stop here. the herbs love it and have taken off.

a few summers ago i volunteered at an herb garden and learned so much information about these edible plants. some herbs i grow in pots, like rosemary and fruity sage, as they are not hardy in zone four climates. as mentioned earlier, i grow chocolate mint, apple mint, and spearmint in pots to keep them somewhat contained. other herbs i grow in the beds near my front stoop. it's important to have your herbs nearby so you can hop outside and snip a few branches/leaves when you are preparing dinner.

here are some of our favorites(as they look today in the garden) and how we use them:


lemon balm. okay, i can hear you now. lemon balm is such a pain. it is true that lemon balm can spread but this just means that you have to use it. we love lemon balm fresh or dried in teas (hot or cold). i hear that it makes a lovely, lemony pesto when combined with garlic, olive oil and spices. a must try this summer. be creative and try substituting lemon balm whenever a recipe calls for lemon peel.

we cut this herb back probably twice a summer, which keeps it under control. every spring, it's the first herb that greens up and begins to grow. i love how lemon balm smells and even though it can be aggressive in the garden, i like having it in my herb bed.


anise hyssop.
this herb is so nice on fresh fruit salads. anise hyssop and watermelon are especially wonderful. a sprig of anise hyssop is also great in iced tea! an added bonus is that bees really like anise hyssop and we have four hives in our backyard. we just added anise hyssop to our garden last summer, and i'm happy we did.


chives.
i don't think i can imagine a garden without chives. so many uses for this easy-to-grow herb. we love making chive vinegar with the blossoms or adding the blossoms to salads. chives are great in stir fries and wonderful additions to butter or cream cheese.



parsley.
great for tabouli, chopped into salads, made into pesto. the list goes on and on.


sage.
i love that sage is still going strong in november when we want it to flavor our thanksgiving dishes. we also love fried sage leaves (so good!) in risotto.


oregano.
each summer we try to cut large bunches of oregano to hang from the rafters of our shed so that we can have a large jar of dried oregano for our pantry. a wonderful addition to pasta sauces.

we also grow cilantro (which is very tiny and hard to photograph at this date).

all of these herbs except for parsley (a biennial) and cilantro (an annual) are perennial and are fairly low-maintenance, in my opinion. it's nice to have herbs to use in the kitchen while we are waiting patiently for garden vegetables.

which herbs are your favorites and how do you use them in your kitchen?

unintentional overwintering

for some reason, i have never had much success growing carrots.  i can't explain why, but i do love them so.  so each year i try try again.  {in fact, the carrot seeds that i planted over two weeks ago still haven't germinated...but try again i will!}

last summer, i had an early season spinach failure and as soon as i ripped that spinach out, in went the carrots (on june 6, according to my garden journal).  they never seemed to be ready to harvest, so i just left them in there and kept on watering them all summer.  somehow, in the hub-bub of the end of the season, i forgot about them and just left them in the ground over the winter.  they were essentially mulched by leaves and multiple feet of snow, which insulated them throughout the winter.  last week, as i was clearing out my garden bed in preparation for planting lettuces and peas, i pulled up a handful of small, but crisp carrots.  what a delicious surprise to have something straight from the garden while the forecasts are still calling for snow this evening! 

this fall, i think i just i may intentionally plant some crops for overwintering. 

patience

sometimes, the hardest part of gardening is waiting. i am a zone 7 girl living in zone 4. spring snows happen frequently here in vermont.



our little backyard garden was covered in snow just two days ago.



but, the snow melted the next day. we already planted our large, sunny field garden with green peas, radishes, and lettuce but not a seed has sprouted. we may have to plant again if the seeds don't germinate. it's fine. we have plenty of seeds leftover.

when planting your vegetable garden, it is important to remember the following:

• be patient
• wait for the soil to dry out or your seeds could rot
  
• direct sow seeds based on your region's last frost date
• amend your soil only if necessary--take a soil test before amending (usually your local university extension will offer this test at a minimal cost)
  
• be patient

just last night while at a party someone said that they thought spring was having a breech birth this year. so true. while we're waiting for things to ramp up in our garden, we are enjoying the first of the daffodils and the coltsfoot that line the ditches on our dirt road. such vibrant yellows cheer us even on these windy and dark, cloudy days.