Tomatoes at the Roofline

So, my tomatoes keep growing taller. I've already expanded my staking system once - you may remember that I had to exchange my 5 ft stakes in the Ultomato staking kit for 6 ft stakes. Now my plants are reaching 7 ft, so I ended up adding an extension to the top. Sungold tomato is the tallest with Brandywine not far behind.

I used zip-ties to attach a thinner stake to the ones already in place.

Then I added side supports with this soft wire.

Now the plants can climb up to the roof!

Bunches of Basil

What should you do with all that basil in the garden? Make basil pesto, of course - it's easy and well worth it! The scent given off by the basil as you prepare this dish will fill the whole kitchen with an intoxicating aroma. And enjoying fresh pesto is absolutely a treat to savor. I could eat it plain, by the spoonful, because it's so delicious.

The ingredients are:

2 cups packed basil

1/3 cup pine nuts

3 cloves garlic

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan (or similar) cheese

salt and pepper

Blend 2 cups (packed very tightly) of basil and 1/3 cup pine nuts.

Add 3 cloves of garlic. Blend.

Add 1/2 cup olive oil a little at a time. Blend.

Now add 1/2 cup freshly grated cheese - parmigiano-reggiano, parmesan, romano, etc. (If you plan to freeze your pesto, then don't add the cheese - you can add it directly to your dish later, or combine it in the blender with your pesto once defrosted.) Blend.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Blend.

Basil Pesto!

Now have a snack before dinner...

Are you still hungry for dinner?

For a variation on this pesto, substitute 3/4 cup sundried tomatoes for 1 cup of the basil and you will have a delicious sundried tomato basil pesto recipe. It is also delicious mixed with pasta, or spread it on sliced bread for a mouthwatering treat.

Bamboo Teepee

My pea plants were not able to climb the stakes that I originally had in place because they were too big in diameter. I was using 6 ft green plastic stakes. After I replaced them with these very skinny 6 ft bamboo stakes, they were able to grab on and start climbing. I made a teepee out of 9 stakes and tied the plants to the stakes to direct their growth. So far, so good!

Garden Log #3

The front yard garden bed was planted on July 12 with the following vegetables.

Seeds:

Kohlrabi Purple & White Vienna Blend (Brassica oleracea)

Radish French Breakfast (Raphanus sativus)

Turnip Purple Top White Globe (Brassica rapa)

Bok choy White Stem (Brassic rapa Chinesis Group)

These vegetables were chosen because of their short growing season and the limited amount of time left in Michigan before frost.

I also planted these transplants:

9 Cabbage Bonnie Hybrid

1 Sweet Banana Pepper

1 Mammoth Jalapeno

1 Jalapeno

2 California Green Pepper

3 Black Beauty Eggplant

1 Japanese Eggplant

28 Little Gem Lettuce

Butterhead lettuce transplanted on June 30

Herbs planted July 16:

Lemon Thyme

Silver-Edged Thyme

Chives

Greek Basil

Dill

Italian Parsley (4)

Rosemary

I also planted a variety of annual flowers in the bed including impatiens, marigolds, petunia, allysum, and vinca.

All transplants, except the lettuce, were fertilized with a sprinkle of time release fertilizer in the planting hole.

"Clean-Out-The-Fridge" Easy Vegetable Stir-Fry

This is the easiest stir-fry to make and it has a lot of flavor too. Very comparable to your favorite chinese dish at the local restaurant. I make it when I need something quick for dinner, or when I need to use up an assortment of vegetables in the fridge. It will be a nice way to enjoy some of the peppers, eggplant, cabbage, and bok choy that I planted in the garden.

Here's what I found in my vegetable bin - but you can use anything that you have.

The seasoning is only 3 ingredients.

Stir fry all the veges in some oil until they are crisp-tender. I start with the onions, then the harder vegetables, then the softer ones.

Now add some hoisin sauce, a little chili sauce (be careful - it's hot!), and soy sauce to taste.

Voila! Dinner is served!

Go Ahead! Plant Vegetables in your Front Yard.

Having a container vegetable garden on your deck is a fun and convenient way to grow vegetables, however, the space limitations are one drawback to this method. Some gardeners may be compelled to start expanding their garden out into the yard so they can grow a greater variety of vegetables.

I found that it was easier to plant more vegetables in the garden beds that we already had in place, rather than creating a new area, and this happened to be in the front yard. It takes a little more consideration for design and plant type, but vegetables can be an attractive way to greet guests as they come up the walkway to your front door.

As you can see, we already had our foundation plantings in place - very respectable Stella d'Oro daylilies and evergreen shrubs. To liven up the area, I added a few stepping stones, some herbs and a variety of vegetables, and mixed it all together with some brightly colored annuals. Now, from a distance everything is pretty, and up close you can see that a gardener lives on the premises!

For a complete listing of what I planted see Garden Log #3.

Oh No! Late Blight.

We have a serious problem here.  Late blight has struck 3 of my 5 tomato plants.  Some sources say this means certain death, but I'm going to play my odds and try a copper fungicide spray.  It's an organic spray, but can be damaging to the soil.  Since my vegetables are in containers I'm not as worried about it building up in the soil.  Late blight has been a huge problem this year due to the cool, damp weather and possible contamination of plants by "big box" stores.  Unfortunately, I bought some of my plants from "Big Box Lowes".  Next year I will definitely buy my plants from local greenhouses or start my own seedlings at home.  

Anticipating Cabbage from the Garden

Baked egg rolls are a good way to use surplus cabbage from your vegetable garden.  The baked version with olive oil is much healthier than the standard deep frying method.  They won't be quite as crispy, but it's definitely worth trying!

Can you find the Hummingbird?

This is a female ruby-throated hummingbird at my new feeder.  It only took three days before they found it on my deck, flying very close to my back door.  They don't seem afraid of the close proximity, but disappear in a flash when I try to take pictures.

Notice the hummingbird's long bill, inside of which is a long tongue they use to lap up the nectar.  They certainly need the energy because in early fall the ruby-throated hummingbird migrates to Mexico and Central America flying at least 500 miles nonstop across the Gulf of Mexico.  Whew!

Activity in the Garden: Blossoms, Buds, and Baby Fruit

Here are my cayenne peppers - lots of long green peppers.

The nasturtiums have been so bright and cheery with lots of blossoms.

Sungold tomato- can't wait!

Lots of chili red peppers growing straight up in the air.

A female cucumber flower waiting to be pollinated by bees.  You can see the fruit at the bottom of the flower, which means it is female.  The male flowers are on the same plant and provide the pollen.  Once this is accomplished by the pollinator (me?) then the flower will fall off and the cucumber will develop.

A yellow bell pepper flower.  The plant has really not grown much, but it looks like I may have some peppers anyway!

Plucking Radishes and Lettuce Thinnings

Pulling those little radishes out of the pot was really a lot of fun and very satisfying.  I enjoyed it tremendously and can't wait to do it again!  

I finally got around to thinning my Little Gem lettuce, and the thinnings provided a nice amount of lettuce for dinner.  Then I transplanted a bunch into the front yard garden bed, which has become my overflow vegetable plot.

Favorite Summer Harvest Lunch

If you need  something delicious to make for an easy lunch during your gardening break, then you might try this combination.  Bagels, hummus, fresh basil leaves, tomato, and aged provolone cheese.  I toast the bagel, put it all together, and then melt the cheese a little.  Delicious with a glass of iced tea out on the deck.  This will also be a nice way to enjoy your summer harvest of homegrown tomatoes and sweet basil.

Eggplant Harvest (not yet)

I'm making plans for later this summer when my eggplant and tomato will be ready for harvest.  Here's a baked stuffed eggplant dish with tomatoes and lots of fresh herbs.  It was delicious with sauteed crimini mushrooms, zucchini and spiced rice.  Thanks to my mom and dad for the summer tablecloth birthday present!

Garden Break

Not everything delicious grows in the garden...

Mmmm... crispy around the edges and chewy in the middle, warm from the oven.

Garden Log #2

It has been awhile since most of my vegetables were planted, so this is an update on how they are growing.  

Weather:  It has been a cooler than average summer this year, with temperatures often in the 50's at night.  Even now, we still have the heat on at night in the house!  We have also received plenty of rainfall, and watering has not been necessary every day.  We just turned our sprinklers on the first week of July.  Sunshine has probably been less than average.

Pests and Diseases:  Earwigs are the biggest problem, attacking the eggplant and the basil.  They have also eaten oregano, nasturtium, and yellow pepper.  I have trapped around 120 of these in the tuna can/vegetable oil trap.  Flea beetles are a moderate problem.  I have not taken any measures to control these yet.  They have attacked all the tomatoes, and leaf damage is noticeable on the older leaves.  The apple mint had rust colored residue on the undersides of the leaves.  I pulled it out of its pot and threw it in the back field.  I have had a small number of green aphids on both eggplant varieties.  I picked them off manually with a toothpick and dropped them in soapy water.  There was a cocoon on my sweet basil which I threw in the back field.  I have just begun to find  leafhoppers in my black seeded simpson with signs of some plant damage.

Wildlife:  I have observed wild turkey regularly.  There is also a red fox which I spotted twice in the backyard.  There are many squirrels, but they have not come onto the deck.  Many songbirds and crows.  One hummingbird.  Occasional deer.  No rabbits.

Fertilizer:  The potting soil contained a slow release fertilizer.  On July 6 I used Miracle Gro tomato fertilizer for the first time at the amount recommended on the package.  I did foliar feeding and root feeding in the evening.  I fed the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and strawberries.  It seems that there may be a small amount of fertilizer burn on the foliage of the Japanese eggplant and the brandywine tomato.  There are brown edges on some of the leaves.  Next time I may use half strength fertilizer.  

Growth:  

• Tomatoes - all growing profusely with many flowers, sungold has 2 small fruits. Plant height is:

Brandywine - 36 inches
Sungold - 36 inches
Patio - 24 inches
Better Bush - 18 inches
Husky Cherry Red - 21 inches

• Eggplant - New leaves have been appearing, growth  is just beginning in the last week

Japanese Long - 11 inches
Dusky - 17 inches

• Yellow Bell Pepper - Very minimal growth - 10 inches tall
• Boston Pickling Cucumber - Strong growth, climbing support, no flowers, 19 inches tall
• Everbearing Strawberry - Growth is not impressive, there have been 3 very small somewhat deformed berries, runners have not migrated to bottom holes of pot.
• Hot peppers - Some growth, many flowers, many green peppers have formed, no red peppers yet

Cayenne - 17 inches
Chili Red - 14 inches

• Early Perfection Peas - About 6 - 8 inches high, are climbing each other but have not attached to the support yet.
• Carrots - Have all sprouted with first true leaves.  Plants still very small - about 2 inches.
• Radish - Very strong growth (about 6 inches tall) with small radishes forming.  Many plants did not take root well and while the plant is still alive, there is no radish root forming.  I can only figure that this is due to the heavy rain which occurred shortly after they sprouted, and possibly uprooted the plant.   There are no signs of insects or worms in the soil.  
• Lettuce - All growing well, butterhead thinned, still need to thin Little Gem (this is overdue).  Harvested mesclun mix.  Spinach is still small.  Leaf lettuces are about 4 inches high.  Head lettuces about 3 inches.  Butterhead lettuce planted in front yard is growing well.
• Herbs - Sweet basil growing profusely, nasturtiums very strong with flowers just beginning, chives, thyme and parsley growing well, rosemary and oregano growing moderately.

Pictures:  Taken June 19/July 7