A Little Germ

Some sun, some work

2012-02-04T15:14:00.000-08:00

My gardening gloves are frozen, but the sunshine coaxed me out of the house this morning. I did about an hour of clean-up, collected lunaria branches and just sat on the back steps in the sun.

curry plant (helichrysum italicum)

It's been a dry winter with under 20 days of snowfall or rain. But, I think, the winter weather and weather event stats are always shocking, no matter what. We just want it to end and get back to walking barefoot outside on the patio. But, chill. Let winter do its thing.

I always feel sorry for plants that start to grow during the warm days in the winter. Frost will stab them dead at some point. By the time spring comes, I'm sure a thousand more of these chamomile seeds will sprout since I let so many of them go. I'll be happy for them once they're around in flower. I love their appley scent.

the L hill behind the garden

At the Orchid Bazaar (directions for waiting)

2012-01-25T23:57:00.000-08:00

In this season of sandy hail

that whips our cheeks and makes us feel sunburned;

in this season of frozen ground, frozen water;

a deep retreat into warmth and waiting —

slip a packet of seeds under your pillow

and dream about the orchid bazaar

or something else...the same idea...something green

you're looking forward to...a hedge, a tulip.

Or shake a seed pod first thing in the morning.

Make a list for the spring. Clear a space

on the desk to start tomato seeds.

Think of the yellow flowers.

Think of all that will go on.

(photo from the Hilo Farmers Market last year)

Late snow

2012-01-15T17:49:00.000-08:00

Not much winter weather, so far. In fact, we've had less than five days of snow.

October, November, December

2011-12-31T21:52:00.000-08:00

It's late December — a time for reflection.

I've been looking through my posts this year and looking at all of my photos from 2011 and decided it would be good to round up my favorites, some that have appeared on Little Germ already, and some that have not.

Here is the last set of my favorite shots from 2011.

KALE CLOUD

terrain, warm night

//though blurry, this photo of a bumpy lacinato kale cloud is one of my favorites from this year//the dark green vegetable inspired a delicious recipe, Lacquered Kale for two//

FALL DAYS

wet soil, understory

//the soil records the year; the soil is alive//the garden was a ladybug neighborhood this year — I saw it all! (ladybugs love cilantro)//

BACK INSIDE
bloom indoors

//my first roselle flower, a kind of hibiscus, startled me one day with its beauty//in December, surround yourself with houseplants, a bromeliad for example//

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

July, August, September

2011-12-30T22:06:00.000-08:00

It's late December — a time for reflection.

Tomorrow, I'll post some of my favorite photos from the last three months, finishing up this end-of-the-year series.

HYPNOSIS

//scaping season in July//garlic necks in loops//stacks of mustard seed pods on the patio — hypnotizing//

SIP

//garden tea — basil and toothache plant flowers, for example//

VERY FINE

//poppy petals//oiled paper//fleeting flower//

WATCH

//always, always keep posts in the garden for critters that land//

April, May, June

2011-12-29T20:09:00.000-08:00

It's late December — a time for reflection.

I'll make posts covering the rest of the year the next two days.

THAW

//when the soil warmed, and I went out to see, the skeletonized tomatillo husks were all around//

LITTLE GERM

//with frost still a possibility, seeds get started under lights indoors//this is only the beginning of the excitement//

REACH

//it was love at first sight, little shallot//I used my own seed stock this year and will again this spring!//

ENERGY PILL

//here and there — the warm days and sunlight//

January, February, March

2011-12-28T20:04:00.000-08:00

It's late December — a time for reflection.

This first set is from the first three months of this year. I'll make posts covering the rest of the year the next three days.

INDOORS & OUTDOORS

still, white, translucent

//deer on the hill above the L House garden space//lunaria pods glow at the wild margins of my lot// meditation with a houseplant until the warm weather comes//

or ESCAPE TO A WARM PLACE
fire colors, treasure hunt

//on a trip to see my family in Hawaii, glowing leaves on Mauna Loa//strawberry guava (waiawī) and ferns at my parent's house//unfurling uluhe fern among the strawberry guava//taro leaf in my brother's garden (with papaya behind it)//

Merry and bright.

2011-12-25T12:37:00.000-08:00

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

(dot and dash bromeliads @ Akatsuka Orchid Gardens, Volcano, Hawaii)

Gifts for Gardeners

2011-12-17T18:43:00.000-08:00

There's still time to get the gardener you love a gift to put under the tree. First tip, though: Avoid those pre-packaged gift sets with all your might.

No, instead, your gardener friend would like a Haws watering can:

Haws watering cans have been made in England since 1886. They are not cheap, but are also not frustrating to use. Gardeners can manage with the ubiquitous $15 plastic ones, but the cans can be awkward to maneuver and lift and usually, the rose, which probably leaks, is just for looks. Haws cans are balanced and even the spray through the brass rose is beautiful. Will probably last a lifetime, or longer!

Airplants are pretty tempting, and houseplants are mood-lifters during the frozen months. The airplant would look sweet presented in a simple glass dish, or stuck in some kind of porous rock or even perched on top of a vintage candlestick. My dad and uncle make beautiful airplant displays, usually Spanish moss attached to driftwood or an old boot. They're the best.

Though it is frozen outside and there's a wild wind, gardeners should stay in touch with their growing spaces. Encourage them with a turmeric-colored hat.

If your friend who gardens doesn't already have a favorite shoe for gardening tasks, I'd highly recommend Tretorn rubber boots. Unless it's really hot outside, I can't stand getting my feet wet. These 100% waterproof boots also protect skin from irritating high grass. These boots are really comfortable, they feel like sneakers and they aren't tight around the calves, so you can get them on and off quick. Plus, this brand of boot comes in a great range of colors, even bright yellow.

Gardening is trendy right now, so plenty of books on the subject are out — tempting, but not all of them useful. Nancy Bubel's "The New Seed-Starters Handbook," was a great resource for me when I decided I wanted to put in a real garden and start my own seeds. It's still a book I refer to all year.

Jack Staub's trilogy — "75 Remarkable Fruits for Your Garden," "75 Exceptional Herbs for Your Garden" and "75 Exciting Vegetables for Your Garden" — offers poetic, but useful descriptions of varieties plant-lovers would love to grow. I believe that "75 Exciting Vegetables ... " also sells under the title of "Alluring Lettuces."

"Minnie Rose Lovgreen's Recipe for Raising Chickens" is one of the sweetest little books I've ever come across (see photo at the top of this post). So often, gardeners aren't just growing their own vegetables, they're also raising their own animals for food (or hope to do it one day).

In the mid-'70s, the author dictated her chicken-raising advice to her neighbor and friend, Nancy Rekow. Rekow and Claire Frost edited and organized the advice into sections and another neighbor, Elizabeth Hutchison Zwick, made beautiful drawings to illustrate the text. Rekow even hand-lettered the 31-page book in a serif front. The book is in its third printing, and though Lovgreen, nearly 90, died back in 1975, Rekow still promotes the book through NW Trillium Press. The website is full of love for Lovgreen and for the book.

Lovgreen presents the chickens as sentient creatures with instincts and emotions, and she offers practical advice gleaned from a lifetime of experience.

Sun protection is a serious thing. Sun hats can be so ugly, but not this one.

What I want is a machete, but this curved pruning knife looks handy too. It looks like it has a perfectly-shaped handle. I have a cheaper one that doesn't fold up. I'd love to upgrade to this one.

Part of the joy of gardening is documenting the growth. Time-lapse projects are so cool. Here's a weather-resistant digital time lapse camera! It can record up to 200 days and even has a macro setting. It's not cheap, but would be fun. Or as a gift to your gardener friend, commit to documenting some aspect of plant growth whether it's indoors or outside in the spring by using this guide.

ALSO

You can never go wrong with seeds:

Seed Savers Exchange

Wild Garden Seed

Mystery month (the chenille plant flowers)

2011-12-04T21:24:00.000-08:00

You must go under the canopy of leaves with a magnifying glass

to find the fringe that grows at junctures on the chenille* plant.

But then more glorious are the plant's catkins, a spike of flowers.

In its teenage stage, the texture reminds me an unripe strawberry.

THE fuzzy catkin finally.

When the catkins drop to the floor, the pretty serrated leaves remain.

* Chenille means caterpillar in French.

A December flower

2011-12-01T18:10:00.000-08:00

Finally, a jamaica flower!

A charcoal-black promise

2011-11-26T16:34:00.000-08:00

Chive seed pods

Chives are one of the first plants to wake up in April.

The grassy alliums make early spring soups vibrant with the promise of the emerging growing season. When they flower, they attract bees, which attracts me. Later on, the pods burst, revealing charcoal-black seeds.

The pods turn to paper and, as long as the plant is under cover, the seeds won't drop too quickly, making pickings for a sweet bouquet.

In my kitchen: Winter's kale

2011-11-08T22:58:00.000-08:00

Kale holds on through some frostiness, so we harvested a whole plant this afternoon and made a good dinner with the leaves, a nice bunch. I thought the hardy greens would go well with some homegrown shallots and onions, plus oven-dried tomatoes made from my room-ripened stash. In this dish, the kale is dark green and shiny after cooking, so I'm naming the recipe Lacquered Kale.

LACQUERED KALE
for two

1 bunch of kale
4 pieces of oven-dried tomato, rough chopped
3 T olive oil
1 shallot, diced
garlic, diced
1 t brown sugar
1 t fish sauce
1 t shoyu (optional)
1 to 2 T sake (optional)

1. In a Dutch oven, bring about 1/2 C water to a boil.
2. Cut kale into 3-inch pieces. Throw in the bottom (thicker stem part) pieces of the kale and cook for 30 seconds to a minute. Since this part is a little tougher, it needs a little extra time to cook.
3. Throw in the next thickest bunch. Toss with other pieces. The water will eventually boil off completely, but there should be some liquid to help cook the greens. If the water has already boiled off, add a little more (1/4 C at a time) so that the greens don't scorch.
4. Add next pieces, and then the next. Most of the water should be gone, but the greens should still be moist.
5. Move greens to the side of the pot. Heat should be medium high. Add olive oil and then add shallot and garlic. Brown lightly (until aromatic) and add brown sugar. Move shallot, garlic and sugar around until the sugar melts. Mix in with greens.
6. Add oven-dried tomatoes and toss.
7. Add fish sauce and shoyu. It will smell strong, but the flavor will mellow and meld with all the other flavors.
8. Heat should still be medium high. Add sake and toss until alcohol burns off. Remove from heat. Check salt and adjust.
9. Serve over brown rice and with a fried egg on top.

OVEN-DRIED TOMATOES
I usually don't like commercially available sun-dried tomatoes, but these are so good, it's tempting to eat them just like any other dried fruit. Or, put them in pasta or on pizza.

ripe tomatoes
olive oil

1. Heat the oven to low, up to 250 degrees should be fine.
2. Slice tomatoes. If they're small, just slice in half. If they're larger, you can get three or four pieces. The pieces will shrink, so it's fine to start thick.
3. Toss in a bowl with olive oil. Let them sit a couple minutes so that juices drain.
4. With tongs or a slotted spoon, arrange tomato slices cut side down on baking sheets with rims, thicker pieces at the edges and thinner pieces in the middle.
5. Put the sheets of tomato slices in the oven to dry out. Check every 30 minutes or so. Time will vary depending on how thick the pieces are. A full oven might take three to four hours for just a jar of finished slices, but the result is dried fruit with a sweet condensed flavor. Eat within a week or so.

ID this: Spiny yellow weirdo

2011-11-02T18:31:00.000-07:00

"Oh, it's some kind of kiwi," I thought as I spotted a heap of yellow and green fruit on the side of a narrow road at wind-beat South Point on the island of Hawaiʻi. I asked my mom to pull over so I could make an inspection of the strange groundcover. There are many conspicuous plants in Hawaiʻi, but I'm nearly certain I've never seen this one before and that it's not common in the islands.

We were blocking the road, so I had to jump back in the car quickly. I managed to take one fruit and one photo of the plant.

I showed the spiny bright yellow fruit to my dad thinking he'd either seen it around somewhere on the island or maybe read about the newcomer recently — he's big on keeping updated on loose aliens.

He couldn't say what it was. It was more plastic than fleshy, about four inches long, light for its size and almost completely blemish-free.

I thought for sure my brother would know what the seedpod was. He's a walking botanical database and knows especially a lot about plants in Hawaiʻi. He was stumped when I showed him a photo of the seedpod.

As usual, I thought I could get away with doing a quick internet search using two or three keyword combinations of the most prominent characteristics — spiny, bright yellow, groundcover, Hawaiʻi, alien. No luck. I enlarged the plant photo and studied the leaves: cordate, fuzzy, withering, especially at the margins, perhaps because the plant had just borne a large load of fruit. If you look closely, there are small spiraled tendrils — perhaps this plant usually climbs trees or shrubs. At South Point though, there aren't many trees; the wind's so strong, tall things don't thrive easy. Mostly, there are grasses and lowgrowers.

Strangely, the fruit, or seedpods, which turn from green to yellow, stick together like Velcro. On my way back to Oregon, I couldn't transport the seedpod, so I left it behind for my dad to tend. A couple weeks later, he said the pod had shrunk a little bit, but wasn't putrefied or anything.

How does this plant with large seedpods spread? What animal are the spiny pods meant to stick to for the purpose of distribution? Something large with long fur, I'd guess. My dad said that he bets the plant will be all over the place next time I visit. I'm sure some would consider the plant an ornamental. Maybe this plant is spread mostly by curious plant lovers these days.*

I even searched the USDA plant database. Couldn't spot it in the thumbnails.

Obviously there are plenty of people who know exactly what this is. Please share if you know! In the meantime, I will continue to try to figure out what I found.

*I'm almost 100% certain this plant is not native to Hawaiʻi. Therefore, I strongly believe this plant should not be spread around the islands, which have been battling introduced species for quite awhile.

Jobs in the fall for a gardener

2011-10-25T23:10:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the perfect day for fall garden tasks. The main purpose was to harvest as much as possible; bring some plants inside; clean up; and plan and plant for next year.

My first goal was to pull up the last of the beets. Under them, I found adorable mushrooms and lots of chamomile seedlings.

Next up: spigariello. We continued to harvest the brassica with hardy greens plant by plant. This would be a good candidate for soup since it holds up like kale, but I like it best steamed with some garlic and eaten over brown rice with an egg on top.

The garden this year has been a sanctuary for ladybugs. Just-emerged ones are all over, so I worked around them. They were at home everywhere: on the kale, beets, cilantro (especially). On Saturday, I saw several emerging from pupal cases attached to the sides of the raised beds and also attached to poppy seedpods. This growing season, I've observed them feasting and mating. I've seen the larvae all over too, tiny monsters.

On Saturday, we also assessed our shallot supply. We dug up the rest of them a few weeks ago. This was on a day where there was respite from heavy, constant rains. The bulbs were pretty muddy. After they dried out a bit, we brushed the dirt off with vegetable brushes, clipped the stalks and stored them in onion bags. They'll last for awhile.

Work (good work) continues inside: tending the plants I ripped out of the ground to bring inside (oregano, mint, stevia and others) and shaking seeds out of seedpods for safekeeping. Also, there's a whole bunch of green tomatoes I'm counting on to ripen in a box — they must be checked everyday.

October is a handsome month

2011-10-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

clematis seeds

A crown flower, a wood for shark hooks and more

2011-10-12T22:42:00.000-07:00

Pua karauna or crown flower was a favorite of the beloved Queen Liliu‘okalani. From India, crown flower is integrated into Hawaiʻiʻs culture, just as many other non-natives are. Pua karauna makes a beautiful lei.

Laua‘e is another plant local people are surprised to learn is not native. It even has a Hawaiian name. While karauna is just a "Hawaiianized" version of crown, this fern with prominent sori has a name that means "beloved, sweet, of a lover." Indeed, this fern has a subtle fragrance, one that triggers nostalgia.

Here's a native hibiscus people think must be non-native, because so many of Hawaiʻiʻs flashy flowers are neither endemic nor indigenous. Koki‘o keʻokeʻo is one of four hibiscuses native to Hawaiʻi.

Pinkhead knotweed can thrive in low-soil environments. I usually don't care for this introduced ground cover, but this was a nice specimen, growing near by parents' house in Puna, Hawaiʻi.

‘Āheahea is an endemic Hawaiian chenopodium. Other chenopodiums are amaranth and quinoa. According to Mark Merlin's "Hawaiian Forest Plants," the closest relative to ʻāheahea is in South America. ʻĀheahea was used as a famine food (the leaves) and the wood was sometimes used to make composite fishhooks, including a sort that was used to catch sharks. I found this large shrub on Mauna Kea.

Not sure what this alien flower is at all. I spotted it at a nursery in downtown Hilo.

Fall and winter mainstays

2011-10-05T19:14:00.000-07:00

I broke a rule this year — a good one I made up two years ago. The rule was to not travel during the growing season, but I was gone anyway the last two weeks of September.

In that short span of time, it seems there's been a drastic change. Sun hours in the garden have decreased, temperatures have dropped and now fall leaves are starting to cover the sidewalks.

It's a jarring thing to have memories of sitting in the sun, watching bees, while you're drying off from walking home in the rain. It's double cruel that my recent vacation spot was back home, Hawaii. I was sweaty the whole time and now I'm freezing in Oregon.

I'm now looking to a few fall and winter mainstays:

Spigariello, along with kale, will last until hard-frost time.

Beet greens will wilt before spigariello and kale,

but they will strive through the cold weather. Beetroot will last even longer.

My wild Survivor parsley. I grew this parsley on a whim, but it's a plant I appreciate a lot. Its very tasty leaves add a freshness to salads and make the BEST pesto. I know everyone is used to pesto made with basil, but I usually prefer the parsley version. Also, this hardy plant comes back year after year by itself.

I'm collecting soup beans. I never knew how much I liked beans until I looked beyond the horrible kidney bean. These are Gold of Bacau.

I'm also continuing to collect lots of seed, most recently Mother of Pearl poppy.

Last year, warmth and agreeability stuck around through October. I'm hoping the weather warms and the sun shines strong at least through the end of the month. I'm still depending on a few things outside to continue producing — peppers, tomatoes, herbs. I also have a lot of scallions and marble onions in the ground, plus shallots.

Next time, I will post some photos of Hawaii plants, like I usually do.

Here are some posts from previous years:
Jardim Hawaii
The Exotics
Alika's Palolo Garden
Bananas Everywhere

(Photos in this post were taken in mid-September.)

The Eyeball Plant

2011-10-01T12:09:00.000-07:00

Toothache plant, also called the eyeball plant, jambu, paracress, is still one of my favorites. I first grew it last year. This one easily sprouts from seeds dropped last year into the soil.

Each bud is made up of hundreds of tiny flowers, so when it matures and dries out, hundreds of seeds drop.

When the buds, or buttons, are fresh, you can chew them and your mouth will tingle. Try a leaf for a less potent effect. The leaves, which have a salted-celery-leaf flavor, add a peppery crispness to salads. They also make an interesting tisane — just make sure the water isn't too hot.

The flower buds last a long time before they start drying out, and flower buds are plentiful, so it's a cheerful plant from late June through the first hard frost. Though I've fallen a bit for the crinkly-paper Mother of Pearl poppies I'm growing this year, the odd eyeball plant is more my kind of flower.

My little friends

2011-09-14T22:58:00.000-07:00

Bee, chive flowers.

ladybug, cilantro.

ladybug larvae, green coriander.

dragonfly, perched.

A few years ago, I had a conversation with a woman, Mary, who had lived an admirable life full of hard work in wild country in far eastern Oregon. Her husband was a cowboy and she was cook for sheep camp for many years. When I spoke with her, she needed a walker, but still was very feisty, very wise. She taught me a simple lesson.

She had a jam jar open on the kitchen table and it was attracting wasps. Worried and nervous, I asked her if she was worried and nervous. She just said they were her little friends and went on telling me stories about roughness — the tangled roots of wild asparagus and of hillside fires sparked from coals that had smoldered for months.

From then on, I've questioned the automatic and common fear I had for bees, spiders and other insects. I like to sit and watch them now.

Orange tomato, black onion

2011-09-12T23:14:00.000-07:00

Sweet sun gold tomatoes.

Red baron onion, nearly black!, and tomatoes on the cutting board.

This is actually a really tiny onion. Connect your index finger to your thumb and that's the approximate size. It's usually just used as a scallion, but will bulb up sometimes.

Cherry tomatoes and a onion for a little pasta.

Collecting seeds: Lemon gem marigold, plantain

2011-09-11T13:59:00.000-07:00

Lemon gem marigold.

At least three smells in my garden transport me back to my dad's garden during my childhood: basil, tomato leaf and marigolds. Dad grew an orange one with a full bloom to keep pests away (I think he still does). Since I prefer to grow plants my neighbors don't necessarily have, I've never planted those full marigolds, even though they are supposed to be so beneficial. A friend gave me this lemon gem marigold she grew from seed and I really liked the dainty leaves. The scent — tobacco, clean compost — transported me back. It's been producing these little flowers for a while now, in the shade of a spigariello forest, and I've been collecting its tasseled seeds the last few weeks (see bottom right corner).

Broadleaf plantain seed pods. Some of the "caps" have fallen

off the "cups," allowing seeds to fall to the ground.

I'm also collecting broadleaf plantain seeds. Though the actual plant is sort of easy to pass without notice, I really like plantain's flowering spike and then seed pods! The seed rod (probably not the technical term) is packed with cups with seeds inside. A similarly shaped cap fits over the cup. Both pieces kind of look like half of an egg shell.

Plantain seeds and a seed pod cap.

Plantain leaves are edible, and don't taste too bad (kind of nutty) when they're young. As they get older, the leaves get tougher. Some use the plant medicinally and some consider it a weed. I have a few spots that need a ground cover...something that will keep low and not get too wild. I'm going to try plantain. Also, in another place where there's a thick cover of plantain, I've noticed frogs take cover there.

I'm also collecting toothache plant seeds (jambu, eyeball plant, spilanthes) and Gold of Bacau beans.

I have a surfeit of jambu seeds. Maybe I will organize a giveaway...

Lions and stars

2011-09-03T21:56:00.000-07:00

Kind of got my tomatoes mixed up this year, so I'm not certain which tomato this is. It's either Giant Belgium or the one I call "Mystery," because a friend collected the seed and forgot or didn't know what variety it was. I grew Mystery last year. Its fruit is large and ribbed and very sweet. These flowers are lion-like to me.

These are Sun Gold tomato flowers — more star-like than lion. The plant is loaded up with fruit like ammunition right now.

One day, I'll live somewhere where the tomatoes come early, but many home-growers in this area get tomatoes "late. " The wooded hill behind my house that shades my garden space doesn't help things along either.

Throughout this garden season, I've caught myself thinking, "It's all about the tomatoes." As much as I love everything else I grow, tomatoes are the jewels of the collection. I've also noticed how particular people are about their tomatoes. Some won't eat them if they didn't ripen on the vine and many growers I know have exact plans for their tomatoes that they do not deviate from whether they plan to juice them all, only eat them raw or can sauce or salsa. Plus, tomato lovers who grow their own dedicate nice chunks of space to these wild, sprawling nightshades. Myself, I'm growing six plants, four or five varieties (Black and Brown Boar, Sun Gold, Japanese Trifele, Mystery (one or three) and possibly Giant Belgium (two or zero)

Of course, it's not a newsflash that tomatoes are beloved.

Other garden tasks lately: pest control. There are many predator insects all over, but the leaf miners are pretty successful this year. They love the tender beet greens and Swiss chard. Diligence with hand-picking has helped a lot. I feed the juicy little worms to my frog.

Aphids are just trying to live life the only way they know how, but I'm selfish and would rather eat my spigariello. Last year, I sprayed Neem once, but this year's aphid presence has actually been smaller, so regular water directed in a sharp stream from a spray bottle works great.

Those white cabbage butterflies that are so cheery-looking have been laying eggs all over the spigariello and my kale too. Again, I've been brushing them off by hand.

We'll be depending on both the kale and spigariello for fall and possibly early winter vegetables.

I've also harvested (and eaten) some shallots, zucchini, peppers, chamomile and more and we have plans to freeze batches of parsley-basil pesto for the fall and winter.

Sempervivum flowers and a leopoard slug

2011-08-27T14:34:00.000-07:00

beauty everywhere.

Pearlescent petals: mother of pearl poppies

2011-08-22T19:38:00.000-07:00

Mother of Pearl poppies are growing among clouds of cilantro and understories of chamomile.

Most of them are white, but every once in a while, there's a red-pink one. My favorite ones are the gray ones though. The petals looks like oiled tissue paper.

I grew these indoor from seed, but probably they don't need to be so babied. Next year, I'll just sow straight to the soil.

A gorgeous, fleeting flower.

Delicious beans

2011-08-20T16:52:00.000-07:00

We blanch them (because they're larger) and then dry them, and toss in olive oil, salt and pepper. After about 5 minutes under the broiler, we eat them like French fries. So delicious.

Just the thing

2011-08-18T22:56:00.000-07:00

About to steep Thai basil and jambu (spilanthes, toothache plant) for a nice before-bed sip of something warm.

This is always a nice combo and a good way to use the flowering tips of basil.

Rossimo, bunte forellenschluss, mascara, winter density, matina

2011-08-11T19:06:00.000-07:00

My favorite lettuce this year is rossimo. It's a gorgeous ruffled one with broad leaves and tinges of wine color at the tips. This one's more crispy than the others and the taste is just very agreeable.

Because of its crispness, it made a great lettuce wrap. I made a mixture of oyster mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms and crumbled tofu and seasoned it with sesame oil, shoyu, mushroom broth and a little bit of sake and chili.

On the lettuce, we layered plain brown rice, the mixture, fresh cilantro and green onion and then wrapped it up. We made a little peanut sauce for dipping. It was really delicious.

I thought bunte forellenschluss, with its spotted leaves, was going to be my favorite. It's great. Tender with a mild taste. Pretty on the plate.

Mascara is attractive. Good to mix in with a more broad-leafed lettuce. This is an unwieldy grower (I appreciate organization in my lettuces), and if it wasn't for its color, I might not want to grow it.

Winter density is a sweet little lettuce, with smaller organized leaves. One head per person is a perfect portion.

Matina is the most tender lettuce I grow. Germination rate has never been high. Gets wilted easily because it's so tender.

First garlic

2011-08-08T19:53:00.000-07:00

Thai fire was the first to sprout this spring and the first ready to harvest this year.

This is the first one I pulled up. We plan to harvest more tomorrow.

Poppy field (in my house)

2011-08-06T17:56:00.000-07:00

I brought this container of Mother of Pearl poppies into the house last week because, outside, the blooms were only lasting a few hours.

Now I know why my neighbor surrounds her house with poppies (and some sunflowers) every year. Even the strips beyond the public sidewalk around her property are saturated with the cheerful flowers.

The flowers are alien-like too, from its Audrey 2-like flower pods to its thick pollen that looks like matcha, the crinkly tissue paper of its petals to the seed pods with their stamen collars.

CROP FAILURE + what I'm reading

2011-08-04T19:44:00.000-07:00

Have you ever read a plant description in a seed catalog and thought you were going to add it to your list, definitely, and then got to the bottom and read "CROP FAILURE?"

I always think the worst for a second. The variety is lost forever.

But, seed producers call a crop failure when they haven't been able to produce enough seed to offer for sale for some reason or another.

I fell in love with a plant description today and then read CROP FAILURE, so to pay tribute to this dramatic language, I thought I'd list some of my own "crop failures" from this year.

• Cumin didn't work out at all. The seeds germinated well, but I ended up putting them in the wrong part of the garden. They got hot-hot sun in a place with high drainage that needs frequent watering.

• For the second year, watermelon radishes didn't do well. I may seek out another seed source for this one, or just try something different.

• Certain things in the garden, I'm not very dedicated to. If they die, I feel I can go on without them. Mignonette had a poor germination rate, and I was running out of plantable room.

• I grew giant Belgium tomato plants from seed, and I must have picked the wrong one to plant. It's just a little bigger than it was when I first planted it out in early July or so. The seed was three years old. Maybe that's the problem. Thankfully, I have four other tomato plants, different varieties though.

• I really wanted to grow bronze fennel this year. Only two or three of maybe 15 seeds grew into plants.

I'll steel myself and dip into those seed catalogs later to complete my fall planting wish list.

In the meantime, I'm reading Minnie Rose Lovgreen's "Recipe for Raising Chickens." First released in the mid-70s, the book is now in its third printing and is available at www.nwtrilliumpress.com, www.buyolympia.com and Amazon.

Nancy Rekow, Lovgreen's friend and the editor of the book (she also hand-lettered it), kindly sent me a copy. I'll be posting a review soon.

Is mustard an effective cover crop?

2011-07-30T14:51:00.000-07:00

I've got a surfeit of mustard seeds from volunteer mustard plants that grew in the spring. Mustard seeds volunteer easily. The germination rate seems high.

I'm trying to research whether mustard will make a good fall cover crop. A few sources have said mustard plants incorporated into the soil will act as a natural insecticide and add organic matter. The idea would be to plant the mustard seeds, let the plants flower and then, before they go to seed, mix them in. This would be in the fall. By spring, the hope is that the leaves will get fully composted.

Why do people use cover crops? To suppress weeds, to loosen soil (with the roots), to add organic matter to the soil, to add nutrients...

I've never planted a cover crop, I'm still gathering information.

What's the best kind of cover crop?

Flowers all over

2011-07-28T20:20:00.000-07:00

Cilantro flowers are sweet little things — white and delicate. After the herb flowers, its leaves are still tasty. I planted cilantro everywhere. Some seeds are forming too.

Chamomile. I picked some of these for an apple-scented tea. Perfect for after-dinner sipping.

I like how the petals look when they first come out. So dinky.

Pepper flowers started coming on a few weeks ago and my peppers are forming. We're growing four kinds this year — Jimmy Nardello (a long sweet pepper), Hole Mole (a purple pasilla-type pepper, non-hot, really delicious), early jalapeno (an essential) and Thai demon hot (a small totally hot pepper).

Toothache plant! Also called jambu. A favorite oddity. Cheerful on my back steps.

Shallot anticipation

2011-07-19T20:17:00.000-07:00

For some reason, I didn't get around to planting shallots last fall, but in early April, I thought maybe I could still grow some. I planted six or seven bulbs from last year's harvest. Lots of cold weather followed, so maybe the shallots will develop.

The strong stalks seem to indicate they are on track. When the stalks start to fall outward, the bulbs are almost ready to harvest. The bulbs get so big, they crowd each other and push to the surface.

French shallots are a fun, energetic allium to grow.

Bean climbers

2011-07-16T11:07:00.000-07:00

This year, I asked Lucas to pick a few things he wanted to grow (or see me grow). One he chose was this multi-purpose bean from Seed Savers, "lazy housewife."

The bean can be used fresh or shelled, and apparently, it doesn't need to have its strings removed before eating. Some jerk named it.

Seed Savers says the bean is its oldest documented bean, introduced in the U.S. in 1810. The fresh beans are long and skinny and the dried beans are white, the sort we love to eat in soups or just as a side dish. Surprisingly, we think beans are delicious (and such a good source of non-animal protein), though we still can't get over our childhood aversions to kidney beans.

Also on our trellis, we're growing scarlet runner beans and golden of Bacau, a yellow-white bean that's wide and flat — one I can't wait to sear in my cast iron pan.

Below the beans, there's miner's lettuce, bronze fennel and some scallions.

Wings, petals, leaves

2011-07-13T20:43:00.000-07:00

Chenopodium quinoa. I like plants with these goosefoot-type leaves. Other chenopodiums I'm growing: epazote and huazontle.

These dragonflies alight, take off and alight on anything tall above the bulk of the garden. There's one that looks similar to this brown one that's powder blue (see the sidebar). They are fun to watch.

Sweet radish flowers. The towering flower stalk provides shade for younger seedlings and attracts beneficial insects. These made a fine mini bouquet too for inside the house.

Radish flowers are lightly sweet. You can eat the unopened buds raw or cooked, just like broccoli raab.

I love spigariello's bluish color. The leaf miners now attacking my beet greens and Swiss chard seem to be ignoring this plant. The aphids too, so far, have left them alone. I've been more diligent this year with destroying aphids as soon as I see them. They seem to like the tops of flowering stalks.

Jewel-like rossimo. I prefer bunched heads of lettuce, but this one is pretty with its ruffles and color.

So delicious. Swiss chard is tied with beet greens for taste. For beauty, it's Swiss chard.

Dark-veined arugula flowers, one of my favorites.

A silver spider

2011-07-10T13:52:00.000-07:00

Knotted scapes

2011-07-07T22:08:00.000-07:00

Garlic scapes twist around, looking like swan necks, elegant pretzels, loopy hearts.

They are one of the most delicious items from the garden too. I blogged about the best way, in my mind, to eat them at Mea'ai. I wish the scapes would keep coming on.

Petal and honey-dressed lettuce

2011-07-03T17:31:00.000-07:00

Homegrown lettuce is too good, too delicate to be weighed down with the bells and whistles of the salad bowl world.

In fact, my home-grown lettuce is so beautiful, I don't even want to pick them! Ridiculous, I know.

This lettuce type is little gem. We're growing seven kinds this year: deer tongue, little gem, matina, winter density, mascara, rossimo and bunte forellenschluss. This one was grown in a container on the patio. Most of the other lettuces take up half of the smaller raised bed.

A homemade vinaigrette seems like it would be a good idea for homegrown lettuce, but even that's too heavy, too competitive for this. Instead, I opted for a dash of olive oil, toasted almond crumbs, a tiny bit of grated Parmesan and fragrant rose petals (homegrown) with little jewels here and there of crystallized honey.

Sounds like it would be unusual, but this treatment doesn't swallow up the lettuce leaves like a dousing of heavy dressing and toppings would. Plus, the colors!

Garlic scapes and garden shrouds

2011-06-30T14:46:00.000-07:00

I had to get under the covers with my plants yesterday to harvest garlic scapes (yum) for dinner.

In preparation for her grandson's visit, my neighbor aims to get her elegantly sun-faded house painted. We talked to one of the workers last week and he said they'd use brushes and sprayers on her house, which is very close to our garden space. He assured us our garden wasn't in danger, but I don't think so.

We're concerned that micro beads of paint, airborne through the sprayer, will fall on our plants and the soil the plants grow from. So, for the past two nights, we've covered everything with floating row covers. Floating row covers allow rain and sun (85%) through, but I believe the fabric will be able to capture any of these errant micro beads. The problem is: the paint job hasn't even started yet and there seems to be no confirming just when the work will start. This is tricky because both of us garden tenders work full-time.

Plenty of people grow vegetables under floating row covers, especially in the spring and fall, but temperatures rise under this fabric and we're nearing the height of summer now. I uncovered my lettuces (with cilantro, chamomile and others) yesterday when I got home. I can't lose them! I at least want to be able to see them.

Rain, clouds, cold, sun, garden

2011-06-27T20:39:00.000-07:00

onion thread, summertime

spicy radishes

chamomile

salman zucchini flower

Swiss chard

miner's lettuce

dill

spigariello, a frilly variety

Rain, clouds, cold, rain, clouds, cold, rain, clouds, cold, sun, rain, clouds, sun, rain, sun, rain, sun, sun, garden.

Bee work in the mustard flowers

2011-06-19T13:11:00.000-07:00

Tomboy, try flowers

2011-06-16T21:38:00.000-07:00

roselle

Usually, I'm not very interested in growing flowers, but last year, I enjoyed my toothache plant so much, with its round yellow and red buds, I decided I'd make room for some. My thinking was always that I only had space for vegetables and herbs, but flowers can help attract beneficial insects and just overall, contribute to a garden's diversity.

Roselle, or jamaica (ha-may-ca), is related to hibiscus. The deep red flowers are not showy like a hibiscus (I like it like that), but you can make a tart, refreshing drink from them that's supposed to be a beautiful red. I like how the leaves look too, and the red of the plant's stem.

queen red lime zinnia

I like the shape of zinnias. This variety's flower starts out green and gets pink from the outside in. It's been a challenge figuring out where to put all of the flowers I'm growing, as most spaces have already been filled with vegetables. I think this one will go next to the trellis planter box.

black peony poppy

I like non-pink, non-totally-feminine flowers. This one is supposed to get dark purple-cranberry, almost black, petals. These goth flowers are going next to my new tomato planter (courtesy of Luke — I'll post about it later — it's cool!).

billy button

Billy button, craspedia globosa, is from New Zealand. I'm most excited about this flower. Just like toothache plant, this one just looks like a sphere, all yellow. Don't the leaves look cool?

In addition, I'm growing bergamot, which has a kind of frilly flower that attracts bees. To see those industrious bees in my garden makes me so happy. Here and there, there's more toothache plant, marigold, chamomile, mignonette and night-blooming phlox. Also, it's joyful to see arugula flowers, mustard green flowers (neon yellow), tomatillo flowers, and last year, I loved bringing in beet flower spikes, which were like tiny garlands

I started all of these from seed indoors. I love the fact that I sowed the seed weeks ago and tend them one by one.

The garden in June

2011-06-11T21:03:00.000-07:00

Mustard greens are quick to grow. This variety is purple rapa pop, developed at Gathering Together Farm in Philomath, Oregon. The taste is so-so for mustard. I love mustard greens though, so maybe I'm just looking for a certain taste. It's outstandingly beautiful, and it fills in spaces nicely while you're waiting for everything else. These are great in a salad when the leaves are young.

My cilantro plan is working out... This household is crazy about the herb and we really appreciated it being around last year. Last fall, I gathered the dried branches together and harvested a lot of the seeds, coriander, for cooking. I've been using the fan of branches to cover tiny emerging seedlings for a little extra protection. I've also been shaking the branches of the remaining seeds everywhere. Several plants are now emerging near the garlic and in other places. This will be nice.

Besides the garlic and shallots, we're growing three other alliums. This one is red baron onion. We use it as a scallion, but if it's in the ground long enough and the conditions are right, red baron will start to bulb up. The fleshy part is a beautiful red-purple. The other two we're growing is a red cippolini, a flat onion, and shimonita, a Japanese onion that looks like a leek.

The shallots are looking good. If they produce as much as last year's did, we're going to have a lot of shallots...seven to eight bulbs per plant.

The beets are in the usual spot next to the lettuce. I know I should be rotating, but with my limited amount of space and limited amount of sun, this is the best spot for them. Thankfully, I'm able to rotate other plants.

Other things in the two raised beds:
• the quinoa and huazontle sprouted awhile ago, but they are both growing slowly. They probably need warmer temperatures. In a pot on the patio, I must have dropped some quinoa seed that I harvested in the fall. There are seven to ten seedlings in there larger than the ones in the garden. Maybe I should be starting quinoa and huazontle indoors first.

• I planted six spigariello out in May along with broccoli raab, pak choi and Swiss chard, the really colorful kind. Since the spigariello had trouble with aphids last year, I'm going to plant a very fragrant marigold near it with the hope that it attracts some insects that will eat the aphids. Also, I'll be adding another type of spigariello to the collection, one with a really beautiful lacy leaf. A friend grew this and gave an extra to me.

• I've planted some Oaxacan green dent corn in the spot where I'll be putting two tomatillo plants very soon. The corn has not sprouted yet, but I'm hoping it will thrive and provide some support for the tomatillos.

• I've been hardening off lots of plants and will be getting them out this weekend: four kinds of peppers, five kinds of tomatoes, an eggplant and zucchini.

The lettuces are tucked in

2011-06-11T14:08:00.000-07:00

rossimo

bunte forellenschluss

winter density

Two years ago, I let some of my lettuce go to seed so that last year, I had lots of volunteers. We were eating delicious fresh salads with homegrown lettuce in early June last year. It breaks my heart slightly to look back at my records for last year and see how behind the garden is this year because of cooler temperatures and less sun hours. Still, there's plenty growing and very soon, plants will be taking off. The lettuce bed is in (has been for three weeks or so) and I plan to put new plants out successively.

I sow my lettuce seed on the surface of the soil. It needs light to germinate. I've had more success starting the seeds indoors than outdoors, so this year, I'm only putting out transplants. The pretty seeds germinate quickly indoors and I don't have to worry about the seeds blowing away before they take hold outside or drying out when I'm away.

In a few weeks, I'll start more lettuce inside for replacing plants we harvest.

the lettuce bed a few weeks ago

I used furrowed rows this year for a little extra protection.

This year, we're growing rossimo, mascara, bunte forellenschluss, winter density, little gem, deer tongue and matina.

Prodigious parsley

2011-06-07T21:33:00.000-07:00

Our parsley overwintered from last year. It's delicious.

Bananas everywhere

2011-06-05T20:54:00.000-07:00

Banana fruits follow each flower.

Bananas are one of the most beautiful plants to watch grow. They start out as a shoot that looks like a horn beside a parent plant. After the parent plant produces fruit, the keiki or babies come on.

As the layers of the heart loosen, the flowers develop and the sections fall to the ground.

When the banana plant (not technically a tree) is full grown, it puts out a beautiful purple heart. The layers start to loosen as the row of flowers inside develop. Eventually, they become bananas.

They develop row by row (hands) to make a bunch.

Pretty soon, you have a bunch of bananas. Often, my dad will harvest the bunch to make room for other trees (there are dozens on my parents' property). The fruit will ripen hanging up in the garage.

These bananas are about ready to harvest here.

My family has so many bananas, they must be given away (a great problem to have). Excess fruit is made into banana bread or frozen for smoothies (peeled first and stored in freezer bags).

There are banana or mai'a plants all over my parents' property; here are some near paperbark trees.

When a banana plant is finished producing fruit, Dad cuts them down to make room for the keiki plants. The cut trunks make a beautiful pattern of rectangular cells.

Inside, outside

2011-06-01T21:12:00.000-07:00

OUT:

lettuce, planted outside a couple weeks ago

GOING OUT:

tomatoes (a mystery one I grew last year and giant Belgium)

and tomatillo (purple di milpa)

sesame

Thai demon hot pepper

NEW:

culantro

lettuce

On the right side of this blog, I keep track of all the seeds I've started, or plants growing inside under lights and outside in containers, in the two raised beds and in the trellis planter.

Luke's herb table

2011-05-21T14:02:00.000-07:00

Epazote is in the foreground. Basil's behind it.

I'm the primary gardener in my household, but I would enjoy it less if I didn't get any input from Lucas, the muscle of our tiny operation. Every year, he wants to grow herbs and hot peppers. Last year, he made an herb table and has been responsible for planting and tending it.

Six varieties of basil along with cumin, curry, chocolate mint, lemon balm, Greek oregano and epazote are now growing in the herb table. There are hens and chicks here and there for decoration. Luke also planted a few seeds to fill in the spaces: red baron onion, arugula and chamomile.

Every year, Luke wants to grow chocolate mint and lemon balm. He wants to have herbs for steeping into tisanes right outside the kitchen door. Great idea. We are on the lookout for some mint. Last year, we really enjoyed mint tea and mixed basil tisanes (cinnamon, clove, licorice basils) which got an extra kick from toothache plant flowers.

Cumin needs to be grown close together. The plants support each other. The red ceramic piece to the left is a broken teapot that is handy for protecting seedlings while they get established.

A few things about the herb table: it's shallow, so plants with big roots can't grow in it; since it's shallow, it has to be watered more often (the bottom layer is dense chopped wood chips which helps to retrain water); it's kind of huge and takes up a lot of space on our small patio; and since it's a table, we tend to put things on it that shouldn't be there.

The accessibility of the herbs is a big plus though. Also, since the table is elevated, there's storage space underneath for gardening supplies that can stand a little water. I keep things that shouldn't get wet in a metal can with a tight lid.

For the herb table, we grew everything from seed indoors under lights except for the curry, lemon balm, oregano and chocolate mint.

Dandelion duty

2011-05-14T21:31:00.000-07:00

Dandelions should be admired for how successful they are at establishing anywhere, but instead, they are hated. I'm always torn about weeding in general; weeds can be beautiful and useful.

Dandelions, for instance, are packed with Vitamin C. You can eat the greens raw or lightly cooked and I've eaten the flowers cooked into quiche where they tasted similar to artichoke.

They're everywhere though, and can ruin a lawn. My house came with new sod and though grass can be a pain, we've decided to care for the previous owner's investment, which is now ours. So, we weeded today.

The dandelions seem to provide slugs with shelter and food, so that's another justification for getting rid of the plant. We filled two or three milk crates full of the plants and when we were finished, our hands were yellow.

Grow, shallots

2011-05-10T19:52:00.000-07:00

Slow May

2011-05-09T21:51:00.000-07:00

I used to be against hens and chicks, but last year, I decided that I wanted to save some space for ornamentals. We're mixing some of these tough succulents in with herbs and lettuces in the herb table. I'm also hoping to grow a few different kinds of flowers.

One of the most important things a gardener does, in my opinion, is just spend time watching and observing. I remember when we built these cedar raised beds two years ago, I wanted the smell and bright color to last, but now that the wood is weathered and growing moss, I'm happy with that too.

I threw some dried mustard seed pods into the tomato planter in the late fall, and it is now filled with the plant, which I love. It is a very good thing to have plants growing around the garden that are not at all growing in straight rows. I admit, I throw plant-type "trash" into this planter all the time. What will grow next?

French shallots! They were great to have around last year. I planted our last few a while ago and I just noticed them sprouting over the weekend.

I love the look of this ruffled basil, bolloso napoletano. I want to put them out already, but it's been a little cold.

Seeds are smart though. Many of them will just hold in the soil if the temperature is not right. For example, we planted dill and parsley out a long time ago, and it's just now sprouting. Some other things too.

It's been a slow spring, but there will be time for lots of growing.

Chives, mustard greens

2011-04-24T11:14:00.000-07:00

Reliable chives. They are always a comfort to have around when little else is growing. I've had these chives in a pot for three years.

A few weeks ago, I pulled out most of the rapa pop mustard, but kept two plants. They survived the winter.

Around these mustard greens, there's red baron onion filament, radish seedlings and some other things.

Germination

2011-04-16T14:22:00.000-07:00

tomato

tomatillo

sesame

cumin

Inside, under lights, I'm growing six kinds of basil, cumin, toothache plant, sesame, bergamot, roselle, pak choi, spigariello, raab, tomatillo and two kinds of tomato. I am also trying to grow Thai hot peppers, sea kale, culantro, papalo and epazote. They haven't sprouted up yet. I'm keeping track of what I'm growing in the list on the right side of the blog.

Soon, I will start some other things, mostly different kinds of lettuces.

April: I can sit in front of an open window

2011-04-12T22:09:00.000-07:00

Sunday, we planted three short rows of rapa pop mustard, mixed mustard and mache. Mixed in there, we planted two arugulas. We love the spicy green, but can eat only a little at a time.

I dug deeper, and left about six shallots near the garlic. I'm not sure if these bulbs, leftover from late summer, will amount to anything. Usually, shallot bulbs are planted in the fall.

Also near the garlic, since we rely so much on alliums, I planted two short rows of red baron onion. The softer part of this scallion is a beautiful purple-red. The plant can be used as scallions, but later on, they'll bulb up a little.

Also, in the corner of the L, some mignonette and chamomile.

In the trellis planter, we planted miner's lettuce seeds. Climbing plants won't go in for a while, so why not tuck in a few greens until then?

A gentle rain fell as soon as we were done planting.

How do I know it's time to plant? I can sit in front of an open window in the coldest part of the house and feel fine. Days are still cold, but very soon, there will be vegetables, especially greens.

On Saturday, I heard the first lawn mower, and the smell of barbecue has been in the air.

Garlic's getting taller too!

Air

2011-04-05T18:58:00.000-07:00

In the meantime, while we wait for seeds to sprout and the soil to warm up even more, I'm tending to a crop of airplants indoors. This one is called Stricta and is the most beautiful gray-light purple.

Airplants work well for us because we have cats who like to eat houseplants. The epiphytes don't need soil and can more easily be kept out of their reach. This one, butzii, is just fine hanging gently on a nail.

Aeranthos is blooming! Airplants, or tillandsias, only bloom once. They then start producing "pups." They can live for quite a while after they bloom. This one floats in a glass orb thing that hangs from the ceiling.

Funkiana fits perfectly into a piece of airy basalt I found a few years ago.

Warmer evenings

2011-03-31T22:34:00.000-07:00

Warmer temperatures in the evening hours after work. More of this, please.

Though I've weathered the winter months much better than in previous years, nothing revitalizes my attitude like being outdoors without having to retreat from the cold.

We continued with clean-up (and are just about done) and observed the soil. I love the way soil looks after it's held water for a season — frozen then unfrozen, frozen then unfrozen. A pattern, a crust, forms on the surface like rough bark, and below, if the mix is nice, there's a pattern of spaces, air, made by the ice.

The soil smells wonderful. Nothing anaerobic. Just raininess, damp bookpaper, a little eucalyptus and cedar. Pu-erh tea too, which we've been drinking lately.

In the soil, I found lots of healthy looking earthworms plus egg cases. That's always a good sign.

Thai Fire garlic is gaining some height. The one in the photo above will probably have to be thinned. Rosewood porcelain and Asian tempest is coming up too.

We cleared a spot for radishes and planted three short rows each of watermelon radishes and the regular mix we always use. We also planted some dill and parsley seeds. I'm not sure if the parsley will sprout. I planted it because the variety is so cold hardy, but perhaps it won't germinate in these early spring temperatures.

Soon, we can probably get away with planting some arugula, mustard greens and some other things.

In the meantime, I'll be starting plants indoors this weekend. We'll have a new growing set-up, which I'll post about later.

Thai Fire's here

2011-03-19T14:21:00.000-07:00

I was busy photographing weeds and moss this afternoon when I realized that a third of the garlic we planted Oct. 31 has sprouted. I counted 14 of 15 Thai Fire garlic sprouts. Rosewood Porcelain and Asian Tempest should be showing up soon.

The garden is officially coming out of dormancy. I bet Thai Fire first started showing yesterday or Thursday. Last year, we didn't notice the garlic until about March 24. This year, we're growing local garlic. That feels nice.

While I was outside, I found this red baron onion bulb. I remember pulling this in November or so thinking it was too scrawny (compared to the fresh choice vegetables we had, it was scrawny). Looks pretty tasty to me now.

Very soon, maybe tomorrow, I will be planting some radish seeds, red baron onion seeds and possibly some shallots. Maybe even some parsley and dill. I will be doing some fertilization soon also.

Winter salvage

2011-03-14T19:11:00.000-07:00

I'm calling Sunday the first work day of the season. Finally, the soil defrosted enough so that I could continue with some of the clean-up that got cut short in November.

To postpone clean-up longer wouldn't be a good idea. I wouldn't want to provide food for slugs and other pests. If I lived in a place with loads of sun, I would be less concerned because the materials might process quicker into humus. My garden plot has a limited number of sun hours, so quick clean-up is important.

Unfortunately, about 15 beets were wasted from last year. We did eat lots of beets and beet greens last year, but we couldn't get to it all quick enough. A few of the smaller ones were OK though, so I salvaged those. Precious vegetables at this time of the year.

I also brought in a little mustard plant and put it in water just to see how it will do. There are a lot more of these outside. I wonder if they'll take off as soon as it starts getting warmer.

Jardim Hawaii

2011-03-12T11:35:00.000-08:00

A purple uluhe crozier beyond the rock wall looks toward the family house.

The indigenous fern forks repeatedly and can take over the landscape if not kept in check.

"The rock wall has become its own ecosystem," Dad says after I ask him about three maidenhair ferns that have established on the wall fronting my family's Ola'a Forest property.

The delicate fern is a family favorite — my brother says he remembers one wall of our grandparents' greenhouse in Kaimuki covered in them. I can't say where the nearest maidenhair fern is to this 12-year-old garden on the wet side of the island of Hawaii. The wild conditions, suited for ferns, orchids, mosses and lichens, are welcoming to traveling fern spores.

Another fern that makes its home on the rock wall is sweet-smelling laua'e. Introduced after 1778, Hawaiians readily used the fern to scent their kapa or bark cloth.

Most of our stash of these ferns comes from the family's former O'ahu house and before that, Dad's parents' house. They grow from creeping rhizomes. It is a favorite for me and my sister.

Moss convention on the rock wall.

Some of the plants and trees were purchased for this front yard garden, but most of it comes from cuttings or starts from friends and neighbors or public places. The remainder of the plants have just appeared and established on their own.

This is another fern that just showed up. It looks related to laua'e, but I plan to check a reference book to try to identify it. See the maidenhair in the left background and other ferns to the right.

Ginger thrives here. This one looks ready to be divided. The flowers are so sweet, you can actually suck a drop of sugar from the flower stem.

Dad said he planted the garden all those years ago to be a "grandmother's garden," meaning a place that looked like it was there for a long time and well loved. He said his guiding principle was to "plant plants on top of each other" so that as a person looks at the garden, they make discoveries.

The garden is sloped up toward the rock wall and is anchored with several trees like koa, a native acacia (tallest tree) and kukui, the candlenut tree (tree in foreground) and tree-like plants like some large ti and the native tree fern, hapu'u (tall fern fronds are pushed up against the kukui in the foreground in the above photo).

In fact, the hapu'u is the scaffolding for much of this garden's variety. Here's moa, a whisk fern. It is growing on top of a fibrous hapu'u trunk. I believe moa has established on its own.

I love non-purple, non-pink flowers. These orchids are blooming on another hapu'u. Notice more moa to the botom left of the photo and peperomia to the bottom right. Peperomia is the main ground cover in this garden. It also grows up the rock wall. Bromeliads are above the flowers.

More orchids on another hapu'u trunk and more peperomia. Many of the hapu'u in this garden were carried from other places on the property. On the island, there are sometimes cases of hapu'u theft.

Anthuriums, though not native, thrive on this wet side of the Big Island. You have to duck under and walk through other plants to see this anthurium with the long leaves. This one's warocqueanum.

This plant looked like plastic. Cast iron plant?

On the top road side of the garden, you can see how packed the garden is with plants and trees. A red ti (ti, not tea) leaf plant peeks out for some sun.

The lava rock wall is the perfect substrate for ferns and moss.

Alika's Palolo garden

2011-02-23T18:37:00.000-08:00

No two people inspire me to be in the garden and to love plants like my big brother, Alika, and my dad. They both seem to have a natural connection to and appreciation for plants, especially ones that are native to Hawaii; Polynesian-introduced; or ones that have been introduced for different reasons throughout the decades and integrated into the local culture.

One of the best loved Hawaiian plants is kalo or taro. Alika has many varieties in his Palolo garden. There are hundreds of varieties in the islands. The plant was a staple for Hawaiians diet- and culture-wise. It is still an integral part of a Hawaiians' identities (my family and I are Hawaiian). This one's leaves are bunched up in places so that it looks like there are caterpillars on it.

Kalo, with its heart-shaped leaves, is naturally attractive, but this dark variety is striking.

This one has a similar purposeful bunching of the leaves. Dad called it scrambled eggs.

Variegation is always pretty. This paint-splatter type is dramatic.

Underneath a kalo leaf which seems to still be unfurling. You can eat the kalo leaf and the corm. They are two of my favorites foods to eat. Alika gave me some leftover kalo and it made the best breakfast.

Alika also has papaya including this type (from SE Asia, I think) that is pretty short and has giant fruit. Papayas grow quickly and will bear fruit soon after being established. Is that avocado in the foreground?

I think these are the remnants of 'olena, a native type of turmeric also related to ginger, I think. Banana trunks have a similar pattern when cut.

I like this colorful marigold. Dad was always keeping marigolds around as a natural way to keep away insects too.

Visiting Alika, he made us a giant feast with ingredients that came from his beautiful island valley garden. My life would be complete with everyday-acess to kalo, papaya, 'olena, bananas.

Alika's garden is the best!

Garden sketchbook: What I want to grow this year

2011-02-07T23:27:00.000-08:00

Clockwise from top left:

Keeping with my interest in Mexican vegetables and herbs, I'm growing huazontle which can be made into rellenos. After the vegetable is blanched and dried, it's gathered together (still on the stem) with cheese and onions and dipped into an egg batter and then fried. The texture should be interesting.

Bergamot attracts bees and hummingbirds and makes a mint- and citrus-scented tea.

Roselle, also called jamaica, produces dark red calyxes. High in Vitamin C, roselle imparts a tart flavor to drinks.

Mignonette spikes attract bees and has a sweet smell. It will provide shape variety in the garden.

German chamomile is a slight plant with flowers which smell like apples and makes a yummy alternative to caffeinated tea.

Cumin seed is one of our favorite spices. It adds a nice texture too to certain dishes. It's an essential ingredient in Tortilla Espanol.

I'm growing watermelon radishes because they are colorful. I'll plant it early in a spot that will later be occupied by tomatillos.

These are just some of the new plants I'm going to attempt to grow this year.

Tradescantia zebrina

2011-01-29T23:14:00.000-08:00

Tradescantia zebrina

Tradescantia zebrina grows easily but needs more maintenance than succulents. Unlike the crassulas and hawthorias, tradescantia needs more water more often (but not too much). The stems tend to dry up and the tips fall off and can root somewhere else — I think this is how the plant spreads in the wild. This means that you have to break the dry part of the stem off, make a hole with a pencil in the soil and stick the green end in which will soon root. If you don't do this, the plant starts to look haggard. New growth comes on pretty quick, even in the winter. At first, the leaves are green but as they are exposed to more sunlight, they turn dark purple.

It's not an easy thing to maintain the color, shape and general vitality of purchased houseplants. At the store, they've just arrived from controlled settings, greenhouses. It takes time for the plant to adjust to home environments and after that, you have to observe and learn what makes the plant the most happy.

Tomatillo lace, purple greens

2011-01-22T14:00:00.000-08:00

Some tomatillos that didn't form to a good size when the frosts came have been sitting on the soil since November or so. Some of their paper husks have nicely skeletonized, that is, the softer tissues have decomposed, leaving behind this lacy vascular network.

Also, the purple Rapa Pop mustard greens are still producing even after being under ice for weeks. The color is so pretty. The description says the plant is "a result of Frank Morton crossing purple mustards, won bok and red turnip." I'll plant more seed for this early, maybe even in March.

Winter work

2011-01-15T16:35:00.000-08:00

Right around now, I get into denial about winter. I start thinking spring is in February and soon enough, I'll have to get ready to plant a garden. In reality, eastern Oregon has a few more cold months left.

Still, I decided it was warm enough (low 40s) to get some things done outside. First, I hung up an edible garland for the birds on our trellis. It has spray millet, pearl millet, grain sorghum and proso millet. It's nice and colorful and a garland is always cheerful. I purchased it, but I'd love to grow some of these things next year to make my own. I'm hoping to attract some juncos and finches very soon.

My rubber boots came in handy to keep my feet dry, but for some reason, I didn't even attempt to wear gloves as I pulled out some old plants for the compost pile. After digging in the snow, my hands started to throb and soon, they didn't feel like they were my hands anymore and I thought for sure I had frost bite. My hands are fine, but I guess I just needed to get the work done and nothing was going to stop me.

I didn't pull up my spigariello trees yet though. After the frost killed them, the leaves droopped and turned yellow and I like how they look, so they're staying for now.

Weird thing though, I was digging in the snow pulling up some plants I had cut down but left on the soil in November and I unearthed this spigariello with surprisingly well-preserved greens. I almost felt I should eat it, but maybe I won't. What an amazing plant — served best wilted with a little butter and garlic on rice and a poached egg.

Light gatherers

2011-01-11T22:09:00.000-08:00

Haworthia attenuata

Crassula perforata variegata

Crassula muscosa

Adromischus

Hawthoria mutica

Fenestraria rhopalophylla

I wish I could do like the windowsill succulents and just gather sunlight all day. Since I can't, I've been poring over seed catalogs, making my list and planning for the spring.

A swag for the birds

2010-12-23T19:56:00.000-08:00

The birds, especially the juncos, were so attracted to the quinoa this fall, I decided to bundle the dry branches and leave them out for winter sustenance. The swag is hanging outside the backdoor from the awning support beam. I like how it looks.

Still yet

2010-12-18T13:46:00.000-08:00

Even after a cover of snow that lasted for about two weeks and freezing temperatures, the Rapa Pop mustard has lasted. It's looking haggard and flattened by the snow, but it's still alive and pretty tasty. There's not really much for a meal, but they are there for outdoor snacking.

Parsley (the name of the seed is Survivor) is still alive too.

It's been snowing

2010-12-03T19:43:00.000-08:00

All the patio containers have snow hats.

Coriander in the kitchen

2010-11-25T12:50:00.000-08:00

Went outside in the snow this morning to harvest the year's cilantro plants. I aim to collect its seeds, coriander. Now the kitchen smells like the herb, which is one of our favorites.

Coriander seeds are a dominant flavor in corned beef brisket and we use it a lot in a variety of Indian dishes including gobhi matar rasedar (cauliflower, green peans and potatoes in spicy herb sauce). I'll let the plant hang for a little while so that the seeds can dry more.

Hard frost

2010-11-19T19:07:00.000-08:00

coriander

spigariello broccoli

tomatillo

quinoa

Other alliums

2010-11-10T18:10:00.000-08:00

This weekend, I took account of our shallots and garlic. I cleaned them up a little more: trimmed roots, rubbed excess paper off, brushed more dirt off. I'm trying to decide if I will put some shallots into the ground asap for more shallots next year. I had hoped to buy new seed shallot this year, but it's kind of expensive, especially after shipping costs are added in. We're enjoying these little mild alliums now. They were very fun to grow.

We have a lot less garlic left than I thought. We are just steadily eating through our supply, which is great. These little garlic bags are nice to have around. I love the bright color and they help give the bulbs the circulation they need in storage. The bags are leftover from buying garlic in bulk at the farmers market in Hawaii.

***
It's Nov. 10 and we are still eating vegetables from the garden. Tonight it was spigariello broccoli greens with butter and garlic eaten with brown rice and poached eggs. Also still available outside: beetroot and beet greens (we're planning a beet roast this weekend), cilantro, tomatillos (plant is probably done, but there's still fruit to harvest), parsley and mint.

Garden pledge

2010-11-03T22:23:00.000-07:00

We planted our garlic Oct. 31: Thai Fire (smallest, darkest, paper purplish red), Asian Tempest (slightly striped purple red) and Rosewood Porcelain (opaque creamy paper, large).

The garlic was grown locally and organically at NE Farms and purchased at a local shop, Bella's. The garlic was being sold for eating, but a friend said since it was organic that meant there were no sprout inhibitors added.

In all, we planted 8 rows. From south to north: three rows of Thai Fire (15 cloves), Rosewood Porcelain (15 cloves) and Asian Tempest (11 cloves). That's 41 cloves total. It was about $14 for the six bulbs.

Planting garlic in the fall is a pledge of commitment to next year's garden.

ghosts in the garden

2010-10-31T11:51:00.000-07:00

All the green has gone out of the tomatillo lanterns that were too tender when frost hit earlier this month. What's left is this vellum-like material that lets the fall sunlight through and shows the small shadow of a stunted fruit. These days, you have to catch the sun early because the L Hill blocks out the light by 12:30 or so.

Parts of the other tomatillo plant (the one on the trellis) are surprisingly still alive. There's enough fruit for a few more small batches of salsa or sauce.

Keeping beans

2010-10-29T18:25:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, I started collecting dried scarlet runner beans for storing. Ideally, you want to let the seeds dry inside of the pod on the vine.

That way, when you open up the pod, the seeds are full-size and if you wanted to plant them later, instead of eating them, they are fully packed up for dormancy and ready to become a plant next summer. I couldn't wait for them to dry on the vine since the plant withered in this month's first light frost.

Mature beans are a beautiful black-purple and speckled. Beans not as old come out of the shell tender and bubblegum-pink. They dry darker though. In all, I collected half a pint of these dried beans.

How a tomatillo grows

2010-10-23T10:57:00.000-07:00

I don't know exactly how a tomatillo grows, but I have some observations. I started seed for purple de milpa tomatillos April 22. They sprouted April 26 after getting some extra warmth near the heat register. The tomatillo was planted out June 21 and tiny closed calyxes started to come on.

Soon, the plant produced a surfeit of yellow flowers with hazy purplish centers that attracted lots of bees. As the flowers faded, the calyxes seemed to continue to grow, enveloping the flower and making a husk that looks like a pretty paper lantern. If you peak into the star-shaped opening, you can see the little tomatillo forming. The ones in my backyard grew pretty slowly due to the cool weather.

At full size, the fruit fits tightly in the lantern and begins to bust out a little. Exposure to sun turns this variety's skin purple. The secret pleasure of tomatillos is to peel back the husk and find the little flower inside, now dried. Sometimes the fruit just barrels through the flower and the petals get stuck to the resinous skin.

Tomatillos keep relatively well. They are firm and surprisingly cold hardy outside. We've been eating them here and there since September, but tonight we made a bigger harvest into some delicious salsa. We toasted the tomatillos along with some garlic and home-grown jalapenos on a comal on the stove. We ate it with some quesdillas stuffed with manchengo, cheddar and sauteed onions and home-grown bell peppers. Also, we ate rice cooked with some leftover salsa from a local restaurant.

Good dinner.

Growing notes: This year, my main plant grew in the trellis planter box. Tomatillos are sprawling so I hoped to train the plant and keep things tidy. It grew too quickly for this and seemed to have a hard time fitting into the narrow space.

Next year, I am planning to give the plant more space in the base part of the L-shaped raised bed. It will be able to get tall and not block out sun for other plants and it will be able to spread out much more. I had a second tomatillo plant in this area this year — one that was a back-up but I just decided to put it in the ground later in the season. The lanterns grew much bigger but not quick enough to get much fruit by the time the frost came. It was planted to the side and not in the middle of the space since other things were there, but next year, I'll put the plant in the center of this area. While it's still small, I'll grow lots of cilantro. It will still need lots of support, just not a flat trellis. Probably stakes and ties.

Vegetable stripes

2010-10-21T20:53:00.000-07:00

Chioggia beet. Still lots of them outside along with a few other varieties. I'm not interested in pickled beets since to eat this root roasted is heaven. I read somewhere though that beetroot stores fine buried in sawdust or sand. We may try to preserve the greens too by partially cooking them and then freezing them.

October tomatoes

2010-10-13T23:21:00.000-07:00

Frost last night so we picked tomatoes and some other things.

Most of them were green but some of them were getting there with redness and ripeness. Most of them were beautifully striped.

I'm not sure what kind of tomato this is. It was grown from seed collected by a friend who didn't know what it was except that it's a "heirloom." It's crazy that these fruits came from a seed I started indoors back in April. Next year, we hope to expand our growing space with a bank of deep but narrow raised beds (call them planters if you like) for more tomatoes.

Since we have a basket full of green tomatoes, we are hoping to make some pickles out of them like the ones a friend prepared and shared with us this summer. Delicious.

Also harvested: four jalapeno peppers, a colander full of tomatillos, more shallots

Still out there: more tomatillos (they won't grow anymore but we'll harvest more later for chutney), spinach beet greens, beets, mustard greens, cilantro (any chance for coriander seeds?), and maybe a few carrots. I wish I knew how to grow carrots well.

A pile of beet greens

2010-10-02T10:56:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Oct. 1 with stew lu'au. The dish, which I first made with beet greens a year ago, included spinach beet greens too.

There's nothing like taro leaves, the traditional ingredient in stew lu'au, but beet greens make a fine stand-in.

We still have loads of greens outside: beet greens, spinach beets, mustard greens and spigariello broccoli. There's also: tomatoes (ripe and green), tomatillos (many still ripening), some peppers and lots of herbs.

Bean beauty

2010-09-29T13:43:00.000-07:00

The third gift from the Scarlet Emperor Runner Bean: beautiful beans for drying, for soup later.

The first two gifts were its orange-red flowers and its green beans.

Fall greens

2010-09-25T12:52:00.000-07:00

Good old spigariello broccoli. Our crop was started indoors under lights in April. Germination was 100% and growth was quick. A little more than a month later, May 17, I planted the plants out. They grew a lot slower outside. By mid-July, they were about the size ready for picking, but they were drawing a large crowd of aphids. Later in the month, I sprayed them with neem and I think it was worth it. The bugs dropped off and have generally stayed away. In August we started eating this non-flowering broccoli and it's proven to be cold hardy and just the thing to make supper really taste like fall.

This plant's been nice too because it's beautiful — a blue-green with a whitish bloom like that you see on grapes. The curls of the leaf edges are wonderful too.

September lunch

2010-09-22T19:17:00.000-07:00

mustard greens, tomatillos and jalapeno

tomatillo flower burst

There are still vegetable treasures here and there in the garden.

We had a long-lingering spring and a short cool summer which is now transitioning into true fall.

Soon, our crop will be crispy yellow and orange maple leaves and we'll arm ourselves with rakes and wool sweaters.

I have to admit that, being from Hawaii, I shrink from the cold. I sometimes find it hard to visit every plant when there's a cold wind blowing and gray clouds cover up the sun. It's no good since there's still a lot of growth going on.

Here's a summary of the state of things in the garden:

L-Shaped Raised Bed

• Quinoa: Top heavy and started to droop around mid-August. It must be supported when it's going the seed. Beautiful colors, pinks and oranges in the foliage, but it's done. May be able to dry seed heads to collect seeds.
• Malabar Spinach: Stayed small. Must have planted it too early. The succulent plant is now flowering.
• Spigariello Broccoli: Several loads of greens ready to pick. After a period of heavy insect presence, it's thriving.
• Fennel: One more fennel bulb is lost and forgotten between the quinoa and broccoli even despite its feathery foliage.
• Won Bok: One of only a few nursery buys, this never thrived and went to seed early.
• Carrots (Yellowstone and Atomic Red): Over half did not germinate or did not survive. I need to devise a new carrot plan for next year.
• Cilantro: The tiny white petals of cilantro's flowers are cast over the soil below. Still very tasty. Cilantro is a must.

• Purple de Milpa Tomatillo: Sprawling, like an octopus. Large flowers, but fruit are way behind. This was a plant put in very late because I had an extra.
• Sesame: Seems cold-sensitive and is starting to yellow. Will try to start earlier next year.
• Survivor Parsley: Overshadowed by the cilantro but still there.
• French Shallot: Most have been harvested about a month ago, but there are a couple more I haven't dug up.
• Spinach Beet: Giant and everlasting. Much more insect-resistant at this stage. Stems are slightly like suede.

• Tuscan Kale: It's not thriving. It should be started in doors next year.
• Red Baron Scallion: One more's left. They were a big treat this year. Tasty and cheery.
• Rapa Pop Mustard (see photo above): Came up quick and nice to have around. Not sure how cold hardy it will be.

• Pak Choi: I've lost track of it in the garden; it may not have come up (it was planted a month to a month and a half ago).
• Miner's Lettuce: Ditto.

I-Shaped Raised Bed
• Beets: We've eaten more beets and greens so far this year than we did last year. We still have several meals to harvest. We might store some beets this year (in sawdust is recommended). Also, stew lu'au.
• Winter Density Lettuce: I have a few babies coming up I may move to a possible coldframe in the next few weeks.
• Deer Tongue Lettuce: Must be calling out to moths and butterflies like a Siren since it's covered in caterpillars.
• Matina Lettuce: Bolted and hanging around.

Trellis
• Scarlet Emperor Runner Bean: It's worth it just for the show of flowers alone. Also the pollinators it attracts is great, especially the hummingbirds. We didn't get as many beans as we could have with four plants. They are yummy though (very beany) and cheery to see.

• Purple de Milpa Tomatillo: One of my favorites. The bees love it. The flowers are beautiful and the lantern-husked fruits are cheery. The fruits are complex and delicious. Very fun to watch grow.

• Charentais Melon: This cold-sensitive melon is a heart-breaker. We have one good-size melon and some other small ones that obviously won't get to full size.

Containers
• Toothache Plant: I just collected dry seed heads. The plant is still producing new flowers but I imagine it won't be cold hardy at all.
• Epazote: Still going. It looks like it needs a bigger container.
• Jalapeno: We have a good supply for lunches, but I'd love to have extras to preserve. Next year I'd like to have several plants.

• Orange Bell Pepper: It seems to be recovered from an earlier problem. There were late flowers and now some small fruit.
• Thai Demon Hot Pepper: Some tiny flowers, but no peppers yet.

• Mystery Tomato: Giant and gorgeous tomatoes (not many), but rarely a color any different from green.
• Ping Tung Eggplant: A single flower. Perhaps I'll get a two-inch eggplant. I brought it out too late and put it in too small a container. I'll try to make space for it in the garden next year.

Herb Table
• Basil: Shutting down.
• Moroccan Mint: Ditto.
• Sage: Ditto:
• Survivor Parsley: Ditto.
• Orange Thyme: Ditto:
• Spinach Beet: small and somewhat neglected.

The bees love the tomatillo flowers

2010-09-18T14:10:00.000-07:00

Miscellaneous things

2010-08-15T17:59:00.000-07:00

tomato beauty

spinach beet forest

rapa pop mustard

Sun flower

2010-08-15T17:45:00.000-07:00

We may not get a good crop of runner beans this year, but the plant has given us a great show of its orange-red velvety flowers.

The tomatillo flowers are cheery and sunny too.

Beets are reliable and delicious

2010-08-10T19:10:00.000-07:00

Last night, we realized that our dinner included seven things from the garden: mint, basil, red baron scallions, fennel, garlic, parsley and spinach beets.

Tonight, we'll east roasted beets with goat cheese over some of the last of our lettuce.

We harvest beets from mid to late June through October. Just a few make dinner special.

Beets are one of my favorites.

Garden sketchbook

2010-08-07T13:40:00.000-07:00

Click to enlarge and see late summer/fall plans for the garden.

'Aukake garden

2010-08-07T11:15:00.000-07:00

Quinoa is tall and the aphids love it.

Jalapeno peppers ready to be picked.

Thai demon hot chili pepper is small but doing fine.

I'm hoping for the purple eggplant flower soon.

A silver hummingbird made a visit to these red bean blossoms this morning. It even alighted on the trellis a few times.

Parsley in the shade of cilantro.

Malabar spinach, why are you so small. Now it has these things. Looks like it wants to flower.

Feathery fennel does well in the shade of its neighbors.

Dragonfly on beet greens.

Spilanthes and mixed basil tisane

2010-08-06T16:45:00.000-07:00

Perfect thing just before bed during a rainless lightning storm: a tisane of toothache plant flowers and mixed basil. We're growing cinnamon, anise, clove and licorice basil (and a more traditional kind) and I'm not sure what I grabbed.

The little flowers, separated from the toothache plant "button," are pretty potent, much more than just the leaves. Each sip of the tisane was tingly.

More alliums

2010-08-05T19:59:00.000-07:00

The red baron scallions are nice to have around.

They're very mild and sometimes exactly what's needed.
Plus, they're beautiful.

These aren't supposed to bulb up, but this one did a little. This one was growing with two other scallions...I probably accidentally put three seeds in one hole.

I have a special appreciation for vegetables that can be eaten from bottom to top.

Pitchfork and pulling

2010-08-03T21:15:00.000-07:00

Gently, we used the pitchfork to loosen the soil and then pulled our October-planted garlic up. Behind me are my beets and in front of me are the spinach beets. In the left corner of the raised bed is a tomatillo plant, cilantro, parsley and sesame (with leaves that smell like sesame!).

Our harvest drying on hardware cloth right over the soil they grew in. The garlic was pretty small, the biggest ones being about as big as an egg. Ah well, still great.

You can see the shallots in the background. After the garlic is all ready, they're next.

garlic beards

The shallots

2010-07-31T13:41:00.000-07:00

are about ready to harvest!

Three more sets will be ready later, hopefully not all at the same time.

Epazote

2010-07-31T13:28:00.000-07:00

July 2, I posted that the epazote was slow-growing. It took off since then. It's looking ready to eat. Trouble is, we're not quite sure what to eat it with and its gasoline smell is intimidating (though intriguing).

I've read that the Mexican herb is essential for certain bean dishes. I'll be referring to one of my favorite cookbooks for guidance on the herb: "Meatless Mexican Home Cooking," by Nancy Zaslavsky. I first read about epazote in this book. Also, Gernot Katzer has a page detailing the chemical make-up, culinary uses and more of epzaote on his website.

It's a pretty plant, something I'd like to have around from year to year.

Daydreaming about Charentais melon

2010-07-31T13:09:00.000-07:00

Fruiting stuff was really late this year because of lingering cold temperatures...in the 40s at night, etc. But, we've got a surfeit of melon flowers and are keeping our fingers crossed for the fruits that have been described as the best.

We are continuing to gently train the trailing branches up the trellis with the help of an old floursack dishcloth that I've cut into strips.

Even if we don't get acceptable melons, just watching the sentient cucurbit with its tendrils and large stiff leaves (not to mention the sweet yellow flowers) is so nice. I just sit on the milk crate and stare at it.

The Scarlet Emperor runner bean blossoms and climbs

2010-07-31T13:03:00.000-07:00

There's something intrinsically poetic about plants that climb.

Neem it is

2010-07-25T11:00:00.000-07:00

We used to get lettuce regularly from a family friend. She had a small farm and sold her vegetables to health food stores on the Big Island. At the time, I thought it was the most delicious lettuce I had ever tasted. She'd give us the heads of lettuce that she couldn't sell and a sticker on the bag said "Grown peacefully with neem."

Years later, I watched a documentary on PBS and a woman in India was talking about the neem tree and how it was the "village pharmacy."

Smelling of old onions, solutions made of neem are considered an effective but organic (OMRI-approved) pesticide. Last year, I did nothing but hand-pick aphids and cutworms and slugs and leaf miners, but this year a few of my plants were aggressively fed upon — spinach beets, quinoa and the broccoli. The broccoli was the worst and also the last straw. I have a new batch of spigariello broccoli coming up and I'd prefer to actually eat it. So, I sprayed it with neem! It was not easy.

Peaceful? No...I mean, neem kills. I know that's the point, but I'm the kind of person who watches their step for ants on the sidewalk. Neem affects insects, especially soft-bodied ones like aphids so that their growth is disrupted (then they die). It also acts as an anti-feedant.

That's why, I'm so glad for the ladybugs and the wasps and spiders who kill pests, but kill for food.

Hopefully the spraying was worth it.