Jake-A Tribute to my Gardening Companion

Most people don't think of their dogs as gardening companions, but mine most certainly was.  He followed me wherever I was working and would watch the world go by until I moved on to the next spot.  My profile picture even includes him as he stayed by me while I lifted every rock in the wall into place.  He would stand outside the vegetable garden and wait to see if the green beans were big enough so he could get one of his favorite treats.
Jake was a great dog.  I know, everyone says that about their dog but he truly was.  He loved people.  On our walks we got to know lots of other dogs and their owners.  Jake always greeted the owner first before the customary sniffing began.  We live next to the park so he got to see lots of people and dogs go by.  We would hear voices call out his name from the other side of the fence in greeting.  The regular, non-dog owner, walkers also knew him.  Several carried treats in their pockets which endeared them to him even more.  It didn't take treats for him to like you though.  He was just as happy to have a scratch under the chin or a stroke down his back.  
He was an obedient dog who's vocabulary would astound most people.  He didn't speak it but he knew what you were saying beyond the simple, "Sit, stay, down, etc.".  We became friends with a neighborhood gardener who had no dog of his own but looked forward to our visits.  He kept treats in the cupboard just for Jake and a dish with "Jake" on the side sits on his porch for water.  I could let Jake off the leash and tell him, "Go find Stan" and off he would run to the back yard or garage until Stan would follow him out to the front yard.  We joked that he was a Stanley-retriever.
Jake in-fact was a Goldendoodle.  We got him 11 and 1/2 years ago when no one knew what the cross between a Standard Poodle and Golden Retriever would bring.  He was $300 and we thought that a pretty price for a mixed-breed.  He was worth every penny and then some.  Ask people now what they get for this fine mix of temperament and low-shed coat.  He fit in so well with our family.  The girls were able to establish their dominance over him in our pack and he learned the dos and don'ts of living in our house.  He border-trained so well that even with the back gate open, he would stand and bark at passing dogs from the invisible barrier of the back yard.  He never mastered dropping the ball during a game of fetch, so two tennis balls always were part of the game.  He didn't like swimming but would lay on the floating mats and enjoy the cool water from there.

Time goes quickly and we all have gotten older, but not as quickly as a dog does.  He still had that puppy about him but he slowed down and lost his stamina.  Our walks got shorter and slower.  Kidney problems started this spring and our 53 pound pup lost weight until he was last weighed in at 41.  I came home from work early this afternoon so I could be with him.  We took our last walk down to the vegetable garden where I found a few small, October beans for his last treat which he enjoyed as much as any other. So, on a very fine autumn day, we took our last drive to the vet with him.  I cried (I am crying) as he laid his head down for the last time.  The vet cried with us.  When Jake comes home, he will be laid to rest under the tree that I planted first in our backyard and was his favorite spot to be in.  I will always look to that spot and remember the greatest dog in the world.

FROST!

The dreaded word of gardeners has entered our weather forecast...frost!  We gardeners scurry around in the garden working to save our precious plants and bring in the last of the cold sensitive harvest.  When I heard of the cold front yesterday morning, I made it my goal to bring in all the red, almost red, and just blushing tomatoes.  They never store as well after they get cold and I am determined to make the most of my great tomato crop.

The plants still have plenty of green tomatoes that are of a decent size that I am going to gamble on better weather coming.  We often get one or two cold nights followed by a beautiful stretch of weather.  I have pulled out the new bag of floating row cover and have encased the tomato patch like a caterpillar in its cocoon.  With the southern exposure and radiant heat from the house and pavement, I am hoping it is enough to extend my crop this year.  If the real cold comes, I will pull off the rest of the green tomatoes and store them in single layers on newspaper in the basement.  I have had tomatoes ripen well into winter using this technique.  Not as good as vine ripened but no worse than what you would buy in the store.


A few other things had to be adjusted for the possible lows in the 30's tonight.  I have several plants that I have over-wintered and would like to do again.  I have two citronella scented geraniums that I grew into topiaries now each 4 feet tall.  My star jasmine and mandevilla vine are also too expensive to replace now that they have grown larger.  I also bring in coleus cuttings for my garden next year.

Basil is cold sensitive even without frost and should be harvested before the cold hits.  Since it is cold sensitive, never store it in the refrigerator.  Cut the plants and stick them right in water.  I have some larger plants which I am going to dehydrate the leaves for dried herb use.  I have some that have already rooted on the window sill.  There are a few left in the garden under frost cover and one bunch which I late seeded directly in the garden which I just put an over-turned pail on to keep warm.  A very simple solution, I do have to take it off in the morning.

Just a few notes about frost protection.  Plastic sheets are not a good option.  If the plastic rest on the plant leaves they will freeze through the plastic.  Cloth is a better option, row cover is great as you can leave it on the next day rather than have to remove it like you would with sheets or rugs as they block too much light.  If you have the time to take things off before the sun is too high then they work just fine.  If you don't cover and get caught by a frost there is one last option to resort to which does work.  The reason why frost kills plants is that as the frozen cells warm up with the sun they burst from warming too quickly.  If you get out before sun up and water by sprinkling the leaves, you more slowly warm up the plant cells and may just save your plants for another day.  

Welcome to gardening via the extended season!  Whatever it is you cherish you may find a place in your home to keep it over winter.  It is always a good idea to wash plants off thoroughly before bringing in and isolate them from your other house plants for the first couple weeks to see if any bugs hatch.  This year I plan on immersing my pots in a tub to make sure I do not bring another mouse family in with them like last year (four baby mice eating my new seedlings was not good).  I keep all my indoor plants in my basement under lights for the winter and they pull through just fine.  It also makes doing laundry a bit more tropical in the middle of winter.  Stay warm and put the pots in the garage for the night.  Indian Summer is on its way.

Herb Garden

 I used to think of herbs as the extra things in the garden which I could live without if it meant using space I wanted for other things.  All that changed several years ago when I added a small water feature to the backyard.  At first I had flowers planted in the space, some perennials and annuals, with the nasturtiums trailing down the wall.  I think it was the nasturtiums and their edible nature that caused this long time flower spot to become an edible and "scentual" garden.  
The herbs had been right outside my back door by the kitchen.  It was a great spot and I often ran out while cooking to nip off fresh herbs for my dishes.  Slowly the shade trees got bigger and the herbs grew smaller and some of them displaced the perennials in the rock wall bed.  This year all the herbs have moved in and not one flower grows there.  The plants grow great here.  Not quite full sun but a good amount of afternoon light makes it through the light shade of the crab apple tree.  

The sound of running water makes it a beautiful place to be in my yard.  Most of the herbs are in the ground, but the rosemary tree which is not winter hardy remains in a pot for easy conveyance to the house in colder weather.   Basil cuttings that I root in water are already waiting to be transplanted for the winter window sill garden. Most of my herbs are for cooking but some are there just for the pure pleasure of crushing their leaves for the scent they give off, such as my lemon verbena that I purchase each spring as it is also not winter hardy and I haven't had much luck rooting it.  I like to go to the garden center in spring so I leave it to more capable hands.  The smaller garden centers around Milwaukee have some very nice people who own and operate them and I look forward to seeing them again each season.  I would hate to lose these wonderful spots to the big box store that carry poor merchandise and don't know their plant from a hole in the ground.
I started making spring and early summer the choice time for harvesting many of my perennial herbs.  Chives are definitely best in the early spring as are thyme and oregano.  The leaves are still fresh and packed with flavor. By the fall, many plants are tough and chewed up.  Since I am eager to be out there picking something, herbs are what make it in.  I dehydrate most of my herbs in an American Harvester food dehydrator which I built on to and have owned for over 20 years.  It still runs like a champ.  I have 8 trays but it could hold up to 12.  I have never run out of space with what I have.  I crush and store in plastic bags and dispose of last years herbs once the new ones are in. I usually don't throw out much as I dry mostly what I need for the year and enjoy the rest fresh.
The herb garden was great while making spaghetti sauce this weekend.  I was able to use fresh oregano, basil, and rosemary as well as the garlic that came out of the garden this summer.  I also picked my own onions for the sauce.

Whether you grow herbs for cooking or just enjoying is up to you.  There is the whole area of medicinal herbs that I haven't even touched on because it is so extensive.  Start simply by walking through the herb section of the garden center.  Touch the leaves, read the tags, and ask questions.  If you go to the smaller greenhouses, the staff has usually chosen the seeds and plants and have nurtured them from little on and can answer your questions.  Get a good herb book and read to get some ideas of what you like.  Look at your favorite cook books to see what herbs are popularly used in recipes.  As you educate yourself more and more, you will become better at gardening and using what you grow.

Tons of tomatoes and loads of hope

There are hundreds of reasons why I have been lacking in new posts and here are a few of them.  The garden is coming in heavily and everything is rushing to beat the first frost.  With my first tomato harvest out of my own garden in so many years of waiting, I have no intention of wasting it.  Tonight I will cook down the tomatoes here in my big stock pot and get some sauce on the shelves for winter.  I am so lucky to have the space to grow my own food and even luckier to live in a neighborhood I don't have to put a dog out at night to watch it for me.
Urban farmers are on the rise and even my city has allowed the temporary trial of backyard hens to see how it goes over the first year.  My job takes me into some of the grittier areas of town and I find small vegetable patches in so many back yards and on patios in pots.  The biggest threat many of these gardeners face is theft.  Some of it goes into hungry bellies (which makes it easier to swallow), but it is the smashed tomatoes and pumpkins that really upset these urban farmers.  Young kids who are more into pulling pranks than being neighbors are high on the list of many of the people I talk to in back alleys these days.  There are just not enough positive role models for so many kids.  Many of them are sent out of their neighborhoods for school which may bring them better school choices, but it has also eliminated the neighborhood accountability factor.  There is not the regular routine of people that are seen on a regular basis who know them and their parents.  When we were growing up, albeit in a small town, there was several sets of eyes on us during the day, and if we tried to pull something off, we were usually caught.
There is a positive influence in the body of a man called Will Allen in our city.  He has gained a national reputation for his urban farming techniques and his ability to reach out to his neighborhood.  Check out his brain child Growing Power on the web at http://www.growingpower.org/ .  I also recommend his face book page for regular updates.  I will leave you here and let you click over to Will's page.  I hope it inspires you to be a positive force in your own community.

Salsa Time!

Making salsa was a family experience this year.  My oldest daughter, Michelle, and boyfriend, Dan, became my very capable assistants.  Our family loves to laugh together and made it a much easier tasks than when I stand alone.  My other daughter, Bessy (you can call her Lizzy), didn't get her hands into the mix but hung out with us while working on a clothing class project.  This is a perfectly acceptable substitute to helping in my book.

We started the night with supper made with fresh ancho peppers from the garden for my first batch ever of Chili Rellonos.  I am not a fan of frying and decided that the very versatile crescent rolls would be thinly stretched around the stuffed peppers to hold the filling in as well as add a bit of coating like you would have with batter dipped and deep-fried recipes.  The vote was unanimous that it work out great and the flavor was perfectly complemented by a batch of lemon-cilantro rice Dan cooked up as our side dish.  Our only complaint was that 8 was not enough for 5 grown people.


Canning is a pretty labor intensive process and making salsa to can is probably 3 times the effort.  Besides blanching and dicing tomatoes by hand (food processors are too uneven and go too fine), we also do up onions, garlic, hot peppers, cilantro, lime with additional seasonings to round it off.  I like to use my Celebrity tomatoes and Roma tomatoes half and half.  The first adds the most flavor and the second adds the most "meat".  I also thicken with canned tomato paste.  If it's good enough for Newmann's, it's good enough for me.  I don't like to cook down the tomatoes to thicken as they loose too much of their body and get too saucy.  Tears were shed over onions and gloves were utilized for the peppers but we made it through.

 This was the first time one of my girls stuck through the whole process and both Michelle and Dan were able to learn the finer points of filling jars, cleaning rims, adding sterile lids, and dropping them into the processor.  Even putting on the screw bands is something best learned by being with someone who has done it before. The whole processes took us about 4 hours but we now have 14 pints and 14 half pints on the canning shelves for the next year's use.  We each had a quart of left overs to use fresh, and Dan took another quart to share with his family over the long, holiday weekend.  


Now that the salsa is done, I have the hardest job of my harvesting season put away.  The vines are still heavy with tomatoes which are still ripening.  This will be the first year in recent memory that not only will I have made salsa with all my own home-grown tomatoes, but I will also be able to can whole tomatoes and tomato juice for the first time in many years.

Working through the process of blanching, peeling, chopping and canning always reminds me of those hot summer nights that my mom worked at filling our basement shelves each year.  She would get in lugs of peaches and we would blanch and peel until our hands were like prunes.  When Michelle stepped away for a few minutes for that reason it reminded me of arms itching from peach juice running down them.  


We spent endless hours snapping beans, saucing apples, and scrubbing the pickling cucumbers.  It all seems like so much extra work!  Until you put up a few of your own veggies and fruits, you will never know the satisfaction of going into your pantry or basement and looking at the gleaming jars filled with good things to eat in the middle of a winter storm.  When the sun streams through the glass block on the late afternoons, the jars are like gems sparkling on the shelves.  


Start with something easy like jams and jellies.  The fruit pectin packages have the recipes right in them and it will be a small investment in canning jars and seals.  If you follow the instructions for turning the jars over when they are hot to seal them, you won't even need a canning kettle.  Fruits are the next easiest item as are pickled items as they also just need a water bath canner to sterilize and seal them properly and safely.  Vegetables are lower acid and need to be pressure canned so the temperature gets high enough to kill any microbes.  Water boils at a higher temperature under pressure.  It may sound intimidating but it really isn't.


If picking up jars at rummages and auctions, make sure to run your finger around the stop lip of the jar.  It should be smooth with no nicks or cracks.  Don't try using these jars for long term preservation as they may seal when you can them but the lid might slowly let air in and spoil your food.  Save these jars for putting in dried foods as they don't need to be completely air tight.  Some sites will say water bath canning is out but that has been debunked by experts.  People have been doing it for a long time with no ill effects.  Do follow the above rules for vegetable though.  Always use new lids when canning.  Even if the old ones came off with no bends, do you really want to risk having the rubber seal fail and lose the food?  Use these for sealing your dried foods if you save them instead of recycling them.   


If you feel daunted read up, take a class or find a friend to teach you.  It is such a wonderful skill to have and the rewards are big!

Think spring...

 With the weather still warm during the days it's hard to think of autumn coming let alone doing a fast-foward to spring.  If you are a gardener who likes to have the spring bulbs showing up when the snow melts, then now is the time to think spring.  Most of your bulbs or spring flowering perennials need to go in the ground in the fall or be lifted and divided at this time.  I pulled up my iris at the beginning of August to relocate them and eliminate the rhizomes that had iris borers in them.  I let them dry a bit and am ready to find a new spot for them in spring.  Remember when it comes to iris, shallow is best.  You should be able to see the rhizomes laying right at the soil surface.  If you plant them too deep you may be disappointed by the lack of flowers. 

  If this is the case, and you don't want to move or divide them, simply take a garden fork and slide it under the plant to raise them.  Add some soil underneath and then gently water them, washing the excess soil off the top as you go to expose the rhizomes.  If the center of your iris is a tangle of rhizomes with no foliage, it is time to divide them.  

Spring flowering perennials are best divided now.  My primrose bloomed beautifully this year until we removed a tree in the front of our house.  One clump was not happy with the extra sun it was getting and I had to move it then.  When that happens there is lots of TLC that goes into making sure these plants make it.  I was on constant water watch to make sure I did not lose this clump.  It is always best to move plants when they are putting on very little growth and not in bloom.

The spring flower bulbs are now starting to make their way into the stores.  Ordering from catalogs or on-line may still be possible but might be limited, whereas getting out to the store to purchase bulbs from the store is optimum earlier in the fall.  If the weather holds out with the warmer temperatures, it is best to wait for cooler days and nights, say mid to late October to start putting them in.  Picking up bulbs now just means storing them in a consistently cool, dry location until planting time.

 Selecting bulbs is the fun part.  Keep in mind bloom times for early, mid, and late spring.  The grape hyacinths that are in the photo above are different then most spring bulbs in that you will find their foliage at this time of the year also.  The are great indicators for the rest of your spring bulbs if you plant a few with your tulips or daffodils.  Speaking of tulips and daffodils, if you know where those groups are that need moving and have them marked, it is a good time to dig them up and separate them.  
Smaller bulbs will not bloom the first year, but may grow into a 

bulb worth keeping in the future.  Use bone meal or bulb fertilizer when planting to give them the extra boost they need when putting down new roots.
The blue squills in this photo started out as 20 bulbs and I now have them in several areas of my yard.  They are cute and small and they reproduce at a good pace, not overwhelmingly prolific.  They are small enough to have in areas where you have annuals or great for under a low ground cover to pop out between the leaves.  I just love the blue color that stands out even in the shadier parts of my yard.


Know your enemies.  If rabbits are prolific in your yard, tulips will be a buffet for them.  All parts of the bulb are edible, which is why during war food shortages, the Dutch were eating them.  Daffodils are great if you have the rabbit and deer issues as all parts are toxic and they won't touch them.  There are so many new varieties with different colors adding to the familiar yellows. Some of the new daffodils are multiple branched giving them a little different look.  Squirrels are also curious on lookers when you are planting bulbs.  If you have plenty in your neck of the woods, it is best to put down some deterrent to keep them from getting dug up.  You can use sprays and treat the bulbs before planting.  Another way to stop squirrels is to add some stone chips over the top of each bulb before covering them with dirt.  They may dig down for either of these but the bulb tends to stay where you put it.  You can also cover the area with chicken wire or hardware cloth to keep them from digging at all.  This does not have to stay down very long. Usually once the dirt settles they have lost interest in the planting bed.  


Remember that fall is also the time to get in your garlic.  Pick up some bulbs at the farm market now for planting later.  I will just refer you back to my previous blog on garlic instead of going into detail here.


Do a little research and then get out to the garden center to get your bulbs.  Look for good quality bulbs that are not damaged or have mold on them.  They should be firm and rounded.  Shriveled bulbs are not going to be a good choice.  When it comes to bulbs, size does matter.  Bigger bulbs (relative to their species) means bigger flowers.  Have fun and join those who know that sometimes patience is a virtue, especially when it pays off with the first flowers of spring.

The tomato harvest!

When I snapped this picture of my tomatoes a few weeks ago, I was still eagerly awaiting the first red tomato for the first official BLT of summer.  Say what you want about bacon, summer is the time of year when we eat it most often and it tasted soooo good!
The first tomatoes to ripen were the Sungold cherry tomatoes.  The plant is now over 6' tall and greets the mailman each day.  It continues to put on height and produces clusters of golden-orange tomatoes that are so sweet.  I take a quart bowl of them to work and set them on the corner of my desk.
My coworkers were a bit puzzled by their color at first, but by the end of the day the tomato bowl was empty and they were looking for more.  I have another ready for the ride in tomorrow for a Friday treat.  They are almost as sweet as candy but so much better for you.

Patience may be a virtue, but trying something new is even better.  Inspired by a facebook posting of one of my old high-school friends, I plucked a couple large green tomatoes off the vine and made fried green tomatoes.  I followed her directions, but put them through a process I use for eggplant first.  After slicing the fruit, lay it on a cooling rack and sprinkle with Kosher flake salt, flip and salt the other side.  Let is set for about half an hour over the sink to drip out the excess water.  The removal of the moisture helps produce a crispier end product after frying or oven browning.  I dredged them in a bit of flour, salt and pepper and then browned them on my griddle with a bit of butter and canola oil.  After all these years of watching the movie and wondering what they taste like, I now know that although they were good, I prefer to have my zuchinni as my fried vegetable.

The next variety to ripen was the Roma tomatoes.  Although they are a paste tomato and not as juicy as the Celebrity variety, the bacon had been in the frig for a week and was calling my name.  The Romas also make a great addition to salsa and sauces as they are very meaty and keep the consistency not as watery.  They were not a disappointment to have for a BLT.  As most home gardeners know, a home-grown tomato's flavor far out shines any store bought one.  I am looking forward to tonight's BLT featuring a Celebrity as the crowning glory.  I only wish the heat hadn't caused the whole lettuce crop to bolt and the next crop isn't even close.

Last week the real harvest finally started. Our cooler weather of early summer held things back a bit.  All our rain was followed by so much heat that the plants really stretched out and loaded on the fruit.  The only addition I made to my tomato bed was compost and grass clippings.  It seems to be what they needed.  All three varieties are ripening in fair amounts.  I have processed a full pail and then some for chili and spaghetti sauce.  I had my eye on canning salsa, but decided some immediate gratification was in order.

I was also processing two gallon pails of beans a few nights ago, so blanching the tomatoes to remove the skins was just one more thing to quickly do.  I cut up the whole pail of red tomatoes and put them in the frig until the next morning.  We had a 90 degree day in the forecast, so I put the cut up tomatoes into a slow cooker on low for the day.  A couple minutes with the immersion blender (yes, I do have a lot of kitchen toys) and the addition of some tomato paste and I had my base.  I ladled half of it out for the sauce and added the necessary ingredients to each half to make two meals in one night.  Spaghetti sauce is always better the second day, so that went into the frig for Wednesday night's supper.  Sitting in the frig did what a slow simmer would do on a regular day and that was to blend all the flavors into the sauce. 

One more summer time favorite awaits me and that will require a trip to the store for some fresh mozzarella cheese.  The basil is waiting to be married to some tomatoes, cheese and balsamic vinegar for a fresh salad.  Caprese  salad is a new summer love, but I do believe it is here to stay.  Google a recipe for yourself and give it a try if you have never tasted this before.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
I have to wait for my daughter to get home to make supper, so this is a great opportunity to walk up to the store for a few ingredients.  Enjoy your summer time favorites and share them with a friend.


P.S.  KEEP YOUR TOMATOES OUT OF THE FRIG AND ON THE COUNTER.  THE TASTE WILL BE BETTER AND THEY WILL HOLD FOR DAYS LIKE THIS.  THEY KEEP RIPENING SO EVEN GREEN ONES MAY HAVE A CHANCE IF THEY DROP OFF THE VINE TOO EARLY.