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Book Review: Tomatoes Garlic Basil


2010
06.23

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Posted in Herbs in the garden, Herbs in the kitchen, Home Garden, Product reviews, Recipes | No Comments »

PBHobson2 Patsy Bell Hobson is a garden writer and a travel writer. For her, it’s a great day when she can combine the two things she enjoys most: gardening and traveling. Visit her personal blog at and read her travel writings.

In my Zone 6 garden there are always three kinds of tomatoes: a paste tomato for sauces, a cherry tomato, because these small tomatoes are always the first to ripen (and later, when the big tomatoes are producing, these small ones will be dried), and a big, meaty tomato for eating fresh (and for bragging rights). I love tomatoes and when I saw Tomatoes Garlic Basil (St. Lynn’s Press, 2010), I judged the book by its cover. It is beautiful. Eventually, I was tempted to open the paperback tribute to the garden and kitchen’s favorite produce and I’m glad that I did. The book only gets better!

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Tomatoes, garlic and basil are the holy trinity of the vegetable garden.

Doug Oster’s Tomatoes Garlic Basil is a love letter about our favorite home garden produce. If you are one of the millions of backyard gardeners who grow tomatoes, this book is for you. Tomatoes are the star of the show. And, just like most gardens, basil and garlic have strong supporting roles in the book that magnify the magic of home grown tomatoes.

The book will not overwhelm you with soil science and plant genetics. It will give you some good advice about soil preparation and plant selection. The pleasure of reading this book grows as Oster offers us many choices with these three simple garden staples.

Like most gardeners, Oster is generous in sharing his experience and recipes. If you are new to gardening, try the simple combination of these three plants. He also encourages people who do not have garden space and shares some planting options. Each chapter begins with a garden or food quote that ties into the chapter. In Chapter 2, I was inspired by “Summer Celebrations” and looked forward to incorporating some of his ideas as I create new traditions for my own family. And by the time you get to the great advice in Chapter 9, which is about soil preparation and weed control, Oster will feel like an old neighbor

Oster is still on the big adventure of trying some different tomato plants every year as well as growing his favorites. It’s a good idea and you will never run out of tomato varieties to try. After reading this book you will be able to speak about basil and garlic as well as tomatoes with any home gardener.

This book would make a great gift for either a new or experienced gardener, as well as for the recipients of your produce bounty. (I recommend you buy the print version to enjoy the artful photographs.) The only difficult part is deciding whether to put this book with my cookbooks or on the shelf with the gardening books. I decided to take the book into the kitchen and try the recipes with my own fresh tomatoes, garlic and basil.

I enjoyed the humorous and serious gardening stories and there are plenty of artsy photographs throughout the book. I will definitely put Doug’s recipes and gardening tips to use this summer.

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Cherry tomatoes are heavy producers.

Book Details
• Tomatoes Garlic Basil: The Simple Pleasures of Growing and Cooking Your Garden’s Most Versatile Veggies by Doug Oster
• Paperback: 272 pages.
• Publisher: St. Lynn’s Press; 1st edition, ISBN-10: 0981961517 and ISBN-13: 978-0981961514
• See Doug Oster’s Blog at http://www.dougoster.com/books/ to read “My favorite story from Tomatoes Garlic Basil.”

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Rock Solid Strawberry


2010
06.23

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Frozen fruit will thaw by dessert time. photo by Roboppy

Little berries are sweet and would be tasty frozen treat. photo: PBH

First, this is not my idea. I came upon this tidbit watching late night/early morning TV. Frozen Fruit

Ingredients
1 quart strawberries, de-stemmed
1 (3 pound) block dry ice

Directions

Wash strawberries and place in a paper towel-lined colander. Cover with another paper towel and place in the refrigerator for 4 hours.

  • Break dry ice into small pieces, and toss with berries in a large bowl. Place into a container and cover with a towel. Place this in a cooler for 25 to 30 minutes. Remove berries and put into sealable bags and store in the freezer.

French strawberries grown in a hanging basket photo:PBH

Frozen Fruit

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Garden Bloggers Bloom Day June 2010


2010
06.18

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Posted in Herbs in the garden, Herbs in the kitchen, Home Garden | No Comments »

I love June.

Yes, there are lots of day lilies and cone flowers.

Day Lilies are bright and cheerful and at their best in June.

Everything in the garden is green and healthy. Later in the summer, plants get dusty and wilted or chewed and burned up by bugs and heat. There are lots of day lilies and cone flowers  in full bloom. The roses haven’t been attacked by the Japanese beetles yet.

Cone flowers ablaze, different varieties bloom at different times, extending the season

Before I share  my flowers, I wanted to show you this unobtrusive drip irrigation system for all 12 of the hanging baskets. Most of these plants are annuals and trial plants that are fun varieties new to me.

a thin black tube carries the water overhead

Raddish flowers

Spring raddishes hung on till the summer heat, then bolted, bloomed and are setting seed.  With all the beautiful flowers, sometimes it’s easy to overlook the  little blooms in the herb and vegetable garden. I’m focusing on edible blooms and vegetable flowers this Bloom Day.


Raddish seed pods look like little bean pods.

Herbs are at their best now and growing fast. Many, like this lilac colored geranium are edible.  Add the petals to a garden salad or,  garnish a dessert plate with these little flowers.

I vowed to keep the zucchini  in control this year. Harvesting squash blossoms, to stuff and fry is a tasty way to keep this beautiful vegetable from over populating the kitchen counter. Harvest these baby squash for grilling.

enjoy fried squash blossoms or grill baby zukes.

attracts bees

Nepeta, or catmint, is a member of the mint family.

Catmint (Nepeta), is a member of the mint family. It is easy to grow, has few pests or problems and attracts loads of pollinators to the garden. A few of these petit little blooms sprinkled on top of a dessert or a salad would be festive.

Carbon tomato plant is loaded with yellow blooms.

Growing fast, and delicate blooming while little fingerlings are growing in the ground.

onion flowers add a very mild, touch of onion flavor.

Onion flowers add just a hint of onion to poppy seed dressing, potato salad, rice wine vinegar or herb butter.

This rose was just begging to be photographed before the Japanese beetles invade.

And finally, these Jackson and Perkins roses just begged to be photographed before the Japanese beetles arrive. And, really it’s nice to end on a rosy note.

Thank you for visiting, please come again.

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Open potting soil bags quick and easy


2010
05.30

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Posted in Home Garden | 4 Comments »

Keep a plastic knife in your garden tool box.

picnic plastic knives open bags fast

It will open those weighty bags of potting soil or top soil faster than most pricey garden gadgets.
Keep one of these handy.

open plastic bags

A plastic picnic knife makesa great garden tool.

My frugal gardening suggestion is recycle plastic forks, spoons and knives as plant markers and plastic bag openers.

You will probably use plastic flatware at a picnic this summer and most of it will go into the trash.

recycle pastic flatware from picnics and "to go" food.

They aren’t frugal if you buy them especially for this purpose , but if you happen to use plastic ware this summer, recycling for garden use will keep just one more thing out of the landfill.

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Tiny, Tasty Alpine Strawberries


2010
05.21

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Posted in Home Garden | 1 Comment »

Ripe berries are sweet as candy

Wild Strawberries and Alpine Strawberries are hardy, disease resistant and perfect for a low border or edging plant. They are also a great ground cover. Some folks include them in grass-free lawns. I’ve tried a couple of times to start wild strawberries from seed and failed. When I had the opportunity to start new gardens in a new home, I went a little overboard with these tiny berries.

Sweet fruits are grown from seed

I ordered “Mignonette” French strawberry seed from Renee’s Garden Seed and had great success using the AeroGarden. The plants, once started, are easy to grow. They are compact perennial Alpine strawberry plants producing sweet, pointed fruits from early spring to the last frost.

I notice that Renee’s has an article about these itty bitty berries on her web page. This is where I got the idea to use these strawberries as an edging plant. Renee’s is a reliable and prompt source to order seed. May or June is not too late to start plants from seed (and you will get prompt seed delivery here.)

That same year, I bought a Fragaria vesca “Ruege” plug pack of 12 plants from Richter’s. These sweet and tangy berries are just a little smaller in size of the wild ones on compact, runnerless plants but they do multiply and should be thinned every few years. Bears fruit from May til frost. Richter’s has the best selection of culinary and medicinal herb plants that I have found.

Both plants have multiplied rapidly.This spring, they started blooming in March. A late freeze only slows them down but they soon begin setting bloom again.

I think that those monster sized rugged and tasteless berries at the grocery store turned me away from normal strawberries. The tiny Alpine fruits taste like strawberry candy in comparison.

Tiny white blooms continue all summer

The first year, it was a contest to see who would get to eat these mini delicacies, me or the birds. There are so many of them and the season is so long, that now the birds and I have agreed to share the abundant harvest.

A third variety of strawberry grows in my gardens. French‘Mara des Bois’ from White Flower Farm.

‘Mara des Bois’ lives in hanging baskets on the patio and are just starting to produce this year. Last summer I had one or two berries and a winged predator or possibly my beloved ate the rest. There were not a lot of berries because the plants were busy trying to escape their confinement by sending runners over the edges of the hanging baskets. The berries are twice the size of the Alpine berries, but that still means a very small berry compared to what we find at the grocery. These hardy little plants over wintered in a hanging basket sitting on the patio all winter.

Fraises des bois is a French word for strawberries of the woods. The strawberries are also known by other names including: Fragaria vesca, Alpine Strawberry, Wild Strawberry, Woodland Strawberry, American Strawberry, European Strawberry, fraises des bois, and fraisier des bois. Call them what you will, these itty bitty berries a too fragile for transport. The little ones fetch premium prices at the market.

The tiny berries are beautiful garnish on a desert plate. It is said that tea made from the leaves will stimulate the appetite. They grow as an evergreen edging along the sidewalk in the potager, making for easy picking as I walk by.

Try balsamic vinegar with strawberries

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Garden Bloggers Bloom Day May 2010


2010
05.16

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Posted in Home Garden, Oh Grow Up! | 4 Comments »

chive and sage blooms

Most herb flowers are small and unremarkable, but I look forward to these lavender colored chive and sage blooms every spring. They are edible, but I prefer to gather a kitchen bouquet so I can enjoy the flowers even longer.

Kitchen bouquets make herb leaves close and easy to use for cooking.

Flowers in the kitchen

Chive flowers will turn this white wine vinegar pink

More lavendar colored flowers

clematis “President” is a homeless plant I have yet to move to a permanent home. It has faithfully lived in this plastic pot for over a year.

( It takes just a little imagination to view the next blooms which are in my camera but not in my possession right now.)

Strawberries

Roses

Astillbe

Daylilies

Columbine

Carol, garden blogger at May Dreams Gardens started the Bloom Day tradition Garden bloggers Bloom Day May 2010.

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Seed Sales


2010
04.23

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Posted in Herb Companion, Herbs in the garden, Home Garden | 2 Comments »

Late Spring Seed Spree for 2010

Early peas will be replaced by green beens.

After peas are harvested, snap bean will follow

Most seed companies have reduced prices to tempt you into buying more seeds about this time every year. It is a good time to see where you can fill the empty spaces in your garden and try some succession planting to keep your garden growing until late fall. These are a few of the seed companies that caught my eye.


Renee’s Garden Seeds says, “Planting season is here, and we’re offering a Spring Fling Discount of 15% off your next order.
Enter DSC410 in the “coupon code” box on the checkout page. Good on or before May 2, 2010. Shop for seed to grow cool season crops.


Small enough to eat grilled or stuffed for appetizers or on a veggie tray

Compacts pants are a good choice for containers.

Gurney Seed and Nursery Co is having a clearance sale. They have a Special Offer: Save $20.00 When You Buy Product Totaling $40.00 or More. Limit One Offer Per Customer. I bought a couple of thornless blackberry vines. I’ve always had good luck ordering asparagus and fruit trees from Gurney’s.

Johnny’s Selected Seed, “Take 20% off selected varieties (below) while they last.save 20 percent on potatoes Use offer code 10-1070 when checking out to get your discount.” They are offering Yukon Gold, Dark Red Norland, Red Gold and Superior. All good home garden choices. Also take advantage of the bumper seed crop with reduced prices on select seed varieties.

Seeds of Change will give you 10% off everything when you become a fan on Facebook. Use offer code: FACEBOOK at checkout.


 Even Home Depot has Buy-One-Get-One seed packets right now.

Squash are heavy producers. Plant only a few of each kind.

Most all the spring crops are in the ground. If yours are not, you still have time for salads and spring greens. Now is a good time to look over your remaining seed and plan for the space that will be available as you harvest spring crops.

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Garden Bloggers Bloom Day April 2010


2010
04.15

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Everyone who gardens in zone 6, has something growing or in bloom by now. My favorite small native trees, the redbuds and dogwoods are putting on quite a show.

Yellow Darwin tulips

tall white tulips have lasted longer than the reds and yellows.

Most of my tulips are in their last days. But these yellow Darwin tulips are stong and tall and have outlasted all the other tulips in the front garden. On the patio are some tall white tulips that are  holding their shape and lasting days.

taken overhead some white tulips are tall and beautifully shaped

taken overhead white tulips are tall and beautifully shaped

There are more of these Bakeri tulips this year than I planted last year.

Late bloomers came on strong after most of the tulips were gone.

There are a few species tulips that were late bloomers. Showy lilac-pink flowers with deep yellow centers  – I think they are late so they could have the bed to themselves.

The tag says “Speedwell.”

Also known as Veronica ‘Waterperry Blue’, this little groundcover likes it here in southeast Missouri and takes care of it’s self. It came in two little starter containers about two summers ago. It grows to 2″ tall and is adorned with a soft, light blue flower in masses. This is but one of many veronicas that can be used as ground cover. It will spread and flourish in your flower bed or work perfectly between stepping stones or in a rock garden.

There are dozens of Veronica varieties

Veronicas are deciduous, meaning they’ll drop their leaves in the fall. The daffodils came up right through the Speedwell and next the poppies will have no trouble poping up through the creeping veronica or Speedwell. I know a lot about this Speedwell because I remember where I got it and the tag is stll in the plant. The Speedwell is from STEPABLES.®.  Frances Hopkins the founder and CEO says STEPABLES® are earth-friendly, easy-to-maintain perennials that take foot traffic. Happy anniversary to STEPABLES,®.  2010 is Stepables 10th year in business. Consider these plants for a lawn alternative or to fill between stepping stone paths.

Just about 5" tall

These tiny Iris are look like a miniature version of the familiar ones.

This time last year I showed you my tiny lonely, native Iris cristata ‘Tennessee White’ (Tennessee White Woods Iris) They are a perfect white iris, just about 5” tall. This year we have couple of dozen iris growing beside an old tree stump.

Fruit trees escaped late freezes. Pink peach blossom and white apple blossoms.

trial peach tree is in a container and overwintered well.
These apple trees are two and three years old. We may have fruit for the first time this year.

This amazing tulip is exactly half yellow and half red.

I’ve never seen a tulip like this and I didn’t see any like this last year, which was their first spring.

Long lasting, standing up in a day of some rough winds

A tulip that could have been missed in a sea of red and yellow tulips.

frost damaged but still creating a bright spot in the landscape.

Autumn Cheer’s lovely medium pink blooms add a splash of spirit to any landscape. Encore’s Autumn Cheer is a small azalea with single pink blooms. I have several Azaleas, but this little one is a standout.

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New! Chinese Chives Are the devil in disguise


2010
04.06

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Posted in Home Garden | 3 Comments »

Really, these are garlic chives.

Here is what Renee has to say about Chinese chives:
“One of my favorite fresh herbs, Chinese chives, combines the flavor of garlic and the sweet oniony taste of chives in a perfect marriage. The 10 to 12 inch long, strappy flat leaves are scrumptious whenever you want a hint of garlic flavor without the fuss! Use fresh as they lose their savor when cooked. I snip them into ½ inch pieces to sprinkle over fresh salads or on top of most steamed vegetables or a plate of juicy sliced tomatoes. They are wonderful in potato or pasta salads, with scrambled eggs, or even deep fried to finish a rice dish. When your plants begin to bloom with pretty white flowers – break up and sprinkle the individual florets over salads for an ornamental and edible flower garnish.”

And I agree. They are everything Renee says. But there is more:

This is my story: After a lecture on herbs, the speaker said she had free samples of garlic chives for everyone. She had enough clumps to give to each of the 30 young and foolish beginning herb gardeners. She dug up these 30 fist fulls of garlic chives and wrapped them in plain newspaper to keep from getting our cars messy, she said. As I look back on this herbal exchange, I now believe the newspaper was meant to cover up the garlic chives. Sort of like the infamous plain brown wrapper. That way neighbors could not see what we were bringing into the neighborhoods. There would be no screaming or shouting or alerting the homeowners association plant police. And it also provided a cover up so no one would know she was herb trafficking in garlic chives.

To say that garlic chives are invasive, is an underestimate and should be punishable by law when people do not offer full dislosur. The plain truth is Chinese Chives are out to take over the world, one herb garden at a time.

In fact, this is how I started out on the herb speaker’s bureau. I volunteer to speak to herb gardener wannabes. After the lecture, I pass out free samples of Chinese Chives to all the attendees and their friends and families too.

Renee’s Garden

http://twitter.com/reneesgarden

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Tigger, the melon


2010
04.06

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This is Tigger, the melon. I mention it now because I am getting a lot of comments on Facebook about it.

I’ve never grown this midget melon before, but the seeds were free. So I am sharing with five other gardeners. I can do this because there are more seed than the 25 seeds the package promised.

Each melon is a single serving

Here is what I know.  I’ve seen the seed advertised in Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company and Territorial Seed Company.

The plants are heavy producers of baseball sized, white fleshed fruit. What caught my attention is these fragrant fruits are only about a pound when mature. That’s about all the cantaloupe-type fruit I want. Watermelons, pumpkins and cantaloupe rarely make an appearance in my garden because the sprawling plants take up a lot of garden space.

Because they are so small, I may try to grow them on a trellis. The seed packet says 80 days, Tigger will ripen about the same time the garden explodes with tomatoes.

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