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Wordless Wednesday
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Posted in My Gardens, Plants From Seed, Wordless Wednesday
Todays harvest basket 7/9/15
Todays harvest basket
July 9, 2015
zucchini, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, green beans
Zucchini is coming on daily. So far, picking squash when it is 6 or 7″ long, is working. I see a chocolate zucchini cake in our future…
Green beans are in a small patch we must collect a few pickings for a meal. In a couple of days, cucumber production will explode. For now, there are enough cucumbers for fresh eating.
There are plenty of Sun Gold cherry tomatoes for salad every day. The few red slicer tomatoes from My Garden Post were used for the first BLT of the season.
Summer harvest of onions and garlic.
Read about the garlic and onions curing in the shade on the porch. Its garlic season
Best tomato plants for containers
is all about the first juicy red tomatoes of the season. Those early full-sized tomatoes were grown on two foot tall plants!
Bush 506. First full size tomato to ripen, 5-oz.
It’s fresh garlic season
Isn’t this pretty? Chesnok Red Garlic spread out to dry, or cure before trimming stalks.
Garlic bulbs just lifted from the garden.
The garlic bulbs are dug up, but there is much more to do to preserve the harvest. Handle freshly dug garlic gently. Bulbs can easily bruise.
Cure Garlic
Spread out bulbs away from direct sun with good air circulation. Allow the roots and entire stalk to dry, turning brown. The bulbs are ready to clean up and store.
After a week, braid bulbs while stalks are still flexible. Braid garlic before the stems are too dry and brittle.
Cut the stalks about an inch above the garlic bulb. Clip off the roots. Carefully wipe off the dirt with a soft brush or cloth. Try not to remove many layers of skin.
This year I grew two kinds of garlic, Chesnok Red Garlic and California Early Garlic.
With long, warm fall at planting time, I could have waited until November, instead of planting cloves in October.
The long, cold rainy spring is also part of the reason I had a smaller harvest of garlic.
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Herb bouquet with garlic scapes.
Learn more about growing organic garlic, onions and shallots.
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Summer harvest of onions and garlic.
Herb Bouquets include garlic scapes.
Try these garlic varieties
Chesnok Red Garlic
The purple-striped hardneck has large and easy-to-peel cloves. I’m growing it because Chesnok Red is a good baking and a good storing garlic. (4 – 6 weeks.)
Garlic scape pesto.
The garlic scapes of the hardneck garlic makes for a secondary harvest. Use scapes for vinegar, stir fry, pesto. Expect about 15 garlic bulbs per pound and approximately 9 or 10 cloves per bulb.
These garlic bulbs grew smaller than the California Early Garlic. Chesnok wins awards as an excellent baker. I’ll be using those smaller bulbs to make creamy roasted garlic.
Cut these artful garlic scapes to grow bigger garlic bulbs.
California Early Garlic
California garlic is one of the earliest to harvest in my region 6, Southeast Missouri garden.
The California Early Garlic was harvested two weeks earlier. The bulbs are big and white. For the past three years, I have success growing this popular American garlic.
These California Early Garlic bulbs are mild enough to be used raw in recipes or fresh pickles. This is not a hot garlic. It’s a good choice for mild garlic flavor, not heat.
Known as a long keeper, California Early Garlic is a softneck garlic, good for braiding. I like the mild flavor and large cloves. There are about 12 garlic bulbs per pound and 10-16 cloves per bulb.
Bake whole garlic bulbs wrapped in foil with a few drop of olive oil.
Posted in My Gardens, preserving the harvest, vegetable evaluation
Tagged California Early Garlic, Chesnok, curing garlic
Best tomato plants for containers
Perfect for My Garden Post
Choose dwarf tomato plants
I am having big juicy tomato success on My Garden Post. These are the tomatoes that I am growing.
The best choice for My Garden Post are plants that are less than 2 feet tall.
Determinate tomato varieties grow to a limited hight and usually do not need staking and caging.
Choose dwarf or bush type tomato plants. Look for plants bred for containers.
Extended release or slow release fertilizer applied when potting the plant will be one less thing to worry about.
Two foot tall tomato plants
Bush 506. First full size tomato to ripen, 5-oz.
- Bush 506 Container Tomato plants are less than 24″ tall. The thick stemmed plants easily support the 8 ounce fruits. These container grown tomatoes are early producers. The Tasteful Garden advertises tomatoes in only 62 days. It was the first regular sized tomato to ripen in my zone 6 garden.
I bought Bush 506 as a plant from The Tasteful Garden
New Big Dwarf heirloom tomato. The heaviest producer of full size tomatoes so far.
- New Big Dwarf Heirloom tomato is not really new. An heirloom first introduced in 1915, tastes like the old-fashioned beefsteak. The plant is only 2 feet tall but the fruits are full-sized 8-12 oz. Expect early tomatoes in about 60 days.
I bought the New Big Dwarf tomato as a plant from The Tasteful Garden
Oliver’s choice:
- Bush Steak Tomato is an easy-to-find small tomato plant or grow it from seed.
“I often recommend the Bush Steak tomato and suggests planting in the large planters. The Bush Steak Tomato matures at 20 inches in height, and produce a medium size tomato in large numbers,” says Oliver J Gardner, Director of Sales and Marketing, My Garden Post.
Endless sweet cherry tomatoes
Cherry tomatoes nonstop until frost
- Litt’l Bites Container Cherry Tomato – keep this early producer well watered and fed for tons of sweet cherry tomatoes all summer long. A compact, lush plant that is perfect for My Garden Post or hanging baskets. Litt’l Bites grows 20 inches wide and 12 inches tall.
Grown from seed. Exclusive. Renee’s Garden
Litt’l Bites Container Cherry Tomato photo by Renee’s Garden
Learn more about My Garden Post here.
My container grown tomatoes benefit from the easy-to-set-up and use My Garden Post irrigation system. It’s the best system I’ve used on the deck or patio. Adjust the timer to accommodate the season; longer daily watering when it is the hottest.
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Posted in Look for this plant, Tomato
Tagged container tomatoes, dwarf tomato plants, My Garden Post, vertical gardening
Sneaky Zucchini
They’re baaack….
I’m growing three different kinds of zucchini. Before you ask why, let me just say I love zucchini. To me, it would be like growing only one kind of tomato.
As production picks up, I get creative. Chocolate zucchini cake is a favorite. Details and the recipe are on my Hub Pages.
Soon, there will be days when I wonder why I planted so much. What was I thinking? Well, it’s a test. Which is the best, the earliest, most squash bug resistant, is attractive, has the longest shelf life and, most important: best tasting.
Recipe for zucchini pickles is on my Pinterest page
Most of my recipes are gathered on Pinterest: Zucchini Everything – Zucchini, courgette, summer squash
Baby Clarimore zucchini
Zucchini belongs to the species Cucurbita pepo. The yellow variety is slightly sweeter. The round, “Eight Ball” or “Ronde de Nice” are bred for stuffing.
Clarimore is a pale green and slightly speckled. It has an almost creamy texture. Like most summer squash, no need to peel these fresh, young vegetables.
Dark green (almost black) Raven and Golden Dawn yellow zucchini and are the long, straight varieties we most often see when we think of zucchini.
Pick zucchini at it’s best, 6″ to 8″ long.
I like Green Tiger, a European hybrid is named for its light-colored stripes. It has a mild and sweet flavor with a tender crunch. Green Tigers slightly nutty flavor is good cooked or raw in recipes. Not as straight and cylindrical as other zucchini and is best when served small.
Too many zucchini?
Zucchini prevention tips
To control heavy production, early risers can pick the flowers
Raven zucchini. Zukes are sometimes sold in farmers markets with the blossom still attached to baby zucchini.
for stuffed zucchini blossoms. Pick them in the early morning (or at night) when the flowers are closed. The closed blossom makes the perfect vessel for stuffing.
Try Pan Fried Squash Blossoms stuffed with ricotta, herbs and lemon. Most recipes call for deep-frying a stuffed, tempura batter coated flower. Always remove the stamen to prevent bitterness.
More blog posts about summer squash:
- Zucchini Heaven is about a favorite famous zucchini cake with my secret ingredient addition (black walnuts.)
- Zucchini. Stuff it. opens with a cautionary tale about a zucchini near death experience. And ends with Julia Child’s Grated Zucchini sautéed in Butter and Shallots From Food.com
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Posted in Plants From Seed, preserving the harvest
Tagged Chocolate zucchini cake, Zucchini
Potatoes in the bag
Growing potatoes in containers is so easy
If you’ve never tried growing potatoes, containers or growing bags makes this a fun project. Flexible fabric containers will grow potatoes in the garden or even on a sunny deck. Home grown potatoes come in such variety, the tastes and textures may send you on a tasty potato obsession.
Lavender or white potato blooms grow high above the foliage.
I grow potatoes not found in the supermarkets, like fingerlings or colorful varieties. Seed potatoes in a raised bed or growing bag are easy care, usually weed and disease free. It’s very easy to control insect problems on such a small-scale.
How to grow
Grow potatoes in well worked soil or potting mix amended with compost or slow release fertilizer. Easy access to water will mean less work for you. Fill the bag with 3 inches of soil, place the potatoes, cover with 3 more inches of soil.
Young potato plants are ready to be covered with more soil.
When potato plants are 6 inches tall, cover the plant with soil, leaving only the top 2″ uncovered. Continue the process until the bag is filled with soil. Plants will produce more potatoes along the covered stem.
Covering the potato with soil keeps them from getting sunburned. Sun exposure causes potatoes to turn green and bitter-tasting. They need consistent moisture, either by rain or watering.
Harvest a few new potatoes about 10 weeks after planting, usually in early July.
At season’s end, plants will yellow and wilt. Withhold water for 2 weeks. Dump the bag to harvest potatoes. Clean and plan to use the bag again next year. I’ve used the same growing bag for three years.
To learn more about growing sweet potatoes in the traditional way: G6368, Growing Sweet Potatoes in Missouri
Used by the Andean Indians for at least 2,000 years before the Spanish Conquest, the potato, Genus Solanum tuberosum, family Solanaceae, was introduced to Europe by the mid-16th century, and reputedly to England by the explorer Walter Raleigh.
An obligatory lecture:
In Ireland, the potato famine of 1845, caused by a parasitic fungus, resulted in many thousands of deaths from starvation, and led to large-scale emigration to the USA. This is why you should only grow certified organic potatoes.
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Posted in My Gardens
Tagged grow potatos in grow bag, potatoes, Solanaceae
Today’s harvest basket – Salad greens
Today’s harvest basket, May 25, 2015
Thinning lettuce from My Garden Post (MGP)*
I’ve been snipping lettuce leaves and pulling radish and onions a few, each day, for a couple of weeks. But today I got a basket full. So, let this be 2015’s first harvest basket of the season.
There is enough lettuce for a sandwich or to add to store-bought lettuce. Radish and onion from our garden make it close to perfect.
This little bunny, maybe the third generation so for this spring, is “hiding” by the kitchen door. I can only hope this one does not like green beans.
I mix lettuces together when sowing. This allows for a beautiful variety when thinning and harvesting.
Slow to bolt and rarely bitter, Green Ice leaf-type lettuce, it’s wavy, fringed leaves are a dark green color and crisp.
Flashy trout back lettuce, a European heirloom Forellenschluse (Austrian for speckled like a trout’s back) romaine is a prized lettuce varieties. Soft, tender, juicy.
And so, without further ado,
Today’s harvest basket, May 28, 2015. Lettuce. onions, radish. PBH
Get off your knees! 
My Garden Post best dwarf tomatoes
Vertical Gardening with My Garden Post.
My Garden Post (MGP)* Cool Season Crops.
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Posted in Harvest Basket, My Gardens, Plants From Seed, Tomato
Tagged best dwarf tomatoes, Flashy trout back lettuce, leaf lettuces, MGP, My Garden Post, Today's Harvest Basket
GBBD May 2015
Garden Bloggers Bloom Day May 15, 2015
Never waste a single day of May. It is perfection. May is the only time I think I might become a poet.
I have hundreds of peonies about to bust forth for Memorial Day. The added bonus was early bloomers for Mothers Day.
I have hundreds of this bright pink peony.
Iris are just finishing up for the season.
May is perfect and there are flowers every day. These are just a few of my favorites. And, in May, they are all my favorites.
Proven Winners – Color Spires® ‘Crystal Blue’ – Perennial Salvia
This Perennial Salvia was a trial plant last year. It is available now at garden centers. Color Spires® ‘Crystal Blue’
GBBD: http://www.maydreamsgardens.com
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Posted in GBBD Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, My Garden Post, My Gardens
Tagged Color Spires, Crystal Blue, Iris, peonies
New blue perennial salvia Color Spires® ‘Crystal Blue’
Look for this plant
Color Spires® ‘Crystal Blue’ Perennial Salvia
The dense clumps make for good cut flowers.
Color Spires® is a perennial Salvia. You may have to rethink what you know about the annual salvias that must be planted every summer. There’s room for this new Proven Winners introduction in the garden or, it is beautiful and lush in containers.
‘Crystal Blue’ produces a full mass of light blue flowers in late spring/early summer. The humming birds and butterflies are attracted to this rounded clump of spiky blue blooms. Thick flower stems rise above the dense, rounded clump of textured green foliage and remains attractive all season.
This second year in the garden has moved up Color Spires® ‘Crystal Blue’ on the list of favorite salvias in the garden. I love Salvia and now that there are such hardy and beautiful perennial varieties, I plan to include Color Spires® Perennial Salvia in several garden spots.
Color Spires® ‘Violet Riot’ Perennial Salvia
Color Spires® ‘Crystal Blue’ Perennial Salvia is the asset you have been looking in your blue flower garden. True blue flowers are hard to find and this one will be around for years to come. Color Spires® ‘Violet Riot’ Perennial Salvia will also blend into the blue garden beautifully.
Color Spires® ‘Pink Dawn’ – Perennial Salvia
There are three colors:
- Color Spires® ‘Crystal Blue’ Perennial Salvia
- Color Spires® ‘Pink Dawn’ – Perennial Salvia
- Color Spires® ‘Violet Riot’ Perennial Salvia
Since my back yard is the neighborhood bunny park (Like a dog park but for bunny rabbits.) All the Color Spires® are rabbit and deer resistant. These Salvia are drought tolerant and heat tolerant.
Is in the garden centers now. It is exploding with lavender blooms. Lush and full with textured medium green leaves. I’d have to say they thrive with neglect in my garden.
Color Spires® Chrystal Blue Perennial Salvia
‘Crystal Blue’ Salvia is the first of its kind, most perennial Salvias are darker purple, so this is incredibly unique to have a light sky blue Salvia.
At 18-24 high and about the same width, it is a neat, orderly plant. A pretty focal point in a perennial cutting garden, a butterfly garden, or all blue perennial bed.
This is a reminder of what every gardener knows. Be Patient. Don’t give up on plants, especially those perennials. That first year, your newly planted perennial is busy establishing roots.
It just keeps getting bigger and more beautiful every year.
More new blue
Lo & Behold® ‘Blue Chip Jr.’ – Butterfly bush – Buddleia
A small version of a butterfly bush that blooms all summer. Attractive to butterflies, hummingbirds and bees, but deer resistant.
Growing only about two feet tall with silver-green leaves, this butterfly bush is small enough for container planting or in a perennial garden. The Blue Chip in my sidewalk border has not had any insect or disease problems. No need for deadheading or pruning.
Posted in Look for this plant, My Gardens, Trials
Tagged Blue Chip, butterfly bush, Color Spires, Crystal Blue, Perennial Salvia
MPG The best dwarf tomato plants
MPG Best dwarf tomatoes
My Garden Post
Dwarf tomato plants are ideal for small garden spaces and container gardens on the deck or patio.
MGP tomatoes. Dwarf tomatoes for My Garden Post. Tiny plants bursting with classic home-grown fruit and flavor.
Bush 506 Container Tomato produces 9 ounce fruit-growing 18 -24 inches tall.
New Big Dwarf tomato. Photo: http://www.tastefulgarden.com
- This dwarf bush tomato plant will only reach 18-24″ tall and has a medium-large sized red juicy fruits. They are great for container growing as the plants stay compact and have thick, upright stems and they produce loads of 9 oz. fruit. One of the few full-sized tomatoes designed for container growing. 62 days Plant from The Tasteful Garden
New Big Dwarf Heirloom Tomato (This heirloom was “new” in 1915.)
The plants are “Dwarf” but the tomatoes are 8-12 oz. beefsteak. 60 days! (Plant from The Tasteful Garden The thick, sturdy stem of this small plant is strong enough to handle the weight of regular sized tomatoes.
“Litt’l Bites” Cherry Container Tomato
A sweet, cascading bite size tomato Early and compact, just 20 inches wide and 12 inches tall. (Seed from Renee’s Garden Exclusive.)
Dwarf tomato plants grow 24″ tall.
Tomato success tips:
- Keep tomatoes picked to encourage continuous production.
- Watering schedule will need to be adjusted as the days get longer and hotter.
- With little root space available in the planter, plants must be supported with good potting soil, once or twice daily water and regular diluted fertilizer or extended release fertilizer as recommended.
You might also want to try BushSteak Hybrid Tomato a Burpee Exclusive with compact (20-24″) plant. compact (20-24″) plant.
Get the best price here:
- You can buy My Garden Post from this Oh! Grow Up Blog. We both benefit. You save money and I get credit for your order. Use this code: 50offMGP at checkout to get $50 worth of savings for My Garden Post with Drip Irrigation.
My Garden Post sent the original post to me free of charge so I could demonstrate how easy it is to assemble, install the irrigation, and grow lots of food in a tiny space.
My Garden Post $50. Off. Use the coupon code: 50offMGP
MPG Diary May 6, 2015. Tomatoes. III PBH
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Posted in My Garden Post, Tomato
Tagged Bush 506, Dwarf tomatoes, My Garden Post, New Big Dwarf Heirloom