Cry Havoc, and hatch the Bugs of War!

Given the amount of Aphids that I have sucking the juices from my plants this year, seeing the above roaming among my tomatoes, potatoes and squash quite the welcome sight. I have probably killed 1000 aphids this week. I admit I have used some insecticidal soap. However, I did not apply this spray generally all over the plants. I only sprayed the undersides of leaves that were infested with the aphids. I have noticed a few ladybugs, and more importantly their larva, so the spraying is over. I will rub out any large colonies of aphids I see, and let the other bugs do the rest.

So far, green tomatoes on all the plants, a few peppers, blooming potatoes and the rest is still in vegetative form. You can see the white casts left be the aphids in this photo, at least I think that is what they are.

Arkansas Travelers:

It's outta my hands...

I bet you think that I am done with this blog and the garden. Quite the opposite now that I have completed this past semester and am down to one more. I have been busy, working in the garden, just not busy making posts. How about a catch up slide show?!? As the individual plants grow, I will put more on about them. The photo above is of my Winter Squash vines, perhaps the most exciting thing I am growing this year. There is something appealing about the idea of growing these fruits all summer, and having them all winter to nibble on. On to the rest:

Carrot greens and some overly crowded turnips. These are some more of those grow and store veggies that I am digging growing now. Unfortunately my garden isn't really geared to grow these kids en mass, but it is a good testing ground for the big move in the future. I learn things, like, over crowed turnips grow all over each other, and their greens are about three times as large as I thought they would be. Not a disappointment, just a surprise.

The boxes are still pretty nice looking despite the piles of rocks. I'm working on it.

The tomatoes are looking especially promising so far. They all have blooms and are large, lush and deep green. This year I am growing half as many plants as last year, but a few things are different. For example, I am not over crowding them, they each have a 2x2 square or more to live in a grow. That is a little closer really than I would like, but double the space I had them in last year. I am companion planting shallots in the beds along with them as well, in hopes that once they get large and pungent they might ward off a bug or two. Also, I have cages! Thanks to a horse farmer who had a little extra wire laying around, I have the plants fully supported. All I need to do is put some posts up for the cages. A quick trip to the hardware store and about 30 minutes is all I will need for that. The best thing about these cages is I can use them forever, over and over again.

There are plenty of flaws remaining. The onions are still small, but growing. The dwarf bok choy bolts after about a week of life after the first true leaves set, making it a rather quick spoiler, my rock path is about 25% laid, making it the destroyer of ankles, and there are some bugs... worms, beetles, aphids, etc. Still, if the weather holds and summer is normal, all should be well. Just look at those potato vines! I don't know what I am going to do with them, talk about over crowding. It just goes to show you what good dirt will do. Last year my taters were about half as tall when they wilted. I will grow them in rows next year.

In the begining...

I hope the worm has turned for the weather. It is soggy, and green. Perfect spring weather here in the Mid-South. All the trees and shrubberies are a bloom or budding. The cold season grass is getting lush and full, and the frogs and bugs are waking up from their naps.

Nice enough, but all this is just a pleasant backdrop to the garden. So far the following has been planted:
Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, turnips, dwarf bok choy, lettuce, carrots, onions(which are doing very poorly) and potatoes. The taters haven't sprouted up yet, but they shouldn't for a couple weeks yet. The rest is rolling along nicely, the cole crops are especially hardy. As you can see by both these photos, I spilled bok choy seeds in my letture, and lettuce seeds in my yard. Let it grow baby. Still it will be weeks before any real harvest is acquired. The tomatoes are still inside near a South facing window. I should be able to put them out this next week during the day to continue growing. I will post pictures once they've been potted up.

I should have everything to make a stir fry dish like this one grown in my own garden by this time next month. That feels pretty good. I hope it tastes the same. Ok, the bean sprouts were purchased at the local Asian market. The owner's mother grows them fresh, so I'll leave them to her.

There is a season

They are calling for snow. That means two things. #1, I have nothing much going on in the garden, a wee bit more planning and day dreaming maybe. #2, Every gallon of milk and pack of double A batteries in five states are sold out. Southerners tend to get a little dramatic when the weather man calls for more than a 'chance of flurries'. I typically ignore the forecast since they are wrong more times than they are right and tonight is no exception. It's going to freeze and be miserable, but I doubt the snow will do much more than look pretty in the streetlights.

So, what better to talk about than hot food? I am talking about quesadillas. These are not the run of the mill kind you get at the Tex-Mexican joint. I used corn tortillas instead of flour. That's a whole nother animal. If you cooked these in similar fashion to the flour ones, which take much less time, you would end up with burnt, chewy and cheesy, not crunchy, cheesy and delicious. I sound like a commercial.

These lads take to slow cooking. There is lots of moisture in the tortillas that has to slowly be drawn out, unless you deep fry them of course. Corn tortillas are floppy, and even when wet-heat is applied they soften but stay rather chewy. They might be more authentic that way, but I don't much care for it. I also have to take in consideration, diet. So instead of frying these bad boys, causing them to achieve maximum potential, I use just a few drops of olive oil to prevent sticking and encourage browning.

Ingredients:

Corn Tortillas

Protein: Your choice, I used lean ground beef spiced with items out of the pantry, such as cumin, a few chili powers, and other typical flavors.

White shredded cheese

Olive oil

Salt

Iron Skillet (Accept no substitutes)

Place the iron skillet on medium heat, sprinkle a pinch of salt and a few drops of oil in. Slap a tortilla in and spin it a few times to distribute salt and oil. Add some cheese, a little meat, not too much, the cheese is the key player here. Now comes in any additions for taste. My wife would say to leave out the meat and just have a plain cheese, I add pickled jalapeno pepper slices. Another layer of cheese, and the other tortilla. One brush stroke of oil and a sprinkle of salt on this side and that is all. There is a rhythm to fall into in assembly, but the key here is patience.

These corn tortillas can take more heat longer than the flour ones, and to achieve proper texture, they need a nice slow roll in the skillet. Let the cheese melt so that when you flip it things don't fly apart, and then let each side go for at least 5 minutes or until crunchy. Serve with a wedge of lime and some sour cream sprinkled with various chili powders and cilantro. Oh and a cold beer.

It always warms my toes.

The last breath before the plunge

I know. I know. I have been absent and my posts overdue. My apologies are given graciously. I am still quite busy and haven't had time to spend in the garden, much less blog about it. However, the season draws nigh and my time thinking and planning has nearly come to an end. I still have not filled all my beds with dirt! Tomorrow I will begin the process, turning the sod over and mixing amendments with the existing soil. It has a large clay content, which will be good during the drier times of the summer. It does however mean that I need to add in some organic matter, like the three or four hundred pounds of ten year old horse manure compost waiting outside. This will improver drainage in the spring and add natural nutrients.

What I have been doing and unfortunately not keeping up with properly, is cooking. I brag on my cooking, mainly to my wife, who I think either humors me because she loves me, or her range of fine cuisine is limited to what I provide her so she doesn't know any better, or because it is really good. I am ever critical of it though, as I suspect anyone who is passionate about something should be. Still, it is a basic part of life, so perhaps I can just claim instinct. I have to eat to live, and if I have to eat, I might as well strive to make it good!

Taste is one thing that requires two things; technique, which I will strive eternally to perfect, and quality ingredients. Whether it is a nice slice of country ham that my dad put up the winter before, perfectly rounding out a breakfast full of healthy items such as pomegranate spiked orange juice, segmented blood oranges, organic scrambled eggs, and a piece of whole wheat toast slathered with organic blackberry preserves. I doubt I burned all those calories off thinking about the garden. That is not to say that the only unhealthy thing on that plate was made without any other preservatives other than salt and time, so it balances out, right?

Another option could be a heaping pile of BBQ pork supplied by friends who cook the stuff professionally. Add a piece of cheese, or not, I see mine never melted, and a side of homemade coleslaw and you have another yard-work inspiring meal. Check out my friends' BBQing battle results and learn all about the best flavored pig parts in this neck of the woods here at Ulika BBQ. Unfortunately my unmelted cheese has covered the meat in the photo. Is is a top notch product.

These particular ingredients are things that I cannot grow in my garden, but what I do grow adds to such quality food to complete the meals. More importantly I think is to know what I am eating and what food I am giving my family as well. It all goes back to that instinct. For thousands of years, man has grown his own food. So why not? Again I must eat, so I want to do it well. That does not mean, consuming mass quantities. It means work a little harder, and you get the freshest, chemical free, best tasting vegetable matter to add to your meals or center said meals around.

Damn I want a tomato and it's going to snow next week... Oh well, maybe the onions will pop up tomorrow.

The Waiting Game

I have my seeds ordered. I have my beds built. What I don't have is warm weather and adequate dirt. There is plenty of time to get the dirt, but I would like to know it is out there and ready for the seeds and transplants. Still one can only devote so much time to such activities when the new baby adds responsibility to an already maxed out schedule. I suppose not being all together ready is better. I will just have to relax and let the matter rest for a while. Still I have not been totally idle.

As you can see I have the beginnings of a nice, neat garden spot. The lumber was harvested from an old swing set in the backyard. It was there when we moved in, in rather rough shape, and since our little one will be too small for such a contraption for years to come, I had my way with the wood. It was free, falling directly in that cheap category, and semi right angles make everything neater. I say semi right angles because I used 10+ year old weather warped wood. Still it is good enough for my ambitions and looks nice to boot. Inside the beds are leaves. I will add in dirt as soon as I have some. This really should have been done in the fall, but there are only so many hours in the week.

On a natural note, I caught this one sneaking bird seed from under the feeders and trying to figure out just how he could get into said feeder. As long as he eats the birds' food and not mine, all is well. When walnut dropping time comes it will be interesting to see just how many I can sneak from him. Hardly fair I suppose but after all, there are plenty of squirrels. Isn't he cute?

Back to the yard, among other things.

Well it's a new year and even though my garden is as dormant as the blog as been of late, there is still much to do and even more to talk about doing. I am trying to piece the backyard together as time allows. So far I have planted a few long term items that will hopefully and literally bear fruit.

First off, one of the trees in the back yard was an apple. It looks very mature, probably over ten years old. However it wouldn't put out fruit by itself. Apple trees need pollinators, other apple trees, so I planted four other apple trees, a Golden Delicious, two Fujis and a Granny Smith. I am hoping that the new ones will flower and pollinate the older one giving us fruit. I will admit I did not do my homework on that, nor on what varieties grow best in the area. The latter being a very important consideration when spending money on expensive plants and expecting them to pay off. I just got so excited!

Luckily the other fruit bearing plants I put in the yard were freebies. I dug wild blackberry roots at my parents and put them along the little fence of the future herb/flower garden. Wild blackberries taste so much better than farm raised, and this is a truly local plant as it grows naturally along fence rows and in thickets in the region.


Last from my wife's parents I planted three purple plum trees. They have a couple in their back yard that have shot out roots into the wood pile nearby. Not being mowed every growing season like the shoots popping up in the yard, has allowed them to get big enough to keep, and my in-laws were happy to have them out of their hair. I planted these on the other side of the drive from the house so that any roots would be well away from beds and the foundation.


Also, at the local University I have begun a research type situation with a vegetable gardening class. I will help put together labs, and research pest preventative measures that gardeners in this part of the country might be able to apply to their own backyards. I will be looking at green methods as much as possible, like companion planting, as my own personal objective while we go through the motions on how to start and maintain a garden spot.

More backyard improvements are on the way in the weeks to come...