Tips for the drought

I thought I would post some tips about how to help out your thirsty plants when it's hot and dry as it's been these past few weeks. With temps 100˚ + and with very little to no rain, it's extremely hard to keep your plants and garden hydrated. No matter how much you water, the surrounding dry area just wicks it away. Most of us know that mulching and drip feed irrigation is the key to surviving the hottest and driest of summers. Leaves, grass clippings, straw, or any other natural material makes great mulch. My favorite pathway mulch consists of several layers of newspaper followed by a topping of leaves or straw. This not only helps the moisture level, but also keeps the weeds down. It's time consuming at the beginning, but saves lots of time when you need it for picking and putting up your harvest.

Tips for watering your plants:


When I'm in the kitchen preparing my veggies and fruit for freezing and canning, I keep a large plastic bowl in the sink and catch all the water that I use to clean my produce. When it's full, I dump it into a bucket to take outside and water my thirsty trees and flowers. You can use it on your garden as well as long as there's no soap in it or what is known as "grey water".


We have some older buckets that we've drilled  3 small holes in the side down near the bottom. It causes a slower "leak" of water that is similar to a drip feed hose at a much cheaper price. I frequently use these on my trees or small shrubs and can use the water that came from my kitchen tip up above. If you don't have access to buckets you can also use soda bottles, water jugs, or those big vinegar jugs that you buy for making your pickles.


If you can afford a rain barrel or two, you could catch the rain water run off or you could use buckets.We keep a tier of buckets under our garden shed roof drip line to catch any rain run off. When we are lucky to get a heavy rain that fills the buckets up, we snap the lids on to keep the mosquitoes from laying their eggs and becoming a nuisance later on. We then use a large can with holes punched in the bottom for dipping the water out and distributing it where it needs to go. Plastic water jugs will work too. Just cut the top off, leave the handle on and punch some holes in the bottom.

A relish for pickles

I don't have that many pickling cucumbers planted this year, but they have been producing wildly. I planted about 8 sassy hybrid cucumber seeds from Ferry~Morse under a coated wire fence. They came up and took over that section of the fence pretty quickly and they are now running along the top so I'm picking them even from the areas that don't have them planted underneath. I've been picking anywhere from 5 to 15 nice sized and nicely shaped every day.  I feel like I have been pickling even in my sleep! I have already put up 9 quarts of dill pickles, 4 quarts of bread and butter pickles, and 11 pints of pickle relish. I know that won't be the end of the pickling for this year yet either. I have plans to put up a few more quarts of bread and butter pickles, some small sweet / hot gherkins and some pickled okra (my husband's favorite). Lately it seems that we have been eating a lot of relish. I'm not sure if it's because we've been eating a lot of hot dogs or we just like relish. So I decided that I better put up as much as I can so I don't have to run to the store for more. Plus, it just tastes so much better when you make it yourself. I found a recipe for relish and I've been perfecting it as I go. The first time I made it there was too much liquid left over. The next time I made it, I added more cucs and it was just about right. I hope you enjoy this as much as we do.

Sweet Pickle Relish

• 20 cups cucumbers, de-seeded and chopped
• 3 cups onions, chopped
• 3 cups red bell pepper, chopped
• 1/4 cup kosher salt
• 2 1/2 cups vinegar
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon celery seeds
• 1 tablespoon mustard seeds
• You may substitute 2 tablespoons of mixed pickling spices for the celery and mustard seeds if you like.

Directions:

1. To de-seed cucumbers, I cut them in half lengthwise and scoop them out with a spoon.
2. Chop all the vegetables up with whatever method you desire. It helps to use a food processor on pulse. I don't have one so I chop with a knife.
3. Put all the vegetables in a large bowl.
4. Sprinkle the salt over the vegetables.
5. Cover with cracked ice cubes. I use enough to completely cover the top of the vegies.
6. Set a plate on top and weight it with something heavy. I use the vinegar jug or a jug of water.
7. Let stand for 2 hours.
8. Drain vegetables well and press out as much liquid as possible. I let mine sit in a colander draining while I prepare the liquid and jars.
9. In a large pot, combine sugar, vinegar and seeds.
10. Bring to a boil.
11. Add vegetables.
12. Bring back to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
13. Using a slotted spoon, put into pint jars according to standard canning procedures. 
14. Fill the jars with the remaining brine leaving 1/2 inch at the top of the jar. I usually run a plastic knife around the inside of the jar to release any bubbles.
15. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

 This recipe made 7 pints.

Short and sweet.

We harvested a bumper crop of carrots yesterday. I had planted a 3' x 4' section of one of my beds with 3 different varieties and harvested plenty for the 2 of us with some to spare as well. With our heavy soils here in the southeast, I like to plant the shorter varieties of carrots. Sweet Treat Hybrid, Rocket, and Big Top all from Burpee seeds do well in my soil. I also like the fact that they are shorter and fit well into a freezer bag when I freeze the small ones whole. Root cellar storage is preferable, but when you don't have one of those, cut the larger carrots up into smaller pieces and blanch them in boiling water for 3 minutes or steam for 5 minutes. Small whole carrots can be blanched in boiling water for 5 minutes.  I like to cut mine into "sticks" about the same length as my small whole carrots for soup and stews. That way they all fit well into the freezer bags.

If you are looking for a way to prepare your freshly harvested carrots, try this recipe for glazed carrots.

Glazed Carrots

• 16 ounces of baby carrots (or bigger carrots cut into sticks)
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 Tbs. butter
• 2 Tbs. brown sugar
• 1 Tbs. Dijon mustard
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp salt

Directions:
In a saucepan, bring carrots and water to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and cook for 10-12 minutes or until tender. Drain. Place carrots in a serving dish and keep warm. In the same pan, melt butter. Add brown sugar, mustard, ginger and salt; cook and stir over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Pour over carrots and toss to coat.

The cabbage patch.

This is a photo of the prettiest purple cabbage that I grew this season. I've had my eye on it since it started forming because I wanted to use it in some still life artistic photography.  It's not just beautiful, it's yummy too! Slice some up with some green cabbage and it will make a gorgeous cole slaw. Or stir fry some chunks with sliced onions in a little bit of canola oil with a pinch of celery seeds and a pinch of tumeric....mmmm mmmm good! 

You'll notice that there are some little holes in the leaves caused by cabbage worms. I had dusted them early on with Dipel dust, but the house wrens started feeding off the worms and I didn't want to hurt them or discourage them from having dinner on me.

Hello and welcome to my garden!

Hello fellow gardeners! I realize it's a bit late in the gardening season to start a blog, but there is still a lot going on out there in the garden and I have many things to "show and tell". I have been gardening for more years than I can remember and each year is a learning experience. I hope I can teach you a thing or two and perhaps learn something from you in the process.