bok choy bolt

We planted some heirloom baby bok choy this fall - - - the seed packet said baby and they meant it!!!

So we didn't harvest it quick enough or plant enough of it to have a meal, so we let it bolt.  Aaron and I always enjoy seeing flowers in the fall and winter.  Here are the beautiful cluster of yellow flowers from the bolted baby bok choy.

I think that Aarons enjoyment of seeing flowers this time of year stems from the years he lived in Alaska.  When there are 24 hours of sunlight the pansies get HUGE!!!!

And I just love seeing the colors and shapes!

SIDE NOTE:
After greens (collards, lettuce, spinach, basil) bolt the leaves are way to bitter to munch on - I think its best to just leave the plant in place and admire.

Kosher Nation

Aaron and I heard Sue Fishkoff talk last night at the UNC Hillel.  (Thanks for the tip Emily)  She was brilliant, funny, and witty.  She engaged the audience of 50 people for over an hour.  Here is a link to her book - check it out.  And there is also Amazon.

http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780805242652

In this link it says, "She explains why 86 percent of the 11.2 million Americans who regularly buy kosher food are not observant Jews—they are Muslims, Seventh-day Adventists, vegetarians, people with food allergies, and consumers who pay top dollar for food they believe “answers to a higher authority.”

I can't wait to read it.

Balloon Peppers

That is what they are!  Spicy and delicious - - - -

Peppers - but what kind

We are on the last leg of our peppers for the season.  This was a pepper plant our friend gave us, we can't remember the name.  Any ideas?
We have been eating these peppers since summer - and they are amazing.
Super spicy with the seeds, but just a wonderful faint spice without the seeds. 

One of our favorite plants

I saw this plant for the first time when I was in high school.  We were vacationing in Spring Lake, NJ.  On the day that I met this plant, we were shopping in a super cute beachy store. The owner had it growing inside in a pot.  It was so happy.  This delicate plant comes in all colors, shapes and sizes.  When it blooms, the flowers look just as delicate as the plant is: Oxalis, purple Oxalis.  Whenever I see it at a plant show I usually buy up all the plants, but I very rarely see it.  But now that I am telling you, I will make sure to leave a few behind.

The best bread recipe ever

Here is the simplest and best bread recipe that I have ever come across:

3 cups luke warm water
1.5 tablespoons active yeast
1.5 tablespoons kosher salt
6.5 cups of unsifted flour

Preheat oven to 375.  Mix it all together, let it rise for about 2 hours, take all of it (or half of it) and throw it into a greased loaf pan.   Bake for about 35-45 minutes.

If you want to make it more fancy, cut some fresh rosemary from your garden and sprinkle some garlic powder in it.  Now you have some rosemary garlic bread.  Or you can make sugar and cinnamon bread.  GET CREATIVE!!!

All of the dough makes a regular loaf of bread (like you get in the supermarket).  For a smaller loaf, use half of the dough.

Here is the book that I got it from in case you can't get enough:
http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/

You may never buy another loaf of bread again.
Have fun baking!

Rain and October

We have had a week of wonderful rain and cool weather.

I am so thankful.

Remember that you have till  about October 15 to get your onions into the ground.

Happy Gardening.

Great native plants for a butterfly garden

Here are some perennial flowers that work well in a butterfly garden.  When designing a butterfly garden your goal is not only to attract butterflies but also to attract caterpillars.  You want some nectar plants and host plants.  The host plants will make it comfortable for the butterflies to lay their eggs.

Bedding Phlox         

        



Common Yarrow

Beebalm

Butterfly Milkweed

Columbine

Indian Blanket Flower

Joe Pye Weed

Butterfly Bush

Purple Coneflower

Tickseed Coreopsis








All of the uniqueness that attracts you to the flowers, will also attract the butterflies like, color, shape, and size.  Interspersed with the flowers you can add culinary herbs like dill, fennel, and mint. And if you have enough space throw in some fruit trees like fig and peach.  Many varties of those trees are self-fertile so you don't have to worry about getting a male and female tree.  The best time to plant your butterfly garden will be in the spring, unless you promise to water diligently everyday, you can plant now. 

(remember that many of these suggestions are for North Carolina, if you have questions about other areas of the country, just ask, I will do my best to answer them)

Happy Gardening!

Composting- From your home to your yard

High Holidays are over and we are back!!! Hi everyone!

Composting is simple - or at least it should be.

Whether you live in the country or city, composting is essential to keeping our environment healthy.  By composting, you are not putting extra things, like food scraps and paper into the landfill, incinerator or recycling plant.

When someone says, "I compost", it means that they are making sure that all their eggs shells, coffee grounds, banana peels, apple cores, veggie edges, uneaten food (no meat or cheese - keep your compost pile kosher), computer paper, newspaper (anything without a wax cover), leaves, grass clippings are going into a container that will stay moist in a shady area so the organic materials can breakdown and make soil.  Soil is the final goal.  And because you didn't put anything inorganic into the pile, it will turn out to be a rich brown soil that your plants will love.

This is our in- home compost container that we bought on www.gardensupply.com.  It has a carbon filter in the lid which we change every 3 months.  The carbon filter keeps the stink down.   And because the container isn't huge, we have to empty it often, also helping to avoid a smelly kitchen.  We spent a little extra money and got a nice ceramic one.  We spend so much time in the kitchen, that we don't want to look at something we think is ugly.

We empty the ceramic container into our huge compost pile in the backyard.   (see the one above - not exactly like ours but close) All this is is chicken wire and some garden stakes.  Instead of the square one shown here, ours is a circle.  Here are all the pluses to the one we have:
- easy to turn the material with a pitch fork (important to keep air flow through the pile)

- easy to empty our small container
- easy to get to
- because we maintain it, it doesn't smell
- tall enough that animals can't get into it.

You can also use other neat things for your outside compost container, like these (pictures are from www.gardensupply.com)

These are more expensive examples of compost containers.  Whatever you are making your compost in, just make sure it is easy for you!! 






The biggest thing I tell people when they are deciding if they are going to compost is to make sure that it is in an easy to reach spot.  Just make this process easy and fun and you will be rewarded.

Any questions???

tomorrow

Hello all!  Sorry we haven't written in a while.  We are in the midst of High Holidays (Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur).... but we have not forgotten about all of our beloved readers

The things that are to come for the blog are:

1) how to start a compost pile/bin/rolly thing
2) planting onions

And don't forget to plant your collards!!!
Happy Gardening

Thinning Radishes

Here you can see that the radishes have come up close to each other.  For them to have enough room to make a bulb below ground, you have to thin them.

If there are 4 plants growing in the line, I pull the middle two.


What do I do with all the seedlings I pulled? See the next picture.

When I am pulling them, I try to do it gently so I can pull up as much of the root as possible.  This will help the sensitive seedlings re-root themselves.

I always leave room next to the rows so I can do this replanting.


             Any questions?  I do love those questions......

The Cooperative Extension Office

Good Morning!  I went for a splendid walk this morning with Jake and it was COOL outside.  It felt great.
I thought that I would get into the garden this morning since I was awake at 6:15am, but instead I went for a long walk.  I will write more later about thinning out veggies, because Mother Nature KNOWS that I need to.

In the meantime, if you don't know you should know about the Cooperative Extension Office in Durham (if you are not from here - you should take time to find yours).  They are a wealth of knowledge.

Here is the website for the gardening:
http://durham.ces.ncsu.edu/index.php?page=lawngarden

There are so many great classes going on like, September 11 there is a class called:  Planning and Planting a Cool Season Garden this Fall.  I love it!!!

I hope you all have a great day and wonderful LONG weekend (if you are so lucky to get Monday off).

Structural plans for a greenhouse or MORE

http://bioengr.ag.utk.edu/Extension/ExtPubs/PlanList97.htm

You have to check out this link. There are specific plans for building things like a toolshed, a greenhouse or a cattle holding chute.

Here in Durham if you are putting an exterior structure on your property, and it is over a certain size, you need to have drawings to get a permit.  This link will help with that!!!

Here is the link for the City of Durham planning department to find out more information about building structures on your property:  http://www.durhamnc.gov/departments/planning/

ENJOY!

Garlic: Sweet and simple!

Two Types:
hardneck:  AKA  topset garlic - They produce fewer, but larger cloves
softneck: They produce smaller, but more numerous cloves

* Garlic takes about eight months to mature in your garden - You should plant these by September 30
* Plant your garlic where it will get full sun and where the soil is slightly acidic
* WEED WEED WEED - The less weeds in your garlic bed the less work later.
* Add Harvest in the City Compost to the area that you will be planting the bulbs.  You are doing this to insure that you have a combo of moisture retention and good drainage.
* Plant garlic bulbs 2 inches down and 5 inches apart with the pointed end pointed up.
* Top dress the garlic bulbs with Harvest in the City Compost.  This will help to keep weeds down and grass out.
* Mulch after the ground freezes to protect your garlic.
* Before you harvest wait until the plants turn yellow and fall over.
* For the hardneck variety: In the spring you will get tall straight stalks with curly Q's on top, they are called scapes.  You can harvest these to cook with when there are 2-3 Q's on top.  If you want your bulbs to get bigger, leave them.... but they are DELICIOUS! Your choice.

That's all - easy Parcheesi!!!  Let me know how it goes.

Here are some of the upcoming topics, in no particular order:
1) onions
2) groundcovers
3) thinning your veggie sprouts

ONE WEEK LATER!!

One week has passed since we planted the two types of radishes. The row on the left is the Chinese Red Meat Radish and the row on the right is the Round Black Stanish Radish.

We now have sprouts about 1.5"-2" tall. We will allow these to go for a little while longer before thinning them out. Keep following and see how these wonderful radishes continue to grow.

What does N-P-K mean?

Nitrogen-  Phosphorous - Potassium (a.k.a. Potash)

There are 3 numbers on fertilizers or composts that correspond  to the percentage of these nutrients. 

Here is what each nutrient is good for:
Nitrogen helps plant foliage to grow strong
Phosphorous helps flowers and roots grow and develop
Potassium (Potash) is important for overall plant health

So next time your local garden store sales person says that you want to get a fertilizer high in nitrogen, make sure that your getting the one that has a large first number.

Good luck - Ask questions - Have fun!!!

Ellen- Thanks for the inspiration!!!

How you can get a free pail of Harvest in the City Compost

Harvest in the City Compost will be the door prize at the following workshops:

SIGN UP TODAY FOR SEEDS FALL WORKSHOPS

Four Kitchen Gardens for Fall: Classes taught by Frank Hyman

Fall Vegetables, Fruits, Herbs and Perennial Vegetables Gardening Classes Taught by Frank Hyman and hosted by SEEDS. One hour of slideshow with a handout followed by one hour of Q&A in the SEEDS garden. $15-$25 sliding scale. Cash or check only, payable to SEEDS.

Pre-registration requested by emailing - Frank Hyman HERE

To learn more about Frank, visit www.frankhyman.com.

Check out his instruction video here

Classes listed below will be held at: SEEDS Office 706 Gilbert St.
Durham, NC 27701. 919-683-1197

Sat., August 28, 2:30-4:30 pm - Growing Vegetables in Fall

You can harvest fresh, nutritious vegetables through the fall, winter and spring with fewer weeds, diseases and bugs than in summer.

Sat., September 18, 2:30-4:30 pm - Growing Tree Fruits & Berries

Even a small garden can produce fresh, juicy fruits and berries. Sat., September 25, 2:30-4:30 pm Growing Asparagus, Artichoke, Rhubarb and Other Perennial Vegetables Learn about delicious vegetables that don’t need to be replanted every year.

Sat., October 9, 2:30-4:30 pm - Growing Herbs for Beauty, Fragrance, Flavor (and Deer Resistance!)

Kitchen herbs are drought-hardy, evergreen, fragrant and deer don’t like them.

rain rain

COME ON RAIN  - - - - - doing a dance as I type- - we need it all day long not just in buckets full for 10 minutes - - - I will take what I can get.....
COME ON RAIN!!!!!

Here is our pup, Jake, basking in the sun right before the rain hit.

Fall garden continued

It didn't take too long to ready our garden for the fall.  The hardest part was sweating our tushes off in this g-d awful hot weather!!

But a nice cold beer was waiting inside for us.

Here is the final product.  In the bed closest to us, I left the marigolds (garden bed one), the middle one (garden bed two), I decided to leave the Tam Jalepeno's because they are still doing great and not taking up much room.  And in the last bed (garden bed three) we left the herbs (medicinal and culinary).

Here is the Tam Jalepeno - a little bit smaller then the regular ones and NOT as hot.  They have been great to use in fresh salsa.

Here is the medicinal herb part of our garden.  It is small - but growing.  We have sweet annie, calendula, and borage.  That's all for now.

The BIG suspense of what we planted this weekend!!!! The first veggie seed to go in the ground were radishes.  We planted 2 types: Chinese Red Meat and Round Black Stanish.  Here is everything else that we planted in the gardens: Bull's Blood beet, Batavian Full Heart endive, De Meaux endive,  Extra Dwarf Pok Choy, Waltham 29 Broccoli, Rapini Broccoli, and Romanesco Italia Broccoli Rabe.

I also put in cowpeas that I will leave in as a ground cover through the wintertime. 

I will talk about ground covers and when to plant onions and garlic next time. 

I am also trying to get a video off my phone that I took of how to plant veggie seeds.  I will share that with too.

HAPPY GARDENING  - AND STAY COOL!!!!!

Ready your fall garden

Sorry for the delay in posting this.  If anyone knows me (Jessica), they  know that I go to bed early.  So instead of getting around to this post, I passed out.


In Durham, NC we have an extended growing season.  Since it’s hot here from about mid-march to October, we are able to have an abundant spring and fall garden.  

Northerners, this may not apply to you; except for planting garlic or onions which you can leave, pretty much unattended, through the winter to harvest in the spring.  My parents did this with garlic last season and they had a successful spring harvest.  To harvest a crop in the spring before you even plant your garden, gives you a great feeling of accomplishment.  

Here is what we are going to do with our garden this weekend to ready it for fall heirlooms seeds. (The veggies I list are the ones that are currently there)





Garden bed one: tomatoes (Sungold, Black Cherry, Pink Thai), marigolds, and sweet basil

-   We will harvest the rest of the crop; even if there are cracked tomatoes we can seed save.  
- Pull out all of the plant debris to be used in our compost pile.  This is a great practice because even if you don’t plant a fall crop in the space, you don’t want to encourage insects and diseases to hang out over the winter.
-  Till and incorporate Harvest in the City Compost.  We are going to be using this compost because the fall is a great time to add fertilizer.  Although compost is NOT considered a fertilizer, Harvest in the City Compost helps to maintain balanced N-P-K soil.  We love this compost and so do our plants.  Adding compost will also improve soil drainage, water holding capacity and loosen up heavy soils.  If your garden is prone to erosion, don’t turn your garden till the spring.
-  We will leave the marigolds in the ground and just deadhead them.  Marigolds help to keep unwanted bugs away.
- We will harvest the rest of our basil because it starting to flower and we will make pesto with it.

Garden bed two: peppers (Tam Jalapeño, Chinese 5-color, mini bell), purple tomatillo, Emerald okra, marigolds and sweet basil

We grouped together these plants because they are companions.  Companion planting is important since you want your plants to be able to live harmoniously.  For example, if you plant sweet peppers as an ornamental plant around an apricot tree, be aware that peppers are prone to certain fungus which will harm the apricot tree.  NOT A COMPANION PLANT.

Here is a great website to see what to plant if you are having bug issues and want to ward them off naturally: http://davidson.ces.ncsu.edu/content/Companion+Planting


Garden bed three: parsley, sage, borage, stevia, calendula, petunias, sweet basil and purple basil, purple hull pinkeye (cowpeas)

In this garden bed we will only pull out the cowpeas.  The cool thing about cowpeas is that you can do seed saving right on the vine.  We had a good harvest this year.  Some of them we will save to replant in the spring and many of them we will use to make winter soup.  The herbs are still doing great since we have been using them all summer long. The more you harvest off of herbs the more they will give you.  

This is a great time to take a soil sample in to the local extension office. This will keep you current on your soil status.  Here is our extension office website: http://durham.ces.ncsu.edu/


I will write more later about the crops to plant.  I think that this is enough information for now.  

Happy gardening!!!  

Good luck getting your spring garden ready for some fall loving!

Our fall garden plans

Here are just basic notes - we will add more tonight.

-Pull out all plants that have gone to flower unless you want to save seed (lettuce, herbs) or that are not producing any more veggies
-turn over soil
-add Harvest in the City "nutrient filled" Compost
-plant fall crops
-HHHUUUUMMMM What to plant?

Who ate our peppers and tomatillos?

HORNWORMS!!! Those little buggers feasted on our harvest.

Our first sighting of a hornworm was munching away on our beautiful Chinese 5 –Color heirloom Peppers. We were bummed out, but removed the hornworms and moved on with our lives.

Then the hornworm got to our purple heirloom tomatillos that lived adjacent to our peppers. This happened when Aaron and I went away for week. We came back to find our prolific tomatillos eaten down to the stem. ALL of them are gone.



Here are two natural solutions to this problem if you are away:


1) Have a friend tend to the garden to keep an eye on the hungry hornworms.

2) Hope and wish and pray that the braconid wasp will prey on the hornworms. You may not need that much luck, but if you are not around to see the wasp arrive, don’t do what we did, use a “life line” and call a friend.




Since we decided on solution number 2 (but the wasps never showed up), here are some facts about the wasp and why you want to leave them to do what they do- EAT THE HORNWORM FROM THE INSIDE OUT!!!!


The braconid wasp lays its eggs inside the hornworm. Once the wasp hatches, it will eat their way out, killing the hornworm in the process. It’s kind of a gross thing to see this happen, but you are better off letting them do their thing because once they hatch there will be enough wasps to keep your garden hornworm free.

Let us know if you had any hornworm experiences and what you did to solve the problem. Next time we will call a friend to help us!

Who are we? We know (but we are ever changing), do you?

Glad you're joining us!  We are Jessica and Aaron and TOTALLY new at this bloggin' thing.  Check out our website: www.harvestinthecity.com for more information about who we are.