Seeds and Seasons

It's time...for Garden Fazool!

Here is this year's new seed selection from my fave seed purveyor, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds:

 Ragged Jack Kale, Lettuce Leaf Basil, Borage, Tina James' Magic Primrose, Tall Orange Sun(flowers), 

Red Romaine Lettuce the *free gift* Grandpa's Home Hot Peppers and Sweet Marjoram.

Kinda excited for borage! It's so pretty when it comes in. 

Grandpa's Home...we miss you Grandpa Jim!  I'll plant some hot peppers in your memory this year.

Here's another reason to love Baker Creek.  They actually mailed me back $2 since they ended up being out of the sunflowers my son picked (sonflowers, haha) out after I had already ordered and paid for them.  I love that they just sent cash.  Old school!

I have to do some planning and see what's going to go where this year.  Then I have to plant it! :-) It seems late, but it's still totally fine if you haven't started your garden yet.  Just get to the earlier season items in the next week or two and you'll be fine.

To see what happens to seeds after you plant them, here are all of my gardening posts from the last two seasons!

Last Season, 2012:
April, 2012: Overall garden plan and early plantings and The Hell Strip*
*I highly recommend that fencing, worked great at keeping kids and dogs out
May, 2012: Mother's Day Planters (Oh, and here's who was nibbling on my runner beans!)
June/July 2012 (well, really the last day of June, so almost July): An amazing explosion of buds and bounty!  It's hard to imagine that is just two short months away...
August, 2012: A GIANT sunflower in the picture mid-post. OMG. We planted those seeds this year! Gosh, last summer was SO super hot.  Hoping (hoping!) for a more temperate summer this year (even a few degrees cooler makes such a difference).
There weren't that many gardening posts last year because I was focused on my CSA box!

Two ago, 2011:
April, 2011: Found this guy on the side of my (then new) house! It's lovage! I love lovage!
May, 2011: I did a LOT of work that month to prepare some new gardening areas around my house. I grew some stuff from seed, dug a new garden and planned out the plantings.  Then, I planted the starters in the new "rainbow" garden, then I dug another garden (that year it had tomatoes) and planted that, too.  There was action and trouble, and a thorough exploration of everything that was growing in my front yard.

June, 2011:  June is amazing.  Every year!

July, 2011: July was over the top!
August, 2011: The month of the Monster Fig!

What are you guys growing this year?

Garden Fazool, June 2012

As of June 30th, 2012...

 Zucchini Flowers on my Striata Zucchini (Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds)

 Open.

Here they are in the Zucchini Garden that I put in this year (on May 8th.)

As of June 19th.

And, ten days later (June 29th), look how much they grew in ten days!

Quite a nice tomato going on the left, there, too.  That one was a gift from my realtor!

Thanks, Bob!

My Rainbow Chard (from seed), in the garden below:

Look at those artichokes! I'm not sure if they will flower or not, but they are cool looking.  And, my Scarlet Runners have taken off up the fence.  Here's the garden in April, it's hard to believe what happens in three months.

Scarlet Runner Flowering.

 Beans on the far side fence + another little tomato behind!

Tomatoes going very well along the side beds! 

And, all the flowers...

 Bee Balm

Not sure? It grew up in the front.  Kinda looks like a purple fox glove type flower.

The front!  Fig tree is on the far right behind that bloomed sunflower head.

Sunflowers

Waiting. 

Dark Horse.

Hydrangea.

I adore the sprightly blue flowers.

Lavender Flowers, With Bees.  

And, my fig tree, loaded with tender figs!

This is why I welcome the heat of summer.

What are you all hoping to harvest?

Grillin' and Gardenin'

A thing of beauty!

 Grilled, Caramelized Onions

They are easy! On a large piece of foil, put thinly sliced Vidalia (or any sweeter onion) inside, add tiny bits of cubed butter (EB or whatever you like) probably about 1 Tbs per every two onions, organic brown sugar (about 1 tsp. per sliced onion), and sea salt (sprinkle generously over the onions).  Mix with your hands.  Fold up the foil into a nice packet.  Add another piece of foil and wrap again, sealing up all the seams.  Grill until tender and as caramelized as you want them.  

Here's the foil packet as I was about to open it.  You can see I unfolded the left side already.  

Other wonderful things to grill in the packet:

 Fresh, Jersey Asparagus (peeled, French style :-)

 Green Beans with Salt and Sesame Oil 

Really, any food that will fall through the grill cracks can be grilled in a foil packet.  Don't forget it! Just add your seasonings and a little oil, mix with your hands, and fold up that packet.  Yeah!

And, some gardening for you.  I made Mother's Day planters for my mom, my husband's mom, and my sister:

 Planted with Organic Basil and Organic Chives.  

My son picked out the pots, I loved them!

My planter:

Also basil & chives.  This way I don't have to go outside to get them! I think I threw in a bunch of arugula, too, so, it's gonna be crazy in there.

Also, my artichokes have "taken," and I see new growth on them, my Scarlet Runners were raided by something that ate all the leaves off 3/5 of my plants (but left the two healthiest, largest ones), I have tons of primroses blooming, my fig tree is leafing out like crazy, and I put in my Zucchini Garden with four hierloom zucchini plants!

What are you guys cooking & planting?

Garden Fazool, April 2012

And so it begins...

Scarlet Runner Bean (seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds).

And these ladies have taken up residence in what was last year's Tomato Garden.  I planted the rest of this garden yesterday (4/13/12) with the Scarlet Runners pictured above (back row, they will climb up the fence), and in the front row is Swiss Chard (planted on Thurs, 4/12/12).

Does anyone know what the ladies are?  I didn't start them from seed, I bought cheater plants.  

Here's a closer look at my cheaters!

That's cilantro behind, wanted to get some in the ground while it is still cool and I hadn't started any from seed.  Cilantro doesn't like it hot!

This is my other "garden" which needs significant amending in terms of soil (there are still asphalt chunks in it from an old driveway that used to be there!) gets the herbs since not much else really worked there last year.  So, this year it's The Herb Garden. Cheater cilantro is in place.

However, the little bit of Swiss Chard that did grow, the Lemon Thyme, Oregano and Parsley ALL overwintered!  You can't tell because it's been so dry here, but we did turn this garden over and added some of our compost, I know it doesn't look like it! 

Rainbow Chard from last year.

Also,

Rosemary blooming.

 Side beds.

Back yard.

And, in a notebook by my bed, lie the answers.

The new ladies are...artichokes!  And they look very happy so far.

So, The Artichoke Garden & The Herb Garden are planted.

I also have a bunch of things I am going to start from seed (planting tomorrow, hopefully), and stuff I am planting in-ground around the house, including the front yard and the "hell strip!"  I have to dig a new garden for my zucchini, too.

What new things are you guys growing this year? 

Slay the Monster

So, did it get ripe? Why, yes, yes it did. Fig on the bottom is (obviously) the MONSTER fig.

And here she is, plucked from her tree:

Goodness. 

Sliced up, it seriously looks like TWO figs. 

For comparison, here is a more normally sized fig that I picked the next day:

You can see, the volume looks like about half of the monster fig!

The rest of the figs seem to be getting going now, I picked three today, two yesterday and three the day before that.  And I can see they are veining out in purple, so it's looking good! I'd better get my fig pants on now so I am ready when all the smaller ones come ripe at the same time (right now it is the larger ones getting ripe, and they are maybe about five percent of the fruit on the tree). 

Wish me luck, and post favorite fig recipes if you like! This batch of figs seems to taste a lot like watermelon, which is awesome.

<3 Dawn