The July Monthly Update

The Garden: July 23, 2009

It's a few days late, but I finally have a chance to sit down for the monthly update. This farmer spent the past week back in the homeland of Colorado. It has been a very wet (unusual) year in the Centennial Sate. But temps stayed cool longer and gardens got a late start. All the rain was doing wonders, but a severe storm packed with hail and high winds this week did extensive damage to gardens and crops across the Denver Metro area.

Back here in Virginia, Mother Nature turned off the spicket several weeks ago. The temperatures and humidity have gone up and so has the need for water in the garden. It figures this would happen the same time I leave town. Thankfully, the Mrs. did a great job of watering followed by our neighbors. Was the garden as healthy when I returned? No. But it could have been considerably worse.The Harvest After Our Colorado Trip: Tomaotes, Cucumbers, Jalapenos, Romaian Peppers and NM Chiles

• Acorn Squash-Probably suffered the most in the heat and decrease in water. Many leaves died off and the squash have not grown in size the past few weeks. I'm hoping that the plant recovers and produces great squash in its prime fall harvest season.
  
• Albatross Bell Peppers- See Romanian Sweet Peppers....because it doesn't appear we ever had Albatross Bell Peppers.
  
• Jalapeno Peppers- Wowser. This is clearly El Hefe of the garden so far. The poppers (see previous blog post) have been the hit if the season.
  
• Romanian Sweet Peppers- I thought we had one Romanian plant and one Albatross pepper plant. Well, it looks like someone mislabeled some plants because the "albatross" looked identical to the Romanian. Either way, we've already had some ripe and delicious looking peppers. I cut three off just this morning
  
• New Mexico Espanola Chiles- The chiles are growing nicely and we picked our first batch this morning.
  
• New Mexico Heritage Chiles- Along with their Espanola cousins, the Heritage are putting out a lot of peppers. Being away for a week allowed some peppers to turn red instead of a green-color harvest.
  
• Bush Whopper Cucumbers- No surprise the cucumber plant is doing fantastic. The cucumbers are big and tasty and the plant has maintained a compact growth pattern.
  
• Celebrity Tomatoes- The birds had a field day with the celebrities. With the mesh and Oswald in place, we're getting a chance to eat a lot of big, juicy tomatoes
  
• Mr. Stripey Tomatoes- By the looks of it, the Mr. Stripey's might have been mislabelled as well. The tomatoes are a solid yellow color and appear fully ripe. No stripes in sight.
  
• Patio Tomatoes- Birds had some patio 'maters, too. But the plant keeps putting out some tasty tomatoes.
  
• Supersweet 100 Tomatoes- The name fits the bill. These little red beauties are sweet and delish.
  
• Finger Carrots- I thinned out the carrot box and I think we might have some edible carrots.
  
• Lisbon Onions- Ready to use. The onions are a cool season crop, so they won't last long in the heat.
  
• Dwarf Gray Sugar Peas- After a plentiful harvest (two frozen bags worth), the heat killed the vines quickly. I pulled all the vines off the trellises.
  
• Rutabagas- Thinned them out and looking better. Still pretty small.
  
• Salad Mix- The salads we had were great. But again, the heat does this plant no favors. See you in the fall, Salad Mix.

The herbs are blowing up except for the dill and cilantro. Those are finito. Oh well, they made a good run.

The fruit plants are...well....there. Although the blueberry vines are spreading fast. Could be a great sign for next year.

Batten Down The Hatchs !!

Yeah, yeah... you're telling yourself, "Hatches is spelled wrong, dummy." In this case, I intended to not spell it with an 'e'. When I write, 'Hatchs', I mean hatch chiles. And authentic hatch chiles can only be found in one place: Hatch, New Mexico. Brought from South America, chiles evolved around the turn of the 20th century when New Mexican ranchers and horticulturists interbreeded different pods to create a heartier and tastier chile. They're used for many things and in many recipes. Green chile stew is my favorite.

Enough with the english and history lesson.

With the plants growing to full size and fruit forming on branches, Mother Nature and gravity will start taking a greater toll on the plants. I've found pepper plants need the most help in supporting their own weight.

When I first potted the plants, I inserted long stakes for support. This allowed the roots to grow around the stakes rather than the shock of jamming stakes into mature root systems later on. Now that the plants have grown, this weekend was my chance to utilize that support.

I use twine to wrap the stalks and large limbs to the stakes. It's pretty simple to do. I prefer to use a figure-8 method. Just wrap the twine around the stalk, cross it, wrap around the stake, and tie a knot. I think it provides good support but won't strangle the plant to the stake. It also allows room for the stem to grow bigger.

It's not plastic surgery, folks, but it does a pretty darn good job of keeping things from sagging.

Muy Caliente!!

Look what Rosetta Stone has taught me to say!!!

My first batch of jalapenos is raring to be harvested and used in a batch of guacamole (along with some cilantro over in the herb aisle next to the parsley). Last week I plucked my first pepper to taste. The surprising part of the first 'peno was its tightly packed seeds and white flesh. The seeds were much smaller than what I've seen in grocery store peppers. I do know the heat of a pepper is packed in those seeds and flesh.

I bucked up and tried the first bite seeds, flesh, and all; might as well find out how hot a punch they are packing. The first five seconds were intensely hot...but it quickly calmed. I thought the flavor was great. The rest of the pepper ended up on some homemade nachos.

So the only lesson I can give here: if you don't want the jalapeno's heat, cut out the seeds and white flesh before consuming. Me? Let's get some chips and avocados and have us a fiesta.

Channel Your Inner-Barber

There's nothing like a clean shave or haircut to get you feeling good and put a little bounce in your step. Well, think of it the same way for your garden plants. Sure we want our plants to be one with nature, be in harmony with mother earth, etc. But let's not go overboard into the dirty hippie category.

A great garden is a groomed garden. The weather is warming up so the plants are taking off and sprouting all new directions. Now is the time when you have to start putting a lot more effort into keeping your growing plants looking sharp. Did I say sharp? What a great segway into...

Tip #1: Have a sharp set of garden/kitchen shears. Personally I have a set of Wusthof kitchen shears from my knife set. They are sturdy and perfect for the garden. I think they cost about $30. A good pair of shears makes pruning and harvesting very easy.









Tip #2: Look low. I find it's important to keep your plant well groomed at its base near soil level. The lower leaves and branches can be a nuisance for a couple reasons. Pests and disease can can live on the ground. If your plant has leaves near or touching the surface, that creates a freeway for unwanted entities to hop on your plant and cause problems. Second, more leaves and branches that exist on the plant make the plant work harder. By cutting off weak or diseased leaves, the plant can focus on sustaining the stronger leaves and production of fruit.









Tip #3: Look high. As plants shoot upwards, look for things like suckers growing on tomato plants. Same with the bottom leaves, eliminating suckers and other damaged leaves allows the plant to focus nutrients towards the strong leaves and fruits. As for root plants, you want to clip off the tops of the plants. For example, with onions you want to clip the green shoots to about 3 inches in height (below pics). Clipping the tops tells the plant to focus on the root system, which in the case of onion plants is the actual onion. The same can apply to other root veggies.









Tip #4: When it comes to herbs and leaf plants....pick, pick, pick!!! The more you cut or pick off your plants, the faster and larger they come back.

This weekend I went to town with the cutters on the plants. I always comb my tomato plants for new suckers to pinch. I trimmed the base of all my pepper species (middle pics), cut off the white blossoms and stunted bottom leaves on the basil (top pics), sheared off half the onion tops, and picked a ton more sugar peas. Jalapenos are growing fast, the tomatoes are getting bigger, and the cucumber/squash plants have blossomed.

It's a fun time in the garden!!!

Munchkin Munchies

This morning I finally saw the beginnings of sugar pea pods on the vines. We had seen countless purple blossoms open in the past couple days. One blossom on Wednesday turned to three on Thursday, seven on Friday, and almost two dozen by this morning. I only assumed the pods were soon to follow. Sure enough, two pods have begun to form next to each other. If I had to guess, there are probably other pods tucked away in the vines that I have yet to discover.

The fingernail-sized pods join a handful of celebrity tomatoes to make their debut in the garden this week. I had been pinching blossoms for the past week or two on the tomatoes and peppers in order to prevent fruit from forming so early. I know that seems a tad counter-intuitive to be stopping the plant from growing fruit. But early on in the season it's a good idea to do so and allow the plant to focus on growing bigger. I guess the celebrity tomato got a couple past me. But the good news is the celebrity plant is the largest and healthiest in the garden, so I think it can handle fruit development.

In the case of peppers, the plant adapts to pinching the first generation of blossoms and the next round will produce peppers with stronger walls and more flavor.

After Pinching the White Blossom on The Romanian Pepper Plant

For all those gardeners out there, I stress the importance of looking over the plants and keeping them well groomed right now as they grow. That means pinching suckers off the tomato plants, cutting small branches less than an inch or two from ground level, and pinching blossoms on very young plants.

Happy Memorial Day!!!

The May Monthly Update

The Garden: May 19th

It's always nice to look back and realize how far our little ones have grown over their short lives. And like good parents, it's always important to let loved ones know what our little bundles of joy have been doing since we last put out the family newsletter.

Okay, seriously, who really likes getting the family newsletters at X-mas time? There's more exclamation points in those things than old Batman episodes. Kerplow!!! The dog got fixed in April!!! Bam!!! Zing!!! Bobby got his first haircut in June!!!!!!! Whoosh!!!! Pow!!!!!

But part of the purpose of this blog is to update what the plants have been doing in our garden. And since the last pic I have of the whole garden was April 19th, I figured I should update everyone on the plant progress on the 19th of every month. So Grandpa and Gramms, Aunt Suzy, Uncle Jimmy, and Cousins Billy Joe and Chantelle....here it goes.

There has been a permanent dark green blob floating over our house on the weather doppler for the past three weeks. We have had a ton of rain this spring coupled with sometimes hot, sometimes chilly temps. I forgot to pull out the plugs on the bottom of the planter I used for my cucumbers. One morning last week, I went out to find the cuke plant was swimming in three inches of water. The soil was soup. Five days later, the soil is still soaked. But the plant still looks healthy.

• Acorn Squash-Still going strong. The vines haven't begun to spread, but it won't be long.
  
• Albatross Bell Peppers- Slow and steady growth...some buds have already appeared.
  
• Jalapeno Peppers- Getting taller with bigger dark green leaves.
  
• Romanian Sweet Peppers- See bell peppers.
  
• New Mexico Espanola Chiles- These NM chiles are slow out of the gate. Unfortunately the squirrel dug a hole right next to one of the Espanola plants and damaged the stem. Today, I dug up that plant and inserted another Espanola plant I had growing to the side.
  
• New Mexico Heritage Chiles- This chile is also slow to take-off. The positive sign is the stem looks a lot thicker and the plant continues to sprout new leaves.
  
• Bush Whopper Cucumbers- I may have to go by arm floaties for the Bush Whopper plant after last week's drowning. But so far it's doing well and continues to grow.
  
• Celebrity Tomatoes- Three times its original size. I already have three small fruit on the vines. I'm trying to pinch a lot of the buds so the plant can continue to focus on growing and developing those first early fruit.
  
• Mr. Stripey Tomatoes- Was a late addition, but is growing at a nice pace. It's behind its brothers and sisters, but it will catch up soon enough.
  
• Patio Tomatoes- Doing what it does best: Growing thick like a bush. I expect to see some fruit developing soon.
  
• Supersweet 100 Tomatoes- The thinnest of the tomato plants, the Supersweets are doing just fine. Like the other tomaters, I've been keeping a close eye on suckers. Also, don't forget to cut off small branches within an inch or two from soil level.
  
• Finger Carrots- Hard to tell how these are doing...but they're thick and the green tops look healthy and tall.
  
• Lisbon Onions- Slowly plodding along.
  
• Dwarf Gray Sugar Peas- These things shot up like a rocket. But so far...no pods. I had to take the cage lid off the strawberries and use it for another support for the vines to grab onto. At the base of the stalks many leaves have gone yellow and died. Today, though, I saw one purple blossom on a stalk. Could pods be in the near future?
  
• Rutabagas- I most definitely overseeded the rutabagas. No way will I get decent sized 'bagas unless I thin out the pots. But I'll be honest...this was not my most anticipated crop.
  

The Fruit File

• Blueberries ('10 Harvest)- Developing nicely. I have some stalks coming out of the ground that are developing healthy leaves and a spiny stem.
  
• Raspberries ('10 Harvest)- Like it's berry cousin next door, the raspberries are growing and looking good.
  
• Strawberries- Mr. Squirrel has done me no favors by digging holes throughout the strawberry pot. I'm down to two healthy plants. The jury's out on the strawberries.
  

The Herb Honor Roll

• Basil- We've ravaged this plant already. Found one caterpillar on the plant having a feast. But he's dead and our caprese salads live on.
  
• Chamomile- I guess it's doing fine. Don't have much interest in it.
  
• Chives- This is the nuclear bomb of the garden. It has exploded. A couple weeks ago, several purple flowers bloomed. They are pretty and tasty.
  
• Cilantro- It has slowed recently and some leaves have died off or lost color. I should probably make some guacamole and thin it out.
  
• Dill-Still young but looking good.
  
• Lavender-Dead. Next.
• Oregano- Can always count on oregano to be healthy and plentiful.
  
• Parsley- Used it in a couple dishes this weekend and looks healthy.
• Peppermint-Growing out of the depths of last year, the peppermint looks like it will be strong again this year.
  
• Rosemary- Doing alright. It will take off soon.
  
• Thyme-Both the garden center plant and the plant grown from seed look great.

Let's Hope This Espanola Chile Plant Takes Root

All-in-all, we're pretty darn happy about progress. This weekend will be the first time I feed the plants. The nutrients combined with warmer weather will probably do wonders. By June 19th, we could have a jungle on our hands.

Are You There Blog? It's Me Jeremy.

The Acorn Squash Has Come A Long Way

Don't think because the blog has been quiet, so has the garden. Due to other chores and a last second assignment to Mexico City, I haven't been able to sit down and write up a little somethin'-somethin' for Two Thumbs. But fear not, there is plenty to talk about.

First, as they'd say in the racing world, the field is set. I've just about used up all free space I have for planting. So what I planted this weekend will in all likelihood be the last veggies. I've updated the veggie vitals to the right. As you can see, I finally chose my heirloom breed. Kudos once again to Merrifield Garden Center for an abundance of choices. I think I had three different varieties in my hand before going with Mr. Stripey tomatoes. But, I was very tempted to go with Pineapple tomatoes.

Aside from the stripers, I planted Romanian sweet peppers, thyme (the seedlings just weren't progressing very well), and Bush Whopper Cucumbers. The story behind the Bush Whoppers is pretty simple. Unlike its cousins, this cucumber breed grows more as a bush rather than a vine-spreading, space-swallower. Because space is already limited and I planted it next to the acorn squash, I needed a plant that wouldn't spread wild through the garden.

As for those acorn squash, you can see for yourself (above) how much they have progressed since starting as little seeds less than two months ago. 

The other seedlings are doing pretty well. One of the fastest sprouters has, without question, been the cilantro. It looked pretty rough when I first transplanted it to a large pot outside. But the steady rainfall and a little bit of sunshine have done wonders. Once we get the jalapenos and tomatoes spitting out fruits, we'll have the beginnings of a damn good guacamole. 

Our next entry we'll look at the fastest "climbers" in the garden this year. Here's a hint: Think Popeye's adopted kid.

For My Hombres Back in Nuevo Mexico...

A very good friend, Tim Blotz, did a wonderful thing and mailed me some new seeds I'm very eager to try out. Tim has a bit of a green thumb himself. The Blotz clan lives in Minneapolis and has an amazing garden in a place most people relate to snow, hockey, and ice fishing. That hasn't deterred Tim. How many people do you know grow their own CORN in their home garden? That deserves a tip of the straw hat.

NuMex Espanola Improved Chile

So what has me so "fired" up about these seeds? Because they will sprout and produce two chile varieties found in my old stomping grounds of New Mexico.

The Land of Enchantment will always hold a special place in my heart. But, it's also the heart of the chile universe. Most famous is the Hatch chile found only in Hatch, New Mexico (well at least authentic Hatch chiles).

The opportunity to grow something from New Mexico (a place where I lived for two years, have family, and found my best of friends) in our garden is very exciting.















NuMex Heritage 6-4 Chile

Last week I dropped the seeds in two small planters, similar to what I did with the other seed varieties. The first chile variety we have is the NuMex Espanola Improved Chile. According to the CPI (Chile Pepper Institute) at New Mexico State University, this chile is very hot and has been adapted to grow in the shorter growing season of Northern New Mexico. If you haven't been to New Mexico, the northern part of the state is very mountainous and the climate is much cooler.

The second chile species Tim sent us is NuMex Heritage 6-4. This variety is an improved chile from the original 6-4. The 6-4 is one of New Mexico's original pod types with medium to hot heat level. The Heritage 6-4 has a better yield and 20% more flavor.....so say my friends at the CPI.

According to the growing instructions, these seeds need to be sowed 8-10 weeks before planting in the garden outside. Depending on soil temperature, it will take 2-4 weeks to germinate. The optimum soil temp is between 80-90 degrees. I can tell you that I don't have the soil at that temp. It is probably around 70-75 degrees. I'd need to add a propagation mat for heat. I don't think I'm going to go that far.

Once these babies get going, I hope to have them outside in May and get a nice crop by late summer to roast or use in a chile stew. If you want to add a little "caliente" to your garden, I highly recommend checking out the CPI's website. The Chile Pepper Institute
They also sell all kinds of seed varieties and instructions on how to grow chiles and prevent diseases.

By the way, here is a look-see at our seeds we sowed a couple weeks ago. The acorn squash and cilantro have taken off. I'm worried that we've had too many cloudy days for them, so they have become leggy in their search for sunlight. I need to research how I can fix this problem.