Red Cabbage

 Growing from the root end of one I bought at the store last year!

End of the Season Harvest

We may have our first freeze tonight, so I got with it and harvested almost everything that was left in the garden.  I did leave one habanero and one pepper plant in case it doesn't freeze because of course it's going to warm up after tonight, and I thought I'd take chance it with a handful of stuff in the event that I can eeck out a bit more of that vine-ripened flavor!

Peppers galore and a handful of tomatoes 

I've read mixed reviews about pulling the entire pepper plant and letting it ripen inside.  I don't have high expectations, but I thought I'd give it a whirl.  Peppers will continue to ripen even off the plant and in the collander, so if nothing else, pulling the whole plant makes it easier to hang on a rack and ensure better air circulation while they do their thing.

I'm preserving many of these by freezing, drying, pickling, and some other stuff.  I thought I'd share and take a few to work to give away, too, begrudingly...?

Here's the habanero plant I pulled.

Incidentally, the Jiffy pellet in which I started the seed held up well and proudly displayed itself when I pulled the plant up roots and all...

Jiffy pellet - "Hello again!"

Peppers!

I haven't posted in a while, but I have been taking pictures!  So...  I'm going to see if I can start getting caught up now that's it's cooling off (we may have our first freeze tonight!), and I'm getting things wrapped up with the garden for this season.

Here are some of the beautiful, delicious peppers I've been harvesting.

These haven't been washed yet, so they have some water spots on them.  Pictured here are Costa Rican Sweet (red, upper left), Pablano (green, upper right), and Habanero (orange, lower right).  There are also a handful of tomatoes - Roma (long) and Sun Gold (cherry).

All of these were started from seed from Burpee except for the Romas which were leftover from last year's Wal-Mart seeds (which are just fine too, Burpee just has some unique varieties).

Costa Rican Sweet pepper

Costa Rican Sweet peppers make a good substitue for bell peppers.  This was the first year I grew them, and I was really happy with the production levels.  I got many more peppers than the bells I've grown in the past.  The flavor isn't particularly distinctive, but they're good when you want a sweet pepper, and a bit of char helps bring out the flavor.

Pablono pepper with a handful of Sun Gold tomatoes

Pablanos have become my standout favorite this year!  They have a distinctive, almost pungent flavor and more heat when they are green (my preference) than when they are red (also good but sweeter).  They are fantastic in omlettes!

Habanero peppers

Habaneros are known for their smoky flavor, but frankly I'm not sure my palette is discriminating enough to detect this - I mainly find them hot!  But good hot!  According to Burpee, the habanero is 100 times hotter than a jalapeno, so be careful when handling.  The habs in the upper portion of this picture have been sitting in my collander for a few days and have ripened more developing a deeper orange hue.  The lower ones were just picked tonight (to escape the freeze) and still have some green on them.

All of these have been super easy to grow here in Lubbock.  Stick 'em in the ground, and just add water.

Seriously.

'Sungold' Cherry Tomatoes

Tomatoes are in full production mode right now!

Here are some of the 'Sungold' cherry tomatoes I grew this year from seed I ordered from the Burpee catalogue.

They're supposed to be yellow tomatoes, but they look red to me.  Either way, they're very tasty - I love 'em, and so does Samson!

Yes, Sam loves all manner of produce from the garden but is especially fond of tomatoes, zucchini, and cantaloupe.  How weird is that?!

Garden Update: July

How does my garden grow these days?  Not so great actually!!  Yes, it's green enough, but my tomatoes and peppers have been stunted.  I'm not completely sure why, but I suspect it may be related to the scorching heat we had for several weeks.  With the recent rains (6" to 10" over Fourth of July weekend!) and milder temperatures, things seem to be growing again.  Here's an updated picture.

Zucchini towards the back, tomatoes and peppers toward the foreground (with marigolds, obviously)

Figured I'd better snap a picture of a cherry tomato while I had the chance.  I haven't had many this year, and this one was so red and pretty, it didn't even make it into the kitchen - I ate it right off the vine!

Growing Greens

Greens are easy to grow in Lubbock!  I grow collard greens, spinach, and Romaine lettuce.

Collard greens have large, bluish-green foliage.

Start from seed around mid-February.  Valentines Day is a good reminder - plant something you love to eat!  Direct sow in the garden, and wait for 'em to grow.

Mine have always done so well with an early spring planting even with the freezing weather that I tried planting some this past year in full-on winter.  That doesn't work (see the sub-title of this blog).  If you want a winter crop, plant in late fall.

Harvest individual leaves as soon as they're big enough to eat, or wait for the plant to get larger and harvest the whole thing.  Easy!

Shrimp salad on a bed of Romaine lettuce with Feta cheese, banana peppers, and a little olive oil.

Tomato Seedlings Update

The tomato seeds I planted in the large Jiffy pellets took about ten days to start sprouting.  I've been moving them within a day or two of sprouting into plastic cups just because the large peat pellets are too tall to grow much in the plastic sprouting house.

On the other hand, none of my peppers have sprouted so far, and I planted them on 2/11 - so three weeks ago.  They really need 70 to 80 degree temperatures to sprout (and it's been colder than that in the house), so I've tried resting them on a heating pad (lowest setting) and a towel to try to warm them up.  If that doesn't work and they've rotted, I'll re-plant in a couple of weeks.

I will actually plant these in soil eventually, but for now it's just a pellet in a cup because I haven't gotten around to getting out the garden mix!

My heating pad experiment.

Starting Seeds Indoors Using Jiffy Pellets

Okay, so my neighbor harassed me tonight about not having posted anything lately - at least she's nice enough to check out my blog from time to time!

So in the last week I've been starting my peppers and tomatoes in Jiffy Pellets which are basically compacted peat used to germinate your seeds indoors.  Just add water, and watch them grow - kind of like Sea Monkeys but faster!

Jiffy Pellets in two sizes, dry and compact and then expanded with water.

Jiffy Pellets in the tray...

...and with the lid on.

So I started my peppers a week ago - Costa Rican Sweet, Habanero, Poblano (Ancho), Hungarian Wax, and Sweet Banana.  Last year I had tons and tons of Hungarian Wax and Banana peppers, but I wanted to add more variety this year, hence the others which all came from Burpee.  Costa Ricans are listed as large and great for grilling, Habanero are for HOT sauces and dishes, and Poblanos are for stuffing. 

You might ask, "Why no jalapenos since you live in Texas??"  Well, I had such a bumper crop a couple of years ago that I'm still using those which I dehydrated and then pulverized into a powder in the blender - a little of that goes a long way!

Red, orange, and yellow Wax and Banana peppers from last year's garden.  I canned tomatoes in a hot water bath, but the peppers I just packed in straight white vinegar and stored in the fridge with no heat processing.  They've been delicious all winter - in fact, I think I like them even better once they've marinated, plus the hot vinegar that results is great for flavoring all kinds of dishes!

For tomato varieties this year, I'm trying Black Truffle Hybrid (a hybrid of the heirloom variety Black Truffle), Sun Gold Hybrid (a yellow cherry tomato), Jubilee (yellow medium), and Roma (a reliable producer for this area).  The Black Truffle and Sun Gold are new for me this year (from Burpee).  I grew the Jubilee last year, and the yellow color jazzes up any dish!  I also grow the Roma every year as it gets enough size for slicing but is not so big as to have problems with cracking.

Early Season Leafy Greens - Lettuce, Spinach, and Kale

About a month ago, I decided to try an experiment in my garden.

Last year around the end of March we had a late-season snowstorm.  The temperatures dropped down into the mid-20's or so, but I noticed that the lettuce, spinach, and kale I had planted in the garden about two months prior looked really fantastic in this horrible weather.  After it was all over, they exhibited no leaf burn or die back of any kind.  In fact, they had never looked better!

Now I know that leafy greens need cold weather and will bolt with warm temperatures, but I never expected them to thrive like that in THAT kind of cold!

So this year I decided to plant my leafy greens even earlier to see what would happen.  I'd love to have a longer harvest season, and it would be glorious to get something fresh from the garden during even the winter months. 

I probably should have planted a fall crop to last through the winter, but I have to admit that I'm usually eeking out the last bit of production that I can from my tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini in the fall and haven't gotten around to cleaning up my garden by that point, so I didn't get a fall planting done.  Instead, I planted lettuce, spinach, and kale seeds around mid-December, so we'll see what happens.

Those of you who live in this area know that we've had some tremendously cold temperatures this winter, and we also had about eight inches of snow at Christmas which is unusual for Lubbock.  Obviously, with all this cold weather, my germination rates have been pretty slow, but I started seeing some green about two weeks ago.  So far the growth has been very slow, but my seedlings have at least progressed enough that you can now see them on camera.  Here are some pictures I took this morning.  The lettuce and kale have germinated, but so far none of the spinach has - I'll keep you posted.

Lettuce seedlings - planted mid-December

Kale seedlings - planted mid-December

The Burpee Catalogue Gets Me Jazzed!

Yesterday I received the 2010 Burpee Seed Catalogue in the mail, and I got jazzed about my garden.  Purusing all the wonderful varieties, imagining the bounty sure to stock my kitchen, sure that everything will look exactly like the pictures in the book!

But probably not, which is why this year I've decided to scale back to just the veggies that I enjoy the most and that thrive in our extreme climate: tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini mainly. 

Well, that's not all actually - I'll also grow onions, spinach, lettuce, kale, swiss chard, and a variety of herbs including Italian parsley, basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, lavender, and probably some other stuff I'll no doubt be tempted to stick in the ground.

But the tomatoes, peppers, and zuchini will get the bulk of my garden real estate this year.  There are lots of other great fruits and veggies to grow in our area, but these are the ones I enjoy the most and traditionally have the easiest time with.

While waiting for the temperatures to warm up (and for the snow to melt!  Can you believe that??), there's still lots you can do to prepare your garden for spring.

How about turbo-charging the soil for starters?

My favorite gardening book of all time is The Vegetable Gardener's Bible by Ed Smith.  Although Ed lives up north, his tips are practical for any climate.  Ed inspired me to try "no-till" gardening for weed control, improved soil conditions, and better crop producion.

I was fortunate enough to "steal" my parents' compost tumbler...

... which expedites (and contains) my compost production.  There it is on the right next to some extra mulch (which is a flattened pile because my dog likes to sleep on it) and my leaf mold bin.

After removing the dead stuff from the garden (throw it in your compost pile!), put down a nice layer of compost and top it with a good layer of organic mulch.  I use the free mulch that is available through the City of Lubbock Recycling Center.

It's not a must, but I also topped it all off with a layer of black plastic to help warm the soil underneath.  Here's what it looks like now.

During the cold winter months, the compost will enrich the soil, and the mulch (organic and plastic) will help to retain moisture and regulate the ground temperature.  All of this allows worms to do their job - breaking down organic matter and aerating the soil through the small tunnels they create.  If the soil temperatures fluctuate too rapidly, worms risk freezing at night (they can't move down through the soil fast enough to escape freezing temperatures) - and dead worms can't do their job!  The same concept applies to mulching in the summer time during which scorching afternoon temperatures can also be detrimental to worm health.

By the way, that purple ratty looking mess in the front is swiss chard that I left in place to help protect my Italian parsley (the green stuff) which seems to be overwintering a bit.  This is the first year that I've grown the parsley, and I wasn't sure what it would do in the winter time.  At least there's enough alive for me to have a little for cooking - delicious!