Lettuce Get Planting!

Lettuce, Herbs, Green Onions, and Radishes- great fall crops

There are some nasty rumors going around about lettuce.  I hear that it is really hard to grow with lots of insect problems.  It has also been said that lettuce grown in Texas tastes bitter because of the heat.  Lies, all of them.

The misinformation comes from the fact that  the instructions on the back of seed packets and those great little farming magazines are written for folks living in the areas of the country that actually have four seasons and one growing season.  Now do not misunderstand me, I love my gardening magazines, but the time lines do not line up. Well, welcome to Texas Gardening.  There is a rhythm to gardening in Texas that is as unique as our Texas spirit.  Once you learn the rhythm you will be amazed at what you can grow.

However, for now we will focus on lettuce and its cousins.  It perturbs me to no end to have to purchase greens of any kind in the grocery store.  Homegrown greens are so easy and tasty!  Also, it is so much easier to have a bed of lettuce and just go pick you some whenever you want, than to have to go to the store when you want a salad.  If you are like me, lots of times what’s for dinner is not something planned very far in advance.  So, having items growing in the garden to have on hand is just the ticket.

One of the perks about lettuce and all the other greens, such as arugula, chard, spinach, etc. is that they can by eaten at all stages.  Baby greens make for a scrumptious salad or sandwich.  Many people, like my children, do not like mature spinach but love baby spinach.  So, while the plants are growing you can pick the outer leaves and enjoy the garden abundance for many weeks.  The greens( the term greens refers to all types of lettuce, herbs, kale, greens, spinach etc)  do not take a lot of space.  One 5X12  foot bed of greens will keep my family of 6 in fresh greens.

Now to dispel the lies.

First, that lettuce is hard to grow.  Not so, you just have to know when to plant it.  If you read many of the labels on lettuce sold in Texas, the labels  say to plant after all danger of frost has passed.  The problem with this is that if you wait that long in Texas you can have as little as 2 weeks until the temps are consistently in the mid- 80′s.  The proper planting times in Texas are February- April and September- December.  Lettuce is a cool season crop.  When most areas of the country are having dead of winter, we are having our cool season.   When we have had a mild winter, I harvest greens from September until June.  That is only 2 months of store-bought greens in a year.  That makes my heart happy!

The second lie is that lettuce has many insect problems. Now there are certain worms- Cabbage Loppers for example- that do like lettuce.  However, these are easily dispatched with Bt.  Bt- (Bacillus thuringiensis) is a naturally occurring bacterial disease that only attacks caterpillars.  Bt is organic and you can eat the produce with no worries that synthetic pesticides bring.  There are other insects that can be a problem at times, but I have found in my gardens that Bt is all I need to keep things in balance.  Also, there are other methods of insect control, but again the Bt is simple, easy and effective so that is what I use.  You can find it at most hardware and garden supply stores.

Lastly, lettuce grown in Texas tastes bitter- hogwash.  Again, you just need to know when to plant and what varieties to plant.  The types that are considered “slow to bolt” are the best for planting in the spring.  Bolting refers to sending up a conical shaft with blooms that will produce seeds.  Warm weather signifies to the lettuce that it is time to make seeds.  So, those lettuces that are slow to bolt will be the most tolerant of warm weather.  While you are looking in seed catalogs for heirloom selections (heirloom refers to varieties that will reproduce consistently if the seeds are saved) look for ones that were developed in Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas- of course- or Israel.  These areas have climates similar to ours and those varieties will usually do well here for the summer planting.  Look for varieties labeled "Cool season" or "cold tolerant" on the lettuces, these will be the one for planting in the fall.  When it comes to the spinach, swiss chard, and kale- these are not even stopped by a freeze so they will grow all winter.

Some of my favorite varieties are:
For Fall Planting: Black Seeded Simpson, Drunken Woman, Tom Thumb, Oakleaf
For Spring Planting:  Oakleaf, Jericho- awesome, Tom Thumb
Spinach- Longstanding Bloomsdale is great year round.

Most of your annual herbs like dill, Salad Burnett, chives are best planted on the same schedule as lettuce.
I like to sow the seeds in wide beds.  I thin the seedlings and use them in salads as baby greens.  Keep the lettuce or greens watered one inch once per week and a little shade is very helpful for extending the growing season in the summer.  The seeds usually germinate and emerge in 7-10 days.

So there you have it- the truth about lettuce.  Now what are you waiting for?  September is coming to a close and October is upon us,  I can just taste the homegrown lettuce now.

Raised beds are great for gardening, this one in the front is filled with baby greens.

Can You Feel It In The Air...

Spinach, Chard, and Kale- not only edible but gorgeous!

The mornings of late have been cool and there is a change in the air, fall is just around the corner.  Even if we can't trust the weather, pre-season football games have begun so really, fall is just around the corner.  With the heat breaking and rains returning, now is the time to prep your fall beds and start planning cool season crops.

First step in preparing the garden beds is to clean up what may be left over from the summer garden.  As I write this the last of the lettuce has gone to seed and looking quiet toasty.  Squash and cucumber plants are also due to be pulled up as they are well past their prime.  Of course, as the veggies fell prey to the Texas heat weeds gladly popped up and grew happily in the heat with very little water- go figure.  So, now is the time to pull weeds, clean up dead plants and feed the soil.

Regardless of the type of gardening you do- raised bed, square foot, or traditional rows- you must return to the soil what you are taking out in the form of nutrients.  The best way to do this is the use of compost.  Twice a year, at the end of summer season and just before spring planting, I take compost and spread about 4 inches on the top of each bed.  I do not worry about tuning this under because as I am planting the seeds or seedlings, enough turning over occurs.  Every time you till the soil, whether by hand or machine, you interrupt the soil biology and slow things down, so the less you disturb it the better your garden will grow.  There are a lot of beneficial bugs in the soil, such as earthworms, that will gladly come up and process the compost for you bringing the nutrients down into the soil making them ready for the roots of your new plants.  Other ways to help feed the soil is to use liberal amounts of mulch and feed your plants with a liquid fertilizer such as compost tea during the growing season. For information on compost tea follow this link: http://farmonthehill.blogspot.com/2011/10/compost-tea.html .

Now, its time to plant.  I firmly believe that the easiest gardens to grow in Texas is a fall garden.  There are so many choices.  Carrots are best planted in fall.  Some will be ready by October, definitely by November and the rest will grow happily all winter long just waiting on you to come get them.  Our ground does not freeze, so all root crops keep well for us all winter long in the ground right where you planted them.  So make good use of this and plant plenty of carrots, radishes, turnips, rutabagas and such things.

Nothing beats fresh spinach!

Turnips also fall into the category of greens.  As you wait for the turnips to ripen, you can eat on the greens of the plant ( the leaves above ground) all winter long.  You simply pick and prepare them like you would spinach.  Spinach also being my favorite green to plant in the fall.  Of course, I type that and think, "Oh, but don't forget about Kale, that is also our favorite".  It's true, we love Kale and Swiss Chard and so many other greens that grow great, most not really caring if it freezes a time or two.  Most years, Kale, Spinach, Swiss Chard, and  Turnip Greens grow fabulously all winter.

Lettuce is an awesome crop for fall.  Although it may now tolerate a lot of freezing weather, it will produce really well for several months.  For fall planting, look for the varieties that are known to like the coolest of weather.  Drunken Woman (seriously) is a great variety both pretty and tasty.  Tom Thumb is great and there are many others.  Mescalin Mix is simply a mixture of lettuce, spinach, greens and so forth snipped off with scissors when they are just a few inches tall.  The great thing about this is that they will all grow back.

 Any tomato, pepper, and eggplants that you nursed through the heat of the summer will begin to produce again.  Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbages, and very short season English peas also make good choices for a fall garden.  As you can see, there is a lot of variety to be had in the winter.  It kind of make up for the fact that our veggies stop producing well at the end of summer unlike our northern neighbors that grow right on through August.  Grow something this fall, you will be glad you did!

Fish Pepper, An Heirloom Pepper

This one is ready to eat.

Some like it hot...  I am one of those who like a little heat in their food.  However, I do not like to be in pain- you can have too much of a good thing.  I do love Tabasco peppers in vinegar to sprinkle on my greens or my peas and I wanted to make my own when I figured out how easy it is to preserve peppers and herbs in vinegars.

I had read an article about fish peppers, a pepper native to the Caribbean and common in fish dishes of that area.  A gentleman up North had been growing them with seed that came from his grandfather.  The peppers are pretty and can come multicolored.  So, when placing my seed order this year I decided to give these a try.  I am so glad I did!  They germinated easily and grew great.  Because I don't eat a lot of hot peppers and only one of my kids likes spicy food, I planted only four plants in my garden. Four was plenty, these plants really produce!

A Fish Pepper plant loaded up with peppers.

Each pepper is only about 2 inches long, not very big.  However, they pack a lot into that little package.  These peppers are hot, but with a deep warmth and sweetness.  Even my kids who don't like things too hot have commented that this was a different kind of heat and they liked it.  It took only two peppers with seeds removed to warm up a pound of pinto beans cooked in the crock-pot.  I am hooked on these little beauties.
I have decided to use these in vinegar in place of the Tabasco peppers and see how it goes.  I find it hard to believe that this wouldn't taste good considering how great a flavor these peppers posses.

 To save the seeds, wait to pick until they turn red and shrivel up just a bit.  Then you can split them open and save the seeds.  Allow the seeds to dry completely- I usually put them in a small bowl on the window sill.  Then store them in a cool dry place until ready to plant next spring.  Being an Heirloom variety, you can save these seeds and get the same wonderful peppers next summer.

Like most peppers, as it matures it will turn red and orange.

I ordered my seeds from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.  This link will take you to the page with information about the Fish Pepper:  http://www.southernexposure.com/fish-pepper-hot-05-g-p-922.html
Try some in your garden next year, you will be glad you did!

For the love of Salsa!

Me & Cheyenne (drinking bubbly apple juice)

Cheyenne and I share a lot of things.  For instance, neither one of us can hide our feelings very well, what we think is telegraphed on our faces, we love taking care of our animals, we are strong willed, and we love babies.  Also, we share a love of really good Salsa.  Mexican food makes us happy and we like a little heat.  She is her mother's daughter, with just enough of her daddy mixed in to mellow her out in a nice way.

She has been making some noise about needing to make salsa with our bountiful harvest of tomatoes.  Apparently, Cheyenne has not thought that using the tomatoes to make tomato sauce was a very wise use of those beautiful ‘maters.  A love of spaghetti is not something we share.  So, I surfed the internet for a recipe and found one that was simple and looked promising. And yesterday we got busy over some tomatoes, hot peppers, and cilantro.

The recipe was simple and we followed it up until we tasted the salsa, then we went to tinkering.  Cheyenne is really good about making notes as she improvises so we were able to recreate the same flavor this morning, as we already needed more.

Below is the recipe- our rendition, not the one from the internet.  Before putting everything in the food processor, we cored the tomatoes and scored the other ends and dropped them into boiling water for about a minute.  The tomatoes are in the boiling water just long enough for the skin to start to curl.  Then the peeling just slips off, chop the tomatoes roughly and toss in the processor.  The longer you run the food processor the finer the salsa, so if you like chunky then just pulse a few times.  Also, for thicker salsa use paste tomatoes such as roma or Illini Gold.

Cheyenne’s Fresh Salsa

2-3 medium tomatoes, stems and peelings removed (see above)

½  onion coarsely chopped

2- fish peppers seeds removed- unless you want to up the heat then leave the seeds in. (if you don’t have fish peppers, jalapeno or any other hot pepper will work.

Juice of one lime

1 cup cilantro

1 tsp salt (adjust to taste)

½ tsp of cumin

Put tomatoes, peppers & onions in food processor and pulse for about 2 minutes.  Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse till you are happy with the consistency.  Taste- if too hot add more tomatoes, if not hot enough, add more peppers.

Let set in the refrigerator for one hour to let the flavors blend- if you can wait that long, we just eat right out of the blender bowl. 

ENJOY!

Cherokee Purple- One Good Tomato

Tomatoes and other goodies from the garden

As I have said in a previous blog, this has been my first year to have really good success with growing tomatoes in  my garden.  Well, while I do enjoy all the tomatoes, there is one that really stands out as DELICIOUS!  That is the Cherokee Purple, an heirloom tomato that is said to have origins with the Cherokee Indians from Tennessee grown pre-1890.

A few summers back I got one really great tomato from a plant called "Black Krim".  It was the best tomato I had eaten up to that point.  I wanted to grow those again but the seed catalog I was ordering from did not offer those, so I went with another purple tomato, the Cherokee.  I am so glad that I did, these have been our favorite.  And of course, being an heirloom we can save the seeds and the exact same wonderful tomato next season.

As spring went along and blossoms turned into baby fruit, I was really getting excited.  The green tomatoes just kept getting bigger- many of them getting to the size of softballs.  It was hard to wait, it seemed that all the varieties took forever to ripen!  I am sure that the length of time seemed longer than it really was, I checked them daily and you know what they say about a watched pot...

I guess due to the pitiful results of the previous season, I did not understand what kind of rambling these vines were going to do.  My staking was terribly inadequate.  The weight of the fruit caused the vines to dip down and touch the ground.  The only problem- other than being a bit difficult to get to the fruit- is that any tomatoes resting on the ground were a target for pill bugs or rolly pollies as we have always called them.  I was shocked at the amount of tomato that these little bugs can consume.

The Cherokee Puple

The first really large one that came in, was such a prize.  I sliced and all my waiting was rewarded.  Cheyenne, who is a tomato kinda gal- but only fresh ones from the garden, came in and had a slice.  Her eyes lit up and she said, "Now that is good!"  Last week, I went out to visit my grandmother and noticed quite a few tomatoes finishing up on her window sill.  I asked her if she had any Cherokee Purples and before I could finish the name she interrupted me exclaiming, "Oh My, that was such a good tomato.  Those are my favorite."  That says a lot, grandmother is in her 80's and gardening has always been a part of her life, so she should know what she is talking about.

I am really happy to have grown these tomatoes as seedlings for our nursery.  I am confident that anyone who bought seedlings from us was very pleased.  These will definitely be in our inventory next spring and in our gardens.  Give the Cherokee Purple a try, you will be glad you did.

Good Blue Fun

Blueberries have been getting lots of attention these days as being a superfood.  Apparently they are just bursting with lots of good things for our bodies.  These are one of my personal favorites.  I love the way the little round fruits pop between your teeth releasing all that juice onto your taste buds.  Now that’s good stuff.

Last week Tony & I went to the Berry Bush Blue Berry Farm in Ben Wheeler.  Not only are blueberries good to eat, but they are a lot of fun to pick.  Blueberry bushes mature into very tall shrubs which means that the shrub itself casts some pretty good shade making the job not so hard in the hot summer.  In this area blueberries ripen during June and July.  

At the Berry Bush, the berries are $18.00 per gallon if you buy then already picked or $12.00 per gallon you pick.  I like picking the fruit and it is a great experience for kids to see where the food they eat comes from.  When you walk into the shed by the parking lot, there are stacks of gallon size baskets so it is easy to know how much you have picked.  Tony & I each got a basket.  Of course, being who I am I started competing with him to see who could pick the most the fastest.  Tony was unaware of the contest (it’s easier to win that way) and walked over and dumped his basket into mine.  Oh well.   A few summers back we stopped at a u pick pea patch and I thoroughly thumped him and 2 kids.  Three against one and they still lost.  I attribute this pea picking skill to the summer I picked peas for my Uncle Pat who farmed around the corner from our house.  I was 12 and to this day, I still consider that the hardest work I ever did, but I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.  Blueberry picking is much easier than pea picking.

Once you have picked what you want and eaten a few (or more), you take your berries back to the shed and the sweet little lady puts them in a paper sack and you pay her the money.  Talk about easy and fun.  By the way, should you feel guilty about eating some berries, the sweet lady told us to be sure to taste the berries from the bush we were picking from to make certain they were good and sweet.  So, its ok to eat along the way making the experience all the more sweet.

Not only does Ben Wheeler have a great blueberry farm, they have a great hamburger joing.  It is located in the Exxon.  Don’t let that fool you, Sam’s makes one of the best burgers I have eaten, cooked when you order it and made from a hand patted patty.  The veggies are fresh and crisp.  You can eat you burger at the soda fountain while sitting on old fashioned bar stools- another great bit of fun for the kids.  The burger is big enough to share and is priced less than the fast food burgers that aren’t good for you. 

So check out The Berry Bush- http://www.berrybushusa.com/,  and Sam’s Exxon in Ben Wheeler- you will be glad you did.  These pictures are from their website.

Heirloom Tomatoes

Lovely Tomatoes, my best harvest ever!!!

For several years I have been trying to grow tomatoes.  It would seem that this would be easy in the south.  After all, according to Shirley McLain in "Steel Magnolias" growing tomatoes is what southern women do.  For me, however, this has not been the case.

The first year I planted tomatoes I planted Brandy-wine.  These are heralded as the best tasting tomato ever.  And they may be, but once the temps get into the 90's they don't set fruit very well ( you will find this in the small print in a good seed catalog).  Well, in Texas we can be in the 90's before April says good-bye.  So, that summer the temps went high quickly and I got no tomatoes, large beautiful vines, but no tomatoes.  To this day, I can not tell you if Brandy-wine lives up to its billing or not.

The next summer, I don't even remember what I planted, but all I got was a few little fruits.  This was quite frustrating to me since it was a desire of mine to can my own tomato sauce from tomatoes grown in my own garden.  At the rate I was going, I would be doing good to make a salad much less can many quarts of sauce.  However, I did get one Black Krim Tomato and it was the best I ever tasted.  It will be in my garden this next year.

But, hope springs eternal in a gardeners heart and the next summer I went at it hard.  I scoured the catalogs looking for varieties that would be good in high heat, mild drought conditions and so forth.  Then I planted like crazy.  Well the season I am talking about was last summer.  Hell turned on its blow dryers and a hideous western wind blew for months, no rain fell for months and the temperatures hit one hundred before May had come and gone and did not come down until the end of August.  So, the little tomato plants just didn't stand a chance.  I did get a few tomatoes from volunteers that had come from tomatoes that we had fed to the pigs the summer before.  Think about it for a minute and you will figure it out.  I must say I felt a bit insulted at the fact that the garden snubbed all my hard work and research in favor of pig poo, but oh well at least I got a few tomatoes.

June Pink sliced up and ready for breakfast.

Now, each season may have looked like a failure in regards to my tomato aspirations, but each season I learned something to apply to the next try.  After all, I could not give up.  Because of the land on which I garden, I have to be shrewd.  My property is a very steep hill that slopes towards the North.  I have essentially a walled garden because of the 80' trees surrounding my 2 acres.  What this means is, not all my property gets enough sun to grow heat loving veggies like eggplants, tomatoes, and peppers.  Of these, the most choosy is the tomatoes. Not only is sun exposure a problem, but the soil temperature is tricky.  The soil takes its time warming to the temps that tomatoes need to thrive do to the micro-climate I have on my place.

The soil temps is what was really getting me into trouble.  I was so excited and ready to get gardening, that I would plant seedlings as soon as possible.  However, by the time the soil temps warmed up sufficiently the seedlings would be getting stressed and then be a target for bugs.  So, I learned from the volunteers that my garden needed tomatoes planted in mid-April, this is when they came up on their own.  Left alone, plants do know when they need to come up and greet the new season.

Rambling Tomato Vines

Well, this year I choose the hottest spot on my acreage to till the tomato patch.  Due to the business of the nursery, it was easy to wait until mid-April to plant.  I mulched the seedlings immediately- I believe this is a key to successful gardening, MULCH, MULCH, MULCH!  Well, the tomatoes took their sweet time getting ripe, but I had green tomatoes on the vines very quickly.  I have been harvesting everyday now for about 2 weeks.  I am so happy.  I did not plant enough to have me canning many quarts of sauce, but I have canned 3 quarts and made many tasty dishes.

I chose 4 varieties this year.  June Pink- an early tomato, Cherokee Purple, Arkansas Traveler, and Illini Gold.  I have been very pleased with each of them.  Being Heirloom varieties, I could save seeds to grow next year and the plants are indeterminate.  This means the plants ramble much like a cucumber or pea vine, but they do not climb on their own.  Now, good supports will keep these beauties off the ground but I obviously need to work on the support things in my garden.  I have tomato plants rambling all over, but I am so happy!  The pig is happy too, I toss any tomatoes that have gone bad or been eaten too badly by bugs over the fence to her- who knows what gifts she will leave me for next year....

Homemade Tomato Sauce & Some Ripe Illini Gold & Cherokee Purple

Such A Pretty Day

Our Greenhouse and the herb garden.

The weather we are having is just wonderful.  I love traveling down the highways seeing the hay meadows lush and green, many of them already being cut and baled.  What a change from last year.  Thank God for the rain, I don't care how inconvenient it may have been- I will not complain.

Little Californian Bunnies

The farm has been bustling with activity.  Baby bunnies have been arriving with more on the way and the chicks & ducklings we purchased at TSC are growing.  To accommodate our growing flocks, Tony has been relocating our fencing supplies and extra materials to another paddock so that another pen can go up.  

Predators have been a bit of a problem lately.  We had a fantastic hunter in the way of our cat, Twister, but she has gone missing.  We are quite sad about the whole thing.  When she was here we rarely ever saw a snake, this year we have killed about 3 chicken snakes, seen 3 racers and a few garden snakes- the kind with tiny little heads that are a huge help in the garden.  Twister was born the night a tornado went through our backyard, about 9 yeas ago, hence the name.  Her mother was Raja, and she came from my grandmother's house.  

Twister- a great cat, may she rest in peace.

Tony was never a fan of cats and continually said "NO" when the girls asked if they could have one.  I am not a cat lover either, but I did know the value of a good barn cat for keeping the snakes and mice at bay.  My grandmother's cats were (and are) wild beasts that want nothing to do with people- my kind of cats.  Anyway, Tony thought he would be smart and told the girls (Cheyenne and Savannah were only about 8 and 6 at the time) if they could catch one they could keep it.  So, that next weekend was Easter and we spent the day a Grandmother's house.  All afternoon those two were busy with the business of kitten catching.  We knew Savannah loved animals and had a way with them, but we really didn't know just how good she was- yet.  Tony was quiet surprised to get a phone call at the ambulance station from Savannah stating that she had caught 5 kittens and wanted to bring them all home.  I still have no idea how she did it, I know Cheyenne helped her, but those kittens were well hid and wild.  So much for his well laid plan.  A compromise was reached and two kittens came home in a shoe box.  Only one kitten made it to adult hood, the mean one.  She was an excellent hunter and passed it on to her daughter.  Twister was friendly enough, but preferred to live in  the barn and hunt for her supper.  A good barn cat is worth their weight in gold!

So, with our faithful barn cat gone we have lost several chicks and many eggs to snakes.  Along with the snakes, raccoons have made themselves a pest as well as something that grabbed a rooster out of the hen house before we got the door shut the other night.  Tony has taken to keeping the shotgun by the bed and the spotlight handy.  Several times he has just popped up and ran out the door with no explanation whatsoever, only to return with no wild beast in his bag.  He hears things that I miss and it will pay off.  Tony has shot several coyotes and bobcats that were marauding in the hen house.  Chickens are just easy targets.  Because of this, anything we put up for poultry in way of pens or housing must be really safe.

Not only are snakes about, but all kinds of reptiles are being spotted in the gardens.  I am so happy to see all the life existing on our place.  About 6 years ago, before I began gardening organically, we didn't have much in the way of lizards and such.  It seems that all the synthetic chemicals I was using in the gardens was harmful to the good insects and the reptiles.  Since we changed our ways, we have been rewarded with many new visitors- many who are deciding to call our farm home.

A bird feeder made from an old drawer.

I had an idea for a bird feeder when I spied an old drawer at a flea market.  I painted the drawer and screwed eyelets in all four corners.  I then ran wire through the eyelets and hung it on a Shepard's hook.  It works really well.  It is not squirrel proof, but then what is?  

I love spring, everything is just so pretty.

A Day Off....

Verbena that has bloomed all through the summer and winter.

First Monday Trades Days has come and gone, it was a great one.  Being such a good weekend with folks out buying plants for their homes, we were wore out!  So, we took Monday off.

For such a relaxed day, I accomplished a lot in the garden.  The last of the garden boxes had been weeded and all the boxes prepped, so I planted our cool season veggies along with a few others that should do well being planted a little early.  Cucumbers and Squash have always done well for me when planted in March.  Our last freeze date is mid-March and these seedlings should be popping up just after that date.  No matter the previous year, hope springs eternal in the gardener's heart and spring is always full of hope and excitement of what the new growing season holds.

Speaking of the previous year, it would be an understatement to say that it was disappointing.  If anyone managed to grow much, it was with much labor and a high water bill.  Many of us had to draw the line at what would get water and what wouldn't and then just hope that the plants we loved would make it through.  Lots of the plants did not make it.  I have many beds that did not make the watering list.  So, when I began weeding those beds on Monday I was greatly surprised to find many things growing.  The Autumn Sage is looking great, Chamomile, Parsley, and Running Petunia were up and looking great.  The petunias are an heirloom variety that will re-seed itself.  I will be honest, those plants struggled so that I did not think I would see it again.  I am happy to report that I was wrong.  I have about 5 plants up from seed and looking wonderful.

For such a cool, sunny day, I was amazed at how hot it was inside the greenhouse.  Before weeding and planting, I spent the morning in the greenhouse bumping seedlings into their four inch pots.  Cherokee Purple is one of my favorite tomatoes, its flavor is simply outstanding.  Once you have had these heirloom veggies, you just can't be satisfied by what is offered in the grocery store.  Now there are several flats of these plants growing great along with oregano and basil.  Next to be bumped is Ilini Gold and Arkansas Traveler tomatoes, Fish Peppers, Sweet Banana Peppers, Eggplant and winter Thyme.  These are sprouted and should be ready to bump when we get back from Hot Springs.

It was a wonderful day, the kind you would love to say linger on.  Tony and I finished the day sitting in the swing watching the dove and the sunset.  It just doesn't get better than that...                                                

Roses, Herbs, and Compost

Man alive, the weather has just been gorgeous!  As I worked outside over the past few days, there were birds everywhere.  I am so glad to have a business that requires me to be outside.

It may only be February, but spring is really gaining momentum.  I am not the only one feeling it, a lot of calls and emails have started to come in inquiring about certain plants and compost piles.  According to the farmer's almanac, the spring equinox will be on March 20th, the earliest start of spring in 116 years.  Spring is definitely coming early this year.

The compost pile that has been working all through the hot dry summer and this winter did not look like much on top.  I could still see whole leaves and hay on top, but once I shoved the shovel through the first layer, I felt that resistance give way.  Underneath the intact top layer was the gorgeous deep brown stuff my dreams are made of these days.  I haven't decided if I will continue composting in this spot or if I will put in a flower bed there.  If I put in a bed, the ground is already prepared.

For now, the compost is helping the business grow.  Last Thursday, we picked up our first order of David Austin Roses.  Roses are my love and David Austin has done an amazing job of breeding roses for beautiful old world blooms and scent while achieving the repeat blooming of the modern rose and keeping the disease resistance strong.  I have had several of these roses in my garden for several years.  To be honest, they were not thriving like my earth-kind roses were in the same bed.  Then, Mark Chamblee spoke to our Master Gardening Class and said that David Austin Roses like a little afternoon shade in our very hot Texas summers.  So, I relocated the roses and WOW- they took off and thrived right on through this record breaking heat and drought.  Now, I am proud to add the David Austin roses to our product line-up for 2012.  Saturday, four of us- Jonathan, Sierra, Tony and I- potted up 100 roses in 3 gallon pots.  That was some work!  However, we had a good time talking and laughing.  Sierra can now prune a rose bush with the best of them.  Each pot received a mixture of planting medium and compost with a layer of compost on top as a mulch.

Not only did I pot roses on Saturday, but I also potted in 4in cups 75 tomato plants.  "June Pink" is an early heirloom variety that is supposed to rippen  up early so those of us who just can't wait to eat fresh tomatoes don't have to wait so long!  My numbers are nothing compared to a lot of growers, but I am doing what I know I can do and do well.  There are 4 varieties that we will offer and all of them are organic.  "June Pink" is first into the pots, but Cherokee Purple, Iliini Yellow, and Arkansas Traveler are sprouted and will soon be in their pots ready for a new home.  As tempting as the weather is, tomatoes won't be ready to plant outside until the end of March. Tomatoes, Eggplants, and Peppers need the very warm/hot weather to thrive.

Herbs have kept me busy as well.  Herbs are second only to roses on my lists of loves.  However, since roses are considered to be herbs- I guess herbs are my first love!  We have flats and flats available and I am doing hanging baskets of herbs this year. 

Spring is no time to rest, but after such a wretched summer and a quiet winter I am ready to be busy.  Five out of six raised beds are ready to go.  So, I plan to have cool season veggies planted by the end of the week and that last bed will be cleaned out and ready, too.  From one 5X20 bed, my pig got 3 bushels of "organic greens", my goodness that is a of clover and weeds!  Happy Spring, Y'all!

Beautiful Day

Won't be long and the roses and iris will be putting on a show!

Today was just beautiful.  The temps were perfect the sun was gorgeous and the wind was reasonable!  Needles to say, we spent a lot of time outside.

As spring is coming on, a new to-do list emerges.  Tony got the lawn mower and tiller tuned up a ready to go and I got some mowing done.  With such a mild winter, there were all kinds of clover and such growing like crazy in the garden areas.  I like to let them go as long as I can since the bees and bugs like them, however, with it being so warm the plants were already going to seed.  I love the way the gardens look with all the open spaces neatly mowed.  Now I just have to get the clover cleaned up and out of the garden boxes.  Out of six boxes, I have cleaned out three and I did get the herb garden cleaned out, too.  I was tickled pink to see how many herbs were still with me and growing strong.

Savannah and Sierra spent a lot of time reading their books out on a blanket in the sun.  Jonathan helped Tony with the mower and such and lit the burn pile.  I am so grateful for the rain over the past weeks.  Jonathan was going through withdrawals over the summer since he couldn't burn anything for months.  Cheyenne went with me to Athens to update our booth at Winnie and Tallulah's.  We had a great lunch at McAlister's deli.  She had to work inside on college work once we got home so she didn't get to spend as much time outside as the rest of us.

 As it happens, dinner was late.  Once the temps warm up, dinner gets later and later.  We simply don't come in until the sun goes down.  Yes, that means that in the middle of the summer we don't eat until 9pm.  I always come up with a new "plan" to fix this, but the fact is we like being outside and that is all there is to it.  We know the winter is over when dinner is late and I have perpetually dirty knees.  Let the good times roll!

An Herb That Makes My Tastes-buds Happy- Cilantro

Cilantro Seedlings @ The Farm On Holly's Hill waiting for someone to take them home!

For years I always wondered what that flavor was in the Mexican restaurants that I could not replicate at home.  Then I became a Pampered Chef Lady back in the nineties and several of the recipes called for Cilantro.  I had to hunt this up in the grocery store as I had never heard of cilantro.  Once home, I cooked up the new recipe and how excited I was to find that flavor I had been missing!  I love it and so do lots of other people, but there are those who DO NOT like it.  So for those of you in the latter category, check back later and we will talk about an herb that you like.

Cilantro is the plant parts of the spice Coriander- which is the seed of the plant.  Cilantro is not hard to grow, but it does like the cooler temps so start it early inside or start with seedlings in the spring.  Moisture is important to this herb so keep the pot or bed watered once a week if the rain doesn't fall for you.  Spring is not the only time to plant cilantro, fall is great, too.  I have plants in my garden right now (February) that have not been bothered by the light freezes we have been having this winter.  You should grow some, not only will your tastes-buds thank you, but so will your body.

Cilantro and Dill growing happily in February!

The Global Healing center has this to say about the medicinal benefits of cilantro:

"This herb isn't just a commonly-used leaf and seed ingredient found in many tasty and exotic recipes, it's also a powerful natural cleansing agent. Cilantro has been effectively used to help remove heavy metals and other toxic agents from the body.

The chemical compounds in cilantro actually bind to the heavy metals, loosening them from the tissues, blood and organs. Cilantro's chemical compounds then aid to transport these harmful substances out of the body through elimination.

There is also a large amount of literature suggesting that cilantro could be one of nature's best chelation agents, particularly for individuals who have been exposed to heightened levels of mercury. Mercury excess is a common problem that may be the result of metallic teeth fillings or over-consumption of predatory fish. Many people suffering from excess mercury report that the feeling of disorientation resulting from the poisoning can be greatly reduced through consuming large and regular amounts of cilantro over an extended period.

Also, the rich qualities of cilantro oil have a powerfully positive effect on our inner digestive tract. The oils aid our digestive system in its production of digestive enzymes, acids and juices. The oil also helps to stimulate digestion through peristaltic motion.

The known benefits of cilantro are extensive, and researchers are discovering more every day. Currently, there are several well-known, well-documented benefits of organic cilantro, including:

List of Cilantro Benefits:

• Powerful anti-inflammatory capacities that may help symptoms of arthritis
• Protective agents against bacterial infection from Salmonella in food products
• Acts to increase HDL cholesterol (the good kind), and reduces LDL cholesterol (the bad kind)
• Relief for stomach gas, prevention of flatulence and an overall digestive aid
• Wards off urinary tract infections
• Helps reduce feelings of nausea
• Eases hormonal mood swings associated with menstruation
• Has been shown to reduce menstrual cramping.
• Adds fiber to the digestive tract
• A source of iron, magnesium, and is helpful in fighting anemia
• Gives relief for diarrhea, especially if caused by microbial or fungal infections
• Helps promote healthy liver function.
• Reduces minor swelling
• Strong general antioxidant properties
• Disinfects and helps detoxify the body
• Stimulates the endocrine glands
• Helps with insulin secretion and lowers blood sugar
• Acts as a natural anti-septic and anti-fungal agent for skin disorders like fungal infections and eczema
• Contains immune-boosting properties
• Acts as an expectorant
• Helps ease conjunctivitis, as well as eye-aging, macular degeneration, and other stressors on the eyes.

James A. Duke, Ph.D., a former botanist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and author of The CRC Handbook of Medicinal Herbs, states that cilantro has been shown to settle the stomach. He recommends drinking a cup of the tea made from a handful of the leaves, when experiencing any form of stomach discomfort.^4"

^{Just another great reason to have an herb garden!}