August 16, 2011
1 Comment
Flowers Summer

A Pleasing Combination: False Roselle and Double Cosmos

I wrote about the cosmos recently when the flowers were just starting to open. Well, they’re coming up full force now and I’m loving them even more. The soft, double blooms have begun to poke through a false roselle (Hibiscus acetosella) plant that is growing alongside — it has proven to be an unexpected combination that I would repeat again.

Eventually, if all goes well, the false roselle will bear its own soft pink blooms. It’s a long season tropical — I started the seeds underneath lights back in January with the hopes that the plant would have enough time to make flowers before the killing frost comes. I am loving this plant in it’s own right, even without flowers. I first encountered it in St. Lucia where my friend David was growing a stand of them. Here it is a struggle to get 7-foot-tall plants — mine are not there yet and may never make it, but even still, it’s been beautiful at every stage. Both the flowers (if they ever come) and the young leaves are edible. They taste a lot like their namesake, sorrel (Rumex acetosa), and have that slightly acidic bite.


Read more…

Leave a comment
August 13, 2011
33 Comments
Veggies

All Your Tomatoes Belong to Us

tomatoes. Tomatoes. TOMATOES. I know I shouldn’t say this as I am practically cursing myself to a tomato-less future by making such a terrible verbal transgression against the Church of the Divine Solanum (of which I am a card carrying member), but it needs to be said:

I think I’m already sick of tomatoes.

I know. You are cutting me with mental daggers through your computer screen and spitting on the ground in disgust as you read this.

There are 16 different tomato varieties in this photo: ‘Tim’s Black Ruffles’, ‘Hahm’s Gelbe’, ‘Dwarf Medium Ruffled Pink Oblate’, ‘Mountain Princess Dwarf’, ‘Purple Calabash’, Japanese Black Trifle’, ‘Black Plum’, ‘White Currant’, ‘Broad Ripple Yellow Currant’, ‘Silver Fir Tree’, ‘Azoychka’, ‘Jaune Flame’, ‘Red Robin’, ‘Maglia Rosa’, ‘Ditmarsher’, ‘Green Grape’

I just came in from the garden where I harvested 5 1/2 pounds of tomatoes plus the miscellaneous edibles you can see here. I could have harvested so much more (Swiss chard, kales galore, basil, etc), but I try to avoid harvesting more than we can handle at a time. That and I still haven’t photographed the hot pepper plants — they will have to hold their ripened fruit a little while longer. We are having a wildly productive year, for which I am grateful. Thank you hot summer.

While we were out there — I was harvesting food and Davin was fixing the broken cord on a string of lights that a mischievous squirrel had chewed through — we tasted some of the first new varieties and compared them to old favourites. About four varieties in, it suddenly occurred to me that I wasn’t really tasting them anymore. My mouth was already sore from the acid.

What is going on? It’s only August 13! This is the month that I wait for all year long. To add insult to injury, we are probably having our best year ever… and I’m just not feeling it. I am a Judas. I’m letting down the team. Excuse me while I step away from the computer to wash my filthy mouth out with carbolic soap and flagellate myself with a stinging nettle brush.

Needless to say, I’ve got about 15 pounds of tomatoes to can and I’m sure I’ll appreciate these squirreled-away beauties come December. We still have another month or so of fresh tomato bounty ahead (plus lots more canning), and plenty more opportunities to enjoy all of my favourite summer treats. Perhaps I’ll get my taste for it back before the season is out. I hope (gulp).

Is there anything that you’re sick of this summer?

Leave a comment
August 10, 2011
19 Comments
Containers Veggies

Hahms Gelbe Topftomate

First there is the name, which gives me a chuckle every time I say it as it sounds like the site of an epic Trolls versus Elves battle in The Lord of the Rings.

“And there was great despair in the land, for the blood of many fearless warriors was spilled in the great battle at Hahms Gelbe…”

It feels like “vanquished” should be used in there somewhere. Or perhaps Hahms Gelbe is a badlands where people are sent to exile. “He was doomed to live out his final days as a lost soul wandering wearily through the blackened and barren desert of Hahms Gelbe.”

Needless to say, I’d better not quit my day job as a garden writer. Doesn’t look like I’ll be making my millions ghost writing fantasy fiction for World of Warcraft fans.

Anyways…..

Read more…

Leave a comment
August 5, 2011
4 Comments
Flowers Summer

Pretty, Pretty Cosmos

The cosmos are sizing up now. Their stalks are thick and strong — it must be the duck manure that I worked into our sandy soil this spring. The seeds were started late this year since we didn’t have a garden at the time that I should have been direct sowing them.

Better late than never.

Ever since I publicly declared my love for this delicate and delightful weedy menace [oops... breaking my own rule here], I have resolved to grow more of them in my garden, the caveat being that I would go with unusual forms and/or double varieties and steer clear from the single pink and white varieties.


Read more…

Leave a comment
August 3, 2011
10 Comments
Summer Veggies

Vegetable Smile

I know. Cheese-y. I couldn’t help myself, although I think it aptly reflects the gleeful delight I feel each morning when I go out to collect the day’s garden offerings.

The top two squashes are Benning’s Green Tint Patty Pan from the Hudson Valley Seed Library. This is my first time growing it. The middle zucchini is ‘Nice de Rond’, a French heirloom that I have grown on and off for years. The pea pod is ‘Dwarf Grey Sugar’, a short-ish variety with pretty flowers. I tried that one in one of the raised beds this year, after years growing it in pots. To be honest I didn’t notice a difference. The sign of a truly good container plant.

The Hudson Valley Seed Library website describes ‘Benning’s Green Tint’ as a “compact bush”, but that hasn’t been my experience. Mine is absolutely mammoth — possibly the largest bushing zucchini I have ever grown both in size and productivity! I did not provide well for its aggressive expansion and it is beginning to take over the space that was meant to be shared with two other zucchini plants. It has also spilled well over into the walking path. The plant keeps growing and has taken on what is close to a trailing habit!

Meanwhile, the ‘Nice de Rond’ remains as compact in the ground as it has been in pots. I love this one in small spaces and the round, cue ball fruits are tender and unique.

Leave a comment