Weather hasn't been garden friendly

It rained almost every day for 2 weeks, it's been pretty cold (if you're a tomato or a pepper plant at least)  Today is supposed to have a high or 62 so I put my plants out on the deck for a few hours to start getting them used to the outdoors!

I also tried planting some chard, carrot and radish seeds... they are taking forever!

 
 

The only thing about the end of summer that makes me sad

The last few nights we have had "killing frost" temps dropping into the 20's.  So I went out and harvested what I could (I'm considering fried green tomatoes as they don't seem to be ripening in the bowl) Chopped and froze or set out to dry all my peppers.  Cut down and cooked the last of the rainbow chard (seriously I harvested each plant at least 4 times this summer - magic)

What makes me sad is I had eggplants that were on the plants and the eggplant, pepper and tomatoes still had more flowers (each flower a potential yummy goodness) It's like they were trying to make more and they didn't know they were going to die.  I wish I had a greenhouse I could have moved them to ( potential bugs mean I can't move them in to the house) I'm thinking of trying to make "cages" out of thin pvc piping that I can cover with heavy clear plastic drop cloths  as "mini greenhouses"  for both next spring and next fall.  This will probably end up being my winter project - so you may see more about those later.  

Fortunately my favorite flowers - Montauk  Daisies can make it through until the  hard freeze comes (or freezing rain) light snow they can handle, freezing rain not so much.

weekend's balcony bounty

Sunday's picking - not a good shot- just to annoy my father in law

Seriously, the rainbow chard just keeps growing back after I cut it! I love chard, Curt probably not as thrilled - but I love it in my breakfast eggs so that's where the extra goes.

Bunch of tomatoes - the tiny yellow ones are coyotes.. OMG so perfectly sweet! A few mini red bells made their way to this bowl.

Early wonders, an overripe kermit and cukes.

Mini sweet bells - these seem to cycle one color at a time, had purples early last week, yellows a few days later, now reds.. although some more purples aren't far behind.  Grace these are the mini bells, my goldens, purple and chocolate full size peppers are still most definitely green.

I Am Winning!!!!

A handful of micro-toms and one coyote are ripe and picked!!! Need one or two more sunny days and will have a lot more turn!!



this sweet yellow mini bell is almost there!

Haven't updated the balconey container garden

Since about 2 weeks ago - a lot has been happening in the containers!

May 26th:
 

Two in the corner last Thursday:



coyote tomato last Thur:



One of the Kermit's was the size of a golf ball on Saturday:



Some Early Wonder on Saturday:



it's a little hard to see - but I have cowhorn's about 4" long already!
 

 

Just some pictures of the balcony garden as a whole

Eggpants and Peppers

I'm posting twice today because with all the pictures I didn't want a super long post.



My favorite three eggplants here.  The front two are Kermits, the right with Rose basil, the left with Lime Basil.  I'm probably going to have flowers on these two by Memorial Day!!!  In the back left, potted in it's big pot last week is Caspar with Cinnamon Bouquet Basil.

I currently only have three peppers in their big pot.  Mini Chocolate Bell,  Mini Red Bell and Mini Yellow Bell got potted about a week ago.  (I pick the flower buds off until they are potted in their big pots, so the roots grow in better)  yesterday they had new buds that I left and today the bloomed!!



The Ancho hybrid, Cubanelle and Marconi Golden are going to need bigger pots soon, they are getting too top heavy in their intermediate pots, probably the beginning of next week when I start leaving the tomatoes outside at night. (running out of room inside at night- as well as room on the balcony floor - need to be able to hang soon!)



Most of the other peppers are slower late season peppers, so will be happy for a bit longer.

Staring into my fridge...

Some people have menu plans for their entire weeks. Some even write the down, create a grocery list, go the the store, have everything on hand for every day.  Some people even do a lot of the prep work days ahead!!  I am not one of those people.  In my defense, I go grocery shopping every other day - because I go through a lot of stuff that doesn't store for long periods of time.  Mini-cucumbers, tomatoes, packs of "super greens", packs of prewashed salad green mixes, baby bella mushrooms... I do have a pretty decently stocked pantry and freezer that I work with.  Since the Angie has been gone though, I end up having  'extra bits'  either I end up cooking too much and we have to have leftover days, or I have to make dinner of leftover bits that need to be used or wasted.  The other day was one of those nights.

I made a one skillet, one oven dish chicken and bits dinner. First I turned the oven to 350 (it seems like a good default temperature)  I tossed about 3/4 of a pound of baby yukon gold potatoes in olive oil, herbs de provence , dill and a pinch of coarse sea salt.



In the skillet first I browned 2 links of chorizo broken up out of the casing with a handful of  quartered baby bella mushrooms.  I started on very low heat so the oil for the chorizo was enough to brown the mushrooms when I added them.



After adding them to the potaotes, I sweated out 1/2 an orange and yellow pepper, and a whole cubanelle pepper cut in large chunks.



After adding the peppers to the oven dish, I small diced a poblano pepper, 1/4 of a sweet onion, 3 garlic cloves  and the stems of 1/2 a bunch of rainbow chard.



After these started to soften I added the chopped leaves of the chard to the pan and to speed up wilting added a splash of stock after a few minutes.



Finally I browned 2 small chicken breasts cut into chunks sprinkled with poultry seasoning.



Once everything was added to the baking dish (chicken and sausage were still not cooked all the way through)  I covered it with foil and baked it for 30 minutes.  



It came out delicious and Curt took the leftovers for lunch 2 days after.     

 

We interupt knitting updates for a special bulletin!

I have been working on my rainbow shawl - it's slow going - and I have knocked my little tray with hundreds of beads on the floor more than once... I may have spent more time crawling around fetching beads than actually knitting - so no update pictures at this time.

What I do have to tell you about - is the only thing that makes me not totally want to cry when winter is over.  The only good thing about summer - is my veggie garden!  I don't grow "normal" veggies - the kind you can find at all the farm stands/ farmer's markets and even the grocery store.  I don't grow veggies to save money (I'm pretty sure they are the most expensive anywhere but Alaska if you add it up)  I really believe there is nothing tastier than a tomato still warm from the sun fresh off the vine.   Chiliplants.com is actually located in "central"  --- nope can't say that - sorry C! -- south Jersey and you can go to their greenhouses to buy plants in person (it's actually the only current way to get at their huge assortment of basils and their tomatillos)  Curt and I drove down there on the day they opened for the season.  It's just over an hour from here.  They open at 10am - we were there at 10:06am and we got the LAST PARKING SPACE!!!!  The greenhouses were packed with people like me that wanted to get their "babies" home!!  I really had to go early - last year they sold out of coyotes before I could get one!!

I have some favorites.   Kermit is a hybrid eggplant.  It's about a 2" round globe.  There is no bitter, it ripens green early in the season (listed at 60-70 days).  Sliced, grilled with a splash of olive oil and balsamic - warm is super yummy and melty creamy - cold is a great addition to a salad.  I use them also in a lot of Asian inspired sesame and ginger dishes. I also like to bread them and make eggplant parm sliders.

Casper is another of my favorites- a more "standard" oblong eggplant shape - it's mid season (80 days) about 4-6" long and white as a ghost!!

 I recently found that, while I know that tomatoes and basil and marigolds make great companion planting - basil planted with/near eggplant keeps aphids away.  My eggplants aren't usually that far from my tomatoes and basil, that may be why I never had an aphid issue - but this year I decided to put basil right in the pots with the eggplants!



The two Kermits are at the top of the picture.  The bottom tomato is an Early Wonder.  Most of my tomatoes went from the little seedling pot to a 3" pot on Monday - they will then probably go in a 6" pot a few weeks before going outside for good.  Each of the 3 times I transplant - I pick off all but the top 2 or 3 stems and put the stem in deeper to get a better root system.  (investing in roots early - while my plants do look smaller to my father in law and mom at first - means once they are outside all day in the sunshine they grow big and bushy much faster and I end up with earlier more prolific plants than either of those two get)  My early wonder was already about 7" tall in the seedling pot- and since it has been designated the plant that will kick the old peoples asses-- it got trimmed and buried deep in the big pot straight away.  (don't think I'm mean - my mom and father in law are retired, they live at a significantly lower elevation than I do--there is a definite climate band change where 287 intersects 80 -- the spring flowers I showed you on Tuesday?  Theirs were in full bloom on Easter.  they are at least 2 1/2 weeks ahead of me - they should be able to beat me - they never have -- the "competition" gets them plotting early - and out digging etc-- I think it keeps them young)











And before you think otherwise - no those pots aren't staying outside.  If it's over 60 before I leave the house they will go out to sit in the sun - and then I bring them in at dinnertime.  If it isn't 60 when I leave - I just open the screen door and let them bask in the sun while inside.  (if we get a cold day where it isn't 50 I'll leave the screen door closed) 

Keep Peter Piper away from my peppers!

Bananarama, Ancho & Quadrato D'Asti Gialoto



7 Pot Yellow & Jaoro



Prof Meader's Chocolate Pepper



New Mexico Red, Habenero, (mystery pepper - I lost the tag)



Anaheim



Fire Chile (with a pepper set)



Ringo

 

Hanging Gardens

So here is take 2 on this post.  I tried posting this with my phone and screwed it up somehow. 

This spring has felt like it has rained 3 out of 4 days.  For 3 different weeks it has rained everyday!  I work outside for 3/4 of my day, so trust me - it rained.  there was more than one day  when I did my rendition of the Swamp thing leaving puddles of water behind me as I walked into the building - I looked like I jumped in the pond!  And swam around long enough to really soak up some water - even with a raincoat on.

The rain and the accompanying cool weather has pretty much repressed a lot of the growth on my plants.  I have a bush tomato that actually fought through and has a bunch of tomatoes - but there hasn't been enough sun/heat to start ripening them.  But you want pictures right??



The two outside hanging pots have hot pepper plants in them - three in the near one - 2 in the far one.  The middle basket has an upside down tomato with basil from seed on top.  The planter on the rail has hers (they do well in the wet).  On the ground the closest pot is a rhubarb, then 2 tomatoes then in the long pot is a tomato and 2 kinds of cucumbers.



Here we have the bush tomato, three different eggplants, three sweet peppers in the long pot and a lemon tomato up close.



Here we have a sweet n neat tomato (supposedly it only grows a foot tall- I never grew this , or heard of it before) flanked by 2 hot peppers.



chocolate mint and 2 hot peppers



Two more upside down tomatoes with basil from seed up top and oregano in the foreground.



This tomato hangs above the bush tomato, but didn't make it into the picture - as you can see it is starting to bud.

This week coming up is supposed to hit the 90's by Wednesday.  There is no rain in the forecast.  So, while I will have to water more - I'm hoping for some good plant growth.

Balcony Garden Post 2

As a continuation of yesterday's post, here is a picture down the rail.



And turning the corner.



And the two hanging hot pepper pots.





The peppers really need some solid sunny days.

And a shot of some oregano.