Escargot in Beer Brine

The time has come to plant. A few weeks ago, I was "itchin'" to get started, the first seedlings were in the stores (way too early, just there too tease me), and I WANTED TO PLANT. Alas, I knew it would keep getting cold, so I waited.

Now I have seedlings, will plant. For some reason, I am stuck in a plant rut. Today will be the day...until then, let me share some preps:

The Poopers...or shall I say, soil preppers? These two are great, but really do nothing but forage & poop, and lay an egg a day :). It is fun to watch them scratch, but I am going to have to find a way to keep them out of my beds. Unfortunately, they get so into digging and taking dirt baths, my seedlings get sacrificed.....training?

And this is where the little poopers live :). We built this out of repurposed or left over wood, and made our own plan. The roof is corrugated UV plastic, that was new, and probably the most expensive thing on this coop! Everything is secured, both for the dog's sake, and to keep the night critters that roam our Suburbia at night, out.

I took this pic during a rain shower from my porch :)...I love the soft spring rain. I posted this here to show you my tomato boxes, in which I planted cover crop (burdock & sweet peas) to condition the soil over the winter.

..and then it all came down! Cut down and laid to rest in the box. I covered this with soil, and just planted tomatoes (pics soon). Last year, the lasagne garden was AWESOME for my tomatoes, we will see what this year brings, when I actually get around to putting in the water system :).....

Thornless boysenberries :)...all along my fence. I cut these down, and was afraid I trimmed too much. Now the bushes are lush with leaves and new growth, and LOTs of blooms. The bees are lovin it, and I can't wait to harvest those berries.

Attempt at growing potatoes. Never worked for me before, but I am trying again. Will report back. German butter & purple potato.

I also planted strawberries on top of a hay bale, and that was a fail. The hay had some weird mushroom in it, and after the rains stopped, it grew the most alien looking mushroom :)....and inky something...lacy, black, and ugly. Stained everything. Seems they are not poisonous, so I am hoping that true Sacramento heat will dry it out. Strawberries are looking pretty good. I took pictures of the bale, and the alien mushrooms, but they mysteriously vanished from the camera....??.....

Last, but not least, the chaos herbs. I just pulled all the borage, let the bees have their hay day, then it went. It was almost 5ft tall! Have a batch of mystery plants where I dumped a downed seed pallet...looks like chamomille, a tomato :), borage, dill, and what I though may be lovage. But it stung me, and so now I am thinking a NETTLE! Will watch it further.

The best snail trap ever: BEER. Put some cheap beer in a low dish, bury it some, and enjoy the snail trapping. (BTW, cheap beer works good as a hair setting lotion too :)....). Sorry, can't love snails. Thought the chickens would get them, but they can't keep up. Watch the dog though, mine seems to enjoy escargot in beer brine. Ew....

More updates to come...the pressure is on!
Happy planting!!

Last Harvest...for the fifth time

I have the "Little Tomato Plant that Could." :)

I keep taking 'last harvest" pics, just to go out a few days later and find hidden gems. I am starting to take down the tomato plants now, though, and will prepare the beds for either winter gardens, or clover.

The raised lasagne style beds have been fabulous. I have never had tomatoes plants that were so big and bountiful. The eggplant is still producing and ripening, the peppers are all well, and I am FINALLY getting some beans. My rasberries, highly neglected, are benefiting from my neighbors consistant watering habits.

We also have some new family members....


Already perching....




One of the tomatoes I pulled up. Look at the size of the root, vs. the height of the box. Roots went right through clay earth :).

Sweet Good Bye.....Happy Hello.

Last year, I planted a thornless boysenberry in my back yard. My past attempts at any kind of berry failed, either they died of water deprivation, or because our soil is just to clay heavy. This little boysenberry that could actually almost got axed, as the thornless branches had thorns :(. I decided to let it live, and am I happy I did!

This little bush has given us bowls and bowls of succulent berries! Not to mention the pleasure of picking berries and popping them in our mouth while we worked outside. This bush has graced us without the use of pesticides, fertilizers, and honestly, not alot of water that was not supplied by rain fall. Yes, we had to blow off a spider web or two....

Last night I picked what looked like the last batch of berries, saying "goodbye" to this wonderful gift. This morning, like magic, there were more :). Thankfully, I left the majority of the "shoots" to grow along the fence, next year we will be swimming in delicious boysenberries!

I love the satisfaction of growing my food, especially since I am not a great gardener. My herbs grow wild for me with not much care (but lots of love) from me, and now I have food growing in the same manner. I love going to the market and being able to pass up the little $7(!!!!) baskets of berries, knowing mine are ready at home (and organic!).

I did not have much luck with tomatoes last year, so we built a "lasagne garden" box for the tomatoes. Look at the before & now pics! If the heat does not get the blooms, we will soon be graced with all kinds of tomatoes and cucs. The first tomatoes are setting, and I can't wait for sun ripened, weirdly shaped, warm, delicious tomatoes! My favorite memory is from Greece, where the kids ran in the garden, fetched me a giant, ugly heirloom tomato and some cucumbers. We sliced them, sprinkled salt, pepper & olive oil, and ate them by the tons. Mmmmmmmm. Coming from Germany (where much of our tomatoes & cucs came from Holland and were uniform), this was a treat I now reintroduce every summer.




Send me your favorite summer tomato & cucumber recipes, as that is what we will be eating most of the summer :). Preserving recipes too :).

Hope you are enjoying the summer.
Much love,
Heike

Chilly 'Maters

A few weeks ago, I was sweating like a dog in the desert, fearing the upcoming summer months. As I was working through my distaste of our sweltering summer to come, I happily planted my tomatoes and cucumbers after the last official frost day.

What the heck is happening???

My poor little tomatoes are going through some serious climate shock, and dropping all their blossoms.

Temps are dropping back to low 50's over night, and sofar only the super hardy cherry tomatoes and green zebras are surviving. All my heirlooms have the shivers and a dropping their blossoms like hot potatoes :(.

My kiwi plant looks like I fed it some Miracle grow, and I am not sure the trellis patio cover I built last summer is going to hold it up. It seems to be thriving in this late season chilliness.......