In the Garden: Melons!!! + New Herbs

This is an exciting time. It's hot and sunny and my melons are loving it!! My favorite things to grow are melons, watermelons and tomatoes and now is the time when all of the plants pick up the pace!! Every day you can literally watch the melon plants vine out. LOVE IT! So this morning, I saw this guy...

This is Zatta an Italian variety that I'm growing for the first time. I started them indoors and transplanted them out. This plant has been going crazy ever since!! This morning, the plant was buzzing with honey bees so I hope this little melon has been pollinated.

Garden Update: June 2014

About a month or so ago, I decided to try my hand at growing ginger and turmeric.

I knew it would take a month or more for the rhizomes to germinate. I've had the pots sitting outside for the last month trying to get them nice and hot. I didn't think anything would actually happen but about a week and half ago, these guys showed up...

Tomatoes: Why I Luv Growing Them

This year has been a rough growing year. I've never had issues with growing tomatoes from seed but this year has been a game changer. The weather has been completely wacky going from a balmy 70 degrees to 90 degrees in a day. Everything has been confused. Then the rain! So a couple of my tomatoes started to dampen off while I was hardening them off. The stems right above the soil line started to narrow on both of my Mary Robinson bi-colors and one of my Great White tomatoes. Unfortunately, one of my Mary Robinson tomato plants shriveled and died. I was so mad that I was determined to save the lone bi-color and my Great White. Last year, one of my Yellow Brandywine tomato plants had a bit of trouble after transplantation so I trimmed off all of the damaged and dying leaves and left the plant alone. Within a couple of days, new leaves showed up and the tomato plant completely bounced back with no problems throughout the season. So I thought I'd see if I could cut my current problematic tomato plants above the point where the stem started to narrow and re-root them in water.

Korean Spicy Chive Salad

Every year, my garlic chives never fail me. My chives actually spread and multiplied like crazy this year. I have chives coming up in areas of my raised beds that shouldn't be right now. Today, I decided to harvest a small portion of chives and make spicy chive salad.

Garden Weekend: Black Swallowtail...Maybe?

Found these guys all over my carrots this morning. I think they're Black Swallotails?? Happy Gardening.

Cream Drop Biscuits with Thyme

Last night, I was being a lazy cook. I really, really didn't feel like cooking. One of my easy go to recipes for a fast dinner is to boil boneless chicken thighs in BBQ sauce. Any BBQ sauce will usually work as long as it's not too thick. So that's what I did last night, but I also wanted some starch to go with it. I'm not big on potatoes. I'm just not. So I decided to make drop biscuits. You know the kind you don't have to make with yeast. It's really quick to make.

I don't have good pics BTW, cuz we pretty much devoured them and it didn't even occur to me to take photos because I also doctored a recipe so I thought the biscuits would be a disaster.

Garden Update: What's Growing + Surprises

I think Spring will finally stick? I hope? My allergies say so, but we've been so back and forth regarding temperatures. One day it'll be 80 degrees then drop to the 60s again. Totally schizo, which in turn makes my seedlings schizo! By this time last year, my Chinese long beans were already sprouting and squash seeds were planted. I was transplanting peppers and tomatoes out this time, too- it's so not the case this year. The soil has been so chilly that what I've planted out like collards, kale and peas have stunted in growth. The cool weather crops are stunted!!! Hence my absence from posting lately.  I've been fretting over this weather and my crops surviving. Freaking a little that I've planted out too early. That I will lose my food for the year. :-(

This little mustard plant, should actually be much bigger by now. I'm just glad that they're greening up again.