Mater Update

Remember those tomatoes from last month? They were all green and rock-like. They looked...sad.

Well now they are NOT sad, and the remaining tomatoes are rapidly becoming tasty red balls of matery goodness!

I have been using them up, but that is a lot of maters. As you can see, I still have some stragglers that are taking their sweet time ripening--but that is good, since it gives me time to use the ripe ones before they go bad.

I also have bad news. It froze hard here this last week, and most of the things I planted in my winter garden did not make it through. I know that the leeks will survive, but the rest is gone thanks to a few nights of 5 degree weather and only in the mid 20's for daytime.  Se la vie (pardon my non-existent French)

Along with that colder weather came snow--lots of it. To the tune of 10.5" on the flat out in front of my house. That is a ton of snow for the middle of the desert--especially since it all fell in one day! Three days out, the roads are still rather slick, but the snow is rapidly melting due to the unrelenting sun.

I did get another lamb this year--a big boy just shy of 90 pounds. He made a tasty dinner of lamb shoulder last night. Recipe: add lamb shoulder to crock pot. Cover with Penzey's Lamb Seasoning. Cook on high 6 hours. Add scrubbed sweet taters and carrots to the top of the pot. Cook two more hours. Devour. No pictures, but man was he tasty.

Gathering In

I took a look at the forecast for the next few nights and realized that the freezes are here to stay. That means that the tomatoes needed to be stripped of anything that could possibly ripen inside (which is pretty much anything shiny dark green instead of dull colored green).

I went out to my now-frostbitten plants and found over 30 pounds of maters, all the way from deep red to green. I have them spread out in produce boxes left over from Costco nectarines and peaches so that the green ones have time to ripen and they all can not mold before I get around to using them.

 I separated the very green tomatoes from the ones that were trying to ripen already and made sure to only have the ripening maters in a fairly thin layer to minimize squishage.

Here you see all but the red tomatoes, which I am using for dinner, and thus, have no photo. Please forgive the booze bottles--my husband was bottling beer last night and those are the remaining empties (now if only either of us could drink more than a glass a week we might get rid of some of the bottles!).

Eventually, once the maters are more or less ripe, they will be turned into sauce and frozen...or just chopped up and frozen depending on how industrious I want to be. Heck, I may even can some and break in that pressure cooker again!

I also picked a half-bag of raspberry leaves (minus any spiny bits on the leaf stem) and a large handful of mint for tea. The leaves are all drying in the dehydrator right now (95 degrees for my records) and we will have tasty tea during the winter--free of pesticides, shipping costs, and well...any costs other than the electricity to dry the leaves.

I think that covers it for now. (and so far, no sprouting in the new bed)

First Frost of the Year and Foodage!

Our official first frost date is October 11th, but we just had our first frost last night on the 28th (unlike last year where it was on the 8th I believe).  The tomatoes are pretty much just a little wilted, rather than being completely died back, but it definitely was enough to put the end to their official season.

I also planted a winter bed a few days ago, so eventually we will have:
Leeks (transplants given to me of unknown variety)
Carrots (purple)
Spinach
Beets (a colorful mix)
onions (bunch)
and garlic (Spanish Roja, once I plant it a little further into November)

We shall see how cold it gets this year--if we end up with another -15F week like last year, I am not sure how much will make it through the winter. I was surprised to see that the carrots, beets, and spinach lasted through last winter despite neglect and colder temperatures than we normally have.

I also have a few pomegranate babies growing inside over the winter, along with the strawberry hanger. The pomegranates were from seed and are a white skinned variety that my mother found originally from Home Depot many years ago. I am hoping to get a few bushes up and running next spring, since they should be big enough to transplant by then. For now I need to get them up to the next size container. I didn't really expect every seed to grow like it did!

Onward to a redone recipe from Betty Crocker:

Impossibly Easy Quesadilla Pie (or I. E. Chile Relleno Pie) with Chicken--Gluten Free

(Image courtesy of Betty Crocker)

1 can (4.5 ounces) chopped green chiles, well drained 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese (8 ounces) 1 Tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro 3/4 cup Bisquick® Gluten Free mix 1 cup milk 2 cans (5 oz each) cooked chicken (do not drain) 3 eggs (salsa if desired for garnish)  

Heat oven to 385 degrees.

Generously coat a deep dish 9" pie plate with cooking spray. (I think a regular pie plate will work, but it may be close)

Drain chicken into a microwaveable container.

Add milk to drained juice (should be about 1.5 cups total liquid)

Microwave on HIGH for 2 minutes.

Mix all other ingredients in a bowl. Add in warm liquids and mix.

Pour into pie plate and bake for 45 minutes or until set and slightly browned on top.

Serve with salsa or sour cream if desired.

Serving Size: makes 6 servings in a 9" pie plate

• Servings Per Recipe: 6
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 336.5

• Total Fat: 19.3 g
• Cholesterol: 158.4 mg
• Sodium: 704.6 mg
• Total Carbs: 15.7 g
• Dietary Fiber: 0.6 g
• Protein: 23.6 g 

My first tomato of the year!

Hi there,
I have gotten my first ripe tomato of the season today! Unfortunately for you there are no photos...it didn't last very long among ravenous tomato munchers. I should have one more ripe tomato tomorrow and I can snap a photo of the plants then...as long as I don't munch it first.

On a growing method note: I leave most of the weeds that grow under and around my garden (with the exception of anything that is perennial, has spines, or that may become a problem in the future). The plants seem to like the extra drought protection that the layer of live mulch provides. I do not hesitate to pluck weeds if they do seem to be stealing too much water or space from my planted babies. I also tend to have grass growing in my garden beds, despite my efforts to keep it out--it appears that the garden is the only place that grass likes growing here in the desert, but I am none to fond of how well it can choke out other plants.

In other news, the potatoes are almost ready for early picking--they have flowers, but are still green on the plants and have not started to die back. This would be the perfect time for fingerling potatoes, if my family liked/needed them. Instead, I will be waiting until the taters are a little more mature before going after them. Besides, I have local potatoes to last me for the rest of the week at least!

Other than that, the zucchini are growing like mad and I have two large ripe green zuchs in my fridge, and the cucumbers are flowering, but no fruit as of yet. I have a large pumpkin sitting in the garden, as well as some baby watermelons.  The corn, as expected, grew vertically very well, but did not produce much along the lines of edible cobs thanks to heat, wind, and moths. I did manage to get one two foot long corn cob that had some kernels that were tasty. (Yes. 2 feet long. Too bad it never developed into a real ear--I still have hopes for the later-planted corn to maybe get one or two edible ears). I am hoping that the extreme dry and wind we have been having will not affect the garden too much!

Now I think that I will go outside and dance in the rain before it passes (or turns into hail... ug...that four letter word would send me to tears right now)!

Garlic Harvest Time!

Well, I just came back from a two week medical emergency trip (everything is okay now) and had good friends taking care of the garden. Everything in the garden was quite happy and growing away. Before I left the rest of the garlic was almost ready to pick, but not quite, so when I got back it was really ready to be plucked!

All told there are about 30 bulbs, including some that fell off of their stems, and one that I ...um...dug into. oops. I dug them up yesterday afternoon and let them sit on the ground overnight. They did get rained on a bit, but not enough to cause any problems. Today I cleaned them up and braided them. Cleaning just involved removing the clinging dirt and any loose skins, then tearing/cutting off the roots to prevent space for things to grow and moisture to collect.  Braiding is occasionally hard to start, but easy once you get going. One word of warning: it is easy to get garlic splinters if you are not careful when braiding--don't slide your hand down the stems and leaves if you can help it. Learn from my fail.

Anyway, here is a photo of the newly braided garlic!

And another one

From here they are going to be hung in my pantry to cure and be eaten.  I may mash up some with olive oil and some salt and keep it in the fridge as instant garlic, but I have to find motivation and time for that.  

One thing I did notice is that some of my garlic is already greenish blue. Apparently I have sulfur/copper enough to turn the skins green, but that will not affect the taste at all. This particular variety also has purple skins at times, so I am wondering if the blue/green tinge is related to that. 

Happy garlic munching!

Giant Sunflowers are Indeed Giant

Well this post is going to be quick due to a host of travel and medical issues in the family. On a good note, the garden is being taken care of by awesome friends, even when I am three states away from home.

So those sunflowers from last post? Yeah, they grew. A lot.

The roof there is 8 feet high at the bottom edge.

Here is another picture taken last week of the monsters.

So just remember that sunflowers labeled "giant" will be huge indeed. I can only wait to see how large the heads get when they ripen! (The last post's photos were taken May 29th, so that is how tall they have grown in less than a month.)

Any garden surprises for you?

First Harvest!

It is now almost the end of May and I have gotten some of the first produce of the spring! I wasn't expecting to get anything out of it other than some lettuce until later next month, but there were string beans were waiting for me in the garden.

The sunflowers (which are supposed to be giants) are indeed tall--about five feet tall at the moment. I now know for future use that they really keep the area around them cool. I was relaxing in their shade during the 95 degree weather, and it was quite cool--so was the ground beneath the leaves. These particular sunflowers also seem to be exceptionally wind resistant thanks to their thick stems, which are almost an inch and a half thick!


I also found out that I have a volunteer squash plant that seems to be a pattypan type and is loaded with baby squash. I can't wait to have fresh summer squash again, but now I may end up with too much thanks to the extra plant. Oh the woes of a garden! (Insert sarcasm here)

The lettuce is ripe for the picking and is happily growing away. I should have planted more of it in with the sunflowers, but alas, most of it is in almost full sun. We shall see how long it takes the lettuce to go bitter in the heat. I also have baby spinach plants that are replacing the few winter-holdover plants that are bolting/bolted. 

The garlic is nearing ripe--at least for the softneck grocery-store variety I planted. The hardneck bulbs won't be ready till at least late June. I picked some of the bulbs from each that were crowded/ripe and boy are they strong! My kitchen smells of garlic curing in the windowsill. (Normally people leave them outside for a few days to cure, but the temperatures vary so much here that I cure them inside by hanging them)

The potatoes are in need of straw to pile over the existing plants (so I get more taters growing in the straw as well as the soil), but I haven't gotten around to buying the straw yet. Oops. 


Nothing else to report, so I am off for now!

Spring Garden, and..."What the heck!"

When I moved into my house last year I fell in love with the garden space it has, and the two big cottonwoods that give partial shade to some of the garden. (Though have been hating the pollen from those cottonwoods for the past two weeks)

There are five beds in my garden. Three of them have wonderful soil, one is okay clay/sand, and the final bed is pretty much clay concrete. Of the five beds, two are currently in use, one mid-way through tilling and already sprouting up taters, and one growing field peas (and weeds) to try and fix the poor clay soil that is there. The last bed is fallow at the moment and will become a summer/fall garden plot once I get the chance to plan it out. All of them are watered using drip hoses (ye olde basic black sponge hoses). The beds are just the right length to run a hose all around the edge of the bed and then up the middle.

Now, on to each bed in turn.

The first has:

• wintered garlic (a little over a foot tall now), 
• spinach (Bloomsdale Longstanding--just planted, and three plants overwintered) 
• sunflowers (Mongolian Giant)
• bush beans (I think they are Blue Lake, but I don't really remember)
• A few carrots (Nantes hold-overs from winter)
• Cucumbers (Lemon)

Adding to that list will be tomatoes (Cherokee Purple and Siberian), Peppers (California Wonder Bell and Big Jim), and some corn (saved from last year) to provide a little more shade. The transplants are only about three inches tall right now and are really fragile--I repotted them into bigger containers, but I want them more wind resistant (not to mention less likely to freeze) before I plant them outside. (Note that the hose is not in my standard configuration due to fail on my part)

The second bed as it stands right now has:

• Corn (Posole)
• Pole Beans (Rattlesnake Snap)
• Bush Beans (Blue lake I think)
• Sunflowers (Mongolian Giant)
• Beets (Bull's Blood--planted late, but we will see if they grow)
• Cucumber (Pickling)

I am not sure what I will plant in the small section between the beets and the peas, but I think there will be room for some melons or squash and still have room for the plants to sprawl. (On the note of watering, this bed you can see the end of the buried watering hose--that keeps the water from evaporating)

Bed number three: Po Ta Toes.

Last year I pretty much had to pick-axe my way through the dirt in the potato bed. After many hours of tilling, lots of adding straw, and more tilling, I planted basic Yukon Gold potatoes and kept them covered with straw as they grew. After a good crop last year, I decided that I would give the soil a year to rest--but nature has other ideas.

This morning I went out to till the ground out there and found quite a few potatoes that were sprouting and ready to start more taters. Not only that but the soil was no longer just hard-packed clay. Instead of the concrete-like substance from last year, I now have pretty darn good soil. Not great, but definitely more happy than I ever though that it would be. The potatoes, along with the straw, water, and worms seem to have done their jobs!  Anyway, I remembered a bag of organic potatoes that was trying to sprout in my pantry. Those little taters are now all cut up and drying out a bit before I plant them out with their kin in the tater plot sometime later today or tomorrow.

Here is a short rant on potatoes--seed potatoes are best, but organic works well too. Some people refuse to plant anything except seed potatoes due to risks of transferring diseases to new soils. I am a little hesitant to pay $15/lb plus shipping just to get $3 of potatoes at home. Instead, I go to either my local farmer's market and buy from the nice people there, or I pick up a big bag of organic taters from the supermarket. Neither of these are sprayed with any kind of anti-rooting hormones, and they have not had to be sprayed to within an inch of their lives to keep root rot out of them. Both grow incredibly well, with relatively low risk. If you positively want to be safe, go with the seed potatoes, otherwise organic works quite well.

Alrighty, rant finished. Back to the beds.

Bed four--that bastard clay square

 This bed has issues. It is square (not a problem), small (meh), being invaded by Trumpet Vine (I HATE that plant), and has about 100% hard-packed clay. Last year I planted viny things in it and the plants flourished. The soil did not. I even made sure to add in some compost and organic matter. No love. There just was not enough plant matter and deep roots to aerate the soil. While the plants grew very well, they also took out more nutrients from an already depleted soil. Dang.

Now I need to find a way to fix all the problems--and that involves good old rotting plant matter. I picked up some seed for Field Peas to try to get some Nitrogen back into the soil as well as to break of the clay.  Once the peas (or the weeds that are growing with them) are mature but not seeding, I will till all of the greenery into the soil and let it sit. Every few days I can spray it with water, and VOILA! there should be much better soil next year. Should. I hope. I doubt that I will plant anything there judging by the state of the soil right now, but I may end up with some melons there, since the plants really love that area.

Finally, bed five--all fallow

I am leaving this bed fallow for the first part of the season and plan on planting it later on with summer/fall goodies and letting one other bed have a break. Last year this bed had lots of beets and garlic, so it is not too taxed, but I still don't need quite that many plants to tend right now. 

-------

Now for a quick information session named "What is THAT?!"

 

So, what is this little cocoon of goodness that attached itself to my vines?

The answer: A Praying Mantis Cocoon

I absolutely was amazed at how many of these little cocoons were all over my front porch area. I love praying mantises because they eat almost every bad bug in my garden that I can think of, and leave the good bugs (like ladybugs) alone.  If you see any of these hard little brown things hanging from your siding, overhang, plants, etc, make sure to leave them alone. Eventually these will turn into pest-eating machines! (Until then they sorta look like turds...)

Spring--It has Sprung!

Well, it has been a long (and quiet) four months since I last updated. Now that I am getting around to gardening it is time to get this blog up and running again. (Especially since it beats working on actual work) If you look really hard at the first photo you will notice tons of daisies sprouting up of nowhere. Yup. I got April Fooled--My mother brought down silk versions my least favorite flower (daisies)and stuck them all over the front yard! (Complete with daisies in the potted plants)



So, after all that fun, what new perennial additions have found their way into my yard?

• Three raspberries
• Two Semi-Dwarf Peaches
• One Italian Plum
• Two more grape vines

What does that mean? Lot of holes. Too many to do in one day. In fact, it took me and my husband about two weeks to get everything in, mostly due to a bad case of Trumpet Vine.  Now I don't normally go out of my way to kill pretty and non-spiky flowers, but Trumpet Vine is the one exception. It spreads by runners, is highly destructive, and is nigh-impossible to actually kill--even with contact herbicides. This is the one case where I had no problem turning my husband loose with a can of generic RoundUp. We shall see if it is actually dead, or just mostly dead.

So all that aside, I have new bushes, and all of them are holding up well. The 40-60mph winds have not been doing the new babies any favors, but the 80 degree days do tend to make them happy.  Even the birds are enjoying it, especially since the new trees mean that water is readily available to them.

In addition to the trees and shrubs I went ahead and planted strawberries in one of those new-fangled Topsy-Turvy Strawberry Planters. I wasn't sure if it would hold up to the wind without bashing the poor plants to pieces, but so far it seems to have weathered the storms quite nicely (as long as I remember to water it).  I have had bad luck with strawberries down here in the desert--I could get the greens to grow, but the berries never would form. It looks like this year I may have found a way to grow my strawberries and eat them too!

Are you planting trees? Bushes?
Do you have any suggestions for the evil that is Trumpet Vine?
Or are you still digging out from snow?

Gardening Greens--in Mid-November

Last night it got down to 24degrees (F), but my lettuce, carrots, beets, and spinach all survived happily. Why? The miracle of row covers. In this case, I used a simple doubled over sheet of heavy black plastic.  While I don't normally suggest plastic for row covers as it can actually backfire (the plastic doesn't breathe), I couldn't find my normal heavy row cover last night.

As some background, I planted most of the fall/winter garden in mid-September by just sprinkling the seeds over the row. I was too lazy to try rows again, and my seeds were old, so I knew that many would not sprout at all. The big reason that I even planted was that I had an open garden bed, and still had time before snow and freezing settled in.

Now that it is mid-November in the middle of New Mexico we are getting temperatures that make any leafy plant want to curl up and freeze. I have been lucky so far--low temperatures normally above 28F, which means I don't need to cover the plants. Yesterday though, I checked my trusty NOAA site and saw that the temperature was not going to be that warm. In fact it was supposed to be down to 24F and windy--bad news for uncovered plants.  Right after I saw that I hopped outside and scrambled to cover up the row. This morning when I uncovered the row, the plants were wet, and slightly squished, but very happy and not frozen.

So here is my recommendation for anyone trying to extend their garden season:

• Check the forecasted low--if it is going to be below around 27-28, your leafy greens may suffer
• Cover your garden plants before dark if possible--it holds the heat better--but any time is better than none
• Covering options:
• old sheets
• towels
• light blankets
• plastic sheeting
• for long term storage: thick layers of straw (it will cause seeds to sprout later)
• purchased row covers
• milk jugs with the bottom cut off (keep the lid)
• glass jars
• pretty much anything that you can put on before it gets cold and take off once it warms up

• Make sure to take off the covering in the morning (if it is going to be above freezing)
• if you have cloth covers it should be fine to leave it on a few days
• plastic should NOT be left on any longer than necessary because the plants will sweat, and could get too hot--or that extra plant sweat could actually cause worse freezing
• Water deep during the day before especially cold nights
• the water helps to hold heat from during the day
• If the plants look shriveled and sad in the morning, don't pick the shriveled leaves
• either they will bounce back and rehydrate, or
• they will act as a mini blanket for the plant next time it gets cold

How long till my garden dies? Who knows. High desert winter and fall gardening is never a sure thing. I don't think that I can keep my garden alive outside if it drops consistently below 20F, or if it stops warming up during the day (probably early to mid December if I am lucky).  On the other hand, there is always the option of rescuing some of the plants and bringing them inside to grow over the winter and ignore the frigid temperatures.

Growing in the high desert means that there is a long growing season, but finicky growing conditions. Temperatures swing wildly every day--24F low followed by a high of 62F is what today's forecast was, tonight's low will be 36F with no need to cover the garden. Aah the fun of gardening in the middle of nowhere!

How do you extend your garden or  do you? Do you live somewhere where you can plant a fall garden--or do you hibernate and move inside for fall and winter?

Ode to Compost

Dirt. Soil. Organism-rich horizons.
However you put it, I like it when I can see rich black dirt and plop baby plants or seeds into it.

New Mexico has no dirt. But we do have sand. Lots. And clay. Lots--but never interspersed nicely together as that would be too nice for drainage.

Having said that, my personal weapon against the lack of dirt is through a plethora of compost.

Ode to Compost
Thou art sweeter than a summer's day
And far better than any sand or clay.
But take so long for to become
The substance that I know and love.


We get a box of fruits and veggies a week through our CSA, I have a little bit of grass at the new house, and there are all the non-seed/spiny weeds that just BEG to be food for my future crops.  Why put all that wonderful goodness into our landfill when I can lazily toss it into our compost bin and ignore it for a while?  After a few months (or many months since the compost bin is done on laziness and neglect rather than by quicker methods) I strike gold!

We just moved into a new-to-us house, with gardens out back, grass out front (more on that later) and flowers all around.  The old house had a compost bin full of scraps that had been working for some 9 months now. My dear housemate gave me the best present in the world in the form of two big bags of perfect-plant-food from the bottom of the bin.  The rest of it we just tossed back in the composter to give it some more time.  As for those two bags of goodness: one I spread over all the garden beds to give a little umph to the babies since it is warming up here again for the summer. The other bag I am saving for when we transplant three grape vines (and hopefully two fig trees) from my parent's house.

Now back to dirt--and where compost comes in.

It occurred to me when I was digging up various plots in the garden that there were definite zones in my property:

• sandy (water runs into and right out of it)
• clay concrete (water sits on top of it and tilling it requires lots of work)
• fertilized soil (not much of this)

I also noticed from what was left behind that this was a gardening house that used traditional fertilizer and pesticides to grow and kill plants.  That explained why I had not seen any weeds in the property (that and it was wintertime) until the hedge mustard decided to try and take over--they were kept at bay with various sprays.

I don't mind pesticides as a last resort, but I would much rather try starting out with improving the whole area and putting in plants that are stronger than the pests to be semi-weed-free. This poses two problems--I only have one of me and  a third of an acre to keep free of spiny/sappy/poisonous invaders,  and that I want to squeeze as much produce as I can out of what I do plant...with as little effort as possible and no commercial fertilizers. 

So I spend some money now on a bale of oat straw, a few bags of commercial compost, and what I can get out of my own bin so that eventually, several years down the road I can have an easier time growing what works here in the desert...but in good soils.

Now back to that grass. I am in a desert and green grass is a bit of a pest to keep green, mowed, and not taken over by russian thistles or other plants.  I am tempted to rip it up and ... then would have open dirt with more thistles.  Instead I am going to try a method that has worked so far in the past and may work here: neglect.  I plan to occasionally toss some water on it if it looks really really sad, but otherwise ignore it and just keep it mowed--weeds and all. I do make weekly sweeps for thistles and other weeds since I am allergic to them and want them out of my property.  (Mostly I do the weed sweeps to prevent the evil puncture vine, or goathead, from invading. That plant is my arch-nemesis.)  We will see how this experiment works.

I hope to be free of frosts from here on in, even though three days ago we had a low of 34. Today the high was 90 degrees, so I am hoping that the weather makes up its mind and leaves us with a little more spring time coolness before the real heat settles in. I am prepared for the evil heat though, and the summer plants are in the ground (with watchful eyes for frost). The watermelons and squash, along with the tomatoes, up and starting to look large... the pepper plants even have their first flower buds.  Unfortunately the peas and carrots are also just starting to look good and the heat is just about high enough to kill them off before I get anything off of them!  At least I can say that the garden is a success as I have spinach, chard and radishes from it in my salads now.

As a side note on salads--I am trying an experiment by replanting the root stock of spinach plants that my CSA sent me. They were thinning out their fields for the second crops to come in (like tomatoes) so they plucked and sent me the whole plants. I chopped off the leaves (and should have left one or two on them probably, but we will see) and planted them in my garden by where the other spinach is happily growing. I am hoping that at least one of the six plants takes root so that we have more home grown spinach from what otherwise would just be tossed in the compost bin.

Well, that was a rather rambling post... oh well, at least it was a post at all! I hope to have pictures of the happy garden up here in a few days now that college classes are out for the season and moving has calmed down. Until then, happy gardening!

Spring Garden is In!

Of course, when moving into a new home the first thing that NEEDS to be done is to put in the garden... well...maybe not need per say, but it definitely is more fun than packing and cleaning houses!  Today was my day to put in my spring garden in the nice pre-made beds.

Two of the beds were put to sleep for the winter with compost and covered, the other three needed some love in the form of weeding and tilling.  While I am far from finished planting (since I still have three beds that I can fill), today was very productive and I am no longer behind schedule.

"Behind schedule? In March? How can that happen"

Here in the high desert, spring is the very short time between February freezes (mid teens at night, 40's in day) and May sweltering (60's at night, 90's in day). It is windy, moody, and in general a wonderful time of year for being outside without a long sleeved shirt, but not quite ready for shorts--except for that whole wind and moodiness I mentioned. For example: In the past two days it drizzled, then snowed, then just went to 40mph winds--all over the lunch hour. Today it was in the low 70's, sunshine, just enough breeze to be comfortable--in short it was beautiful.  Welcome to spring in Central New Mexico.

Now that you know what spring really means here, you can probably guess that most "spring" plants don't have long to live before being blown away and dried out by the wind, or getting too hot and melting in the sunshine... unless they freeze to death...  I tend to stick with organically grown seeds when I can get them, and I attempt (though am rarely successful) at finding heirloom or non-hybrid varieties of plants. This is the middle of nowhere, and shipping can be painful for a small packet of seeds.

The garden so far has my transplanted perennials: rhubarb and artichoke, along with a chard plant that refuses to die. To the right of the photo are a bunch of snow peas (the trellis is just visible), some radishes, and the artichoke.  This little bed is only about 2 feet by six feet, but is great for these babies.

The next bed is much bigger, about 10 feet by 4 feet.

This bed was all ready to go and only needed a little tilling to get it ready for planting. It now has garlic (planted at the other house last November), spinach, lettuce, onions, scallions, beets, and radishes. I was given the onions, and leafy greens by a friend who bought too many. I babied them along till I could plant them outside. Here is a closer look at the greener side of the beds (before putting in a soaker hose)

Those babies look pretty sad now, but I think most of them will perk up

I planted most of the seeds pretty close to each other since I am not too worried about pests or having to walk between rows.  I also installed a soaker hose in the large bed so that I do not have to water from above...and can be lazy.  

I do have two more large beds to plant... something in. Carrots, peas maybe, who knows what else. I may leave them alone and just have them ready to plant the summer vines later on in the season.  In addition to those two, there is a 4 foot diameter stock pond (now filled with soil) that will be the potato and marigold place. Why marigolds? I hear that they keep away some of the pests that like to eat my taters!  I even have a bag of organic potatoes that are desperately trying to sprout under my countertop, so I figured that I could put them to good use. That will have to wait for another day, as it was plenty of work to get the garden mostly up and running.

 The two beds that still needs some loving

The best part of this garden is it is an excuse to play in the dirt outside. I remember helping (or hindering) my Great Grandfather in his huge garden long ago, now I am putting some of his knowledge to work for my own garden. (Memories of him in his garden always hit me whenever I am in a shady garden with trellises--all good memories. Tasty too!)  Maybe if he and green thumb is watching he can keep an eye on me and my garden--probably shaking his head and saying "no no, you're doin' it wrong"... but a funny thought anyway.

Are you planning on gardening this year? What are you planning on planting--or are you somewhere that you have already planted?

Garlic. Winter. And Gifts.

The first time it froze hard I dutifully covered up my little garden in an effort to keep the poor garlic babies from freezing. Bah, they didn't even wilt.

Next time I decided to let them live or die without a cover. Well, they did not die. In fact, they are quite happy and thriving. If I have to pluck scapes (the flower tops) off of the tops before we even hit February I will be really confused. As it is I am hoping that the bottoms are happily growing away since the tops have stopped getting any bigger, just staying green.

Also got two new cookbooks for Christmas:
Gluten-Free Baking with The Culinary Institute of America: 150 Flavorful Recipes from the World's Premier Culinary College by Richard J. Coppedge Jr. 

 And:
More from the Gluten-Free Gourmet: Delicious Dining Without Wheat by Bette Hagman

I have had a chance to look through both of the books and so far I like both of them. The Culinary Institute of America book is nice and well tested BUT there are five different flour mixes and a few of them use soy flour which I abhor. On the other hand, substituting the soy for sorghum so far has worked wonderfully so I hope to continue to have promising results! There is even a recipe for GF puff pastry!



The Bette Hagman sequel is also great (just like her first book which I also like) and has many more involved recipes that I would love to try.  In this version there are lots of dinner recipes as well which have promise. I plan to try the recipe for cream of X soup in some of my more traditional casseroles (like tuna noodle!) which always have the cream of mushroom-chicken-tomato-etc condensed soup which are full of wheat.


Another gift from the holidays was Ree the Pioneer Woman's Cookbook (just like most of the bloggers that I know) which I have been drooling over and awaiting the day it would come to me! "The Pioneer Woman Cooks" is a beautiful book.

It is so pretty... and even signed just for me (arranged for me by dear friend)... I almost hate to bring it near my kitchen to start de-glutenizing the recipes and getting chocolate smudges and flours all over it... almost. But not enough to ignore the fact that I love that woman's cookin' and want to dig in as soon as possible to work on them.



And now I need to further delve into my new gifts and find out what is going to be in my kitchen later today, tomorrow, or as soon as I can find some spare sanity!

frost

Of course, the day that I decide to plant the darn garlic, the other plants decide to freeze. Not hard, mind you, but definitely enough to kill off most of the leaves on the watermelon and some on the zucchini. Oh well, not like the watermelon had any melons on it after the darn squirrel took off with my last softball sized babymelon. The zucchini babies survived, so that made me happy, and it gave me the extra boost (a.k.a. kick in the pants) to put down a layer of compost to protect my freshly planted garlic.

Dang moody weather.

Garlicy Goodness

Now that the weather is consistently below 90 (and still slightly above freezing at night) I decided that it was time for the winter crop. After a quick batch of instant pickles that I whipped up with onions, bell pepper, and lots of garlic, I decided to use the remaining three heads of garlic to plant for summer harvest. For the record I planted them about 3 inches deep--about an inch deeper than some instructions say to better protect from freezing--and about 4-5 inches apart. The garlic cloves are sandwiched between the perennials (chard, rhubarb, and an artichoke) and some leftover baby beets. At least with it sandwiched, even if the beets do nothing I at least know where I planted the darn garlic. So there.

On that note, let me say that this is my first time attempting garlic in New Mexico. My sources for gardening are a mix of Arizona desert books (warmer and much lower altitude than here), and one minor source that is outdated but more suited to the altitude and NM weather. I hear that growing garlic works pretty well here assuming that the weather behaves, the water is right, and that the soil is right.

That is a lot of assuming. But it is worth a shot since I was able to find nice healthy heads of garlic for cheap. Whether or not they will grow? I have no idea. I don't care. It is an experiment that should work at least a little and it will be interesting to see how it turns out. Besides, I see no reason for my nice new garden bed to sit empty and alone over what winter we have.

As a note, the cloves should be a random Silverskin Garlic variety as that is what I could lay my hands on at the grocery store and looked healthy. Since they were still firm and looked nice I went with the basic bulk garlic in hopes that it was treated with less anti-sprouting chemicals. I like my food to have as few chemicals as possible thanks... though sometimes I do feel the urge to kill every last sticker bush in sight.

I am never really sure how well my garden is going to work, but I am always willing to shell out a few bucks to try a new plant. (Especially at less than a buck for the three heads)

How to move a garden pt. 1

I went out to my garden today to water it after my absence. Daily watering is blessedly done by the other woman of the house, but the garden needs some deeper watering love to truly thrive. So while I was sitting outside scratching dog ears and making plants happy I stopped to take stock of the work that will be involved in transporting this garden across town and transplanting it in a new (and as of yet non-existent) garden.

The tomatoes are laden with the first crop of succulent juicy fruit--both the romas and the regular slicing varieties. Those will need a pot each--which I luckily have laying around from past years' annual plantings. The corn and smaller plants like the radishes and bunching onions will all fit nicely into a long windowsill planter, and the beans... well... they will manage there once I remove them from their wire supports. The lettuce and squash/melons will take some more ingenuity and patience since they tend to be picky about movement, but I should still be able to pot them and be fine.

The biggest problem by far is the lack of new garden at the new property to actually transplant the babies. I would love to just pluck them from the ground and immediately plant them the same day to prevent undue stress on the poor guys, but that just doesn't look like it is going to happen. On the other hand, if I get crackin' early and start building the new bed NOW... well tomorrow really... I will have time to still set up the new beds and only have to worry about transporting the plants instead of interim storage in pots. I have grand plans of making a much bigger bed--or beds--for the plants at the new place, but that involves much more dirt, compost, and building materials than I have on hand. To be exact, I have NO dirt and very little compost. Here in the high desert, there is no soil, only sand and rock. And caliche which might as well be concrete ( Caliche is made up of calcium and other mineral deposits that set up into an all-natural shovel-proof inpermeable layer). All the dirt has to come either expensively pre-bagged from the store, or in a more economical large truckload from 70 miles away. The same goes for manure and compost, but I may be able to use some of my own compost as well.

I love gardening, don't get me wrong, but actually building the plot for the plants is the easy part--buying and mixing the filling for the beds is the hard part here. I am expecting to lose some of my plants to the move, but I am avoiding the heartbreak of simply abandoning a garden when it is mid summer and flourishing. Thinning the seedlings is hearbreaking enough for me, I don't think that I could manage losing an entire crop. I am hopeless like that...or eternally hopeful perhaps is a better way of looking at it--hopeful for the healthiest and best mature garden that I can manage (really I hope for the happiest garden around since happy gardens make a happy me!).

On that note, it is time for me to go off and dream of building the new garden... or of whatever randomness that my brain manages to pop up for the night's entertainment.

Adventures in Camping

I just got home after an interesting jaunt out 4-wheeling to pick up the 4 guys I dropped in the mountains a week ago. I took an alternate route that led me up and down over creek beds (and flowing water) up mountains. After gaining the needed 3000 foot increase in elevation and the 60 miles one way, I found the guys camped at the top of the overlook waiting for me... and the approaching storm.

Here in New Mexico we get some STRANGE weather. You name it. We get it. Except for maybe ... well... anything to do with oceans. We got a full month of summer with the temps up in the high 90's and low 100's and then this: a week of rain, cool weather, and humidity over 10%! This also happened to be the entire week where they were out hiking at 10,000ft in said rain. So when I pulled up in the Jeep they jumped for joy and scampered in the car to beat the incoming rain. All told they were happy to get home to showers and hot food that did not come from lousy water.

As for me I spent the week while they were gone fixing up/packing the house, weeding the garden, and hanging out with the dogs. We are moving Casita Gatita to a new house across town this month, and have a garage sale planned for next weekend. In July I am getting married to a wonderful man that I have had now for over 5 years, and in August I start up at college again for my last year (much awaited for... let's see here now... this makes 8 years I have been in college... yeesh). What a busy summer!

For the new house I need to build a new garden, since my current plants need to be transplanted. Here in the high desert you would think that not much wants to grow happily, but so far this year, I have an abundance of tomatoes, happy corn plants, radishes coming out of my ears, beans getting started, basil for pesto, melons and squash of various types, and lots of onions. To go along with that, I have lettuce, beets, chard, and lots of herbs as well as lots of things that I am sure that I am forgetting. All need homes. All need homes by the end of June. I will make that home happen.

With lots of help from my peoples, all will go well. And I need to get my camera up and running to post pictures of everything as well.