Sue's in the Garden

Where's Maestro?

Our kitty, Maestro, loves to keep me company in the garden. Can you find her resting in the pepper bed?

And here's Kitty in a basket:

Bugs, bugs, and more bugs!

Squash bugs, kudzu bugs ... what's next?!

I'll tell you what's next .... Japanese beetles on the zinnias & green beans AND Monarch butterfly caterpillars on the parsley.

I have parsley planted amongst the tomato plants as well as in the herb garden. These caterpillars will absolutely strip the host plants in a few day's time. I've decided to let the caterpillars have the plants in the herb garden, but I'll be removing them from the plants that are in the tomato bed. I'm trying to strike a balance ... surely there's enough to go around for everyone! And I DO like having butterflies around.

The Bounty of the Summer Garden

It's really starting to come in now ... the last of the radishes (and one salad turnip that I missed!), bush beans and pole beans, cucumbers, summer squashes ... and the okra is finally starting to grow!

Today, Rouse the Spouse tied up the tomato plants. I put cages around the pepper plants. Zinnias are a colorful and happy after-thought. This year's plants are volunteers from last year, transplanted into desirable spaces.

Blackberry Season

The blackberries in our backyard are beginning to ripen, a sign that this could be a good day for roaming the backroads of Chatham County in search of the "mother lode" of blackberries. We have our favorite places to go ... which shall remain unnamed ... but believe me, it's not difficult to fill your bucket with berries around here! Rouse the Spouse and I make an annual trip into the wilds of Chatham to collect berries for eating now and later. We declared today the day, and we were not disappointed!

Picking berries is a hot, sweaty, thorny job. It requires protective clothing and extra bug barriers. Today I wore a long-sleeved chambray shirt, long pants, rubber boots, and bug spray. I forgot my sun hat. I don't like to pick with sun glasses. I can't see into the thicket well enough. And I haven't figured out how to pick berries with gloves on, so my hands always get torn up. It's a good idea to take a bottle of water. Even on a cloudy day it gets really hot in the briar patch.

The payoff is that intensely delicious berry yumminess on your tongue! Whether out-of-hand, topping a dollop of yogurt at breakfast, stirred into a bowl of ice cream, tossed into the pancake or muffin batter, baked into a cobbler, or cooked into a jar of jam, it's hard to think of anything as delicious - as representative of summer - as the blackberry.

I went to work this afternoon to save these blackberries for a later date. We love blackberry jam! Two batches of jam is a minimal annual requirement at this house. Those two batches are jarred and ready for the pantry.

I wonder how many people will enjoy the fruit of today's labor in the coming year. Leave a comment if you've ever eaten my blackberry jam!

2013 - A good year for plump blackberries!

Processing berries using a food mill. I like to get some - but not all - of the seeds out.

Making jam is a juicy mess and a hot job, but it's worth it!

Wow ... two inches of rain last night!

Three Bean Taste Test

We had Sunday "dinnah" at our house tonight. I wanted to serve green beans from the garden, but there was not enough of any one variety to feed nine people. So I decided to cook three varieties, season them identically, and serve them separately so we could taste the difference!

• Jade bush beans
• Rattlesnake pole beans
• Garden of Eden pole beans - a flat, Italian variety

I cooked the beans to a perfectly tender condition in the pressure cooker. The Italian beans were ready in 2 minutes; the Rattlesnake beans in 2 1/2 minutes; the bush beans in 4 minutes. (I love cooking under pressure!) Then I sautéed several cloves of sliced garlic in olive oil and butter. I removed the garlic once it started to brown. I poured the flavored oil into a measuring cup.

At the last minute, I tossed the prepared beans (in three separate batches) with a portion of the seasoned oil into a hot skillet until heated thoroughly, adding salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. I served the three-bean-medly on a large platter. Opinions of the "best" bean were varied, as you might expect!

Beans

Garden of Eden pole beans

Jade bush beans

Rattlesnake pole beans

Squash

Yellow Straight-Neck

Zucchini Straight Neck

Eight-Ball Zucchini

Kudzu Bugs

This is what you DON'T want on your edamame!

Kudzu Bugs arrived in NC last year. They are a major problem for soybean farmers. They are an annoyance to me. They will certainly destroy my beans, but my livelihood does not depend on crop yields.

Luckily, in a small garden setting these guys are easy to eradicate by hand. It takes just a few minutes to go down my little row of beans with a small pitcher of soapy water. I hold the container under the plant, tap and shake. The bugs fall right into the soapy water to their death. They're not too disgusting to handle - sort of like lady bugs - but when you try to grab them they drop to the ground, blend right into the mulch, and live to suck another plant dry!

After today's initial assault on the Kudzu Bugs I will do a daily check of each plant. I've been looking forward to fresh, delicious, green soybeans. I'm not willing to let some bug do away with them!

Debbie Roos is our Agricultural Extension Agent. Here's a portion of what she has to say about the Kudzu Bug on her website, Growing Small Farms:

"The kudzu bug (Megacopta cribraria) was introduced to the U.S. in 2009 and is now found in most North Carolina counties. A true bug roughly the size of a lady beetle, it uses its piercing sucking mouthparts to rob plants of water and nutrients and can cause significant yield loss.

The kudzu bug is primarily a pest of legumes such as kudzu, wisteria, beans, and soybeans. Some growers have observed them feeding on sunflowers and they may be observed congregating on many different plants. We are still learning about its hosts and potential damage here in North Carolina. Market farmers will primarily be concerned about kudzu bug damage on edamame and all types of beans. They can cause up to 75% yield loss in soybeans. They also seem to like congregating on figs and grapes but as far as we can tell they don’t seem to be feeding on these crops. However, this is a new pest so we don’t yet know all its hosts, and it may acquire new hosts here in the U.S."

The Day Before the First Day of Summer

Here's the status report from today's garden:

I picked the black raspberries ... a daily chore this time of year. The blueberry bushes are loaded and starting to turn color ever so slightly. The blackberries should be ready to pick in the next couple of weeks. I'm still waiting to see what the wineberries will do this year. The fig trees have lots of fruit on them. I've spotted squirrels snitching green figs. I guess there's enough for all to enjoy!

The melon plants are spreading out, crowding the bed they've been sharing with the sweet basil. They are loaded with blossoms and the bumble bees have been busy. I hope to have lots of good melon.

I transplanted the sweet basil before it got swallowed up by the melons. I've cut those plants twice, now. The first time we ate our fill of the summer's first basil pesto. Today, I made a batch for the freezer.

I killed squash bugs (adult and young), squished their lovely orange eggs, and pulled up two dead plants. Our best efforts did not pay off this year. The spring was so cool and damp, the squash did not grow to maturity until recently. So much for an early start to beat the bugs.

We have eaten several of each the zucchini and yellow squash, though, and today I picked a couple more straight zucchinis. I checked on the Eight-Ball variety. I picked one little sphere and another should be ready to pick today. Blossoms promise more to come. Stay away bugs!

I tied up tomato plants and removed suckers. I picked the season's first two tomatoes ... Cobra variety. They are not "large" as advertised. Only 3 - 4 ounces, which is half the expected size.

I harvested a big bag of lettuce ... can you believe it? I want to plant this stuff again, but I can't find the name of this lettuce that has stood up so well to hot temps. In a quick search on Johnny's website "Frontrunner" is a likely candidate ..."multi-lobed leaves with spiky margins, light to medium green." Whatever it is, it's delicious and long-lived. The Black-Seeded Simpson is leggy, but remains sweet and tender tucked in between the rows of pole beans.

I've picked a few Jade bush beans, but the ones I bought at the farmer's market last week were a lot longer than ones I've been picking ... and delicious. I've decided to let mine mature a bit more before harvesting. I want to get the biggest possible bang for my buck!

Garden of Eden pole beans are ready to pick. Here's what Johnny's says about them:
 "Delicious Italian-style heirloom.

6" long, broad, flat, medium-green pods have a remarkably sweet, tender flavor, even when over mature.       Cook no longer than 3-5 minutes for best flavor and texture. Seeds are brown with dark brown stripes. "

The edamame is loaded with beans. Just waiting for them to fill out. The Asian long beans are starting to run. The pink-eyed peas are growing.

There are baby cucumbers on the vines. I'll be watching them carefully because they fill out quickly!

The peppers are flowering and starting to set fruit.

I've got a few radishes hanging in there. The okra is still waiting for hot weather.

The summer tanager keeps me company, singing from the apple tree. The yellow-billed cuckoo calls from the woods. Late in the day when the chores are done, the flute-like song of the wood thrush fills the air as we enjoy a summer supper of real food on the screened in porch. Life is good when you have a garden!

I Caught a Black Snake

He was stretched out in front of the dryer in the laundry room. At first, I thought it was a fake snake. Then, it dawned on me that we don't have any big rubber snakes! I ran to get my handy-dandy snake grabber. I put the squeeze on him, then carried him out to the shop to show Rouse the Spouse. He took the photo. Then we stuffed the snake into a brown paper grocery bag and I drove him to the other side of the Hwy 64 bypass. I hope he likes his new home. I'm sure he's the one that's been putting a dent in the egg supply ... we collected only 2 eggs on Wednesday. That's not right!

Ripe Raspberries - Must Make Cobbler!

Our first berry cobbler of the season ... this one with black raspberries. The berries are bursting with flavor and not too seedy. This "Magic Cobbler" recipe is a "do-againer". It's always best warm out of the oven. I want a corner piece with all that good crispy, yet chewy, cakey stuff. We are cobbler gobblers around here!

Magic Cobbler

1 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
dash salt
3/4 cup milk
1/2 stick butter
3 - 4 cups berries (sweetened to taste, with 1/4 - 1/2 cup sugar)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium sized bowl. Melt butter in an 8" x 8" baking dish. When butter is melted, add milk to dry ingredients. Immediately pour batter on top of butter - DO NOT STIR. Spoon fruit on top of batter - DO NOT STIR. Bake 45 - 60 minutes, until golden brown.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

First Summer Squash!

With all the wet weather, I was beginning to worry that the entire squash crop would rot on the vine. I cooked these up with caramelized onions, salt, and lots of freshly ground black pepper.

Unfortunately, this is probably the last "supper portion" of asparagus we'll enjoy this season. It was delicious, lightly steamed, tossed in melted butter, flavored with lemon juice, and simply seasoned with salt and pepper.

Basil Pesto

Pesto pasta for Sunday dinner. Ooooh .... the smell of basil and garlic blending in the food processor! Summertime.

Rain, and More Rain

1" on Monday ... Just a normal rain storm.

4" on Friday ... thanks to Tropical Storm Andrea, the first of the season.

Whacked Back the Bush Cherries

BEFORE

AFTER

Now the blueberries have room to breathe and will get more sunshine. The cherries were a big disappointment this year. They bloomed beautifully, yet produced only about a dozen cherries. I blame cool and wet springtime conditions that were not friendly to pollinators. On top of that, the greenery overgrew the space! These bushes will be transplanted in the fall.

Bean Counter

That's right ... I'm counting on my beans!

The 'rattlesnake' and 'garden of eden' pole beans have reached the top of the string trellis. Lettuce and arugula are growing down the center of the bed. The bean vegetation is supposed to provide some shade for the greens, extending their growing season. I'll let you know how that works out.

The 'jade' bush beans had very poor germination this season, despite multiple plantings. I used last year's seeds, mind you, but they looked viable to me ... no brown spots, not shriveled and dried up. Shouldn't they last more than one year?

One full bed of 'pink-eyed, purple-hulled' cow peas have sprouted and are growing well. We missed these beans last year. There were no seeds available! Today I planted more of these seeds ... ~ 15 feet or so ... to fill in the end of the bed recently empty after the harvest of the fava beans. I planted the rest of the bed in 'black' beans which I plan to dry on the plants.

A nice row of Asian long beans are growing where edamame should be growing. I could not get the soy beans to grow on the left side of this bed - again, despite multiple plantings! A few sugar snaps are growing down the center (terrible rate of germination this year) and a complete row of edamame on the right side. A few edamame stragglers are growing at the far end of the long beans.

The excuse I have for such poor germination of my legumes this year ... I think the seeds may have simply rotted in the ground due to the cool and damp spring.

Filling in miscellaneous spaces ...

I planted sunflowers and transplanted a few zinnia volunteers in the flower bed next to the leaf pile. Spread a few sunflower seeds outside the chicken house, too.

Filled one empty bed with black beans and extra pink-eyed, purple-hulled cow peas.

Planted one row of peppers ... two types ... hungarian wax and sweet something.

Found a volunteer basil plant.

Berry Nice

The black raspberries are usually ready to pick by Memorial Day weekend. They're a little late this year, but the berries are starting to ripen. I picked a handful this evening. We'll be eating berry cobbler by the end of the week!

Check this out ... the wineberries are making fruit! I cut the plants WAY back last fall, basically starting over in the berry patch. I did not anticipate getting any fruit this year. I thought wineberries produced fruit on second year canes, just like raspberries:

"The crowns and roots of raspberry plants are perennial, but individual canes live two year. Each spring, the plants produce canes (suckers) from buds on the crown and on underground lateral stems. These canes grow vegetatively during the first season, overwinter, and produce fruit during the summer of the second year, while new canes emerge to provide a crop for the following year. Second-year canes die shortly after fruiting." University of Maine Cooperative Extension Publications 

Fruit this year will be a welcome surprise.

The bush cherries have totally outgrown their space. They're impinging on the blueberries, shading them out. We plan to prune the plants way back and relocate them. Although the bushes did bloom this spring, they did not set fruit. I suspect the cool, wet conditions we had interfered with pollination in some way. No fruit, no sense in waiting to get some of these branches out of the way.

In the meantime, the blueberries are loaded with fruit!

It must be summer ... Here come the BUGS!

The pests are getting a bit peskier. The cross-striped cabbageworms moved into the toscano kale this week. They haven't had the chance to do too much damage, yet, so I harvested all of it this morning just to stay a step ahead. The infested leaves and plant waste went over the fence to the chickens, who greedily and speedily gobbled up plant and protein.

The bok choi is hanging in there, but looking more and more holey. I've been removing cross-striped cabbage worms, but today I found some small green cabbage worms. They are hungry critters.

What a blob!

The really bad news of the day is Rouse discovered squash bugs on the squash plants while he was watering. We squished all that we could see. Hurry and grow little squash fruits!

Squash Bugs having fun on last year's crop