Turnips!

One of the best "crops" that we've planted in the garden in recent years are purple-top turnips.  Ordinarily, we plant them in the fall and they supply us with a steady stream of turnip greens throughout the winter.  Sometimes, though, I not only forget to thin them out, but I also neglect pulling them up.  So, as we've now hit Spring, it's time to clear out the planting beds and as part of this, the turnips had to go.  I threw my fist in there for reference as I had them sitting outside on top of the smoker, but it still doesn't give full weight to the almost-bowling-ball size of a couple of these giants.  Probably way too much turnip there.

Anyway, after clearing the turnips and chunking the largest ones into the trash, we picked and cleaned up several of the more moderately sized turnips.  Peeled them, then Meredith diced and boiled them to mix with some potatoes in mashers (we froze about half of them as this was still a LOT of turnips).

Onward to Spring plants and planting!  It's the best time for gardens!

Eggplant

This weekend we got two moderately sized eggplants from the garden, and made grilled baba ghanouj with them. Basically you grill the eggplants on a 400 degree grill, turning frequently, for 30-45 minutes, until they are black. Then after letting it cool some, add the flesh to a food processor with the following ingredients and blend until smooth:

4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup tahini paste
2-2 1/2 Tbsp. Lemon juice
1 handful flat parsley, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
Cumin, salt, pepper to taste

Serve with pita and enjoy.

Easy Plant: Jalapeno Peppers

Last for the month in the series of relatively easy plants to grow in Texas is this lovely guy, the Jalapeno.

I have grown these from seeds, and they are pretty easy to do, but generally I don't need more than one plant, and a six inch tall Bonnie plant is about the same price as a pack of seeds.

The jalapeno can easily be grown in containers (as shown here), it produces a ton of peppers if it grows tall enough, and can survive dry heat (even if the begonias I had planted around it at the base did not all survive.

Jalapenos will flower small white flowers with triangular or almost diamond shaped petals, and then will fruit.  The fruit turns red when it ripens, but you can pick them whenever they are large enough and green all the way until they turn red.

If you do decide to grow from seed, you can always remove the seeds from one of the jalapenos you harvest and dry them out in a small bag to save for the following year.  Often, we end up removing the seeds anyway to cut down on the heat from the pepper (remove the seeds and membranes and the pepper tames down quite a bit).  If you do start from seed, it's a good idea to start indoors (and I might try next year starting some inside with a sub-irrigation pot made from 2-liter soda bottles.

What you can DO with 15 or 20 jalapenos is up to you.  As for me, I always save 2 to make my annual batch of Jalapeno Pale Ale.

Enjoy!

Some End of April Updates

As April comes to a close, here is what is going on at the end of the month:

During the month, I did the following:

• Fertilized the grass with Neil Sperry's All Nitrogen Fertilizer
• Started mowing regularly at pretty low height
• Applied Image to kill Nutsedge and Annual Bluegrass in the yard once bermuda started growing
• Planted Annual color in front and back beds (need more in front beds)
• Planted sunflower seeds and have various sprouts growing

As far as vegetables I have some small bell peppers already forming, and no tomatoes yet, but the tomato plants are HUGE and blooming!  Pictures to follow.

Tomatoes!!!

Got the first of the Cherokee Purple tomatoes coming in!

Tomatoes blooming

Both tomato plants started blooming this past week. Looking forward to some delicious tomatoes soon! And really interested in the Cherokee Purple ones.

Tomatoes

Here are my two tomato plants in the homemade sub-irrigation planter.

Let's talk about March!

OK, so March has come and gone, and a good bit of things happened in our yard in the March timeframe.  So let's walk through what has been done and what is upcoming...

In February, I trimmed the rosebush and the butterfly bush back quite a bit.  Also, in late February planted a set of red onions in the garden.

Beginning of the month:

Applied a crabgrass pre-emergent to the lawn.  This year I used Dimension by Green Light.

I also planted an upright elephant ear bulb.  After doing so, I learned that I may have done that too early.  Recommended time for elephant ears and tropical bulbs is closer to May.  Oh well, we will have to see whether it comes up or not.

Mid month

Mowed the lawn for the first time.  I dropped the blade down two notches and bagged the clippings.  Man, that is a nasty and messy messy job, but resulted in a reduction in the dead grass and encouraged the green-up of the bermuda.

Trimmed back the Russian Sage quite a bit and trimmed the Salvia plant to the ground.

Cleaned out weeds from beds.

Applied Broadleaf weed killer with 2-4D.  Need to re-apply as necessary, probably will try to do some this weekend.

Cascade hops started growing - ran new support threads in a "half-christmas tree" spoke configuration

End of month (after last frost - March 20)

Moved citrus trees outside after temperatures stayed above 40 degrees consistently.

Started planting.  Here we go:
Planted bell peppers (some red variety, Valencia Orange, and a gold variety).
Planted two tomato plants in an experimental sub-irrigated planter (Cherokee Purple heirloom and 444 hybrid)
Planted begonias in the front bed around the tree (got two flats of 50 from Calloway and had several left over to fill a pot in the back)
Planted begonias in a  pot
Planted jalapeno plant in center of begonia pot
Replaced 3 back pots
Repotted spike grass
Repotted Rosemary, Thyme, Garlic, Sage, and Oregano
Planted Sweet Basil and Cilantro in the herb garden pot
Planted eggplant in the garden - probably needed to wait on this one a little, but I got carried away.
Planted sunflower seeds in the garden along the back fence.

Phew!  That's a lot.  I may have done even more, I don't know.

Time to follow this up with an April planning post!

Bell peppers!!!

Some of the blooms falling off now and leaving small peppers behind. Here they come!!!

Harvest - Tomato

Got our one tomato off the vine last night. It's a little bit green still, but good enough to finish ripening on the counter instead of outside where the bugs can get to it.

Blooming - Bell Peppers

Bonnie Green Bell Peppers blooming this morning - the red ones have been blooming for a week now, the green ones just noticed this budding bloom this morning.

Blooming - Jalapenos

Jalapeno plant blooming like crazy this week.Looks like two peppers from a prior bloom are growing, but I have a whole bunch of blooms on it this week.

Blooming - Heatwave Tomatoes

Have two Heatwave tomato plants caged in the back yard - one of them had a small tomato on it when we planted it (you can see a hint of red through the leaves). The other has had a bit more vigorous growth and is now flowering (see small yellow flowers in foreground). Flowers have been around for about a week. Will see how long it takes for new tomatoes to appear.

Have had a few days of cool and wet weather, so not sure if that is going to affect the plants at all.

Current Vegetables/Fruits/Herbs

Since I didn't have this journal started by the time I planted these, I don't know the exact planting dates. But I'll give some high level guesses as to when we planted what we've got growing. Sorry for the dark pictures, didn't have enough light this evening. Also - missing pictures probably have their own post...

Herbs:
Basil - planted in Spring 2009 - having trouble of late - will die out and need to be replanted in 2010 (below in pot)
Oregano - planted 2007 (below in pot)
Rosemary - planted 2007 (below in pot)
Sage - planted 2007 (below in pot)
Thyme - planted 2007 (below in pot)

Lavender - planted 2007 (trimmed way back in Spring 2009)




Vegetables/Fruits:
Jalapeno Peppers - Planted Spring 2009
Red Bell Peppers - Planted August 2009
Green Bell Peppers - Planted August 2009
Heatwave Tomatoes - Planted August 2009
Yellow Onions - Planted 9/20/2009
Turnip Greens - Planted August 2009

Simpson's Green Leaf Lettuce - Planted September 2009

Radishes - Planted September 2009

Broccoli - Planted August 2009

Butternut Squash - Planted August 2009

Citrus:
Navel Oranges - I think the fruits showed up around May

Satsuma Mandarin Oranges

Improved Meyer Lemons - existing fruits in May
Key Limes
All Citrus Trees planted in 2007

Other Plants:
Cascade Hops - planted rhizome Spring 2009

Onions

Planted some texas sweet onions this weekend (9/20/2009) along the north side of the house (in the grotto) and some in the flower bed in back by the greens.