Juli Lawrence – Rakish Gardening

June 28th, 2008

Since clearing that grove opened up a chunk of dirt on the north end of the garden, there’s now a big blank space. I went to a couple of places yesterday trying to find last-minute vegetables, but the nursery that only two weeks ago had an abundance of “Italian frying pepper” plants (probably Marconi, but they were gone. So I bought a Green Goddess eggplant to try that and a red chili pepper. We aren’t Texans and don’t do hot peppers, but there have been a couple of recipes (Thai and Indian) that I’ve tried recently, and they called for chilis. So I’ll grow these and stick them in a freezer bag and have them on hand.

The great thing about peppers is that they are so easy to freeze. That’s why I like to grow as many peppers as I can, and I was disappointed that in the end, I ended up with only two or three each of Corno di Toro and Giant Marconi. Quite a few gypsies, but last year I decided the Marconis are my new favorite.

I fill the freezer full of sweet peppers, and we have them all winter long. (In stir fries and other dishes…I just like peppers!) I need to find a way to freeze eggplants.

I also bought another large catnip plant, very healthy and robust. Had another one, but the cats destroyed it, and now they’re working on this one. So I’m thinking I may try and cut it in two, let them have one half and put the other half out on the end of the vegetable garden. I’ve never had a catnip come back, even though it’s supposedly a perennial. Catnip and mint are said to help with flea beetles, the one pest I have problems with despite my organic and companion planting program. It’s possible that the buckets of mint/catnip I put near the eggplants last year reduced the flea beetles, but I can’t be sure.

But I mostly let the bugs do their damage, because it’s just ornamental. It peppers the eggplant leaves with little holes, but doesn’t hurt the plants (once they’re established), and I get plenty of fruits.

So this year’s vegetable garden has:

peppers; Gypsy, Marconi, Corno di Toro plus one hot pepper (red chile)

eggplants: Black Beauty, Lavender, Green Goddess, and something Prospero

tomatoes: one grape, Caspian Pink (my personal favorite), one Better Boy and a variety of Wayahead and Marmande (both new, grown from seed)

I’ve also got some onions growing, my chives, and had a nice patch of lettuce and greens, but they’re about ready to bolt. Everything else that’s growing is a companion plant of some kind: marigolds, zinnias, parsley, basil, sage, tansy, goldenrod, Queen Anne’s Lace, some yarrow, and of course all the hairy vetch. It’s starting to die back now.

This year I used some extra space in the big back garden, which is all flowers, and added hills of cucumbers, melons (honeydew types, not watermelon) and Casserta and Blue Hubbard squash. The squash is more of a trap area, because neither of us really like squash. Though we’ll give the Blue Hubbard a try if it bears good fruit. And I used to have a fantastic recipe for zucchini relish if I can find it. I could use the Casserta and can up some relish.

I canned up a number of the tomatoes last year, and we’re down to the last quart. We’re going to make a batch of lasagna next week and use the tomatoes to make the gravy. I’ll definitely can more this summer, because they’re just so much better than buying canned in winter.

Oh, I’ve also got a billion radishes growing as companion/scare off/trap plants. I don’t know if that’s what worked, but last year I did not have a single squash bug or cucumber beetle. The cuke beetle was a miracle.

I put the cucurbit hills out back because I felt the sun was stronger…it’s all day long, whereas the vegetable garden has a couple of hours of shade in some spots thanks to the sycamore tree. I want to have that huge limb removed, but there’s a squirrel nest and as much as I hate that squirrel, I don’t have the heart to destroy the nest until I’m sure there are no babies.

Yeah, I’m a sucker.

• It’s that time!
• Summer crops
• Companion Planting – Paying Homage to Sally Jean Cunningham
• Planning for spring
• 2007 Garden Wrap-Up

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