dancing gardener
 

100 ft Gardening
I always say if i had only one veggie to grow it would be chard. Well, I saved 160 favourite coloured chards to put in a friends vegetable field. A serious attempt at seeing if rotten straw and hay will minimize weeding in a traditional farm garden.

 

Kale and Naked Yoga
Probably have never mixed, but LOOK HOW BIG this Rainbow kale grew. This 15 month old 50 pounder has provided so many beautiful leaves eaten throughout the entire winter and will now provide seeds to last for many years.

 

The Great Eh' Scape!

Zombies No, Vampires Yes! For those that love a nice whack of garlic the scape is a wonderful part of the garlic plant usually removed so all the growth energy goes towards underground bulb, rather than flower and bulbill development (bulbill is the big flower that turns into little round balls-seeds). Simply break off scape and eat like asparagus for full shot, or be a whimp and chop it up into cream cheeze for cracker dip like i did in this pic. Easy Peasy!

 Here are some other ideas for using scapes:
add to quiche or omelets
add to any stir fry recipe
chop and add to cream cheese
dry and make a spice
excellent on the grill
use in place of green onions
great in guacamole and salsa
chop and sprinkle over pasta
add to homemade vinaigrette
excellent addition to stocks
good in salads or on bruschette


Freezing Scapes

Cut scapes into  1-2" pieces.  Put cut scapes into a food processor and chop for 15-30 seconds.   Transfer scapes to quart size freezer bags and flatten for ease of storage.  Scapes can be kept frozen for up to 1 year, but are best eaten within 6 months.

 

It looks like a Komodo Dragon ready to eat your plants but actually its a.......(drum roll please)....a LADY BUG! There is a weird metamorphosis between a black orange sticky gob like ball and this spiky monster before we see the cute little bug we all love. 

 

Bad Sucker?

Is there such a thing? Many ask, but those that know tomatoes, know "once up, best keep up"! The sucker i am pointing to, and all the others on the base of the plant can cause it to fall over. Great if you dont stake or you are really short. Just pinch or press sideways to break off. I like my larger plants tall so i break off all suckers till the plant is about 2 ft tall. It keeps the foliage away from the ground thus less bugs on plant, less moisture and more air to prevent leaf blight, and less hindrance of water spraying from my low irrigation heads. 

 


Clitoria ternatea!

I can barely wait to get my mouth on it.....

or say "pass the blue peas please" and hear "WHAT? BLUE?"

Thats right! These are the most beautiful coloured flowers and crazy blue pods. Completely camouflaged against my painting. 


 

Off The Top

And more than just a little......First week of June and one by one all the chards have been picked. All the leaves and seed buds have been shaved off and gone into salads, smoothies, omelettes, pasta, juices, and anywhere else. They have lived for about 14 months and have provided till the end.Now just try to figure out what to do with these 6 ft stalks besides as a blog entry? See comments. Tuns of info.

 

Hot and Wet!

Is how i like my friends and yoga.....and just in case the oven has finally turned on, its irrigation time! 

My main garden motto i say to myself is "weeding and watering is poor time management".  Final tuning up of spray heads - replace broken ones, clean plugged ones, set flow on adjustable ones, is all up front time that pays for itself in a big way later.  I set my timer for every second day at 80% and like to water around 6 am whilst pressure is strong before everyone starts flushing. Plants grow in the night and roots grow a bit deeper to reach down for moisture. Also a dryer surface in the night inhibits rot, mildew, blight, and the speed that slimy bugs will travel. Ever been hit by a fast moving slug? (actually, sorry to any passing car that may have been hit by me tossing slugs over hedge-i wasn't trying to hit you).

 

I just love having helpers! I do have rules, and one is:

if you have plumbers crack, you better have nice undies!

 
All my tomatoes in now! All my close gardening friends have all they want, ive made some cash, and now its time to get other babies planted. Second crop of peas, all the chard, spinach, and beets that have been growing for well over 6 weeks are all large enough to peg'n'plug into the deep mulch.

daniel tomelin, dancing gardener, dancing gardener