New Crop of Peppers

October 7, 2011October 7, 2011 ~ McArtor ~ 3 Comments

peppers5 — new crop of green cherry bomb peppers

Pepper plants thrive in the cool moist fall weather. Our potted Jalapeno and Cherry Bomb pepper plants on our deck are loaded with new peppers. A few Bell and Habanero pepper plants at our community garden plot are still producing fruit, too.

The Jalapeno and Cherry Bomb peppers are perfect for spicy mouth popping appetizers. They are not too hot when the seeds and membranes are cut out. Actually, some of the jalapenos were quite mild. I wore rubber gloves and cut out off the pepper tops and sliced out the seed membranes (the white part holding the seeds). Then I stuffed the peppers with of mixture of sausage, cheese, beaten egg and bread crumbs. I cooked them for 15 minutes at 400 degrees fahrenheit. My husband and guests enjoyed them with homemade pizza. Our eyes watered a bit, but no one said they were “too hot.”

Our Growing Boy

September 28, 2011September 28, 2011 ~ McArtor ~ 2 Comments

The most prolific and dazzling grower in our garden plot is not a vegetable, fruit or flower, but our son. I see all kinds of fruit growing from him.

Recently, he dropped a melon of peace while he set the table for dinner. On one napkin he wrote a note to daddy. Earlier that morning he had yelled at daddy and argued with him about getting ready for school. Before dinner, daddy read the words written on the outside of his napkin, “to dad a note.” Then he opened it and read, “Dad am srre for being mene to you.” He wrote an apology!

Fruit that is not picked, but falls off on its own initiative is the sweetest!

Leaf Painting

September 23, 2011September 24, 2011 ~ McArtor ~ Leave a comment

Welcome to the first day of Autumn. Leaves will soon drift to the ground. Shapes and bright colors will be at our feet.

Here is a leaf painting project I did with my son, mom and aunt. We gathered leaves, placed them on watercolor paper (for leaves to stay flat on the paper it is best to first press them in a thick book). We filled small spray bottles with watercolor paint mixed with water. We lightly sprayed the diluted paint around a single leaf or leaves.

We held the bottle at least 6 inches from the paper to achieve a paint mist around the leaf. We blotted any paint puddles with a paper towel. We gently lifted the leaf off the paper. Voila! My son created his first leaf painting.

Later, my son wandered from the project plan and painted, with a paintbrush, the blank areas of the leaf stencil bright red. He turned his leaf into a bold Autumn leaf!

Harvest Monday – September 19, 2011

September 19, 2011September 19, 2011 ~ McArtor ~ 3 Comments

We harvested gourds, sweet potatoes and a few green bell and habanero peppers from our garden this week. The gourds were the star of our harvest. We plan to leave the gourds outside on our deck to dry out so my son can paint them and make them into birdhouses.

We picked all our gourds today even though it is best to pick the gourds later in the season when the stems turn brown. We picked them early because many of them had developed dark green and brown spots. The Home and Garden Center at the University of Maryland Cooperative Extension thought the spots were water soaked spots due to our very wet growing season. They could not identify any fruit pathogen from the photo I sent to them. They recommended we pick the gourds immediately, rub them with a mild bleach solution and let them air dry. Now we have some sparkly clean gourds.

Harvest Totals: gourds 21 pounds and sweet potatoes 4.5 pounds

Composting 101

September 15, 2011December 5, 2014 ~ McArtor ~ 4 Comments

We feed our Earth Machine composter kitchen and garden scraps daily. The microorganisms and invertebrates do their decomposing jobs well because there is always space inside the composter for more scraps. But lately some decomposers were doing their job TOO well. Large balls of maggots were devouring the organic matter and overtaking the earthworms. According to the Home and Garden Info Center at University of MD, our compost had too much nitrogen because maggots (hatching fly larvae) are attracted to moist nitrogen-rich organic matter. Compost needs a 30:1 ratio of carbon (“brown” organic matter such as straw or leaves) to nitrogen (“green” organic matter such as banana peels, tomato skins, grass clippings, etc.) for efficient decomposition. Recently, a local farm gave me a bag of straw from their barn floor. Now we add a layer of straw each time we add kitchen scraps to our compost.

My husband made a compost sifter. We separated out rocks, sticks, nutshells and even a lost metal strawberry huller from the rich compost and humus at the bottom of our Earth Machine. He made the sifter frame from scrap 2×4 wood pieces, then stapled half inch wire mesh to the edge of the frame. We all sifted the dirt like miners searching for gold.

We collected 5 pots of “black gold.” The compost we sifted is crumbly, lightweight, and spongy. There are no maggots in this bottom compost layer only a few earthworms. We spread all the “harvested” compost into beds in our community garden plot. Next year’s garden will benefit from the nutrient rich compost. My husband turned the remaining compost in the Earth Machine to distribute oxygen and heat. This will give the beneficial compost organisms the oxygen they need to do their work and heat up the maggots and stop them from growing.

The Flooding Rain

September 8, 2011September 9, 2011 ~ McArtor ~ 1 Comment

In the last 48 hours we had over 8 inches of rain fall in our area! There are major roads flooded, old stone walls in historical areas toppled by rushing water, trees uprooted and rivers rising over bridges. Our hearts go out those who suffered loss from the flooding rain.

The rain impacted our garden a little. Our Rose of Sharon bush almost toppled to the ground. I wrestled it to an upright position, wrapped rope around it and tied it to our deck post this morning. We have not been to our community garden plot since all the rain, but the seeds we planted on Monday are probably all washed away. I am glad my broccoli and brussel sprout plants are protected with row covers. The fragile lettuce seedlings in our salad table were smashed by all the rain so I propped an umbrella over them and they perked up. Our potted lemon tree prefers hot, dry weather so I brought it into the house. Now, the tree’s branches droop less from the eleven golf ball size green lemons on it.

I hope it stops raining soon.

Harvest Monday – September 5th

September 5, 2011September 6, 2011 ~ McArtor ~ 5 Comments

This week we planted more than we harvested. We planted turnips, beets, broccoli, brussel sprouts, kale, radishes and several kinds of leaf lettuces. We pulled out the last of our tomato plants and one pepper plant. Our gourd and sweet potato vines are spreading everywhere. We picked bags of sweet potato leaves. I plan to lightly saute the leaves, put them into quart size bags and freeze. I made a tasty Asian rice noodle soup with the sweet potato leaves. The leaves are thick enough to hold up well in soup.

We picked more figs from our backyard fig tree. I drizzled the figs with a sweet sauce of melted butter, honey, cinnamon and salt then baked them for 15 minutes at 400 degrees. They were yummy on their own or on top of ricotta cheese.

Our Harvest Totals for this week: eggplant 2 pounds, figs 1.75 pounds, sweet potato leaves 2.5 pounds, hot peppers 1 pound.

Total Harvest this week: 5.25 pounds
Total Harvest this season: 262.35

Check out Daphne’s Dandelions, the host of Harvest Monday, for more harvest totals from other gardeners.

How to Make Hydrangea Wreaths

September 2, 2011May 9, 2015 ~ McArtor ~ 1 Comment

	Hydrangea blooms make lovely indoor wreaths that will last all year until the hydrangea bush blooms again next summer. My mom, a floral designer, taught my son and me how to make dried hydrangea wreaths last weekend. It is not difficult. My son will show you how it is done.
	Pick hydrangea when the blooms feel thick and “leathery” and the bloom color is muted (blue turns pale green and pink turns light violet). Pick the full bloom at the main stalk. Rinse and soak it in cold water for a few minutes, then place it in a towel and gently squeeze to remove excess moisture.
	Add a hook to the floral form. Make the hook from a 10 to 12 inch long piece of floral wire that has been wrapped with floral tape. Bend one end of the wire to make a loop and wrap the other end around the wreath. Close each end with a twist.
	Place Spanish moss on the back of the wwreath to give it a finished appearance. Fresh or dried Spanish moss may be used. Gently pull apart the moss and secure it with floral pins on the inner and outer edges of the floral form.
	Loosely secure the Spanish moss, avoid placing it in clumps on the form. The moss will gracefully hide the floral form. Cover the entire back portion of the form. After the back is covered, turn the wreath form over so the moss side is on the table. The wreath is now ready for the hydrangea!
	Before inserting hydrangea in the form, clip the full bloom ionto smaller pieces. Each cut bloom piece needs a pointy stem in order to stick into the floral form. Fill in the face of the form with bigger pieces and the outer portion of the form with smaller pieces.
	If the stem of the bloom is too soft and will not stick into the form then attach a floral wire to the stem. First, twirl a bit of floral tape around the hydrangea stem then place the wire on the stem and continue to wrap the tape all the way to end of wire. The wire slips easily into the form and holds the bloom securely in place.
	My son’s wreath is almost finished. It took him about one hour and 6 to 8 full blooms of hydrangea to complete his wreath. When you finish your wreath, hang it on the wall in a cool and dry place in your house, preferably out of direct sunlight. The wreath will dry in about 2 days. It is fragile, carry it carefully.
	TAH DAH!! My son finished his wreath. Wreath-making is a good practice in … following instructions valuing the beauty in God’s creation creating something with own hands persevering and finishing a project being gentle and careful Happy Wreath-Making!!

Harvest Monday – August 29

August 30, 2011August 31, 2011 ~ McArtor ~ Leave a comment

A few plants in our community garden toppled over from Hurricane Irene. My son cried when he saw his sunflowers bent and broken. But he felt better when we showed him several large gourds hiding under his gourd vine’s velvety leaves. As we expected, some tomato plants were knocked over, yet we still collected over 20 pounds of ripe tomatoes and over 10 pounds of green tomatoes! We made 10 quarts of salsa and plan to make tomato relish or green tomato cake from the green tomatoes. Our fig tree keeps popping out sweet figs. I picked 5 pounds of figs this week. We canned 8 half pints of low-sugar fig jam.

I picked three eggplants this week. The eggplant has become my favorite vegetable because of its high versatility and low carbohydrate content. I discovered that strips of broiled eggplant can be used like pasta noodles and topped with tomato sauce and cheese. The eggplant is peeled, sliced a quarter inch thick, brushed lightly with olive oil, broiled for 5 to 10 minutes on each side and cut into strips to make “eggplant noodles.”

Here are my harvest totals for the week: beans 0.5 lb, eggplants 2 lb, figs 5 lb, habanero peppers .25 lb, leeks 1.25 lb, red pepper .25 lb, shallots .25 lb, tomatoes 21.75 lb and green tomatoes 8 lb.

Total this week: 39.5 pounds

Total this season: 257.10 pounds

Thanks to Daphne’s Dandelions for Hosting Harvest Monday.

Cherry Bomb Peppers

August 27, 2011August 27, 2011 ~ McArtor ~ Leave a comment

Hurricane Irene is expected to bring us heavy winds and rain tonight and tomorrow morning. Our cherry bomb pepper plant with its stout, bright red, thick-skinned peppers looks ready to handle any extreme weather. Nevertheless, we brought it indoors with our other container plants (lemon tree, parsley, jalapeno pepper, petunias and mint).

I plan to stuff the sweet and mildly hot cherry bomb peppers with cheese and sausage then roast them for 10 to 15 minutes at 400 degrees. A spicy snack to enjoy with our popcorn and movie tonight while the wind and rain roars outside.

Our thoughts and prayers are with those in the path of Hurricane Irene. Be stout and strong like the cherry bomb pepper!

Our Garden Plot

A journal of our garden spot.

Author: McArtor