Nothing like homemade salsa! Add a chopped mango for some variety!
Lots of basil = pesto, no??? (you can do the freeze it in ice cube trays thing…)
I don’t eat basil enough. I have a jar of basil pesto that I bought for Xmas and it’s still half used. I need to cut them down because they have flowers. Same with peppers, I don’t eat peppers. Just plant them for fun. Some are spicies and some are mild like Anaheim Chillies.
When basil starts to seed (flower) I just snip those off and toss - the plant keeps growing very well.
Some GREAT ideas for “what to do for basil” - the first one - the soup - looks great!
http://www.epicurious.com/archive/blogs/editor/2014/07/fragrant-summer-basil-recipes.html
Or, if you live in a neighborhood where people walk themselves or their dogs, cut the basil sprigs, put it in a jar of water and set it outside near the sidewalk where people can see it labeled “help yourself” - it will disappear and you will have happy, grateful neighbors!
We did this one year in our neighborhood - several of us make a “extra garden stuff” spot near the sidewalks of our homes - a tiny little table or a basket or a small plant hook with a basket hanging from it - and we would put extra veggies, herbs, flowers - whatever - to share with the neighborhood. I LOVED participating! Turns out that only a few of us garden to share!
Tarragon, oregano and thyme are easy to dry. Several ways, but I pick them fresh (most say early in the day,) leave the stems intact, rinse and pat them very dry. Wrap them in a dry paper towel, then a baggie (roll it up, pushing the air out,) seal, and store away from the light. After a few days, I check to be sure to towel wrap is dry or replace it. Now they dry out. These 3 last quite a long time for me. (You can do the same with fesh herbs from the store, if you don’t use them up fast enough.) Never had success with rosemary, it seems to dry like needles. Back to google, I guess.
Agree pesto is good in ice cube trays. After it freezes, you move the cubes to a tight bag,lasts very long, but may darken a bit. Last batch, I put it in a freezer bag, spread it around in there, like a big pancake, and can just cut off the size I need.
I guess my question is how to make cilantro last. I have a bunch in water in the frig, but it’s the first time that worked. Love it, but never use it fast enough.
Also, this may sound crazy. but is very good, for that abundance of cherry tomatoes. I used it as an appetizer at some holiday.
http://zaikazabardast.com/2011/08/31/tomatoicecream/
I have no success with cilantro. I was able to sprouted some but somehow they died. I don’t eat them that often but they are cheap where I shop. But I have seeds to plant soon.
My cilantro always bolts instantly. I’m going to try again this winter and see if the cooler weather is better.
My African Basil bolted weeks ago, but I don’t trim it because it attracts bees, which I need for the eggplants and tomatoes.
After multiple years of meager results, I am essentially happy with the fruit production so far this year. After initial blossom end rot, the Cherokee Purple tomatoes are providing some healthy offspring (the ground calcium tablets apparently was just the ticket). Not crazy about the Cherokee Purple taste, but at least it’s a “different” flavor from store-bought and they taste fresh. Ate my first Jalapenos last week. Hotter than I expected (thanks to my “expert” gardening skills, LOL). And what a great surprise the Little Fingers eggplants have been. Purchased the seedlings on a whim. The first fruit were nothing to write home about. But in the last month or so…BOOM. The ones hanging from the bush now are huge, some thicker than a banana and nearly as long.
The only annoying problem at the moment is that some critter is endlessly snacking away on the leaves of the eggplants and peppers in the dread of night. Can’t figure it out and can’t seem to stop it. Haven’t seen any other telltale sign of pests. Did find a couple of stinkbug egg nests weeks ago and destroyed them. No aphids in sight either.
Tomato worm horn eats my pepper leaves too. I’ve caught plenty of them eating leaves from both plants, tomato and pepper.
I have okra plants now. Seeds have been sprouting like crazy. My water melon plants are also doing well.
I picked some peppers for making pork chili this weekend because they are growing like gangbusters.
It’s hot here. A heat wave. Roasted two delicious chickens with garden rosemary, my husband said it’s the herbs that kicked it up a notch, in flavor that is. I have squash galore and my watermelon plants are growing like gangbusters. No melon yet, only tiny one. But okra is not growing big. Still tiny.
How’s everybody garden?
Garden still going pretty strong with peppers and tomatoes still producing at my community garden. Zinnias are OUTSTANDING! I went ahead and planted some fall kale. At home, I cleaned out some herbs that were produced out and planted a little kale and some radish seeds. Not too late to produce here in the midwest!!!
Kale, I need to plan them, thanks for reminding me. I planted peas in the last few weeks and they are coming up.
But I’m now looking at fruit tree and bulb online catalog for this coming year. Too many fruit trees I want to add to my small garden. A small French type of fig is in the plan. But I just can’t add one, last I’ve looked in my basket it was 4. I need to learn how to scale down my want.
This winter, I’ll really need to research more about square foot gardens- this really didn’t produce the yields they say. (Especially since they say you can plant multiples of a veg per SF.) My Black Cherry tomatoes are superb, a wonderful sweet, slightly acidic taste. But only about as many as one plant, last year. Green peppers (actually, supposed to be yellow) still struggling, one plant has a pepper with a blister on one section and I suspect it wont be good. Another has two little gum balls- this is very late in the season. My strawberries are stunted, maybe I got 4, but A+++ on taste.
One of the keys to square foot gardening is to plant and think about things like sun direction for your garden, height of mature plants you plant to get sun, etc. - shorter plants will benefit from being on the outer “squares” or an end as opposed to in the middle where they get shaded by taller plants. I love SFG (square foot gardening) -it is space efficient, time efficient (for me) and more weed efficient! But depending on the size of your SFG, it may not replace a large inground plot.
Not a lot of Clemson okra pods, but this is the best year I have had with them. Okra is just not at its best in containers unless you have a lot of sun. Cherokee Purples are sort of large, but not many of them, which is what a lot gardeners say about Cherokee Purples. Very good production of Gretel eggplant. Jalapenos are super and have given away most of the Jalapeno harvest. The Yellow Cherry Tomatoes are also good producers. Have had to trim them repeated because the vines want to grow everywhere. Powdery mildew has taken hold of the other eggplant varieties. It essentially destroyed the mint. Baking soda spray couldn’t save it. Mixing some calcium pills into my watering can remedied the blossom end rot on the tomato plants. Hope to plant a few beet seeds in a day or two. Maybe collard greens too, if I can find space.
Thing is, abasket, my elevated SFG box (on legs) is in the same location as individual containers were in other years. The only real difference is the number of plants per SF and the soil. I’ve read one can have issues with the compost, if it’s not truly aged enough. Last year, I planted one or two Contender green beans in a pot, the yield this year with 6 in a SF is hardly better- no way it’s even 4x. And the plants are not as tall as last year. Same seeds/same packet.
I never had much luck with container garden, I had big oak barrel containers. But I either not water them often they rarely produce the yield I want.
Raintree Nursery catalog has arrived. I’m thinking of adding 5-10 fruit trees. My coworker is going to help me narrow it down. I can’t help it, I want Mirabelle plum tree. I don’t know if it’s the type that grows well here as well as in France. But I’m going to try.
Maybe get fruit trees that do well as espaliers? You could have columnar apple trees, or grow a few diagonally across the wall of your house, or whatever. I bet figs would train well.