What to do with all these cherry tomatoes?

If you grow any type of cherry tomatoes, you're probably like me and end up with a ton of tomatoes. I transplanted two grape tomato plants along with my other tomato plants into my community garden plot in May. Sometime around the end of June or early July, I started picking the tiny morsels. Production through July remained steady and now they seem to be going full bore. Between the two plants I am picking about 4 quarts a week. That's a lot of tomatoes!

My grape tomato plants in early July, with loads of green tomatoes and some red:


After eating as many as you can and giving some away, try making a cherry tomato-based pasta sauce which you can freeze now and use in the winter. The nice thing about this sauce is that you don't have to bother with removing the skins first, just throw the entire tomato into the pot, skin and all.

Check out the recipe on the Art+Food+Life blog.

The recipe calls for cognac but I would substitute red wine instead, more of a preference I guess. Also, if you prefer a smooth, thin sauce you could remove some of the sauce from your pot and pulse it in a blender then add back to the pot to reincorporate.

Enjoy!

Where has the time gone?

Today is August 5th and I just realized that it has been about 2 months since I last posted. Here is a quick update sans pictures.

Backyard
Because of the abundance of shade from two large maple trees it has been and continues to be difficult to grow much in the backyard garden. The exception is that my blackberries performed moderately well and in the spring, leafy greens grew well. As a result, I think I am going to remove my backyard raised bed to free up some space in the backyard and just focus on the blackberries. I'm hoping next year will be even better as it will be the third year for my first plant which should be well established by then. Maybe the two new plants I planted this year will start producing next year.

Community Garden
Gardening at the community garden was a little rocky at first because it was new and we also had a new baby who was born in May. The combination of getting the garden started and caring for the new baby (and our other two sons) was pretty stressful. I also had a few setbacks early on with spring rainstorms and poor drainage. I kept the faith and soldiered on and now we are reaping the benefits.

After I replanted some of our tomatoes and mulched they have done well. We've had a bumper crop of Grape tomatoes. Probably picking two or three quarts a week from only two plants. The Roma tomatoes are also loaded with fruit and are now ripening. The Big Boy and Sunbrites have produced some ripe fruit and there is still more on the plants. I planted two late season tomatoes (Rutgers and Beefmaster) which will provide me some tomatoes in late summer / early fall.

After picking about a combined dozen yellow and zucchini squash, the plants were infested with squash bugs. I couldn't keep up with caring for the plants so they succumbed to the infestation.

The green peppers have performed well and are healthy. They are continuing to produce more blooms and peppers.

The cucumbers started out well but then began to wilt some as the summer heat became intense. They also were under some insect stress, I'm guessing from cucumber beetles. The plants have since rebounded and are now producing more cucumbers.

The watermelon was a little disappointing. The vines became so infested with weeds that I think they were not receiving adequate light. I did a thorough weeding a few weeks ago but I think it was too late. I managed to pick three small watermelons from two plants. The first two tasted pretty good, we'll see about the third.

I tore out the squash and wildflowers and replanted with green beans and broccoli. Both seem to be doing well. I'm hoping to start picking green beans in a few weeks. If all goes well, the broccoli should be ready in mid to late September. I really need to keep an eye on the broccoli though. Last year I had a problem with cabbage worms and I hear harlequin bugs can be bad too.

Wild Berries

On Friday, I visited my community garden plot to do some maintenance chores such as weeding, watering, fertilizing and training the tomato vines. After finishing my chores, I decided to try foraging for some wild berries. I've never actually foraged before but I am familiar with various berries as I grow my own cultivated blackberries. The community garden is surrounded on 3 sides by various types of vegetation such as forest, brush, and high grass...all 3 are perfect berry habitat. Also, last year I noticed blackberry/dewberry in the area so I thought I would have a go at it.

I was almost immediately rewarded by finding a large patch of berries. After further inspection, I determined that the berries were black rasberries. You can tell the difference between a rasberry and blackberry by the way the stem appears after you pick it off the vine. With a rasberry, the stem will remain on the vine, leaving a concave depression within the berry. When blackberries are picked, the entire stem is removed, resulting in a berry that is more uniform in shape.


After finding the rasberries, I got very excited and decided to walk around the entire field to see what else I could find. Tucked beside a grassy path amid some overgrown brush, I found what I believe are blueberries. The bushes were in their flowering stage with clusters of several white cup-like flowers. Honeybees were busy polinating the flowers. Also, the leaf shape and size appears to be consistent with pictures of blueberry bushes. I will keep checking on these bushes to see if berries appear and turn blue...hopefully they do.

The pursuit is alive and well...

Don't worry...my produce pursuit is still alive and well. I haven't posted for quite some time for various reasons. The main reason is that my wife and I recently welcomed the arrival of our third son. A lot of my free time (if you want to call it free time...) was spent helping with the new baby and taking care of the other children. I took some time off work so i was able to enjoy everyone's company. I did manage to tend to the gardens the best I could, but I was just not motivated enough to blog.

I am happy to say that I did harvest some veggies...tons of lettuce, a few peas (disappointing this year), and some yellow and zucchini squash. The squash were harvested from the community garden, everything else was in the backyard garden. Also, after losing some tomato plants to a devastating rain and needing to replant, my tomatoes are now doing well.

New Blackberry Bed

A few weeks ago my grandparents gave me two new blackberry plants to put in my backyard garden. The plants were purchased via mail order and I believe they were bare root. My grandfather put them into pots with potting soil and let them grow. He gave them to me about a month later after they started growing leaves and canes. I have some pictures of the new plants in a previous post.

So far, to me blackberries are really easy to grow. They seem to be well adapted to the mid-Atlantic climate and are actually considered to be a native species. Wild blackberries can be found on the sides of country roads, railroad tracks, and edges of fields. I planted a store bought blackberry last year as well, and this year it is thriving. In fact, it has already started to form small berries...which seems early.



So now, I have two more plants and had to find a place to plant them. I decided to build a 2 ft by 6ft raised bed made out of 2x6 lumber and place the bed behind my current raised bed. The spot I placed it in gets good sun, especially in the afternoon. I also built a trellis out of T-posts and galvanized wire since the varieties I received are semi-erect. I filled the bed with garden soil, planted the berries, and covered everything with a good layer of shredded mulch. I fabricated some small cages to place around the small plants to keep the rabbits away. I'm not sure if rabbits eat blackberry canes and leaves, but would rather be safe than sorry. The cages will also keep the dog and kids from trampling the new plants.

It's Growing!!!

It's been a little while since my last post and since then, my fruits and veggies have really taken off. The weather here in the Baltimore region has warmed considerably with most days being in the 70s. Rain has also been fairly consistent but not overwhelming. I have many updates to provide and thought I would divide all of the updates into sections corresponding to the plant type and garden. As you know, I am growing two gardens in two different locations. The first location is in my backyard and the other location is at a community garden located 1 mile away.

Community Garden:
On Friday (the 13th...), my dad and I roto-tilled my community garden plot and planted veggies. We planted various varieties of tomatoes, squash and zucchini, cucumbers, peppers, and watermelon. The ground was pretty hard and compacted so we made several passes with the tiller to loosen the soil. I also incorporated some compost and garden tone fertilizer before planting. Here are some pictures...



Backyard Garden:
In my backyard, I have an established 8ft by 6ft raised bed, some potted herbs, and some blackberry bushes. Earlier in the spring I planted various salad greens such as lettuce and spinach, as well as some radishes. The radishes and spinach are finished, however the lettuce is still in the garden and thriving. I have cut some leaves here and there for sandwiches and salads, but most of it is still in the garden.



In addition to the lettuce, I also have some green beans and edamame (soy beans) growing in the garden. The lettuce and beans were both grown directly from seeds planted in the garden. In the past, I have always been successful with green beans so I have decided to grow them again. They seem to be more tolerant to partial shade conditions then tomatoes, for example.



This year I took a stab at starting herbs from seed indoors. In the past, we have always bought starter plants and then grown them in containers on our front porch. I bought an herb planter kit from Burpee which came with a small planter, soil, and various herb seeds (chives, flat leaf parsley, basil, and oregano). I setup the planter in my dining room window and planted the seeds back in February. Around the same time I also started some seeds in pots in my basement which I planned on transplanting into the garden or into pots when they were ready. To make a long story short, I think my basement was too cold because most of the seeds germinated very slowly and overall were very small and puny. The herb planter in the window faired a little better but the herbs were still pretty small and did not have great color. When the weather warmed up, I moved everything outdoors. Since then, most of the plants have done well, with some being lost to birds and squirrels. In all, I ended up with 1 thyme plant (seeds bought separately), 3 basils, and 3 parsleys. Also, the herbs in the planter are doing very well now, especially after getting a small dose of liquid fertilizer.

Tomato starts and other seedlings...

With the arrival of May and warm weather comes the beginning of the summer growing season here in the Baltimore area. In a few weeks I will begin transplanting some veggie starts into my backyard and community gardens. Jared graciously provided me with some tomato starts (Big Boy I think) about a week ago and I have been keeping them under fluorescent lights and putting a fan on them for an hour a day. I've put them outside as well when the weather has been warm. They are coming along nicely and seem to be getting bigger everyday. Jared gave them to me about a week ago in small peat pots so when I got them home I put them into larger red cups, planting them to just below the leaves so that they could establish deeper roots.

I also attempted starting some herbs from seed, however this venture hasn't worked out as well as I hoped. I started parsley, oregano, thyme, basil, and chives from seed. The chives came up and grew fairly well and I have since transplanted them into my garden. The oregano germinated and fizzled out. The thyme did OK; I was able to transplant one peat pot into a standard size flower pot and now that plant is doing really well. The parsley and basil are doing OK but are small. I am keeping them outside for now and will probably transplant into larger containers soon.

My grandfather gave me two young blackberry plants that were purchased via mail order. They are coming along quite nicely. I will be transplanting them into my backyard in a few weeks to supplement my current blackberry production. I'm sure in a few years I'll be up to my ears in blackberries.

Backyard Garden Update 1

The backyard garden is doing well. Most of the seeds I planted have germinated and the seedlings are well on their way. I have picked a few small radishes here and there and they taste pretty good. I will probably pick the rest of them in about a week. The spinach and lettuce are all doing surprisingly well; I planted them about 6 weeks ago and will probably start cutting off some spinach leaves for salads soon. The sugar snap peas are also doing well, although I would estimate that I only had an 80-85% germination rate which is good but not as good as I wanted. Most of the pea plants are standing at about 18" now.


Next week I will be starting bush green beans: tenderpod and another variety with purple pods (Liz's pick). I'm also trying to find some edamame (soybean) seed to plant as well. More updates to come.

Has anyone seen my blackberry?

With the recent rainfall and warming trend here in Baltimore, my blackberry cane has awakened from its winter dormancy. Actually it has been growing new shoots since early April, however the rate of growth has really took off recently. I have even noticed a new primocane shoot poking through the ground; hopefully more shoots will start coming out of the ground too.

This year, I was given two additional plants (roots purchased via mail order) which I will transplant in a few weeks once they grow a little more. I’ll be sure to report on their progress throughout the summer.

For those of you unfamiliar with cane fruits (blackberries and raspberries), the plants grow canes on a two year or biennial cycle. New canes, called primocanes emerge from the ground in spring and grow to about 8 feet in length, producing lots of leaves and shoots, but no berries. The following season, the old primocanes become known as floricanes, and produce blooms and berries. At the end of the season, the floricanes will die and can be cut back to the ground, leaving the new primocanes that have emerged in the current year. An established plant will continue this phase for decades.

I have been told that blackberries are very easy to grow, and once established, will produce loads of canes and fruit. I personally began my blackberry experiment last year by buying a plant from my local big box store and planting it along the perimeter of my back yard near a fence. I planted the bush and waited for it to start producing fruit. My mistake was that I allowed the plant to produce blooms followed by approximately 2 dozen berries. If I would have pinched the blooms instead, the plant’s energy would have instead been directed to the roots, thus producing more primocanes for this year. Instead, my plant only produced a single primocane (this year’s floricane) which will produce fruit this year. It was a good learning experience to say the least. Another fact I learned, is that birds love to eat blackberries! This year, I will purchase netting to drape over my plant so that hopefully I will be able to reap some of the rewards for myself.

Some additional quick facts on blackberries (and to a lesser extent, raspberries):

• Plants can be purchased as erect plants (strong canes needing little or no support), semi-errect (somewhere in the middle between erect and trailing), or trailing (prolific canes that need to be trellised).
• Plants can be purchased with or without thorns; the varieties with thorns are probably more productive.
• When ripe, the berry will be completely black and pull easily from the vine (requires very little force). In my experience, berries with even a small amount of red will taste a little bitter.
• Picked blackberries will retain their stem, whereas, raspberry stems will stay on the vine when picked.
• Blackberries will grow in various conditions including poor soil and limited sunlight, but like most plants they will grow best in well drained fertile soil with adequate levels of sun.
• Blackberries are high in fiber and contain significant amounts of essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.

Book Review - My Empire of Dirt by Manny Howard

In my previous post about gardening resources, I mentioned your local library as a good source of finding gardening books. During one of my trips to the library, looking for gardening books of course, I came across "My Empire of Dirt: How One Man Turned His Big-City Backyard into a Farm" by Manny Howard. I found it quite by accident. The book was staring at me from eye level on the shelf so I picked it up and took it home with me.

From what I gathered after reading the introduction and first few chapters of the book was that Manny Howard was a writer who bounced around various writing gigs eventually ending up as a sort of freelance writer for the New York Magazine. One day Manny was approached by the editor who asked if he would write about the locavore movement. In case you have never heard of this movement, locavorism is the pursuit to primarily buy and/or produce locally grown food and other necessities. Locavorism has become especially popular in the last several years for various reasons. Back to Manny...the primary stipulation for Manny's writing project was that he was required to live off of only the food he grew in his backyard garden for 1 month. In case you were wondering, Manny lives(ed) in Brooklyn, to my understanding in a large house with a sizable (by Brooklyn standards) backyard.

In the book, Manny describes in great detail the various plans he has envisioned for his garden. He plans on starting plants on top of his basement wet bar. He plans on raising tilapia which will be housed in some sort of swimming pool. Manny devotes a chapter to the tilapia project which turns out to be quite humorous. He plans on raising rabbits to be used for meat, which he describes in various sections throughout the book.

Manny has grand plans for his locavore garden project which I assume was either wholly funded or cost reimbursed by the magazine. In a way, I admired Manny and his project, wishing I had the time and resources to do what he was doing. Albeit, Manny had to contend with family obligations and relationships at the same time as he was dealing with preparing his garden beds and raising his rabbits and chickens. I guess you could call Manny the Willie Wonka of backyard gardeners. He attempted just about everything you could do in the backyard, and he managed to fit it all into his Brooklyn lot.

The book was entertaining but at the same time insightful. Manny was fairly knowledgeable from a research perspective going into his project, but he learned a great deal through experience by the time he was finished. That in itself is admirable and it is something all of us experience every season we garden. From a writing perspective, Manny's self-deprecating humor made some of the more dull and undesirable gardening topics both interesting and entertaining.

For an easy and entertaining read, I would recommend this book. You'll laugh and probably learn something at the same time.

You can check out Manny's article as it appeared in the New York magazine. The book builds upon the original magazine article.

Garden Resources

One of the good things about backyard and community vegetable gardening is that a ton of information is available to gardeners.

There are loads of books available for reference, with titles such as "All New Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew and "Your Farm in the City" by Lisa Taylor and Seattle Tilth coming to mind. Both of these books along with countless others should be available at your local library...they are at mine.

Another good resource is the Internet. Unfortunately, the quality and level of detail of information you find on the Internet varies. Generally if you type a phrase into Google about gardening you will taken to an about.com article or something similar which is good, but generally very abbreviated. In my opinion, the best and most relevant source of information relative to your geographic location is your state's extension service.

In my state, the University of Maryland manages this service. They also happen to maintain a very well designed and useful website. The University of Maryland extension started an initiative specific to food and vegetable gardening called Grow It Eat It. This website is loaded with information such as vegetable profiles, how-to videos, gardening publications, community gardening resources, and details on how to contact the extension for additional information. Hopefully your state maintains a similar service and website.

Here are some links to the pages I commonly visit on the University of Maryland extension websites:

• Vegetable Profiles - a good source of information on how and when to plant, care for, and harvest commonly grown vegetable varieties
• Food Gardening Publications - detailed guides and reports on how to perform various gardening tasks such as composting, establishing gardens, and managing pests
• Community Gardens - a source of information on community gardening, including a directory of some of the known community gardens located throughout central Maryland
• Spring Frost/Freeze Dates - a chart listing the main towns and regions throughout Maryland along with the probability of frost occurring on certain dates
  

Early Garden Pictures

In case you were wondering, I am located in Baltimore, Maryland which lies within USDA zone 7. The weather has begun to warm up with average day time temps in the 60s and night time temps in the 40s. It has also been fairly rainy. I managed to get my backyard garden setup for the season around the middle of March. I planted sugar snap peas, leaf spinach, radishes, and various varieties of lettuce all from seeds. Most of the seeds germinated around early April and are now growing fairly steadily.

On 4/12 I was notified that the community garden was plowed and ready for planting, albeit a little muddy. My assigned plot is 132. On Sunday, 4/17, my son Cameron and I went to find plot 132 and stake our claim. It turns out plot 132 is in a fairly decent spot. It's accessible my vehicle via a gravel road and grass path. It's in the back of of the garden area off the main road. I'm glad its accessible that way I won't need to worry about tramping through another person's plot, but at the same time I'm hoping my plot isn't overly attractive to vandals. I guess it depends on how you define "community"...my definition doesn't include stealing...we'll see who is right. While searching for our plot, Cameron and I met another gardener named Johnny, who is a past gardener here. He was very nice and explained the ins and outs of the garden and helped us find our plot. It turns out that I used to work with Johnny when I was in college. When I told him that, we ended up having a 1 hour conversation, much to the chagrin of my 3 year old. Sorry bout that buddy!

My plot is roughly identified by the red lines...

Venus Flytrap (not the Dionaea muscipula variety)

An introduction...

You may be asking what a Venus Flytrap has to do with vegetable gardening? Probably not much, unless you are fond of their young shoots in your salads or on your sandwiches. Then what is my point? My point is that vegetable gardening itself can be a trap that like a Venus Flytrap will lure you in and eat you whole.

This is not meant to be an alarming prophecy designed to scare people away from gardening. Just a metaphor for how gardening in general can attract new people who have good intentions of producing lots of fresh vegetables but end up biting off more than they can chew (no pun intended). I hope more people take up vegetable gardening like me, but at the same time hope these people realize how unpredictable and disappointing it can be at times.

I must admit, I am a fairly new gardener myself. This season will be my 3^rd year growing my own vegetables in my own garden. Each year has seen an improvement over the last, and I must say that I have learned a great deal from my experiences. In my backyard, I built a small raised bed garden (48 square feet) that I now use to grow leafy green vegetables, peas, and green beans with great success. I also have a blackberry bush that was planted last year and should be producing fruit this year on last year’s growth. One change (and it’s a big one) I made this year over last year is the addition of a community garden plot.

When I discovered the Double Rock Community Garden last spring, I had grand visions of acquiring a plot and growing loads of tomatoes, peppers, squash, and all the other popular summer vegetables. However, all my inquiries went unanswered, so I took that to mean that my community gardening pursuits were not meant to be. This year was a different story. I was sure to contact all the right people this year, and by divine providence I received a response. To make a long story short, I successfully obtained a 20’ x 20’ plot (that’s 400 square feet!). Is this starting to sound like a Venus Flytrap?

My intentions this year are to use my backyard garden for the things that have always grown well there…the veggies that do well in partial shade, and to use the community garden plot for the veggies that need full sun.

Using my past experiences and lessons learned, my goal is to grow a decent amount of produce that will feed my family and can be shared with friends, but at the same time, not get overwhelmed by the whole process and get sucked into my very own Venus Flytrap.