I planted our vegetable garden today. It’s not one of those neatly laid out, orderly plots. There’s not much room, so I just stick tomatoes and peppers wherever they’ll fit, working around the mass of sage and the compost pile.
This year, I’m experimenting, trying four varieties of tomatoes. I have an Early Girl so the wait won’t be so long,
a Celebrity because Daddy sometimes grew those and I couldn’t find his old standby Better Boys,
a Box Car Wille because it’s an heirloom variety that’s supposed to be good for slicing,
and a Cherokee Purple because the picture looks really cool!
I’ve spiced things up with a couple of jalapeño peppers, which grow like crazy here. They’re great for cornbread. Oh, and some marigolds to help keep the bugs away.
BLTs are only a few months away. Yum!
I am growing Stupice, Brandywine, New Mexico chile, red onions, walla walla sweets, maui onions and longneck garlic, beets and two different kinds of lettuce. You want some Maui onion seeds?
I love jalapeños too. Every year I can some “Mexican Style”. If you compare the ingredients of most jalapeños you find in stores with some that were canned in Mexico you’ll notice a difference, the principal one being that those I prefer contain sesame oil, carrots and onions. I just made up my own recipe and they taste mighty fine to me.
I picked up a couple of Better Boys at Lowe’s a few weeks back. A guy who does some occasional yard work for us asked for space in my little herb garden to “grow him some tomatoes.” He actually wanted Big Boy but I figured Better Boy was, well, better. Oscar comes by every few days to check on his tomatoes. Last week he was eying the space in between the sweet olives and magnolia fuscatas on the more “formal” side of the yard, expressing his opinion that there was room for some collards and okra over there.
Meanwhile, I have some banana pepper and eggplant seedlings that are finally big enough to set out. I’m late with everything this year, because Mardi Gras was so early. If that makes any sense.
I think I may have room for a little okra along the fence. But NO collards.
Have I told you today how awesome you are?
Since I have moved to Nashville – been here 20 years now – I have NEVER been able to grow a tomato plant that can hold its own against my Dad’s. I’ve done everything just like he’s told me and planted in every corner or both yards we’ve had. Jon thinks he has the solution this year. He ordered some plants online this year and they arrived yesterday. We’ll see. I will bet you grow some kick ass plants this year – after all – you’re going to have two incredible gardeners overseeing your work this year. I will let you know how Jon’s come along – I am staying out of it.
misswildthing, I’m coming to your house for dinner — yum! Is a Maui onion similar to a Vidalia? Do they need a lot of room? I’d love some seeds if I have space for them.
Don, I learn new things from you all the time. I didn’t know about the sesame oil. I haven’t tried to can peppers yet; I usually freeze the extras and use them to make cornbread in the winter.
Del, I’m with you on the collards, but the okra would be good for gumbo. Daddy’s Better Boys were always yummy, but mine have never tasted quite the same. Could be a difference in the soil, probably a difference in the gardener.
Did I mention that the green thumb gene missed me? Nancy, I feel your pain. This time, I did everything just as I’ve been taught but with different varieties of tomato. We’ll see. At least I know I can grow peppers. We always have plenty of those.
Thanks, Bill!
Nancy (and Kathy, you may want to read this), many different things could contribute to your not being able to grow tomatoes like your Dad’s. The acidity or alkalinity of the soil, the nutrients the plants pick up from the soil, the type of nutrients you provide for the plants, the amount of sunshine they receive, etc. Tennessee likely has the equivalent of ACES in Alabama. You might obtain a lot of information from it. One of the primary things ACES advises gardeners to do is to perform a soil test to see what your soil needs added to it in order to grow various plants.
That reminds me of a joke about a ‘Bama Bubba who wanted to get rich growing chickens to sell, but all of the baby biddies he bought died when he planted them. When he asked the extension service why they died, he was asked if he had first gotten his soil tested.
This year, because my soil has been too wet to work in, I’m gonna’ try growing some tomatoes in large pots filled with “Mater Dirt” (about 2/3 the way down the page).
Kathy, I also put up my own pepper sauce (very simply done), can my own Kosher Dills complete with garlic and cayenne peppers, and dry red cayenne peppers, then run them through a food processer to make them powdery so I can sprinkle some on certain dishes (I love a generous portion on pizzas). If you ever need your sinuses cleaned out, try making some of that some time.
You may even want to try wearing a dust mask working with that stuff.
I leave the making of Bread & Butter Pickles up to my better half.
Don, I love the chicken story! Do you ever grow habañeros? I planted a bush one year that produced hundreds of peppers, but not even Dear Husband (a/k/a Mr. Asbestos Mouth) could eat those suckers. We had to give away bags and bags of them.
I do need to get my soil tested. It will take some work, though; I have such a mishmash in my small space that one area will be dry and almost sandy, while two feet away will be muddy and clay-like. This gardening thing is complicated.
The Cherokee Purples are really, really good. I tried those a few years ago and just fell in love!
Dianne, I can’t wait to try them. I hope they do well down here in the heat. And that I can keep the birds and chipmunks away from them.
Kathy, Maui onions are cousins to Vidalia’s but sweeter, if you can believe it! Your life is incomplete until you have had a maui onion ring or tempura version. Send me an address off line and I will send you some seeds. Start them in regular potting mix. Mine came up quickly. Now if you can get me some vidalia seeds……
Also I have been using this stuff I got from the local nursery that breaks up clay like nobody’s business. You spray it on and it gets in there to crack the clay. Also the local rose garden uses some big type of sunflowers growing in their clay like soil to crack the clay and create air and space for worms to do their business.
Kathy, I just know you’ve been waiting with baited breath for me to answer and say that I’ve never planted habanera peppers, so now you can spit the worms out of your mouth (yes, I know how to spell “bated”).
Jalapeno peppers are hot enough for me because I like to be able to savor the flavor and not scald my mouth.
I’ve been outside doing a bit of gardening work and it takes me forever to get anything done while using a crutch.
A couple of years ago in late Fall a nice lady in Gaston NC sent me seeds for 2 varieties of oriental ornamental and edible hot peppers. I planted some in pots, they sprouted, and when cold weather came I brought them indoors until Spring when I reset them in the garden. They’re quite attractive either place. They change colors as they mature so that you have several colors of fruit on the bush at the same time — such as yellow, orange red, and purple. Sprigs of them make nice decorative additions to tables and other places. If you’re interested I’ll see if I can find out their names and the seed company they came from.
misswildthing, most of the worms I’m familiar with aren’t very large so they require very little space to “do their business”.
Don, crutches? Yes, please do send me the pepper names if you can lay your hands on the catalog. I’m wondering where mine is right now.
misswildthing, I’ll see what I can do about getting some Vidalia onion seeds for you. The clay in our yard is a piker next to the Georgia red clay I grew up with, but any excuse for sunflowers.
*goes off to ponder a sunflower bed in the back yard*
Kathy, I use only 1 crutch most of the time because I need at least one hand free. When doing gardening or yard work I sometimes use the tool I need as a crutch.
The only pepper name I could locate is “Chinese Five Color Hot Pepper” and it was sold by Reimer Seeds @ http://www.reimerseeds.com. The name of the other pepper may be there too as something like Chinese (or Oriental) Purple Pepper, or something similar.
I will be happy to accept any excess tomatoes as I don’t grow things myself.
Don, you are truly a dedicated gardener!
Jennifer, I’ll be happy to send extra tomatoes your way. (And if my crop fails — it wouldn’t be the first time — the JeffCo Farmers’ Market has wonderful Chandler Mountain tomatoes.)
Dianne is right. Cherokee Purples have a wonderful taste, although like a lot of heirlooms, they’re tough to grow. I consider them the best tomato. They look pretty until you cut them. The insides look like liver. I have a couple dozen on my window sill that I’m growing from seed, the should be ready for the garden in about a week.
Yikes — tough to grow. That doesn’t bode well for me. Ah, well, if mine don’t turn out, at least I know where I can get some.
Dear Husband is glad to see the endorsements. He’s picky about his tomatoes and a little suspicious of my experiments.
I sure hope you have a lovely crop of ‘maters, Kathy. I have become quite dependent upon the Farmers Market since I suck so bad at growing ANYTHING buy freaking yellow squash and cucumbers. I love both – but too much of a good thing…..
I have to laugh that Jon’s box of plants is STILL on the kitchen table – we’ve had baseball games every night this week. I probably should count on being a Farmers Market customer again this year!
Yeah, the Farmers’ Market is my fallback too.
Kathy, you’re not the only one blogging about gardening. Loretta Nall has a couple of posts.