Eggplant anyone?

Eggplant love the heat, but in my experience they really take off bearing good-sized fruit once the weather cools a little. Here's what I picked this weekend, along with some melons and chile peppers. There are at least as many left on the plants that I'll need to pick in a few days. 

My favorite use for eggplant is in eggplant parmigiana. This year I found a recipe using baked rounds that taste-wise I actually thought was on a par with traditional fried versions. As usual, I didn't follow the recipe exactly. Here's a link to the recipe I used although as usual, I didn't follow the recipe exactly. I only let the salted eggplant sit out for two hours; I probably used closer to two than one tablespoon of oil on the baking sheet, and I used prepackaged shredded cheese and bottled marina sauce rather than making my own.

Obviously there is far more eggplant here than I could use in a reasonable length of time, so I'll need to freeze some of it. I've tried several methods in the past, including blanching the rounds, roasting cubes, and cooking and mashing. Because I've been dissatisfied with the taste and texture of the blanched frozen rounds, this year I'm going to try salting, breading, and baking them as I would for fresh eggplant parmigiana, then freezing the cooked rounds.

Squash and eggplant

Yellow squash, and what was supposed to be a white eggplant and obviously is not.

Interestingly, this yellow squash was a transplant from a mound in another location. The squash that came up from seed in the original mound are doing rather poorly,while this one is flourishing. This eggplant is also doing much better than an older one that survived the winter.

In addition to the squash, I picked the first Armenian cucumber today from vines growing at the other end of this bed. I'll use it tonight, along with the last of the Purple Cherokee tomatoes, in tomato-and cucumber salad. There's no need to buy out-of-season lettuce for a salad when you have tomatoes and/or cucumbers.

Early June overview

Yesterday marked the first 110 degree temperature of the year, and it's expected to be equally hot today.

We're still harvesting tomatoes, although most of them have stopped setting new fruit. Cherry and yellow pear tomatoes continue to produce, and I've found producing volunteer tomatoes all over the place. There are two volunteer cherry tomato plants growing out of the rocks lining the streambed, an as-yet unidentified tomato growing out of a parsley plant, and numerous kinds hiding out in the zinnia jungle.

The transplanted yellow squash in the foreground bed produces a nice-size squash every other day or so. The original mound, which lies in the large bed behind Zinnialand, hasn't done as well. The squash it produces are rather small if picked before they begin to darken and harden. I've gotten about one grey zucchini a week from the same bed, and nothing so far from the pattypan. The acorn squash has produced a long vine along the edges of the pond, but no sign of fruit yet. I haven't seen any melons or Armenian cucumbers yet, either. That's interesting, because the bed is alive with bees, hummingbirds, and other pollinators attracted to the zinnias and the artichoke blossoms. Maybe they are too busy with those flowers to bother with the squash and melon blossoms.

Last year's Japanese eggplant is still producing, and the new one is setting fruit. It was supposed to be a white eggplant...one Japanese eggplant is plenty..but it's clearly not. Some of the strawberry plants are still alive and producing, and I actually found a few blackberries that ripened rather than drying up.

Sweet potatoes are showing up in last year's planting beds. Obviously I didn't remove them all when I harvested them last fall. There are enough of them that I decided not to plant new ones. We're still harvesting smallish red potatoes from the bed under the lemon tree, as well as small but edible red onions.

I'm pretty sure our sick apple tree isn't going to make it, as its stunted leaves have turned from green to brown. What remains of the old peach tree appears fairly healthy, although it is a shadow of its former self. We should get the first peaches from one of the new ones we planted last year later this month. And of course, there are plenty of green citrus fruits growing on our grapefruit, orange, lemon, and lime trees.

Today's harvest

This morning's pickings included a bowlful of yellow pear tomatoes, three Early Girls, one Purple Cherokee, one mystery tomato, the first two cherry tomatoes from the volunteer plants that are sprouting like weeds everywhere, and a nice batch of green beans. Not shown are the yellow squash and Japanese eggplant we picked and ate last night in an adaptation of this Julia Child recipe.

 I also found four strawberries and two blackberries which actually ripened instead of drying up. They were eaten before I could get them to pose for a picture.

May 1 Overview

As the peak gardening season begins in other parts of the country, it's winding down here. I removed the last of the broccoli and cilantro yesterday, and planted another melon in their place. I've stopped harvesting asparagus and let the ferns grow to provide food to sustain the plant for next year's crop. Very few lemons remain on the tree, the first flush of rose blooms have come and gone, and nasturtiums and petunias are pretty scraggly looking. In their place, zinnias, marigolds, alyssum, coreopsis, and galliardia are appearing. Hollyhocks are still going strong, and sweet potato vines are spreading into the streambed and the floor of the gazebo,

I harvested the first of the green beans, tomatoes, and eggplant this week, and should be picking yellow squash in another week. I've picked the half-dozen apricots our young tree produced, along with about two dozen smallish peaches. The remaining ones are even smaller, so I think I'll let the birds enjoy them. There are about a half-dozen green plums on our Santa Rosa plum, which is somewhat of an improvement over most years, and dozens of developing Asian pears. The apple tree is, surprisingly, still alive, but unlikely to produce any fruit.

The black metal structure in the upper left is the framework for one of our two portable gazebos that we use to shade the side patio in summer. We have to take down the canopy when the wind kicks up, as it has been doing for the past week. One of our future projects will be to replace these with a permanent pergola, which should be more functional, attractive, and stable.

More baby vegetables

There are a couple of small yellow squash on the plant in the foreground, and I believe a zucchini on the upper plant. It's hard to tell when they're at this stage, because what looks like a fruit at the base of the female squash flower will wither away if it isn't pollinated. I haven't seen any male flowers open, but they must have at some point because the yellow squash at least are definitely past the embryonic stage, not only on this plant, but also on one I transplanted to another area. No sign of fruit yet on the acorn or flying saucer squash plants.

I picked enough green beans for a meal and about five small Japanese eggplant. This is the first time I've tried to get a second crop from a plant that came back from the roots after winter cold seemingly destroyed it. I'm not sure if they are so small because of that, or because it's not really hot yet. Eggplant really like the heat. When everything else suffers, eggplant, okra, and sweet potato vines keep going.

Baby vegetables

We're seeing the beginnings of green beans and yellow squash from our February plantings, as well as several Japanese eggplants on a plant that lived through the winter. Zinnias are coming up everywhere in this bed. I regret having to pull healthy, attractive plants up, but if I don't they will take over and crowd out the beans and squash. I once heard it said that the definition of a weed is a plant growing where you don't want it, but I still hate to pull up zinnias.

The morning after

Subtract pea vines and add yellow squash and white eggplant transplants, along with a sprinkling of bloodmeal and a bag of mulch.

I dug up the yellow squash plant from a mound elsewhere in the yard where too many seeds came up. I haven't tried white eggplant before, but when I saw the plants at Home Depot, I thought I'd give it a try this year. Last year's Japanese eggplant is still alive, but the Black Beauty plant didn't make it.

Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something that needs weeding

Well, maybe not exactly borrowed, but my friend Lisa gave me two plants from a pony pack of a kind of squash that's new to me, a pattypan variety that look like little flying saucers. I found them a home in an unplanted spot of this raised bed.

Behind the newly planted squash plants is an artichoke I planted last year, and a Japanese eggplant that made it through the winter and is showing evidence of its resurrection by its vigorous new growth. And unfortunately, there is also a lot of Bermuda grass and mint that needs to be removed!

February overview

I'd originally planned to post "overview" pictures taken around the first of each month, but didn't do it because the yard was such a mess. Mike rebuilt the streambed between the two ponds, which necessitated taking all the rocks out of it and there were piles of rock and dirt everywhere.

We are harvesting lots of citrus, broccoli, and sugar peas now, and the asparagus is beginning to appear. We're getting ready for spring planting, which we usually do around Valentine's Day as it typically marks the end of any danger of frost. I did decide to chance it and put it one tomato plant last weekend, along with parsley and oregano transplants.

This year's winter was relatively mild and there has been little frost damage. A Japanese eggplant is putting out new growth, as is one of the tomato plants, and there are blossoms on the April-fruiting peach tree.

The morning after

Eggplant and tomatoes are not a pretty picture today, but I did manage to salvage a few.

Early November overview

Most of the deciduous fruit trees have lost their leaves, but the citrus is beginning to show signs of ripening.

Round 2 of the zinnias are still growing strong and attract dozens of butterflies; the petunia transplants are doing well, and most of the nasturtiums have come up. Roses are beginning to recover from their summer slump and are flowering again.

The broccoli plants and sugar snap peas are strongly established, but of the salad greens I planted, only arugula came up. Tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants are still setting fruit. I dug up the sweet potato bed and we've been working on preparing it for new plantings. We'll probably try strawberries in that location, this time with a fall rather than spring planting.

Most of the garlic cloves have sent up shoots, and the basil plant is still healthy; cilantro is also coming up in several places and this time I know what it is.

We're in the process of taking out the grass pathways among the raised beds and will replace them with crushed granite. Hopefully that will cut down on the continuing battle we've had with Bermuda grass invading the raised beds, as well as decrease our overall water usage. We had mixed feelings about doing that, because the grass is attractive and soft to walk on barefoot, but it really has been a problem to keep out of places we don't want it.

Eggplant harvest

I harvested Japanese eggplant today. Would you believe all these  came from one plant?

Survivor (Phoenix style)

Summer is for my gardening motivation and success as winter is in other climates. Yes, I know it's theoretically possible to both plant and harvest something every month of the year here, but it is not enjoyable this time of year. High temperatures are still well over a hundred, and many days the monsoon adds humidity to the discomfort level. So I don't do a lot, and the garden shows it.

The largest plant in the foreground is a cherry-type tomato that came up as a volunteer, and deserves the title Survivor of the Summer. Although it currently isn't setting fruit, it is much healthier than most of our other edibles and I am hopeful that it will begin to produce again when the temperatures cool down a bit. Most of the other tomato plants I planted last February haven't made it this far.

We are also still harvesting Japanese eggplant and Armenian cucumbers. Unlike me, those plants seem to love the summer heat. The bed in the background has been overtaken by zinnias, which are on their second round this year. (They happily reseed themselves without much effort on my part). The sweet potato vines around the gazebo are going crazy, covering a fair portion of the gazebo floor and rooting themselves in the streambed.

I'm a little worried about our apricot, peach, and nectarine trees, particularly our oldest, largest apricot tree. They have lost most of their leaves, which is not uncommon for them to do this time of year, but I don't see any new leaves coming out on the big apricot tree yet, and that might indicate a larger problem. The leaves look as if they are suffering from salt burn, which is more likely in the summer when we have to water more frequently. Texas root rot is also a concern in our area, and there isn't a cure for that, other than not to plant fruit trees.

We (or rather Mike, who is doing the heavy digging) are currently preparing the raised beds for fall planting. That means digging out as much of the Bermuda grass as possible, working in soil sulfur to help alleviate the high soil alkalinity, adding nitrogen and phosphate, and checking that the drip irrigation system works properly. If you're interested in doing some fall planting of your own, here's a link to the Master Gardener publication, "Ten Steps to a Successful Vegetable Garden".

I'm looking forward to cooler weather when I can once again enjoy myself in the garden.

Things that grow well in the heat (3)

I haven't neglected the garden quite as much as I have this blog, but close. It's still far too hot to enjoy working outside, with highs still over 110 almost daily. This time of year, we also add humidity to the mix. It's definitely not a dry heat....it feels more like a sauna than an oven outdoors.

Most vegetables have long given up any attempt to stay alive, but Armenian cucumbers and eggplants apparently love the heat. I picked these Japanese eggplant from one plant today, and the Armenian cucumber was hiding in an unexpected location, allowing it to grow to giant size before I spotted it. The nice thing about Armenian cucumbers (which are more closely related to melons than traditional cucumbers) is that they still taste good even at this size. They never turn bitter and don't require peeling. Just wash, slice, maybe take the seeds out when they're this big, and enjoy dipping into a favorite veggie dip.

I usually make crockpot eggplant parmigiana with the eggplant. It's not necessary to peel or fry the eggplant; just slice into rounds, put in the crockpot and add a jar of spaghetti sauce. About an hour or so from serving time, top with grated mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. However, since Mike is trying to restrict his sodium intake, I went looking on the internet for recipes that didn't use processed spaghetti sauce or a lot of cheese. I found this recipe for a vegan eggplant stew and decided to use it as a base for tonight's dinner. Instead of canned tomatoes, I'm using ones from our garden than I froze earlier this summer, and I'm going to add some fresh basil (another plant that likes the heat) in addition to the Italian seasoning suggested in the recipe. And since we aren't philosophically vegan, I'll add a little cheese towards the end of its cooking time.

Gardens do not thrive on neglect

We just returned from a week in California leading a group of young people to work on repairs to a couple of aging city church buildings and some houses of low income and/or elderly members of the community. It was nice to sleep in a bed instead of a church floor surrounded by giggly teenagers, but it was not nice to take a stroll around our backyard garden! If a giant asteroid hit the earth and wiped out most life, I don't think the last thing alive would be cockroaches...it would be Bermuda grass. Yikes! I am not looking forward to the task of getting it out of the raised beds.

We have everything on drip irrigation, but this time of year I usually do a daily walkabout and provide supplemental water on an as-needed basis. Other than the Bermuda grass invasion, most things are still alive. I haven't seen any major casualties, other than the tomatoes, but I don't think I can blame their demise on lack of water. Because we took our portable pop-up canopies on the trip to shade people,  the poor tomatoes had none, and they really need it this time of year. There are some yellow squash and Japanese eggplant which grew to a harvestable size while we were gone, and the sweet potato vines are thriving. There are nice long vines on the winter squash, yardlong beans, zipper cream peas, and Armenian cucumbers, but no fruit yet.

One of the churches where our team works has a number of pocket gardens on the property, worked by people who live in a nearby subsidized apartment building populated by refugees from Eastern Europe and Asia. Many of these refugees suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome, and gardening is therapeutic as well as a source of economical and nutritious food. Some plots are maintained by homeless people. The church has a "Co-Op Cafe" serving the homeless which utilizes some of the produce. Here's a picture of some of these pocket gardens at the edge of the church parking lot. Anywhere there is a patch of dirt, someone will use it to grow food! I'd love to see this idea spread to other communities.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

We returned from a weekend in cool San Diego to find that the Phoenix summer heat has set in in earnest. 110 degrees, according to our outdoor thermometer. There's not much that can be done in the garden this time of year, other than try to keep things alive.

We're still getting lots of tomatoes from fruit that set before the heat arrived. The new varieties seem to be a definite "go", with larger tomatoes and less evidence of fruit splitting, blossom end rot. Cilantro is dead, but basil is healthy. The zucchini, yellow, and winter squash plants, as well as the melon plants, are still disappointing small for this late in the season. None of the eggplants I attempted to start from seed have survived. but the lone Japanese eggplant planted as a transplant is fruiting prolifically. I'm not too bothered, because I still have eggplant and squash in the freezer from last year's bumper crop. The Armenian cucumber, yardlong beans, and the few zipper cream pea vines that came up look fairly comfortable in their semi-shady location under the lemon tree. Nectarines are beginning to ripen, although the fruits are rather small, and watercress has virtually taken over the streambed between ponds. Zinnias and coreopsis are seemingly unaffected and look great; the marigolds are wilting a bit.

At this time of year, I garden in five-minute intervals. I used the time today to cut down hollyhocks that had ceased to bloom and set the plants aside to dry and become flower mulch. This year we had one deep-red plant that I hope will appear again next year.

More weeding and a strawberry update

I weeded the second half of this combined bed today. In addition to Bermuda grass, it contains several other troublesomely invasive weeds including mint and nutsedge. I made the mistake of planting mint last summer (you can read about that here, and also see how the bed looked last fall), but I have no idea how the nutsedge managed to sneak in. All three plants reproduce quite prolifically by stolons and runners, and don't even need to resort to the bother of producing flowers and seeds, although the sedge and mint can do that as well. The underground stolons are designed to break off easily when disturbed, which means that when I try to pull them out, some little piece is inevitably left behind. Each little piece will  then regenerate Hydra-like into many more obnoxious plants.

This bed contains small fig and almond trees and strawberry, artichoke, rosemary, Japanese eggplant, and pepper plants. The hollyhocks just appear as if by magic everywhere in the yard, and I leave them alone if they aren't crowding out something else. I think they may have actually helped the strawberry plants by shading them a little. It will be interesting to see if the strawberry plants survive the summer as most gardeners treat them as annuals here and replant each fall. We're still getting a few strawberries each day, most of which do not make it into the house. I ate the three I picked today while I was doing battle with the Bermuda grass.

Green beans

I went out today to pick green beans for tomorrow's Thanksgiving dinner, and found more than I expected...and a few more eggplant I'd forgotten to bring in when I pulled out the plants.

While I was picking beans, I noticed quite a few larkspur seedlings coming up. I'll leave them alone and see what happens. They aren't getting much sun hidden away beneath the beans, but the beans won't last forever and it will be nice to have something else to take their place.

Time to uproot, time to plant

There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot

Today I pulled up these eggplants. It was time. I planted six plants from a pony pack in late spring, and although the plants looked surprisingly healthy throughout the long hot summer, they didn't produce much until September, and really took off once the weather began to cool in October. In addition to enjoying eggplant lasagna, eggplant parmigiana, and eggplant souffle during the past few months, I froze several quart bags and gave some away. Although the plants look as healthy as ever, they have ceased bearing as the days have shortened and the nighttime temperatures have dropped. Therefore I decided  it was time to let them go and plant something else. They really had extensive root systems...it took some effort to pull them out.

What to plant? According to my gardening calendar, mid-November possibilities include transplants of broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, chard, kohlrabi, and lettuces, and seeds of beets, carrots, collard greens, endive, kale, mustard greens, peas, radishes, rutabagas, spinach, and turnips.