When you can pick the tomatoes out of your garden.

Bring them into your kitchen.

Core them.

Put them in boiling water for 2-3 minutes.

Transfer them into a bowl of ice water.

The skin just slides right off.

Holding the tomato in your hand,

Insert it into a large freezer ziplock bag

and squeeze!

Do this over and over with 10-12 tomatoes.

Then put in about a TBS canning salt.

Close the bag. Squeeze it around to mix it up.

Put it in the freezer.

Wala - tomatoes for the rest of the year for your soups, chili, and sauces!

‘Tis the season for cucumbers… fa la la la la la la la la! Those four HUGE cucumbers that you see sitting in my kitchen sink came from my garden not mere minutes prior to taking this picture! It’s amazing how FAST cucumbers grow - because I was just out there two days ago and they weren’t big enough to be picked yet - and now just LOOK at them! Amazing what a day of rain can do to those cucs! They literally grow inches overnight - so BEWARE the cucumbers and make sure you check on them every day, because they may very well surprise you!

As it stands.. I have cucumbers growing outta my ears! I think I planted too many this year - going by the cucumbers-in-waiting that are still out there on the vine? I have enough to keep the entire neighborhood in cucumbers from now ’till Christmas! Fa la la la la la la la la!

A random reader emailed me asking to see pictures of the leaves that I posted about in my Garden Dust post. I mentioned that I noticed small holes in some of the leaves on my bean plants - - so here is the results of the mighty leaf muncher:

When I first planted my vegetable garden, I had my Dad come over and check it out. He is the Garden Doctor, as far as I’m concerned. He was thrilled with my new garden and gave some pieces of advice for the season.

One of those pieces of advice concerned garden pests and diseases that can hurt my plants. Mostly such insects as aphids, cabbage worms, harlequin bugs, bean beetles, Japanese beetles, stink bugs, thrips, and more. And diseases like bacterial spot, blights, and powdery mildew.

My natural question was, “Well, Garden Doctor Dad - how do I control these things?? Can I?”

He told me about a product called “Garden Dust” that he uses on his plants (and flowers) every year to keep the insects and diseases at bay. He told me to apply the garden dust the very MINUTE I start seeing holes in the leaves of my plants - - because that generally means there is some bug.. or two or three.. munching away at my precious vegetables and flowers!

Today, in my vegetable garden - I noticed that my pole bean plants had quite a few little holes munched in the leaves - - so, luckily, I had followed my Dad’s advice and purchased a few containers of Garden Dust. I went to the garage and got the container and ‘dusted’ all my plants in the garden.

Hopefully, this will now keep the little munchers at bay and AWAY from my plants!

This year, I planted 8 cucumber plants in our new vegetable garden.

A week later - they turned pure white, then they turned brown, dried out and withered away. I had to dig them up and replace them with new cucumber plants - which after a week are doing extremely well at the moment. They’re deep green and nice and perky in their new home.

But why did my old cucumber plants turn white?

I’ve found two possible scenarios:

1.) The soil is too nitrogen rich. When we prepared the garden - we mixed in rotted manure into the soil and planted the cucumbers in it - - along with vegetable slow-release fertilizer. This proved to be too much fertilizer with the manure and slow-release fertilizer combined. solution: when the plants died.. I dug them up.. made a large hole around the area and filled that hole with regular topsoil (non fertilized) then mixed that soil with the surrounding fertilized soil. This mixed in good nutrients, but decreased the nitrogen content of the surrounding soil. I then replanted the cucumbers.

2.) the very night I planted the cucumbers… it got down to 38 degrees overnight. While that is not freezing temperatures - there is a such thing as a ‘chilling injury’ that can occur in cucumber plants… in zones that are cooler. It happens in zones where the temperatures warm prematurely (in Wisconsin that would be early -mid April) - - then gardeners (like ME!) get anxious to plant and they go out and get their crops in the ground - - then the temperatures dip to an ‘almost’ freezing temperature.. but not quite freezing. The chilling effect occurs: “Exposure to chilling
temperatures results in increased ethylene production and leakage of cell membranes. The degree of chilling injury depends on the temperature, the duration of chilling, and other factors such as relative humidity and soil moisture. Because chilling results in cell leakage, damage to plants can stress tissues. These include loss of turgor (wilting or drooping leaves) and leaf scorch, appearing as a whitish ring around the leaf margins. Other symptoms include reduced growth rate after warming and plant yellowing.” [source]

So - my mystery white cucumbers may be solved with one, or both, of the solutions above. Either way - I replanted and they are currently doing extremely well - - let’s hope that continues throughout the season!

I’ve got the garden planted - now I, like every other gardener, am patiently awaiting harvest time! There is NOTHING better than eating your own home grown vegetables, fresh from your own garden!

Here’s one of my absolute favorite garden recipes:

MARINATED TOMATO AND CUCUMBER SALAD
4 lg. tomatoes, cut into wedges
2 cucumbers, peeled & cubed
1 lg. Vidalia onion, peeled & sliced
1/2 c. olive or salad oil
1/4 c. cider vinegar
1 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. oregano

Put prepared vegetables in large salad bowl. In smaller bowl combine remaining ingredients with wire whip until salt and sugar dissolve. Pour dressing over vegetables and let stand in refrigerator about 1 hour before serving for best flavor.

From the garden: Tomato, cucumber, vidalia onion, oregeno

From the grocery: Sugar, cidar vinegar, salt, olive oil

Man, I cannot wait!

Thought we would join in the Thursday Thirteen fun this week. Instead of 13 things about Me - I have created The Garden 13 with 13 interesting gardening tips and tricks I’ve come across over the past week.

To start off our second Garden 13 - we’re talkin’ tomatoes! I’m a BIG fan of all types of tomatoes and have planted 6 different varieties in my own garden. I’m listing them here - along with 7 other fabulous varieties that I wish I would have planted, but did not have the room

Here are 13 fabulous tomato varieties (the first 6 are in my garden):

1. Beefsteak Tomatoes - This surprisingly compact plant (20-24″) is just loaded with large flavorful tomatoes. Combines big meaty fruit (8-12 oz.) and early maturity on a dwarf plant, perfect for a small garden and patio containers. Yeilds perfect slices for sandwiches!





2. Roma Tomatoes - Bright red, plum shaped, paste-type fruits with meaty interiors. Determinate plants. Ready to pick about 76 days after plants are set out. GARDEN HINTS: Fertilize when first fruits form to increase yield. Water deeply once a week during very dry weather.





3. Cherry Tomatoes - Scarlet, cherry-sized fruits are produced in long clusters right up to frost. 70 days. Bursting with sugary flavor. Scarlet, cherry-sized fruits are produced in long clusters right up to frost. Grow on stakes or fence.





4. Grape tomatoes - these are my favorite! I can pick these and just eat them right off the vine! nce upon a time, grape tomatoes were considered a specialty item. Now, as the word about grape tomatoes is catching on and are more mainstream.





5. Fourth of July Tomato - The first tomato to ripen by Independence Day! Be the first on your block to have vine ripened red, luscious tomatoes by the Fourth of July. Enjoy the plentiful harvest about 49 days after setting plants in the garden. Indeterminate plants produce fruits that average 4 ounces all season long. YUM!





6. Tomato Viva Italia Hybrid - The best tomato for soups and ketchup. Vigorous plants yield an abundance of 3 oz. fruits. Disease resistant.





7. Tomato Heatwave - Grow great tasting tomatoes in the most intense summer heat even at 100°F. Round, 6-7 oz. fruits on com pact plants are extremely disease resistant.





8. Tomato Sweet Tangerine Hybrid - Gorgeously golden and astonishingly sweet. These delectable tomatoes also ripen early for so large a fruit. The determinate plants set very heavy crops, even in hot weather. Strong disease resistance. Ready to harvest in 68 days.





9. Yellow Pear Tomato - This extremely old variety makes a vigorous plant, which bears enormous numbers of bright yellow, bite-sized fruit. The flavor is deliciously tangy. Perfect for summer party hors d’oeuvres.





10. Pink Belgium Tomato - A succulent and enormous dark 1-1/2 to 2 lb. pink tomato that many gardeners prefer to the more acidic varieties. The flavor is sweet and very mild, and the large fruits are very attractive. Indeterminate. Pink-skinned tomatoes occur as a result of a clear skin over red flesh. (Ordinary red tomatoes have yellow skin over red flesh.) When ripe fruits retain green pigment, tomatoes take on purple and brownish hues.





11. Brandywine Tomato - Exceptionally delicious pink fruits, up to 1 lb. each, grow on indeterminate plants.





12. Brandy Boy Tomato - Many gardeners consider Brandywine heirloom tomato (above) to be the best tasting of all tomatoes. But as all tomato connoisseurs know, Brandywine has its drawbacks. The tomatoes are often misshapen with uneven shoulder ripening. The plants grow wildly, set fruit late in the summer and yield a sparse crop at best. But not Brandy Boy! Our new hybrid Brandywine produces loads of large pink fruits, up to 5½ inches across, that ripen evenly, with soft heirloom texture, thin skin and that same incredible Brandywine flavor. Better yet the plants sport an upright more manageable growth habit. Brandy Boy is an indeterminate variety, ready to pick 75-78 days after setting out plants. If you love tomatoes like we do, and especially the rich, tangy-sweet taste of Brandywine, don’t miss Brandy Boy!





13. Tomato Tomande - Tomato connoisseurs rave about the flavor of these broad-shouldered beauties. Fleshy, juicy and flavorful,’Tomande’ will treat gourmet gardeners with both heirloom taste and abundant hybrid yields.

Happy Gardening!

We spent the day today started a new vegetable garden in our backyard. I wanted just a small garden in this spot, for starters. I started by following my own advice and graphed the garden out on a piece of paper first. Once I graphed out the size of it - - which turned out to be 12 foot by 15 foot . . I then listed out each of the vegetables that I wanted to plant in this garden.

My list:

1. Tomatoes
2. Cherry Tomatoes
3. Grape Tomatoes
4. Green Beans
5. Peas
6. Onions
7. Carrots
8. Broccoli
9. Cauliflower
10. Cucumbers
11. Lettuce
12. Various Herbs

Once I had that list - I researched each plant to determine the spacing needs for each plant. This way - I knew ahead of time how many plants I could put in a row, and how much space I would need. Some plants are crawlers (cucumbers) - - others are root plants that don’t need a lot of room (carrots, onions) - - others are climbers needing trellises or cages (tomatoes, beans, peas).

Armed with this knowledge - we set about the task of creating the bed, first. We chose a nice location in the yard that was sure to recieve a good 6-8 hours of direct sunlight during the day. We used steaks and string to mark off the exact area we needed and started digging the edge.

Once we had the edges defined, we tilled the ground about 12 inches deep. Turning up all the soild and grass. Luckily, we didn’t find any stones or rocks in the ground at all - - we found real excellent and rich sandy soil that would be perfect for our garden.

Once the area was tilled - - we removed the top 3 inches of soil from the area and replaced it with a compost mixture with rotten manure for a good fertilizer base.

The whole process of edging the area, digging it up, tilling it, removing the top 3 inches and replacing with compost took us approximately 4 hours to complete. We would have kept going, except the skies were warning us to pack it in and head inside. We have quite a doozy of a storm coming our way!

Tomorrow, weather providing - we will finish the bed off by edging it with the brick that we bought from our local garden center:

We decided to put an edge around the garden to keep a good separation of garden and grass - since our grass is very rich, thick and fast growing - we don’t want it growing into the garden!

I’ll post updates on our garden progress as time goes on.