Getting Our Vitamins

They say you should "eat the rainbow," and our garden is helping us complete the task. Today I harvested 1 smallish beefsteak tomato, yellow pear tomatoes, serrano chilies, and 2 early long purple eggplants:
The eggplant plants were started from seed ages ago (February 22, to be exact - but I didn't give them enough bottom heat to start). Having never grown eggplant before, I relied on the advice of The Internet to know when to harvest them. Apparently eggplant, like bell pepper but unlike tomato, can be harvested somewhat early to ensure tenderness. Per The Internet's advice, I pressed the side of these two eggplants, and there was a little give, which gave back, apparently meaning they are good to go. If there is no give, don't pick them yet. If it doesn't give back, proceed straight to the compost pile. Also, it's too late if they are no longer shiny.

So much of gardening is figuring out what works in your zone and your yard, with your level of care and skill. I generally try things twice before moving on. I pulled up a bunch of shallots today that were all TINY, as you see above. I planted these mid-November (advised time for my climate), and supposedly they would be ready in 3-4 months. They all multiplied (I planted one set [clove] every six inches, and each set turned into a small bunch like this), but didn't get big enough to really use. I think I planted them too deep. I'm going to replant the biggest of these later this fall, after drying them for storage.

The watermelon I showed y'all awhile back (the only one we have on our one vine) hasn't gotten much bigger, but has gotten darker in color as it's supposed to. This is a Sugar Baby - can anyone tell me when I should harvest it? I'm confused because the tendril is brown, but the melon is so small...

I was wise enough to only plant one hot pepper plant, and we still have way more hot peppers than we can use!! I'm going to try preserving some as Martha Stewart advises (chopped, seeds and all, layered with coarse salt, and stored in the fridge).

The bell pepper plants (in a separate bed so they won't be hot - hopefully) are huge and finally producing baby peppers.

I have some normal cucumbers growing on a fence, and then I have this monster lemon cucumber plant taking over a whole raised bed:

It has been very drought-tolerant and free of the powdery mildew problem cucumbers often have here. Here is a LC that is ready for harvest:

If you harvest them when they just start to turn yellow, they'll be sweeter and more tender. Yum!

Breakin' the Law, Breakin' the Law

The prior owners of our house planted azaleas and crape myrtles on the sunny side. Naturally, if one of those is thriving, the other will be suffering. The crape myrtles love the sun, while the azaleas have suffered from it and NEVER bloomed! Every year I think they might bloom so I hesitate to move them. This past weekend, I broke a deep south gardening law and decided that even though it's August and hot as an oven, it was time.

KMG recently linked to this article about keeping your garden healthy, and it points out that azaleas in too much sun will suffer from illness and disease. Well, you know mine have suffered from disease. These leaf spots appear to be indicative of illness, in the form of sun scald - see the burnt-looking tips and discoloration? (sorry the picture is fuzzy). There is a very similar picture in the article.

I moved another ill-planted azalea to the back yard a year or so ago, and it's looking healthier, though it didn't bloom this year either. Hopefully it and the new two transplants will eventually recover and do what they're supposed to do!

In place of the two azaleas, I eschewed planting another evergreen shrub, and instead planted some cheap-o perennials. Yes, I know, it's the wrong time of year to establish perennials, and that's why they're so cheap right now, but I couldn't resist -- these pictured were 1/2 off (and I bought another 12 daylilies at Lowe's last weekend for fifty cents each!):

In the shrub's hole went: unknown butter yellow daylily, pineapple sage, red hot poker, veronica. We bought the veronicas specifically because the ones at the nursery were COVERED with bees! I saw a butterfly hurry over to them as soon as we got them out of the car - awesome!

On a totally unrelated note, after loads of cherry tomatoes, I finally got my first red/normal-sized tomato this weekend, and it was so delicious in caprese salad with basil from the garden, too! Doesn't it just look like summer?

Mexico, Part 2: Excursions

We had a really fun day with Edventure Tours out of Tulum. I highly recommend them!

We started the day at the Tulum ruins:

The main temple:

About half of the ruins are roped off, but you can still get up close with a lot of them. Think this was a bed?!

Apparently this is how they weed/edge in Mexico -- with a machete!!

The city was surrounded by stone walls and the sea. Here is Scott in one of the entrances through the original wall:

Next, we went zip-lining. It was SO fun!

Scott went upside-down!

Here we are canoeing back from where the zip-line ends:

This picture is a little fuzzy, but look close and you can see me jumping off a cliff into this cenote!

My understanding is that cenotes (seh-note-ays) are basically sinkholes in limestone that are filled with fresh water. They are clear and cool.

Scott feeding Chato, a pet monkey:

We took this boat out to sea in Akumel:

To snorkel with these guys! We also snorkeled in cenotes in caves (at "Dos Ojos") - here is the entrance:

It was a little scary and a little cold, but overall amazing.
Our last stop of the day was snorkeling in this lagoon, where fresh and salt water meet. The water gets fuzzy and cool where the two meet.

We loved Mexico and loved Edventure Tours. We'll be back!

Mexico, Part 1: Nature Scenes

Just like in the Virgin Islands, giant lizards abound in coastal Mexico. These two were fighting, in case you can't tell!
View from a cliff at the Tulum ruins:

This tree had pretty peach-colored flowers and some sort of fruit:

Here is a shot of the whole tree. This is from our resort, Secrets Maroma. It is a new resort and the landscaping is still very young.

Another picture from the ruins. I wouldn't have minded being a watchman for this walled city!

I believe this is cigar plant:

Of course, palm trees were everywhere:

Are the white bead-like things seeds?

Here is more of the landscaping at our resort, which was very typical of the area:

The beach at our resort was so nice. Wide, with unbelievably soft sand. Clear, warm water. Ahhh!!!

HUGE Bougainvillea at the Tulum ruins (yes, Scott is pretending to be a monkey).

This is from the Tulum ruins. In retrospect, I'm not sure if it's a flowering shrub or a vine in a shrub.
These were everywhere, and huge. They reminded me of Dirt Princess - isn't this a cahaba lily?

Stay tuned for Part 2: Adventures (including a real monkey!)

Guess who's back, back again...

We're back from a great time in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico! I'll post pictures of our trip soon. Apparently (thankfully) it rained while we were gone, and the edible garden was in good shape upon our return. Check out our sugar baby:
I swear it is 10x larger than when we left!
I also had a bowlful of yellow pear tomatoes to harvest, and many more are on the way:
Remember this picture from the post about squash vine borers?
This is the SAME PLANT, a month or so later. Can you believe it healed that well?! I just removed the borers and mounded wet dirt over the wound. This plant wasn't the farthest gone, and not all of them survived, but it's still pretty amazing!
Unfortunately, the whole succession-planting thing didn't work -- I found another borer in a vine from round 2 of planting today. Oh well, at least we know the vines can survive if treated early and often!

Have a great week, y'all! I'll be around to catch up on your blogs soon.

Sing-A-Long: Put the Lime in the Coconut

Do y'all know that song? Maybe not... Anyway, it has two meanings for me about now:

1. Check out this dainty Coconut Lime Coneflower that is blooming right now. Like the frilly pink coneflower I featured recently, it's small in stature, took a couple of years to do right, and now is remarkably heat- and drought-resistant. And so pretty!
2. I'm leaving for a place where I can drink the song's namesake tropical drink tomorrow: Mexico! WOO-HOO! See y'all next weekend! Have a great week!

Savory and Sweet Summery Pies

Every gardener ends up with too much of something, such as the notorious zucchini. Here are a couple of family recipes I make to use up some of the excess:

1. Tomato Tart -- this is me and my mom's adaptation of a Junior League of Jackson recipe (original recipe is in the cookbook "Come On In"). It helps me use up basil when I'm tired of pesto! You'll need to preheat the oven to 350.
Ingredients:
Defrosted frozen pie crust (not deep dish)
8 oz. shredded mozzarella
Fresh basil, sliced in a chiffonade
Olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
Tomatoes, thick sliced and drained on paper towels

Put the mozzarella in the crust, then top with basil. Top that with the tomatoes as shown below.

Drizzle a little olive oil over the tomatoes and then sprinkle with S&P. Bake for about 35 minutes. It will need to sit for a few minutes before slicing, and you should drain off any excess water. It's also great leftover, cold, room temperature, or hot. I slice this in about 10 slices (slivers, really) for a party, four slices for a meal. 2. Apple Crisp -- OK, this isn't a pie, but it's in a pie pan! Anyway, my mom has three apple trees that produce "cooking apples," which seem to be the only kind of apples that grow well in the deep south. She gives me BAGS of them every summer, so I made up this recipe a few weeks ago, and it is delicious. First, preheat your oven to 350.
I combined diced cooking apples with some white sugar and fresh lemon juice. You could leave out the white sugar if you were using granny smith apples instead. Spread this mixture in a pie pan or similar shallow dish.

Combine the following and spoon atop the apple mix: chopped pecans, cinnamon, brown sugar, a little flour, a pinch of salt, small chunks of butter.

Bake for about 35 minutes. Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream.

What do you make or do with your excess garden produce?