Incoming! Garden Explosions

Published in Highgrove Happenings - July 2008 edition

Between the yellow squash, the patty pan squash and the cucumbers, with a few peppers and onions thrown in and a side order of tomatoes and cucumbers, the garden is starting to explode! I have probably already harvested 20 lbs of summer squash since the beginning of June – we ate a LOT of it but I gave some away too. My Sunday School class is always good to eat up my garden surplus or someone at work will put their hand up if I say “anybody want some ____ (fill in the blank)?” If you’re like us, half the fun of a vegetable garden is sharing what you have extra. Some other ideas when your garden produces TOO bountifully – look around your neighborhood. Is there an older person who loves fresh vegetables but maybe can’t afford to buy them as often as they would like, or is no longer physically able to plant a garden? What about that family with five kids? Anything will help these days with the soaring price of everything. Local Food Banks often will accept home grown produce as well. Get creative and share your harvest!

This month I wanted to mention all the specialty garden clubs that are out there in our region. You can find a group to match nearly any particular garden fancy you have. The Riverside and San Bernardino area has two rose clubs, a succulent and cactus club, an African Violet club, a rare fruit growers club, an orchid club – you get the picture. To find the meeting times of these groups, check the Saturday “Local Plus” section of the Riverside Press. It also lists plant sales and shows and is a good resource for anything special you are looking for. The Sunset Magazine website is also a good resource for listings of specialty nurseries – that perfect camellia, for example, or a special cymbidium orchid. You may have to drive a little, but believe me, it can definitely be worth it. However, don’t fall into the trap of trying to grow something that is not suited to our hot dry inland climate. I have pined for years for a fuchsia, but every time I think I am going to try one, Joan reminds me that they really are not meant to live in Riverside unless you happen to have a cool damp microclimate in your yard (we don’t). My friend Eula can grow maidenhair ferns in her yard in Riverside for this very reason – they turn crisp out here in Highgrove! I am writing this during that hot spell in mid-June, and am having trouble keeping ANYTHING alive!

But back to the garden. We have not had good squash or cucumbers for several years because I tried to grow transplants from local nurseries. After the second try and failure of this system last year, I said that was enough, and vowed to plant my own seeds this summer. So far, it has been a resounding success. I planted bush cukes and pickling cukes from seed and they are much more resistant to the heat than the Japanese cucumbers I had planted last year, not to mention much more compact and less expensive. The squash I planted has also been very successful. The last couple of years all I had was scrawny little yellow crookneck which never got big and a small handful of patty pan, and zucchini that simply dried up on the vine and never developed. Eggplant is one of the most faithful and successful of summer crops (in addition to tomatoes) and planting from a small transplant has not proved to be problematical for either one of these crops. We also have a burgeoning crop of butternut and buttercup squash (both winter squash types) which we are looking forward to for storage this fall. Joan is growing Roma tomatoes to dry as we are big dried tomato fans but hate to pay $3.00 for a small package! After the tomato salmonella scare in early June, I am just as glad we planted so many!

Fruit-wise, the peaches are doing well. We thinned them mercilessly this year and it made a BIG difference. This is very hard to do but has a very good effect on the size and quality of the fruit. We did the same with the plums. Both are larger and looking excellent. We have Thompson seedless and Red Flame grapes coming too. Apricots are a battle – we ended up with about 25 marble sized apricots for the whole tree. They did taste good though. Down the street on Center, there is a tree with apricots dropping – I may just go by to ask if I can have some! Our Texas blackberries were a little seedy, but very tasty and we harvested a pretty good crop.

Here’s my recipe for Grilled Vegetables – this couldn’t be easier or more delicious.

Cut up a variety of fresh vegetables. Cut summer squash lengthwise, cut thick slices of peeled eggplant, wedges of peppers, thick slices of sweet onion. Heat your grill to medium, and brush the veggies with the following baste:

½ cup Newman’s Own Light Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing

Fresh ground pepper and a little more salt

A little more oil (maybe a ¼ cup)

Trader Joe’s Pasta Seasoning or other Italian seasoning – 1 or 2 tsp to suit your taste

Grill the vegetables with the lid down, turning and brushing with the marinade every few minutes until done to your taste. I don’t like to overcook them but a few char marks are good. Grilling vegetables is like oven roasting them – the flavors seem to intensify. Serve alone or sprinkled with parmesan cheese, or use as a filling for a veggie sandwich with good bread.

What to do in your garden in July:

• Keep everything watered, especially your pots, which can dry out daily in 100+ weather. Don’t water at mid-day, morning and evening are best, so you will have less evaporation
• Fertilize everything monthly as heavy watering leaches out nutrients
• Keep your fruit trees well watered as the fruit is ripening and cover with a bird net so the birdies don’t have dessert at your expense! Distract the birds with a feeder in another part of your garden.
• Keep dead flowers picked off your plants and keep your veggies picked and they will produce longer
• Keep up with the weeds, don’t let them go to seed and you will eventually have fewer weeds
• Plant crepe myrtles. There are beautiful varieties blooming in the nurseries now and they are one of our most reliable shrubs and trees for summer color
• It’s not too late to plant tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and so on if you haven’t done it yet – you should have something to eat by sometime in August and they should bear into the fall
• Mulch! Superior Compost is great for this and may be found at the Farm Supply store on Third St. in Riverside. We also use a thick layer of straw on the ground in the vegetable garden and orchard. Lovely on the tootsies if you like to go barefoot in the garden – not very fancy but very practical

Joke of the Month:

Cat's motto:

No matter what you've done wrong, always try to make it look like the dog did it.