One day earlier this week I was partaking in my usual morning ritual of enjoying a cup of coffee while taking a stroll in my garden, when I saw a squirrel jump off of the back porch onto the fence. I turned to look and it was holding one of my Tumbler tomatoes! It then proceeded to chow down on it right in front of me. So I ran in the house and grabbed a camera:

That guy looks a bit evil. But anyways it seemed to enjoy the tomato, although I wasn't really hoping to share them with the animals in the neighborhood.

Finally I have some tomatoes ripening! Check it:

This is my Tumbler Tomato that I have planted in a pot on our back porch. I also have some black cherry tomatoes that are just starting to ripen. Both of these are cherry/small tomato types. They appear to be the only ones that are anywhere close to ripening at this point, but I'll take them! Yum!

In other news, I've made two more batches of pickles. The first ones turned out really good, but I thought that they could use a bit more vinegar and more spices (I threw in some hot pepper flakes this time!). I'll see how the new batch turns out and then update the recipe if it is better.

I've also used up the last of my tomatillos from last year. I still had 1.5lbs frozen in our freezer (blanch and freeze - it's just that easy) and we were making enchiladas for dinner, so I was like "Why not some salsa verde?" And it was done. I've been using this salsa verde recipe since I've been growing tomatillos. It's really good - better than any other I've had. I tend to use a bit less jalapeños than she suggests (I only used 1/2 of a fresh one from our garden) since my partner doesn't like spicy food. Even the cilantro was from our garden, so other than the onion it was 100% Mt. Airy grown. Sweet. :)

My partner has been telling me about this site for weeks now and has finally sent me the link. It's an awesome site about growing your own food. While I'm not nearly at this stage (and honestly I don't know if I want to have a roaming chicken cage in my yard - is that even legal in Philly? It must be if Donna Reed Miller can have a horse in her backyard) I do grow a good amount of veggies to put some serious damage (the good kind) to our produce mart bill. So check it: http://www.homegrownevolution.com/

This weekend I started attempting to conquer the shed in the back of the yard. It has been full of crap that the previous owners left behind and has been a home to an opossum or two as well. So I'm finally going to try to get rid of the rusty old shed this year and replace it with something newer with doors and no holes in the roof.

So I removed all of the crap that was garbage - old tree stumps, broken bicycle, wheels, an alternator, old traffic cones (Hey! I can save my parking space all year round now!), etc. Saw quite a few large spiders as well. Neat.

Now all that is left in there is our crap. The next big step is to try to dismantle it - which should be fun. I think that will start in the next few weeks.

Other than that everything is doing really well. I'm starting to get my first ripe tomatoes - my tumbler and black cherry are starting to ripen. However a few (4) of my Mama Roma tomatoes are getting blossom end rot - that sucks. I even put down some bone meal to increase the calcium in the soil last week since I hand the same problem last year - but I guess that wasn't soon enough. It is also more common earlier in the season so hopefully it won't be so bad. Also it was the Mama Roma's last year that had this same problem - maybe it is just them.

So that's it. I'm going to taste test my refrigerator pickles tomorrow and I should have my first ripe tomato either tomorrow or Tuesday. I can't wait!

Today I made my first ever batch of refrigerator pickles! I had enough of my 'Adam' cucumbers to fill a pint jar. So I sorta combined a few recipes that I found online. Here's my recipe:

5 pickling cucumbers (halved or speared)
1/4 of a medium white onion, sliced and quartered.
2 cups water
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 Tbs Kosher salt
1 Tbs sugar
3 sprigs of fresh Dill
3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
red, black, and white peppercorns
celery seed

First sterilize the glass mason jar by boiling it in a large pot of water for 10 minutes. Let cool.

Combine the water, vinegar, salt, and sugar and bring to a boil. Let cool slightly.

Cut a small piece off of the flower end of each cucumber. Poke a few holes in each with a fork if leaving whole, otherwise half or spear.

Begin filling the mason jar. Put some of the garlic, dill, celery seed, onions, and peppercorns on the bottom, followed by a layer of cucumbers standing upright. Follow with some additional onions and spices.

Pour water and vinegar solution over the cucumbers and fill the jar, leaving about 1/4 inch of space on the top.

Cover and refrigerate for 1-5 days.

That's it! As I said this is my first time making these - so I really have no idea how they will come out. I'll let you know in a week!

I've made some technical updates to the site. I've replaced the header and footer images of the site (hold shift+(click refresh) to update if you still see the feather + tree images). I'm also experimenting with allowing comments, and I've added a contact form. That's it. :) So leave some comments (only on new blog posts) or send me a message if you desire.

I've upgraded (sorta) my manual watering system to a sprinkler system. By a sprinkler system I mean the cheapest ass sprinkler ($5) I could find. I have been talking with some other gardeners at work and one was talking about 'deep watering' - something which I have never done.

Typically, I'll go out in the garden in the morning to water. As soon as I get up I make some fresh coffee and then enjoy my cup while I'm out watering. I usually spend about 5 minutes watering each 16 square foot bed, usually attempting to keep the water off of the leaves of the plants.

While I really wanted to start using a drip hose (I actually have 2 already just sitting in the shed), I think the plants are way to big at this point to try to weave the hose around them. Plus I'd need some pretty slick tricks to get the hose across the paths (well, actually under them!). So for now I took the slacker route and am just going for overhead watering. The gardener at work said that is how she does it and has never had any problem. She will leave it on for about 4-5 hours once a week and that's good enough.

Wow - only having to water once a week. I honestly don't know how I feel about that. I really love my mornings when I'm out there watering. But I figured I'd give it a try since it sounds like my plants are thirsty!

So last night I hooked up the sprinkler and let it water the tomato, bean, pepper, and herb beds. I only had it on about 2 hours, but it was a first run so to speak. I kinda feel bad about wasting the water (some of it gets on the paths), but then again it will just evaporate and come back down somewhere else - so is it really wasteful (oh, how philosophical).

I'll try to keep up with it and see if I notice a difference. Next I'm going to try putting it between the tomato/bean beds and the potato/salad bed. The tomatoes will block it from getting the herb bed (which is OK - herbs do ok in dryer soil) and hopefully it will reach over the bean bed into the pepper bed. I'll keep ya posted!

Just a quick picture of my artichokes. They are looking good (I think - I've never grown them before) and I have about a dozen on this one plant. The other that I have growing in a large planter is not doing well at all. I really think that I need to put it into the ground. Anyways, I'm also testing out using inline images in this blog. I know, that's so crazy high tech. Anyways, enjoy:

Speaking of organic ant control, I just stumbled across this site (while checking my spelling of 'Diatomaceous Earth' as mentioned in my previous post): http://doubledanger.com/living-green/10-tips-for-organic-ant-control . There are some great tips on how to get rid of ants - I think I may try some!

I have slipped again and have gone two weeks without an update. But this time it was due to technical issues. I was first upgrading my laptop to the new Ubuntu Hardy, but then later discovered my server had some bad issues and decided to upgrade that as well. Things are not yet 100% perfect but are good enough for me to continue the blog...

Anyways, I'm well into harvesting veggies from the garden. I have picked almost all of my snow peas, and I have let a bunch go to 'seed' so I'll have enough to plant a second batch for the remainder of the year. The snow peas are actually starting a second wave of flowering, so I'll get a bit more from them before they get replanted. I've also picked all of my lettuce (that was growing in the bed) and spinach since they started to bolt. I have replanted some more baby spinach and will be replanting more lettuce shortly.

I must have about 2 gallon bags full of lettuce in the fridge. I eat a lot of salads so it won't last too long. We used up all the spinach. Last week we made a spinach and basil pasta sauce using the spinach and basil from the garden. It was great.

My potato bed is still having a major ant problem. I put down some Diatomaceous Earth, an organic ant pesticide, around the bed last week and that seems to have helped a bit, but I need to 'do some digging' (quite literally) to see how well it worked. I'm also going to take some of the old hot peppers I have saved in the freezer from last year and make a homemade anti-ant solution (vinegar, water, hot peppers, garlic) to spread around as well. Ants don't like things of that sort (so I have read) so hopefully that will keep them away. Also the sad fence that I constructed out of bamboo and twine hasn't worked to well, so I picked up some cheap fencing from a dollar store. I'm putting that in tonight.

The beans are flowering but still rather sad looking. They are tiny and are still having germination issues, but I think I have enough plants now. We will see.

I have picked my first head of Bok Choi and am hoping to use it soon - since I have 5 other heads just waiting to be picked (they are starting to flower). I've done some Googling but it seems like Bok Choi is not good for freezing, but I'm thinking of maybe trying to make some Kimchee. Yum! Unfortunatly the cabbage I have in the same bed is getting attached by some bugs. I keep applying hot pepper wax but it's not helping and my cabbage is getting all eaten up. At least something is enjoying it - I don't think it is going to work out this year. Oh well.

The cucumbers have started bearing fruit over the last week. I have almost a dozen gherkins and am going to be making some 'Refrigerator Pickles' soon. I can't wait!

The peppers are doing very well too. I should have some jalapeños ready by the end of the week, and others to follow shortly. Salsa season is almost here, which brings us to...

TOMATOES! They are huge - over 6ft already! I have tons of tomatoes starting - plenty of Black Cherry, Tumbler, and Wayahead. I have about a dozen Mama Romas that are well formed, and the other types are starting to take fruit as well. The only slacker so far seems to be Mr. Stripey, but they are starting to flower as well. Nothing has started ripening yet, but they should soon. The tomatillos are doing great as well. Lots of husks are puffing up and some are getting a bit plump on the inside.

Anyways, that's it for now. I'll be putting up the last of my pictures (both veggie and flower) later tonight - the last for June. But stay tuned - I'm going to try to post more often (meaning shorter posts!) and maybe even some recipes of things I end up making. Yum!