The oregano has been slowly overtaking my garden, so I hacked it today then dried it. First, I washed it with that produce spray stuff, then I submerged it in a large bowl like you would spinach. Once it was very clean, I it among two baking trays, and put it into the oven. I let the oven heat up to 150, then turned it off and let it sit in there for a good 4 hours. The oven door was open.
Here's another good side by side. In the forefront is basil and in the background is jalapeno pepper. These pictures were taken 11 days apart. I'll do another one in another 11 days.
I really like the Canadian show The Manic Organic. I saw an episode lastnight called The Has Beans. It was all about beans, obviously. Anyway, he (Antony) prepared a room temperature salad that I think would be great for a buffet or pot luck dish. I'm always looking for foods that stay out on the bar for hours and not have to be reheated or chilled. I looked online for the recipe but could not find it. I found the decription of the episode online, so between my that and my recollection of how he put it together, I'll give it a try. Here is what I think the recipe is...
I have never grown brambles before, so I've learned a lot by . Before planting, the nursery recommends soaking the roots for a couple hours. They also recommend dipping the roots into a slurry of Agri-gel just prior to planting. Agri-gel is a powder that's added to water and allowed to sit for 15 minutes. It turns to the consistency of hot fudge and clings to the roots. I guess the more moisture you can keep on the roots, the more likely the roots are NOT to go into transplant shock. Pretty cool.
I planted the brambles I got from Nourse Farms today! I have a 14 ft trellis that hides my pool pump and A/C unit; this trellis happens to be one of the few full sun pieces of real estate I still have (had).
I figure down the road a bit, I can install some brackets and 12-16 gauge wire to make a proper raspberry trellis.
Here's a 
photo of a new little tomato I planted on March 8th.
It's growing very fast. Anyone remember when John pinched off the whole top half of a tomato plant thinking it was oregano?? Well, this poor little plant was his victim. You can still see what's left of the little stem. The plant is doing just fine...maybe even better than it would have done. Some people are fans of pinching tomato plants. I never have, but this could change me...we'll see.
I just received my order from Nourse Farms! I got 5 Anne (bare root) reaspberry plants and 5 Triple Crown (nursery matured) blackberry plants. I have done of research online about planting and care of these brambles and will list some of the more interesting facts here.
Triple Crown: ripens July-August and is named for its three crowning attributes—flavor, productivity and vigor. It is semi-erect and thornless.
Anne: ripens August-October and is named for its creator's wife; a thirty-year old promise that came to fruition in 1998. It's an everbearing bramble
Hints:
- summer-bearing brambles: train the flowering canes along the wires and encourage diagonal growth. Then the primal canes should have plenty of room and sunlight to grow vertically between the two wires.
- Blackberries grow taller than raspberries and need to be trained upwards
I planted two of these oversized pots on either side of my garage yesterday. Here's the breakdown...
$50 pots
$6 pebbles
$14 trellises
$9 coleus & dusty miller
$24 bougainvillea
$20 potting soil
$123 total
(not bad for the impact it made to the front yard)
Here's the bruschetta from dinner the other night. I added more basil and garlic than I normally do, and it paid off. I had garlic breath for a full day after, but it was worth it.
Speaking of garlic breath...Smart Mouth is a new mouth wash that I'm obsessed with.
Old mouthwashes
1) have a taste/burn is not worth it...I'd rather chew a piece of gum
2) kills both bad and good bacteria, and if you kill the good bacteria, your breath will stink more
This new mouthwash rocks. It doesn't burn, it cures morning breath, and it doesn't taste bad. Check out this article.
This meal was so yummy! The base is wine, shallot, garlic, cayenne pepper, and herbs. Then I add tomatoes, zucchini and sea bass. No butter, no oil.
Weed-pulling gnome in my garden
So, this little helper apparently got tired lastnight after pulling the weeds.
This guy is like the lazy co-worker at the office who does the very least amount of work humanly possible to keep his job. I need a good name for him...
So, while he is sleeping, the other guys scurry all over moving plants, hiding tools, and teasing bugs. Those pictures are coming soon.
I planted a rubber plant next to the porch today.
Wikipedia, says, "It can yield a milky white latex which has been used in some cases to make rubber, but it should not be confused with the Para rubber tree, the main commercial source of latex for rubber making."
Today I planted the Cilantro seeds I harvested. I hope they grow! Check out my harvesting post.
I have never really been successful with cutting, but I'm trying it again. I took 4 different bougainvillea cuttings that are each at different stages of growth. Two were woody and two were green. I took all the leaves off some, but kept the leaves on others. I also pinches off three different sizes of basil bush that just began to bolt. I dipped all the cuttings in rooting hormone, put clear bags over them and put them under the hurricane shutters on my work bench. They shouldn't get any direct sunlight here, but should get light. We'll see.
I decided to try this egg white + herb omlet today for breakfast. I mixed three egg whites with a bunch of parsley and greek oregano from the garden. It wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible. I could stand to have it a couple times a month.
Green Thumb Sunday
So, my husband came in from the garden this afternoon with a bunch of herbs he was going to put on the homemade garlic bread we were making. He came in with a handful of English Ivy, the entire top half of baby tomato plant, and some mint he thought was oregano.
Green Thumb SundayThanks for the Q, central fla gardener
Question: how's the frozen cilantro compare to the fresh?
Answer: If freshly cut cilantro is a 10, then the iced cilantro is an 8.
Definitely worth trying. In the salsa, you could not tell it was frozen AT ALL (a 10). If it were thawed, then put in a salad, you'd be able to tell because it would be all mushy (like thawed frozen spinach). I would say it may lose a bit of it's flavor, but the flavor is still the same which is important. I used two cubes for the 5 medium tomatoes and it was perfect. You can see how verdent the leaves were even through the ice cube. My trick to retain the color was to dip the individual bunches into a large pot of boiling water for 10 seconds before roughly chopping then putting into the trays.
I got 5 citrus trees from Lowe's yesterday. They were each in 1 gallon pots and have TONS of fruit on them. They smell so good because there are dozens of buds all over each tree. The biggest bumble bee I've ever seen was buzzing all over as I was planting them, so I guess they'll fit in just fine. I planted them in large terra cotta pots and put them at the end of the pool. I moved the calla lilly over there too.
Well, yesterday, Michael's Craft Store had 30% off these wall planters, so for around $10 I got this one. I got some moss and an English Ivy from Lowes. Works well.
, dusty miller, and a big cutting of orange mint. The planters weigh a lot...I'd say 20 lbs. when wet. We'll see how they do. I'll be interested in checking out how they hold up to the next big wind, then they daily rain in July/August. The green was just matching the white mailbox and the white trim of my house.
Look who I found in the cilantro today. I 
wondered why he didn't have spots, so I went to the internet. Here's the answer.
After the larvae have finished their growth in the pupa stage, the adult ladybug emerges. At first it is very soft and often pale in color, without spots. The wing covers begin to harden and the spots develop gradually like a picture taken with an instant camera. (excerpt from insecta-inspecta)
I finally found a few brown cilantro seeds (seen here are the young, green seeds). I planted them, so we'll see how long they take to germinate. I am hoping the rest of the seeds turn brown within the next week. These are the seeds that coriander is made from.
The cilantro leaves don't taste that great rights now because the plant has begun to flower (it bolted). It still smells like cilantro though.
I dug up some dead tomato plants and a bunch of grass today so that I have more garden room. I uncovered sooo many earthworms, which is a good thing. I also ran into a mole, and watched him burrow for about 10 minutes, then when I quickly tried to dig him up, he escaped. I taped the whole episode. Here it is is you're very bored.
Look what I found in the garden!
I have been waiting for a month now for the cilantro seeds to be ready to pick. They have to be brown before I can sow them. Look how many there are.
Check this out! The VFT ate a fly. You can see the fly in the lower left mouth. It's been sitting outside for about a week. I got it at Wal-Mart for under $5. I repotted it and it's doing well despite the fact that the label said it likes to be 70 degrees.
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