Post Pumpkin Purposes

     As Halloween is soon coming to a close, make sure you save your carved pumpkins for your compost pile! These will serve a much better purpose in the compost pile than in your garbage can. Before you compost them remember to:

   1. Remove any non organic materials: Candles, aluminum foil, etc. These will not decompose.
   2. Remove ALL pumpkin seeds: The seeds will not decompose. When you spread your compost over your gardens in the spring, you will have unwanted pumpkins growing in between your flower beds! You can't turn those into carriages, Fairy Godmother!
   3. Break up the pumpkin, if desired: Most children would love to help break them up by smashing them. Just make sure they will help pick up all the pieces and put them in the compost pile.
   4. Cover the pumpkins in the compost pile: Like all green material, if you want to keep away bugs, then make sure to cover them with carbon-rich materials such as sawdust, paper, or all of those dried leaves you just raked up.

     Here is a recipe you can use for all of the pumpkin seeds you took out of your jack-o-lanterns.

Soaked and Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkin Seeds

4 c Water

1 T Salt

1-3 Tbs olive oil or melted coconut oil

Spices of your choice (see spice options below for ideas)

Directions:

Soak: Take your clean pumpkin seeds and place in a bowl. Cover the seeds with warm water and a bit of salt. (Use as much water and salt ratios as needed to cover the seeds.) Let seeds sit at room temperature for 24 hours.

Drain: Drain the water from the pumpkin seeds and allow the seeds to dry on a baking sheet for a few hours. Alternatively you can just cook your seeds for 5-10 minutes in a 300 degree oven before moving on to the roasting part.

Roast: Toss seeds in oil and spices of your choice. Lay seeds on a baking sheet in a thin layer. Roast seeds at 300 degrees for 20-30 minutes. Stir every 10 min.

Spice Options:

Cayenne and salt

Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger

Chili powder, lime zest and salt

Paprika, sage, thyme and salt

Try whatever you like!

~marisa

Say Goodnight to Your Garden!

 Say goodnight to your garden, not put your child to bed in the garden.

Your garden has been working hard all year, and so have you! With the chilly weather closing in, you should begin to put your garden to bed for the winter. Your plants will naturally pause their growth - because of the cold temperatures and less light - but we need to make sure that they do not stop growing forever! If you cannot start putting your garden to bed right away, use old sheets or bedspreads to cover your plants. This will help protect unharvested food from nighttime frosts until you can start taking care of the following:

Vegetable Gardens
Your root/bulb vegetables - such as carrots, garlic, horseradish, leeks, parsnips, radishes, and turnips - can be left in your garden for harvesting in the early winter. Mark where each plant is located so that you can find them easily in the snow. Plus, if you cover the ground with a layer of mulch, it will keep the ground thawed so you aren't breaking out the pick axes to harvest your food.
Pull up your tomato, pea, bean, and squash plants. If your plant is not diseased, compost it. If the plant is diseased, then burn them or dispose of them separately.

Berries
Cover your strawberries with a layer of straw (or hay.) Maybe this is how they got their name?
Prune your raspberry and blackberry plants. Leave approximately six of the strongest brown canes for every square foot of your rows.

Herbs
If they are perennials, cut them back. Most herbs can stay in the ground through the winter. If you would still like to enjoy your annuals, dig them up, put them in a pot, and bring them inside!

Trees and Shrubs
Prune your trees, if needed, making sure to remove broken limbs with a clean cut near the trunk of the tree. Protect the small plants by surrounding them with snow fencing.
 
Don't Forget Your Tools!
Empty out your containers to prevent them from cracking. Store upside down.
Drain your hoses and move them inside your garage; you don't want to be getting mad at kids for cracking one because they stepped on the hose when you left it out! Store the hose attachments and sprinkler parts in a bucket in your garage.
Empty the fuel tanks to your lawn mowers and other power equipments. Read the manuals provided to you for more instructions.
Scrub your tools and put them away. Rub some vegetable oil on your tools to keep them from rusting.

Prepare Yourself For Next Spring
Continue mowing your lawn for as long as it grows! If the grass gets too long, and then snow comes, you may get brown patches next spring.
Rake your leaves up. If you put them into small piles, and then mow over them, you can create mulch to use on your gardens.
Cover your compost pile with plastic, or a thick layer of straw, before the snow comes.
Till the soil to expose insects who are trying to make their winter homes in your garden. This will reduce pest problems next spring.
Remove all of the weeds. If you have an area conquered by weeds, cover it with black plastic so that any baby weeds that will try to grow will die before the spring.
Add layers of compost, leaves, or manure on your gardens. If your garden needs it, gently till in some lime as well.

I hope that you are all able to preserve the gardens you have been working hard to upkeep through the warm seasons. Take a break for the holidays and say, "goodnight," to your garden!

~marisa

Cool as a Lemon Cucumber

Cucumbers seem to be one of those vegetables that always do well for us. In the past we have grown  many varieties with success. This year we might have found a new front runner for coolest cucumber in the garden.
 

Lemon cucumbers with crookneck squash

For the first time we are growing lemon cucumbers and we are big fans. The name comes from their round shape and yellowish color. We can't tell a big difference in flavor from our other favorite variety the double yield. You might wonder why you would want a cucumber that is smaller than others and doesn't taste different. Here are a few reasons we like them.

• They are very prolific. I think we are getting more cucumbers from the lemon cucumber than the double yield.
• They are unique. Not everyone has them. They might be good for those of you that want to sell unique products at farmers markets. It's fun to give them away to neighbors and have them rave about how interesting they are.
• Our kids like to eat them like apples so they are eating more of them.

What new vegetable varieties are you growing this year that we need to try?

~Michael~

Veggies in the Flower Garden

Do you grow vegetables in your flower garden? We have been growing herbs in the front flower garden for a while.  The last few years we have grown cabbage as edible decoration and find it to be a very beautiful plant. Here is a picture of one of our cabbages next to it's neighbors, mint and petunia .

On a side note, does anyone else think that the word cabbage is one of the weirder sounding words. Say it ten times. Just seems so unnatural.

Read more about edible landscaping here and here.


What edible plants do you like to add to your landscape?

~Michael~

Squash Bugs

I have given a name to my pain, and that name is squash bug. If you aren't familiar with squash bugs, they are angry, petty little pests that are just trying to get revenge by eating, and killing the squash plants in your garden. They are mad that they have a dumb uninspired name and they insist that in this world of political correctness we call them what they really are "Squash Insects." The term bug is just insulting to them.

Blurry image of squash bugs. It's hard to take pictures of the bugs as they curry away at the first sign of movement

You might think that I am anthropomorphizing a little too much but trust me, these bugs are out for me and trying to voice their displeasure with a vengeance. The sad part is that it is the innocents that have to suffer. My zucchini is taking the brunt of their abuse, but they also killed two of our pumpkin plants and are trying to take out my acorn squash as well.  

Plant damaged by squash bugs

I found some good information on squash bug at this link managed by the Colorado State University extension. It gives good information on the life cycle of the squash bug and it lists some  methods for getting rid of the pests.

Squash bugs are very hardy so the best way to get rid of them is to check your squash leaves early in the spring. You will see patches of eggs on the underside. I just squish the eggs and wipe them off of the leaves.

Squash bug eggs on the underside of leaf

If you don't catch them early, one of the best methods I have used to get rid of them is to lay small boards or cardboard at the base of your squash plants. Many of the bugs will hide under the boards at night. If you check under the boards early in the morning you can kill them using organic squishing methods.

According to the CSU article you can also spread Diatomaceous earth/pyrethrins applications around the base of the plan. This is an organic method, but I can't vouch for it as I haven't used it. There are also insecticides and pesticides that might work but I am not a fan of them as I want my bees to be safe.

What do you do to rid your garden of the vile squash bug?

~Michael~

Armenian Cucumbers

We all have our tried and true heirloom plants that we like to grow every year, but it is always fun to try new varieties to see if there any we like even more. This year we grew Armenian Cucumbers for the first time and they are amazing.

I quick check on the web will tell you that Armenian Cucumbers (also called snake melon or serpent cucumber) are not really cucumbers. They are actually a member of the muskmelon family. We were pleased to find that our crop tastes just like cucumber. In fact, I don't think you would be able to tell the difference in a blind taste test.

Armenian cucumbers grow up to 3 feet long! From our experience they taste better when picked at about 15 to 20 inches long. Many sources also claim that you won't get cucumber burps from the Armenian variety. We bought ours at our local IFA store which sells heirloom varieties that work well in our area. You can also get them online through on of the heirloom seed purveyors.

What is your favorite cucumber variety?

~Michael~

Veggie Tacos

One of my favorite meals of the summer is vegetarian tacos. You can grill almost any vegetable and throw it in a taco and it will taste great. For this batch I used some sweet potatoes from the store and some onions and zucchini from the garden.

We had one of our best harvests of onions this year and the best thing is that they were all volunteers from a batch of Walla Walla Onions we planted last year. They are so sweet and almost too beautiful to eat.

We also planted 3 zucchini plants. As those of you that plant zucchini know, 3 zucchini plants provide enough food to feed a family of seven for two years. They are ridiculous showoffs in the garden and make many of the other plants in the garden feel that there yield is embarrassing.  Even though they are showoffs, zucchinis do grill up nice for tacos.

 

To make the tacos, add onions and zucchini to a bowl with a little olive oil, cumin, salt and pepper. After mixing them together I grilled them. The sweet potatoes were cubed, salted, and then sauteed in olive oil.

Our kids loved them, even our son that would only eat protein if given the choice. You can change the ingredients as different vegetables come into season. Grilled or roasted tomatoes can be added as they ripen, tomatillos can be used to make a green sauce, corn adds a nice sweetness, and even eggplant and potatoes are a great addition to veggie tacos. Make sure to add some guacamole to really put the meal over the top.

~Michael~