The Garden Party Is Over

The party's over. Once again, our garden is ready for a long sleep. I've plucked the last tomatoes from the vines and though I see a few flowers here and there, I know they have no chance of fruiting. But there are still some bright spots.

The tomato vines have called it quits

This little eggplant wants to grow up. We'll see...

I'm rooting for these mini bell peppers.

The big bell pepper plants are determined to keep growing

The worms are getting their last meal, munching our collard greens.

Ripe tomatoes at last

Tomatoes! We've finally got some tomatoes! If this were July, we'd be thrilled. But it has taken until September to finally see a ripe tomato. Well, better late than never. These black cherries will be sitting in a salad by later tonight.

Some of the beefsteaks are coming along too. Maybe by the time we're back from vacation next week, an heirloom Cherokee Purple (above) or Brandywine (below) will be ready to pluck. 

We're still waiting for Aunt Ruby's German Greens (below) to ripen. They get to be a deeper shade when they're ready to eat.

All told, we won't get much of a harvest, but for all the trouble of growing these puppies from seed to vine, at least we'll get a small taste of deliciousness for fall.

Recipes starring Serrano chilies

Sure I'd like to be cooking with tomatoes about now, but since our tomato harvest was a bust  (I'm still holding out hope for the green fruit that has finally sprouted on our vines) I've started preparing some fun dishes with our Serrano peppers. We have one very productive plant, and faced with an abundance of hot chilies, I began seeking out recipes calling for them. I found one for Chicken Enchiladas Verdes at Simply Recipes through Tastebook (my favorite food app). I'm new to cooking Mexican food (though not eating it) so it was a fun experience and it turned out to be a tasty--and spicy--meal.  Fresh corn salad with cucumber, cherry tomato (from a farm stand), red onion, cilantro and a mustard vinaigrette  made the perfect side dish.  Next, I will try my own hot sauce with a recipe from my friend Kim in Tejas. I can already feel the burn!

Oh, p.s., if you are cooking with hot peppers be sure to wear gloves! I got a case of hot hands last week that kept me up half the night. After trying soap and water, aloe, olive oil, and a few other Web remedies, I rubbed ripe banana all over my hands and the burning finally subsided. Maybe the enzymes in the fruit neutralized the capsaicin. I'm just glad it worked.

Yummy chicken enchiladas made with my Serrano chilies

Green tomatoes

Finally, we have tomatoes. Tiny green ones, that is. This will go down as the worst summer on record for our garden. Our tomato plants just never took off. We were a little late getting them in their pots this season, planting them all by mid-June. But I thought they'd catch up. They should be tall and full by now. Instead, the poor things are thin and spindly and they haven't produced at all.The rainy June didn't help.Nor did the steamy July. Our harvest should be rolling at this point, but instead our plants have just begun to fruit. If we're lucky, if we don't get blossom rot, a hurricane or some other mishap, we might have tomatoes by late Sept. Wow, what a disappointment!
Fortunately, the lettuce, eggplants, peppers and herbs are doing well. I got a few cukes too, though not the harvest I'd hoped for, and the heatwave knocked off the vines. I was able to save our blueberries from the mockingbirds by netting them.
Still, without tomatoes, I'd have to call the season a bust.

These plants are way behind schedule.

The eggplants are tasty, stir-fried with some green market onions.

The lettuce has been loving it this summer. I have had salad all season long.

How to fertilize tomato plants

Ready for summer! By July this space will look like a jungle!

What a season 2012 is turning out to be! By Memorial Day we had all of our crops in their pots, ready to bask in the sun. The warm spring inspired us to get our seedlings started early. We're already reaping rewards. Our tomato and green pepper plants are sprouting fruit well ahead of their usual patterns, the cucumber vines are looking mighty healthy and the lettuce is going strong. We could be harvesting tomatoes come July. Speaking of tomatoes, we've added Jobe's Fertilizer Spikes to the pots. Buried in the soil, the sticks offer the proper mix of nutrients (a three to one ratio of phosphorous to nitrogen and potassium,) last for six weeks, and help the plants absorb calcium. The point is to avoid the dreaded blossom-end rot, a black, leathery scourge that often shows up on the blossom end of the fruit early in the season and renders it inedible. Another trick is keeping the plants consistently watered. We may try mulching so the soil doesn't dry out in the heat. We've added the spikes to our pepper plants as well. Next challenge: getting rid of the aphids on our eggplants!

Our first pepper

The fertilizer spikes

Tomato complex

I knew I loved the complex flavors of heirloom tomatoes, but now I find that their deliciousness could be the result of some very complex biology. The tomato, according to this New York Times article, has 31,760 genes, or 7,000 more than human beings!

Grow light sparks tomato seedlings

Tomato starters under our new grow light

Seeking stronger tomato plants we decided to invest in  a grow light this season. We got this simple Hydrofarm JSV2 2-Foot Jumpstart T5 model on Amazon for just $50. We put our little seedlings under the light and took off for a 10 day trip, giving our cat sitter instructions on how to adjust the system as the plants grew taller (and of course, to keep them watered.) When we came back the seedlings had sprung up like weeds. Though they're still not as fat as green house starters, they're not as spindly as they have been in the years when we depended on natural light.
The next step is "hardening off" the plants, or getting them ready for the outdoors. To do this, we put the seedlings outside for a couple of hours before and after work and on the weekends. This helps them adjust to strong sunlight, chilly temperatures and windy conditions. It will keep them from wilting or going into shock when we move them to the big pots on the terrace. I am really looking forward to a healthy crop this year!



Seedlings growing strong



Urban Gardening Made Easy

With the summer season heating up, now is the perfect time to start your urban garden. Even if your outdoor space seems too small, if you get good sunlight, pull up those petunias and plant some tomatoes. No outdoor space? No problem. Plant an indoor herb garden. Every day, people are getting more serious about eating well and growing their own. Here are some tips that can help you put your green thumbs to work.

Sure, it would be great to grow your own seedlings and plant numerous crops. But start small and learn along the way. Trying to do too much at once could result in disappointment.

As a first step, stop by Home Depot or your local hardware store to pick up a few large pots (18 to 20 inches wide for tomatoes or peppers, window boxes for your herbs) and some soil. Miracle Grow works just fine, but if you want to go organic, you can find organic potting soil there too.

You’ll see plenty of seeds for sale, but for the first season, let some experienced farmers get you started. Go to the Union Square Green Market and buy seedlings. You will find a great variety of veggies that can be grown in pots waiting for adoption. The organically grown seedlings are more likely to come with pests like aphids and tomato hornworms, but this is the price we pay for a skipping toxins. And organic pest killers are available at gardening supply shops.

Pick two or three crops, say tomatoes, peppers and basil. If you are a beginner, patio tomatoes are easiest to manage and they taste great. The plants don’t get too tall or bushy and they can withstand windy conditions. If you’re more experienced, try Brandywine or Cherokee Purple heirloom varieties. These are big beefsteak tomatoes that require more fertilizing and take up more room. They need to be staked because they get quite tall, but they are delicious. Speaking of fertilizer, I swear by Hoffman Tomato Food, which can be found at Jamali Floral & Garden Suppliers on W. 28th St. for about $5. Used as directed, it can help your plants grow strong and healthy and avoid diseases like blossom-end rot.

Bell peppers are another good choice for beginners. They're easy to grow and are quite productive. One or two plants will yield dozens of peppers through the season.


At the market, you will find plenty of herbs, including basil, parsley and thyme. They can co-exist in a long window box. A flat of basil plants - about four to six - can be planted about 6 inches apart in a box and each one will provide enough leaves when fully grown to make a delicious pesto. Or pick a few leaves off all season long to toss into salads or pasta sauce.

Tomatoes need lots of sun so place them in the brightest spot. Peppers like the sun too. The herbs will do well in sun or partly shady conditions.

Be sure to keep your crops hydrated. Plants in pots tend to need more water than those in the ground. The best times to water is early morning and late afternoon. Avoid watering in the midday sun. If you're planning on taking weekend getaways, get a neighbor to stop by.

Buy a dozen tomato poles and Velcro plant ties to support the vines as the fruit grows.

One of the great benefits of growing your own is a new found focus on fresh food and healthy vegetables. And each year, your garden can become more sophisticated and productive. This will be my seventh season of planting with my husband Mitch and we've certainly expanded our horizons. We've installed an automated watering system and have extended our crop list well beyond tomatoes and peppers to include lettuce, cucumbers, eggplants, strawberries, blueberries and all manner of herbs.

So, go ahead. Treat yourself and your family to an urban garden this summer. Why wait!

Fall surprise - fried green tomatoes

After a two week vacation, I didn't know if I'd find any tomatoes when we returned to our garden. But despite it being mid-October and despite the fact that the plants were pretty much spent before we left, some fruit still hung from the stringy vines. I pulled the ripe ones, and even picked a few green ones from the dead stalks. That gave me a good excuse to try out a recipe for fried green tomatoes. I had made some earlier this summer, winging it, but they were a bust. This time, I followed some easy instructions and the fried tomatoes came out tangy and tasty, with just the right crunch.

Here's the recipe I used from Epicurious.com:

 Ingredients:

4 large, firm green tomatoes, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch slices
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 cup finely ground cornmeal

1 teaspoon paprika (I skipped this)

2 eggs, vegetable oil

Preparation:

1. Sprinkle the tomato slices with the salt and pepper; set aside.

2. Combine the cornmeal and paprika in a shallow bowl. In another bowl, beat the eggs.

3. Cover the bottom of a heavy skillet with 1/2 inch of oil, then place it over medium-high heat.

4. Coat the tomato slices in the egg, then dredge them in the cornmeal mixture.

5. Fry as many tomatoes as fit comfortably in the pan until nicely browned, about 2 minutes a side.

6. Transfer them to a paper towel-lined platter. Repeat until all the tomatoes are cooked.

Yogis run farm in Upstate New York

So, the great gardening trend of the 21st century continues unabated in the city and around it.

Each of the past three summers, I’ve taken a weekend trip to Ananda Ashram to enjoy yoga, meditation, vegetarian cuisine and the not-so-Zen swimming pool (hey, even Yogis have to cool off.)

The difference this year: Ananda has added organic farming to its list of amenities. The food has always been tasty, but now, some of it is home grown.

Ananda boasts two huge plots loaded with fresh garlic, greens, squash and peppers, and a cold-frame green house filled with tomato plants getting ready to yield a healthy harvest.

One of the biggest challenges for the volunteer farmers is deer. The 85-acre grounds just an hour or so from New York City, is a playground for the growing population of the lovable animals. They can be seen frolicking in the early mornings and evenings. Unfortunately, they are determined to share the harvest.

Currently, the plots are surrounded by heavy plastic deer fencing, which seems to work, and fresh produce is growing strong. Electronic deer fencing, which is cheaper, was considered and rejected as too cruel.

Over the weekend, I was lucky to enjoy several dishes filled with home grown zucchini as well as plenty of salad greens.

Farming at Ananda has a history. Dave, who’s been an Ashram resident for more than 30 years, tended the original organic garden at Ananda from 1972 to 1980. But when the board decided to install a swimming pool (yes that swimming pool) his garden was bulldozed.

Last December, his son, who was born at the Ashram, came up with the idea to create the current farm, thanks to all the publicity about local growers and food borne illnesses. He’s also helping Dad and the rest of the Ananda team build an Eco-village resort on the grounds.

Urban Gardener Weekend Update: Automation!

Sprinkler systems aren't just for the suburbs! This weekend we set up our own automated watering system, which gives us the ability to get away on weekends without having to hire a babysitter. We first automated in 2008. That's when we purchased everything from a timer to PVC tubing from The Drip Store . The system includes small stakes with adjustable heads that drip water into our pots. This way, we can set the timer to water in the early morning, for about five minutes, and adjust the flow individually for each plant. This year, we have more crops, so we expanded the system to encircle our entire terrace.
Our total investment over the two years has come to about $150, a small price to pay. With our sprinklers in place, there's no more early morning wake ups for watering before work. No rushing home in the evening on blistering hot days. The garden is on auto pilot.
Of course, we still have to weed and fertilize; we have to defend against bug infestations and plant diseases. But the day-to-day basics are taken care of.
We've already begun to enjoy the fruits of our labor. I harvested plenty of lettuce, cilantro, parsley and basil this weekend for a healthy salad. We also spotted our first bell pepper growing. The eggplants and tomatoes are beginning to flower and could be ripe for the picking in a few weeks or so. Can't wait!