Garden Fashion: The Bonnet

I am in my early 40's and my skin still looks great (if I do say so myself).  For one thing, I live on the Gulf Coast and although I complain bitterly about the heat and humidity it does have its benefits.  The humidity means that our skin is continuously moisturized, so we Southern gals age slower.  The other reason:  I wear a hat whenever I plan to be outside.  At the beach, I have a huge cute bright blue hat.  I have lots of wide brim straw hats to wear to any outside event, picnics, farmer's market, sporting events (just kidding - I don't go to sporting events).  And when I garden I always wear a bonnet.  An old fashioned, Little House on the Prairie - type bonnet.  My cousin Val makes my bonnets, my great grandmother wore one, and I have yet to find a garden hat that I prefer.  They really work to keep the sun off your face and easily dangle down my back when I am going inside and outside.  I think I look adorable in it, but I am willing to concede that I may  be the only one thinking that.  At any rate, whenever you see me out in the garden you will see me in my bonnet.  It isn't uncommon for me to be outside and catch stares or honks and waves and laughs and I know it's the bonnet that is garnering so much attention.  It's irritating, but what can you do?  It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make, seeing as how a face lift is not in our budget.  We live on an acre in a suburban/rural area due south of Houston.  We are on the corner of a fairly well traveled street, and because we live in a small community where we are quite active, and Hubby has run for public office, we know a lot of people.  Hubby is well know as the neighborhood lawyer and it's not unexpected to have a knock at the door after dinner and there will be a neighbor, sometimes bringing a bag of sweet potatoes or fresh caught trout, in need of some legal advice.  Inevitably, when we go out to dinner in our small town we run into friends and neighbors.  That is what happened when Hubby took me out for a date night to one of the nicer restaurants recently.  As we were leaving we saw one of Hubby's business clients sitting with his wife.  As usual, we stopped at their table to say hello.  After a bit of idle chit chat the client looks at me and says:
"I was driving by your house the other day and you were out in your garden.  You were wearing your bonnet.  I honked and waved."
"Oh," I replied, "did I wave back?"
"No,"  he got a small smirk on his face "you flipped me off."
I almost choked but managed to say "Sorry.  I thought you were bonnet honking."

So, after a brief and well deserved lecture from Hubby I have decided to get a better attitude about my bonnet.  I love it, it suits me, and I will wear it with pride.  Grab your bonnets, girls!  Who's with me?

Me in my bonnet.  "Come at me, Bro!"

When to Plant What...A TX Gulf Coast Planting Guide for Vegetables

One of the biggest mistakes new gardeners make is not knowing when to plant what.  A lot of rookies assume that early Spring is the best time to plant anything, so they plop in their seeds and plants and expect them to thrive when the truth is, precious little survives our summer heat.  If, like me, you live in the Greater Houston area your best gardening days are in the fall.  You can't trust the big box stores to sell you plants that are appropriate for our seasons, either.  They will sell you the same kinds of plants that they will sell my cousin in Seattle and my girl friend in New Mexico.  Just because they stock Brussel sprouts seedlings in March doesn't mean you should plant them then.  Here's a guide for Gulf Coast planting month by month.  I have put in the ideal date for planting each item, but you can nudge a bit in either direction.  Note that some plants, such as tomatoes, have two planting dates.  The tomatoes I plant in July usually produce better for me than the ones I plant in March.  Happy planting!

January     1:  Sugar snap peas, leeks
               15:  beets, broccoli raab, arugula (although you can plant this year round successfully),                                                      
                      potatoes, radishes, green onion, lemon balm, fruit trees

February 15:  chicory, Swiss chard, mustard greens, kale, fennel, parsley, radishes

March      1: tomatoes, radishes
              15: cucumbers, green beans, eggplant, pole beans, peppers, summer squash/zucchini, watermelon,
                 cantaloupe, sage, corn, thyme, rosemary, beans for drying - limas, black, pintos, etc.

April      15:  basil

May        1: okra
             15:  sweet potatoes



June     Have a beer and harvest your tomatoes!

July       15:  tomatoes

August    1: Brussels sprouts, green beans/bush beans, summer squash, winter squash, sweet potatoes
             15: broccoli, cabbage

September 1: parsnips
                  15: cauliflower, beets, dill, carrots

October     15: chicory, garlic, lettuces, nasturtium, onions, fennel, spinach, cilantro, mint, radishes, arugula

November   1: sweet peas, sweet potatoes, radishes
                   15: strawberries, radishes

If I missed your favorite veggie it either doesn't grow well here, or I don't like it.  Do a little research to find out which is the case.  Oh, and by the way, the best time to plant any kind of roses is Valentine's Day, February 14!

For more on gardening in the Texas Gulf Coast check out this post:   Gardening 101

Glorious Greens: 3 Great Recipes to Use Greens

Sugar Snap peeking through the greens.

I came to appreciate the glory of greens late in life.  Neither of my parents, apparently, liked any sort of leafy green - kale, mustard, chard, spinach, collard, turnip, arugula or broccoli raab.  And I can understand.  My grandfather did the cooking in my father's house, and while he was a fantastic gardener, he wasn't the world's best cook.  I seem to remember him cooking collard greens in a saucepan on the stove for hours with lumps of greasy fatback floating in it.  The aroma was less than appetizing, and filled the house entirely.  So, I get it.  If your only experience with greens is stinky, greasy and overcooked, it would be enough to turn you off forever.  As a result, it wasn't until I was an adult that I discovered delicious garlicky greens at a chi chi Houston restaurant called  Catalan.  Hubby knows the chef, Chis Shepherd, who we see at the Urban Harvest Farmer's Market on Saturdays buying local produce.  We went there for my birthday several years ago, and Hubby ordered the Gulf shrimp with grits and garlicky local greens.  I don't remember what I ordered.  It doesn't matter, because once I tried the shrimp, grits and greens I wasn't going back.  Hubby generously swapped plates with me (it was my birthday after all) and I will never forget cleaning my plate  - just short of picking it up to lick it.  I asked the waiter what, exactly, the greens were.  They were mustard.  You could have knocked me over with a feather.  My only other experience with greens is from when we first moved to Memphis.  At the local farmer's market there was a table loaded down with all kinds of greens - mustard, turnip, and collard.  I bought one of each, took them home and made a salad with a nice light vinaigrette.  One bite in and it was clear I had done something wrong. We sat there, Hubby and I, looking at each other and chewing and chewing and chewing.  Clearly clueless as to how to handle greens, I abandoned them altogether.  I never tried to cook them, never ordered them at restaurants, and never even tried them when we were in someone's home for dinner, which is a shame, because I'm sure they would have been very good.  Then, BAM, on my 37th birthday I get introduced to garlicky mustard greens and I went berserk.  I started buying them, growing them and really experimenting with them.  My favorite is broccoli raab.  It tastes nothing like broccoli, it is one of the more bitter greens, and I bought some on a whim at the farmer's market.  I now grow it every year.  My favorite lunch is a soft boiled egg with a side of gently sauteed greens with garlic.  Greens are really good for you  - they are high in iron, calcium and potassium as well as vitamins K, C, E and many B vitamins as well as small amounts of Omega 3.  Make sure when you use them they are clean, soak them in a bowl of water to get the sand and dirt off.  Here are just a few ideas for serving greens:

Kale chips  (Sugar Snap loves these)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Clean and dry a bunch of kale - use a salad spinner or pat dry with towels.  Remove the tough stems, using only the leaves.  Spray on both sides with Olive Oil Pam and sprinkle with kosher salt.  Bake on a baking sheet in a single layer until edges are just brown - 10 minutes or so.

Sauteed greens w/ garlic and lemon
Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet, add 2 cloves chopped garlic.  Cook until garlic is hot, but not brown.  Add a couple of big handfuls of clean greens - kale, spinach, broccoli raab, etc.  Toss until covered with oil.  If you are using Chard, spinach or arugula you can remove from heat when the greens are just wilted and eat them.  For the tougher greens like kale or mustard you will want to add a 1/4 c - 1/2 c water and cover.  Cook the greens down until tender, adding more water if necessary.  Right before serving squeeze the juice of one lemon over the top and sprinkle with kosher salt.  Serves 2.

Cream of Swiss Chard Soup
In a saucepan put a couple handfuls of washed Swiss Chard, 1/2 chopped onion and just enough chicken stock to cover.  Cook until chard is tender.  Allow to cool just a bit.  Put mixture in a blender and blend until smooth. Add 1/3 c. sour cream and whisk until blended.  Season with a sprinkle of nutmeg and salt and pepper.  For hot soup put back into the saucepan and heat gently.  For chilled soup after adding sour cream and spices do not return to the heat, put in a bowl and chill in the fridge until ready.  Serves 4.

Update:  Chef Chris Shepherd is no longer at Catalan, he is now the Executive Chef at Underbelly on Westheimer.

Sweet Potato picking arugula for lunch after church.

The Top 10 Things You Must Grow in Your Garden

These are my garden favorites.  If you live on the Texas Gulf Coast and have limited space, consider growing these:

#1  Green onions, also known as walking onions.  These will grow all year long, will survive drought, heat, and cold.  I planted mine 6 years ago, and they are still producing.  You will never buy green onions again.

#2  Tomatoes.  Duh.  The difference between a home grown tomato and a grocery store tomato is the difference between an aged Bordeaux and Boone's Farm Wine.  Choose varieties that do well in our area - Celebrity is a good performer, Big Boy and Better Boy get good reviews.  I like Yellow Pear (they look like small yellow pears) for the color and shape on the plate.  I recommend staying away from "heirloom" varieties.  They tend to be poor performers.  A great place to get a grand variety of tomatoes and lots of advice is the Urban Harvest Farmer's Market in midtown on Saturdays.  The key to great tomatoes is great supportive cages.

#3  Arugula  Like tomatoes, the difference in the way this green tastes out of the garden and how it comes in a bag at the store is huge.  Out of the garden it is nutty and spicy.  You can plant the seeds in a row and be harvesting baby greens in mere weeks.  A month later plant another row.  You can have fresh arugula all year.   I don't even bother to thin the plants, and they still thrive.  

#4 Sugar Snap Peas  I have never managed to harvest enough of these to turn into a meal because my kids snap them off in the garden and pop them into their mouths while they are playing outside.  That, to me, is garden magic.

Sugar snap peas on the vine.  

#5 Lettuce mix  I plant this the way I plant the arugula, I sow a row and let them come up, and clip the leaves as I need them.  I plant a variety of leafy lettuces - red, green, chicory, etc.  These get planted in October and have fresh salad all winter long.  

#6 Brocolli Raab  I plant this leafy green because it is so delicious and not easy to find in our local markets.  I love the bitter green flavor sauteed with garlic and a little kosher salt.  Plant in October.

#7  Basil  I have planted basil in the Spring ever since I first started gardening, and it always thrives.  Hubby and I both love it.  The first year I was clearing an area for our garden, and I showed Hubby the 4 ft X 4ft area reserved for basil and Hubby's comment was:  "That's not enough."  It was plenty, and at the end of the summer when the basil was going to seed we invited friends to bring pesto ingredients (we supplied all the basil) and had a pesto party.  We made dozens of jars and sent everyone home with pesto to enjoy and freeze (it freezes well!)  We had garden pesto well into the winter.

#8 Lemon Balm  This, in my opinion, is an underused herb.  Here on the Coast, it will thrive in all seasons and even survived the drought.  In the dead of winter it is still green and growing.  It is in the mint family but with a distinct bright lemon flavor.  I use it in muffins, tea, lemonade, salads, pasta, chicken salad, mojitos, and more.  

#9 Squash  My kids and husband will eat it, I have lots of recipes for it, it grows well here, and you can grate it, put it in a baggie in the freezer and use it in zucchini bread (the kids will never know!)  There are all sorts of interesting varieties - patty pan squashes that are shaped like UFOs, eight balls, which are green and round, calabaza, which get HUGE if you let them grow, although they get too tough to work with.  Plant a variety!

#10 Sweet Peas   I believe in nurturing the body as well as the soul, and for me the scent of Sweet Pea blossoms is intoxicating.  They are so pretty in vases all through the house, filling our home with their aroma, and last a good while as cut flowers.  Plant them early, like October, and they will be sure to reward you with armloads of colorful blooms.

What about you?  What are your garden must-grows?

A Case for Keeping Chickens

A Family Portrait...Grace, Sweet Potato, Sugar Snap and Cousins.

We have kept chickens for several years now, and I can't think of a single reason why you wouldn't want to keep chickens.  There are a lot of misconceptions about chickens, and a lot of confusion out there, so let me try to shed a little light on it, and share some of my (hard learned) knowledge in the hope that my kids' childhood trauma can be your lesson learned.  Before you fall in love with the idea of chickens, it's important you know the law in your neighborhood.  Where we live, if you are on an acre you can keep chickens.  We own exactly one acre.  If you are in an HOA you can be sure that they have rules about it.  Don't get discouraged, however.  I know plenty of city dwellers who keep chickens.  I just think it's important you know the law so you can choose whether to break it or not.  The truth is, chickens are fairly quiet (unless you have a rooster) and they do not smell bad, so unless you have an a**hole neighbor, you could try getting away with having a few chickens.  You might even sweeten your neighbors up by offering to share your fresh organic eggs, which in our area cost $4/ dozen!  The eggs are incomparable to those found at your local supermarket.  The yokes are thick and golden, and they taste fresh and delicious.  A pretty little basket of organic eggs makes a wow, yet inexpensive, hostess gift.  From here on out, let's do this FAQ style.  I'll try to answer the questions I get the most:

How many chickens should I get?    Figure it this way:  for every chicken you have you will get about one less egg per day.  For example, if you have 6 chickens you will get 5 eggs a day.  That's an average.  There are a couple of times a year when production drops dramatically because the brood is molting or it's too hot.  Also, it does depend on the breed.  Amerecuanas/ Aracaunas are not as reliable layers as some of the other breeds, but I like to keep a couple becaue the blue-green eggs are so pretty.  We keep 6 chickens, and that is enough to supply us, another family, and Sugar Snap's first grade teacher with fresh eggs.

Should I get baby chicks?  Not if you have kids.  Chicks are cute and fluffy....for a very short period of time.  They are not generally very hardy; they tend to succumb very easily to a variety of diseases/problems.  In our adorable suburban naivete we went out and bought 6 baby chicks the first time.  Overnight, we lost two who drowned in their water bowl, and soon later lost a third.  The other consideration is that you will feed a young chicken for 6 months before they start laying eggs.  Buy a good young layer hen, and start getting eggs immediately.

If I get baby chicks, when will they start laying?   6 months.

Do I need a rooster to make eggs?  I am so surprised by the chicken ignorance out there.  You do not need a rooster to get eggs.  Chickens make eggs happily without roosters.  The roosters  have a tendency to sexually harass the chickens frequently and kind of violently (I realize it's natural...that makes it no less disturbing).  You only need roosters if you want to make more chickens.

Do chickens smell bad?  Not if you do it right.  If you have a "chicken tractor", or mobile chicken house, then by moving it on a fairly frequent basis you will keep the odor down.  Our chicken house is immobile, so we will periodically pour a big bag of cedar chips (buy this at a feed store) into the coop.  You can also let your chickens roam around your yard like we do in the summer when all the garden produce is kaput.

Are your chickens pets?  No.  We no longer name our chickens.  First of all, chickens are bitches.  They are meaner than pre-teen girls.  There is a reason for the term "pecking order".  They will literally peck a weaker older chicken to death.  Also, although a chicken can live to be about 20, they just aren't as hardy as a dog or cat.  We have had a few die due to heat, and a few killed by critters.

What size coop should I have?   They don't need a whole lot of space, we have 6 hens in 8x5 pen.  There are many available to buy, some are fancier than my house.  Ours is hand built out of chicken wire, salvaged metal sheets and old political signs.  Just make sure it's secure enough to keep out critters (dogs/ possums/ racoons/ rats).

What do I feed my chickens?  We feed ours 1/2 coffee can scoop of layer pellets and kitchen scraps.  Chickens will eat almost anything except citrus peel.  We give them watermelon rinds, shrimp shells, leftover peelings, scraps of stale bread, really any kitchen leftovers except anything with chicken in it.  You can do it.  They will eat it.  But in my opinion it's just wrong.  I won't even give them beans cooked in chicken stock, although Hubby thinks it's silly.  I also won't give them eggs for fear that they will develop a taste for them.

How long do the eggs stay fresh?  If you just bought a dozen eggs at the store they were probably laid around the 4th of July.  Any eggs you get from your own hens are going to be much fresher, but they keep for months.

What breed do you recommend?  We like Jersey Giants. They are great layers of nice brown eggs.  I like Amerecaunas/ Aracaunas because of the pretty blue green eggs, although they are don't lay as frequently.  Bantams lay tiny little eggs.  Rhode Island Reds are good.  Mys sister-in-law likes her Production Reds.  Ask at your local feed store what they can get for you.  We shop at Wabash Feed on Washington in Houston.

Do you ever eat your chickens?  I could have done it.  We had a pain in the ass rooster that I would have been happy to get rid of the old fashioned way (gumbo), but again...the kids.  One of these days  I am sure I will pluck a chicken for coq au vin, but will probably have to wait until Sugar Snap has gone to college.

So, there you go....all my chicken knowledge in a nutshell.  What are you waiting for?  Get some chickens!!!

New in the Garden: Lemon Cucumber (w/ recipe!)

That's a cucumber on the left!

I have planted these every year for the last few years, and this is the first year they have really taken off for me.  They are cute little guys - the size, shape and color of a large lemon, but they are cucumbers!  Use them in any dish you would normally use a cucumber.  They have a good cucumber flavor, but you will want to seed them as the seeds are tough.  Also, don't let them get too big or the skin will be tough.  I don't know why they are thriving this year.  Because of the drought I did a lot of watering at the beginning of the season, so maybe they like a lot of water.  Whatever the reason, I like having them.  I take a few as a hostess gift whenever we are invited to a dinner party, and they never fail to make an impression.  There are not enough cucumber recipes in the world to use all the cukes I have on my vines right now.  I have been making cucumber water for my family.  Sugar Snap (my girly girl) loves it.  Do this:  slice seeded clean cucumbers into a pretty pitcher, fill with water and chill.  We discovered this in a chi-chi spa in California.  The cucumber imparts a subtle and refreshing flavor to the water, perfect on a hot day!

                                                My Favorite Cucumber/Dill Sauce for Fish

In a bowl, combine 1/2 c. mayonnaise and 1/2 c. sour cream,  1 finely chopped seeded, peeled cucumber, and a healthy shake of dried dill or, even better, a handful of fresh dill.  Add some cracked pepper to taste.  Serve over grilled or poached fish.  4 servings.

Canning Tomatoes...Success At Last!

Third time's the charm!  I did not can a puree, but small chunks of tomatoes in a tomato juice, which I boiled before pouring it into the jars.  All canning rules were followed and tomatoes came out looking great.  Especially pretty is the two basil leaves Sugar Snap placed in the bottom of each jar.  I used 25 tomatoes and got three quarts and two pints.  So, just to recap, for canning success follow these rules:
*Skin the tomatoes by dunking them for a minute in boiling water and then submerging in ice water.  Skins slide right off.
*Boil the lids (you must use new ones) and rims for 10 minutes.
*Boil the clean jars for 10 minutes
*After filling the jars with chunks of tomatoes and water or tomato juice, run a spoon or butter knife around the inside edge of the jar to remove any air bubbles.
*Submerge jars into boiling water - make sure they are fully submerged - for 45 minutes.
*Remove and let sit.  If the center of the lids pop then they did not properly seal.  I have never had this happen, but do check for it.
Happy Canning!

Sugar Snap and Sweet Potato skinning tomatoes.
They didn't love it.

Canning Tomatoes....FAIL AGAIN

Second try, still getting lots of tomatoes.  I followed all the rules.this time.  I even invested in a $6 canning kit that includes a proper jar holder (no boiling water down my arm this time), a magnetic stick to pull out the lids, a funnel, and a little tool to get rid of the air bubbles after the jars are filled.  I boiled the clean jars, boiled the lids and rims for 10 minutes.  I dunked the tomatoes in boiling water and skinned them. Then I put them in the blender because the plan was to can tomato puree.  Sweet Potato will eat tomato sauce, but she, like a lot of 11-year-olds, is finicky.  It has to be smooth,  not chunky.  No tomato chunks or onion chunks.  So, I usually start with tomato puree when I make my tomato sauce for pasta, pizza, etc.  I poured the tomato puree in to the cleaned sterilized jars, placed the lids and rims on them and submerged them into a pot of boiling water for 45 minutes.  I pulled them out with my new jar holder, and they looked good.  I let them sit for 24 hours, came back and now I'm not so sure.  The tomatoes have a lot of liquid and the liquid separated out.  I don't know.  I could be wrong, but they look like cans of botulism to me.  They aren't pretty at all, and although they may not be poisonous, they aren't something I would ever take as a hostess gift.  Will try again.

A Can of Botulism?

Lazy Composting

I have mentioned in previous posts that I am a chronic half-asser.  If there is an easier (lazier) way to do it, I will find it.  Case in point:  my composting method.  I do have a composting bin, but it is about 100 steps away from my kitchen.  Whoa.  That's far.  I religiously dumped (or rather had Sweet Potato dump) the compost in the bin for about 6 months until she and I both ran out of steam.  I never got around to using said compost.  It needed to be turned - that never happened.  It would need to be shoveled into a wheelbarrow and moved - that was never going to happen.  In the meantime the compost container on my kitchen counter was filling up.  What to do?  I discovered Lazy Composting.  Once I have filled the bin with potato peels, orange rinds, coffee grinds, banana peels, and eggshells - anything the chickens won't eat (but make sure you don't compost any meat product.  I don't even compost beans cooked in chicken stock, it will breed maggots in your garden).  I take the container and a hoe and dig a quick hole between the pepper plants or okra or wherever and completely bury the compost directly into the garden.  Mind you, I still use an organic fertilizer about once a quarter, but so far this method has worked very well for me for several years now.  It creates great dirt in my garden that worms love, it keep garbage out of the landfill, and best of all we have had some surprises come up.  Apparently I buried some watermelon rind in the eggplant bed that still had a few seeds in it.  Lo and behold, up came a volunteer watermelon!  Every day is Christmas in the garden!

The Volunteer Watermelon

Gulf Coast Gardening 101

You have to do raised beds.  I can't tell you how many people I have met who have tried to start gardens by using the existing dirt.  They dig it up and turn it and try to amend it with humus, peat, cat litter, you name it.  While I'm sure someone somewhere has managed to grow something in this gumbo clay, I don't know why anyone would want to go to so much trouble!  Raised beds are so much easier.  Figure out how much space you need for your garden and scrounge up enough cinder blocks to create your bed.  I have nine 4ftx8ft beds. plus one 10 ft. round bed for my melon patch.   Do not use treated lumber for this.  Treated lumber leaches arsenic and you would have to line it with plastic (I know this because I made this mistake).  Make sure the grass where your bed will be is mowed.  Completely cover with 8 sheets of newspaper (not the glossy colored kind).  Fill your cinder block bed with about 6 inches of great dirt - I originally bought a truck load that was delivered to my house for about $150 and was plenty to make all of my beds and then some.  Use a potting soil and compost mix or a good humus.  I would stay away from mushroom compost.  It loses its minerals very quickly.  Plant seeds or plants.  Don't overcrowd your plants - this is the biggest mistake most new gardeners make.  Give them plenty of space and support.  If it's a vine like cucumber or gourds, make sure to supply it with something to climb on.  The key to great tomatoes is support.  Provide them with a good tall solid cage and they will reward you with fantastic yield.  I suggest neem oil to deal with most pests - it's organic.  As for watering use a drip system or place your hose on the ground near each plant and let it run.  It's best to water early in the morning or in the evening when the air is cooler.  If you spray water your plants at 2 o'clock in the afternoon you will effectively boil them.  I have 8x4 ft. beds and I let the hose run for 20 minutes in each bed every other day.   Once your plants are in the ground and watered, please mulch them.  This keeps down the weeds and helps hold the moisture in, and, in my case, keeps the neighborhood cats from thinking my garden beds are litter boxes.  I use old hay for mulch.  It works great and is super cheap - one bale will cover a lot of garden and costs less than $10 at any feed & supply.  Keep in mind that our better season for planting and growing is October through the winter.  That is when we can grow tomatoes, lettuces, greens, beets, radishes, pumpkins, onions, broccoli, cauliflower and more.  Save yourself a lot of headaches by learning what we can grow when.  We are on a different schedule from the rest of the country.  We should be harvesting our summer tomatoes about the time Michigan is planting theirs.  Most of our summer veggies - okra, squash, tomatoes, etc. should be in the ground the first week of March.  For reading, I would like to suggest the Houston area organic gardening bible: Year Round Vegetables, Fruit and Flowers for Metro Houston by Bob Randall, Ph.D.  It is packed with great information, but honestly I read everything ever written about Gulf Coast gardening and didn't start to get good at it until I volunteered in a community garden with a Master Gardener.  The learning curve on organic gardening is steep, but if you are like me every season brings just enough success to keep you coming back for more.  Remember that there is help out there.  Urban Harvest is a great resource for information and things going on including plant and tree sales.  Visit them at www.urbanharvest.org   Donna Faye at Sweet Organic Solutions on I35 in Pearland is very friendly and very helpful.  So is Buchanan's on 11th in the Heights.  I prefer to buy my plants from these and other local sources because they sell varieties that do well in our climate.  The big box stores will sell you what they sell at every other shop in the country, and I don't care who you are table grapes and raspberries are not going to grow for you if you live south of I10.  Good luck and good growing!

Sweet Potato and a friend harvesting eggplant.

Canning Tomatoes...FAIL

Well not really a fail, but I will admit to not completely committing to this project 100% .  I did wind up with 10 pints of tomato puree in the freezer, but I didn't have all of the right equipment which resulted in a huge mess (ruined a white t-shirt.  Note to self:  don't can tomatoes wearing white).   I also wound up pouring boiling water down my arm because I was using tongs instead of a proper jar lifter.  I have never attempted canning before mainly because I am a chronic half-asser and canning is something that must be done right or your family will come down with a nasty case of botulism and it will be all your fault.  Actually, Sugar Snap keeps a healthy distance between herself and any tomato or tomato product so she would be fine, but the rest of us would be hospitalized.  I had 15 good sized tomatoes red and ready so I followed the instructions more or less.  I did boil the jars and lids first but I didn't use new lids like you are supposed to, I reused everything.    Next time I will invest in some quart size jars.  Here's what you do:

Bring three stockpots full of water to a boil.  Also have a large bowl of ice water at the ready.  In the first pot submerge your tomatoes for a few minutes, extract and put into the ice water.  This will allow the skins to slide right off.  At this point you can cut tomatoes in chunks or do what I did, put them in the blender to make crushed tomatoes.  Put just a half of a teaspoon of lemon juice in with the tomatoes so they keep their color.  In the next pot boil the lids and rims for the jars.  You can reuse rims, but you must use new lids unless you want to freeze the tomatoes until they are ready to use.  Boil those for 10 minutes.  In another pot boil the jars.  I did all of that, poured the tomato puree into the jars and then set them in the deep freezer.  I plan to try this again the right way - using new lids and boiling the jars after they are full - and I will wear an apron.  I'll let you know how that goes.

The Perfect Summer Lunch (w/ recipe)

It starts with a glorious summer vine ripened tomato out of your garden. The supermarket varieties will not do.  Those imposters have been raised to look lovely and travel well.  They are the blonde bimbos of the vegetable world - all fluff and no substance.  Pick the reddest ripest real tomato you can find.  Next, bake a loaf of whole wheat bread.  It doesn't take that long, and most of the time spent is on rising and baking so you can do other things.  Mine is in the oven as I'm typing.  Here's my recipe:
Dissolve 3 Tbsp yeast with 1/4 c. honey in 3 c. warm water (as warm as you like your bath).  When it smells yeasty and looks bubbly add 2 c. whole wheat flour and 2 c. white flour and 3 tsp. salt.  Start mixing.  Depending on your humidity level you will have to add more flour (I sometimes add as much as 2 more cups).  When the dough gets stiff enough to handle, start kneading, keep adding flour as it gets sticky.  You want it slightly tacky but not sticking to your hands or the bread board.  Knead 5 minutes, cover and let rise in a warm area until it has doubled in size.  Knead again 5 - 10 minutes.  The more you knead it the better it will be.  Divide into two loaf pans sprayed with oil and let rise again.  Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 1 hour.  Cool before slicing.

Once the bread is sliced, slice the tomatoes generously and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Spread the bread with a good mayonnaise, and that is it.  A good old fashioned tomato sandwich that you can only enjoy once a year when the tomatoes are ripe.  I enjoy this with a glass of cheap Chardonnay but Hubby has his with Shiner Bock.  Either way, it's a little bit of sunshine in your mouth.

How to: Making a Used Tire Planter in 3 Easy Steps

Step 1:  Find some used tires.  I find mine on the side of the road.

Step 2:  Plan on using one can of spray paint per tire.

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Step 3:  Fill tire with plenty of good dirt, plant, and enjoy!