It's Dragon Season

Eh, well we still got a few fruit from this plant in the corner. 

Now the question is, is this the last harvest of the summer or the first harvest of the winter?

Darryl

A Labor of Love

Well, Labor Day 2015 has just passed, marking the unofficial end of summer. How did our garden do? This year was much better than last. We had a lot more good news than bad.

Let's start with the good stuff and save the bad for next time.

On the sweet side of things, the guavas are ready to start picking. Some are already dropping on the ground. Lots of fruit on this tree.

The dragon fruit aren't ripe yet but they're getting there.

The tomatoes have done great. Three plants have put out enough that we haven't had to buy tomatoes for two months now. Maybe not enough to share with all the neighbors but a banner year still, especially compared to the lousy year we had last year. 

The hybrid has put out many in clusters like this.

The heirloom has been a bit stingier, only giving us about a half dozen but they were pretty big, tasty, and spectacular.

Although the leaves could look healthier, the hanging cherry tomato has been loaded down all summer with tiny, tasty fruit.

On the spicy side of things, the pasilla I planted last year that I gave up on because it was ravaged by squirrels has made a comeback and is providing a good, late harvest. When done, I will transplant it into a more suitable spot.

Another plant that was rodent plagued last year was our Anaheim chile plant. It has also produced handsomely this summer. Great with eggs or in salsa.

Need some more heat? I've got more than enough serrano and Thai chiles for the whole neighborhood. This shows just a tiny portion of those plants.

And coming soon, this Meyer lemon should be leading our late fall and winter citrus parade.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved.

The Harvest is Almost Among Us

I picked 16 cherry tomatoes this morning that I'll use for a pizza. This regular hybrid tomato is showing its colors. Harvesting will be commencing very soon for these beauties.

The dragon fruit is about to bloom with this flower...

...this one...

and this one.  Hopefully, that's just the beginning.

The tomatoes and oranges were starting to block the walkway so I cut them back to make a path.

Darryl

Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick

All Rights Reserved

Keeping up Appearances

Checking into the status of the garden. First, in this era a megadroughts, how about a look at water usage? It's raining today, that's good, but we're still under rationing.

Last month's bill was $17 and change. this compared to the same time last year when we paid, well, more (the water company's website is down and I can't look up last year's bill right now). There is also a strange credit on the bill of a couple of bucks, called the "CA: LA Payment Assistance" credit, that I don't know what it's for but in water usage, we used 6,732 gallons this May and 7,480 gallons last May.

My next door neighbor, who has a large green lawn that she only waters once a week, has a bill over $180 for the same period. Yikes!

The tomatoes are busting out all over. Many fruit on our hybrid plant and cherry tomato plant. The heirloom plant is showing lots of flowers but no fruit yet.

Our chiles are doing better this year. I used this Anaheim chile in our eggs this weekend and there's some gorgeous pasilla chiles on another plant. I'll maked stuffed peppers out of them someday.

Got six ears of corn showing so far. 

The grapes are showing slight signs of smut so I hit them with some sulfur dust on Sunday.

My wife made me take the cage off of our zucchini, now it's showing signs of animal damage and I still haven't gotten any fruit. I put the cage back on, let's see how it does.

It's June. The vendor at the farmers market who sold us the dragon fruit plants told me to cut back by a third and we should see flowers by May. I did. Got lot's of new growth but no flowers or fruit yet.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

How To Train Your Dragon

Our dragonfruit plants grow like crazy. I've given over this corner of the yard to them, where they intertwine with our aloe plants.

We only get 4-8 fruit a year off of them, though, so last night at the local farmer's market, I found the grower who sold them to us and asked him how I could get more fruit.

Very simple, he said. Cut them back one third. It's March, do this and you'll have lots of flowers in May.

Easy peasy...some pruners, cut at the closest joint to one third of the way down (it's a cactus with thorns, leather gloves are a must), and that's it.

Cuttings in the waste bin, now just to wait until May to see what happens.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

How to Eat Your Dragon

One plant I really love in our garden is the dragon fruit. This tropical cactus does very well in our climate and I'm hoping to get more production out of it.

We have two varieties, one with white flesh and the other a vibrant, hot-pink flesh like a watermelon on acid.

It's time to eat this one.  Eaten straight, it's ok. Slightly sweet but a bit bland.

The best, we've found, is to cut it up in cubes and very lightly sprinkle a little powdered sugar on it.

This amps up the natural sweetness and the taste is as stunning as the looks of the fruit.

Best of all, I went out this morning and found more flower buds on the plant. More fruit to come...

Darryl
Copyright 2014 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

An Early Harvest

This will probably be my biggest harvest this summer. 

While the squirrels decimated my zucchini...I will not get so much as one squash this season...at least the tomatoes and grapes pulled through.

The grapes are usually end-of-summer but this hot, drought parched year made them come in early. Very early. But we did get a good crop. The bunches above represent the last of this year's.

The tomatoes are just starting to come into their own. The rodents attacked them early in the season, even uprooted the vines I have now, but I guess tomatoes aren't to their tastes after all because they've pretty much left them alone since then. 

Now the plants are recovering and producing fruit.

Luckily, the dragon fruit grow on spiny cactus stocks, so we can count on a few fruit from time to time from that.

It won't be long til we're picking Meyer lemons too.

Darryl
Copyright 2014 -Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Peppering up the Premises

Finally getting a chance to get back out to the garden, starting off with the beginning harvest of our bell peppers, pictured above. Got three ripe ones, ready to go, one for each of us. More on that below.

The plumeria always does good, this year they were exceptional. One problem...if you want to call it that...is that branches get too heavy and want to break off.  If you want, just stick it in the ground and it will become a new tree.

I go ahead and break this on off. I've already got enough plumeria, so this one goes in the trash.

More dragon fruit is ripening. I need to find a good recipe for this beautiful but somewhat bland fruit.

And what's that? Why it's a tomato! About time.

Back to the bell peppers...I cut them in half, spread a little cream cheese in them, put in some bacon bits, more cream cheese, top with shredded pizza blend cheese (mozzarella, cheddar, and jack), put in foil, and barbecue.

When done, I serve it with these delicious grilled chicken thighs.

Darryl
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Avoiding the Labor on Labor Day

We had triple digit temperatures and high humidity this weekend in L.A. so I was mostly trying not to get heatstroke.

Gardening chores were mostly of the mundane and easy variety like fertilizing and some light weeding. Since the front lawn is mostly a scorched brown, I was able to get away with weed whacking the few growing green spots on it, saving me from mowing for another couple of weeks. That will be this fall's number one project...aerating the lawn and overseeding with a heat and drought resistant mix.

I did have a chance to look around to see what I could harvest and anything else that needed attention. Pulling back the prickly canes of our dragonfruit showed a couple of beauties ripening against the wall (above). There's also a couple of greener fruit on the front of the plant.

I noticed something has been chewing on my newly sprouted zucchini plant, so I put a few more seeds in the soil and covered with a critter cage.

The spurge is always surging so I spent some time yanking it out too.

Bell peppers are almost ready to pick. These might be on the menu next weekend and I'm hoping to get a couple more harvests before they're done for the year too.

The sweet onions just won't stay good in the ground anymore, so I harvested the last of it too. The onions have been a very delicious addition to our summer menus.

Lastly, the garlic chives are blooming in our herb corner. Trying to decide whether I should let them propagate or cut off the flowers. They're delicious but the get fairly weedy.

Darryl
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
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It's The Middle Of July...Where Are My &*$#@ Tomatoes?

This year, I decided to try growing heirloom tomatoes instead of the usual hybrids. I harvested the seeds from some fruit I bought at the farmer's market, so I don't know what the exact variety is.

I planted in February, transplanted late March, and now...finally...it's just starting to flower. Usually, I'd have scads of tomatoes by now but these are taking forever.

Next year, I'll be planting hybrids as well...quick growing ones.

The zucchini's getting close to played out.  I've just got a few of these smaller squashes coming up now.

The plant started to grow over the walkway, so I took this stick and am attempting to hold it back in the planter.

The chiles are really pumping out the fruit and we'll be harvesting this from now til...who knows? These last a long time.

Finally, the dragon fruit is producing it's first flower of the season. Incredibly spectacular looking fruit but a bit on the bland side.

Darryl
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved