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Blanco, Texas : Thyme Traveler : March 2007
Organic Gardening with Traveler in Thyme
March 2, 2007 17:44
Spring is springing all over my yard, isn't it fun to see all the little greenlings peeking out?
That green haze you see all over our raised beds is lettuce.......billions and billions of baby lettuces. Some of them will have stripes and polka dots, which makes the cool weather garden a psychedelic place to wander. All those neon pinks and greens with ruffles----what if we really are what we eat?
Verbena, henbit, dead nettles, thistles, corn salad, dandelions, anemones and pennyroyal have all seeded themselves inside the fence where the deer can't eat them. They each have an area where we showed mercy and left them for the butterflies.
Most of the beds I seeded three weeks ago are still dormant, though the brave little snow peas are almost two inches tall, the aforementioned lettuce, and some parsley in the back yard where the ground was not disturbed this year.
Not as much cilantro this year as usual, either, but the chives are back already, after freezing to the ground. I need to weed back there, the henbit and dandelions are thick, and while everyone appreciates the wildflowers, enough is enough!
My most invasive, obnoxious weed is lambs quarters, so it's lucky that's also my favorite food 
. You have to hack your way thru the Killer Veggies if it gets ahead of you, so take a firm hand and thin keep each veggie or herb in its place.
A book or chart of companion plants will help you decide who should be neighbors and who might not get along so happily. Just be sure to leave a stand of "weeds" for Mother Earth's other creatures, so they will leave your food alone.
I picked up several marjoram plants at Blanco Gardens, and they are loving their new home on the shady side of the garden. That soil has more clay than the hot side, and holds the cool moisture for those tender plants that might suffer from our brutal summers.
A lovely stand of Eupatorium (Boneset) nearby was happily blooming all through last year's drought. I know they seeded and suckered all over the place, too, and will have to be "weeded" eventurally, but until they start
crowding out the marjoram, I will enjoy the pretty blue flowers when nothing else can stand the heat.
If you plant your own seeds for tomato and pepper transplants, now is the time to get those in the cold frames. We invested heavily in Italian food this year, and will hopefully make a nice cash crop to share with Papa Joe's Pizza this summer. He had some fresh marjoram last week from the cutback I gave the new transplants, I bet he made something tasty!
We are living on a lot of frozen, canned, and dried food, since the wild greens are rather scarce in our garden this year, because we dug it all up to improve the soil.
Real Foods Market has a great selection of organic frozen veggies for $2/bag, very useful for quick and easy suppers.
RECIPE OF THE WEEK - Vegetarian Dirty Rice
Here's a nutritious kettle of swill that feeds 8 or leaves plenty of leftovers for my husband to fry up for breakfast. My son's friend, Tanker, used to call up just to see if Jake's Mom was fixing Swill:
In cast iron kettle or soup pot, heat 2 Tbs. olive oil, sautee 1 chopped onion and 2 cups brown rice until lightly brown.
Add 2 1/2 cups water, one can of blackeyed peas, 1 Tbs. garlic powder, 1 tsp. turmeric, 1 tsp. ginger.
Bring to boil, cover, simmer for 45-50 minutes until rice is cooked.
Add 1/2 cup more water, 3 Tbs. soy sauce, 1 cup frozen green beans, 1/2 pkg. baby carrots, and any wild greens you might have (cilantro is very good here).
Return to boiling, stir well, cover and turn off fire. Let set 15 minutes, then fluf with a fork and serve topped with grated cheese.
Carnivorous variation: brown one pound ground beef at the beginning of recipe, then proceed with everything else in the same order.
If you add a touch of Liquid Smoke, you'll get a good sausage flavour without the pork or preservatives. Some people prefer picante sauce to soy sauce, for a Tex Mex variation, then you use pinto beans instead of blackeyed peas, and comino instead of turmeric and ginger. We are fond of blackeyed peas with canned chipotle sauce, too.
You can live on this stuff in any of its incarnations; all your food groups in one bowl!
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Grow Potatoes on the Porch
March 5, 2007 16:21
It's not easy growing spuds in this part of the world; what soil we have is too clay, too shady, and too hot. But working on a tip from Mother Earth News back in the 70's, we grew some tasty new potatoes in bushel baskets on the front porch.
Now days, you must use biodegradable cardboard boxes, but the principle is the same. Prop the boxes up on racks to keep mold off the bottom.
Into your big box, put dry leaves, about a foot thick. Cut up your seed potatoes, dust all cuts with sulfur. Lay the spud eyes evenly over the leaf mulch, then fill the box with more leaves. Water with a gentle spray mister until the bottom of the box begins to seem damp.
Keep the mulch evenly moist, adding more as the plants grow and the leaves settle down. Keep the box full of leaves, and carefully maintain the moisture so the box never gets soggy. If you get impatient, you can harvest baby spuds off the bottom of the box, add more mulch, and the mama plant will grow more.
Up to a point.
When your plants start to get tired, let them go, because potatoes attract every bug in the world when they are ill.
Yes, the box will get ugly before the season is over, that's why you want something bio so it can be mulched.
Everyone has seen those quaint pictures of old baskets with weeds blooming through, that were cropped from the actual scene of the midden pile beside granny's compost. Your scene will be old cardboard boxes squashed flat
and used for "stepping stones" ... these make excellent bug, grub and slug traps, just lift the paper once in a while and capture the bad guys. WEAR GLOVES, the scorpions are upon us. I squooshed a monster mama yesterday, spring is here!
Recipe of the Week: Mess, aka Veggie Scrambled Eggs
My kids called this Mess, to distinguish it from Swill, which is made with hamburger (see recipe under March 2nd entry). This is the same thing, only eggs. I've never met a kid who wouldn't eat a bowl full of this, and I am living on it myself, this week, having scored a dozen eggs from Cheryl at Blanco Gardens. Two banty eggs make such a cute little lunch . This recipe is infinitely adaptable, so nobody ever gets bored.
Serves four humans, or two growing boys, but is easily halved for romantic dinners for two.....
Preheat skillet to medium, add 2 Tbs. butter. Fry 1 cup chopped potatoes until lightly brown, add a little chopped onion, fry another minute until tender. Turn the heat to medium-low, then fill the skillet with whatever fresh greens and herbs you picked today (we consume a lot of lambs quarters this way).
Stir the greens around until they are wilted, then add 6 eggs, and stir like crazy until the eggs are barely cooked.
Cover, and let set a few minutes until the eggs are thoroughly set. Don't overcook, or they get dry and scorched on the bottom real fast!
Top the whole mess with grated cheese, and serve in bowls, with toast and honey, pita bread, or a pile of hot tortillas on the side. Crumble chips on top for kids who like crunchies.
Favourite combinations: lambs quarters, oregano, chives, with jack cheese:
lambs quarters, black olives, chives, with swiss cheese:
parsley, thyme, baby garlic:
fennel and black olives:
the possibilities are as infinite as your imagination.
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How to Grow Lavender from Cuttings
March 16, 2007 13:28
Lavender is simple and fast to root from spring cuttings. Just as soon as it wakes up and puts on buds, cut it back and dip all those little stems in root growing medium. I like the liquid Rootone, though lots of people swear by aspirin and seaweed in the water, with a potting mix of pure vermiculite.
When the rootlets are large enough to transplant, usually when they have started their first growth spurt, pot them up or put them out in the garden.
Water evenly the first year, and you'll soon have more lavender than you know what to do with.
Actually, it probably takes more like 3 years to become firmly established, like most shrubs. Don't overwater, expecting to make it grow faster, but do not let young ones get too thirsty. Not a problem this week, though, with all this wonderful rain!
Lavender loves gravelly soil, and is very prone to root rot. Half compost and half pea gravel is an ideal mix for container growing.
We have a lot of caliche --- ground limestone --- which lavender does not mind, as long as you dig in compost at
planting, and feed the shrubs a couple of thymes a year with a good layer of mulch.
Remember, lavender is in the mint family, along with salvia, basil, oregano, and vervain, so keep these unfriendly companions away from each other, to avoid mad mint disease.
Interplanting lavender with rosemary makes a lovely aroma on the evening breeze. Either one can be overwhelming, but together they create another smell altogether, very pleasant, indeed, while their forms are perfectly omplimentary. The rooting directions are the same, also. Watch out for the first growth this month, and take your cuttings soon.
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RECIPE OF THE WEEK: Verbena Blossom Salad
Know your flowers, don't ever eat any flowers that are not listed in this recipe, unless you are
sure it's edible.
This is just a little nothing I'm tossing together for supper tonight, from the blooming weeds in the garden. Serves 2 main dish, 4 side dishes, easily multiplied for parties.
Pick perfect verbena blossoms as soon as the morning dew is dried. Check the rosemary, it may have blooms, too.
Snip a few chive leaves, 1 sprig of oregano or thyme, and a big bunch of lettuce or other greens, which really need thinning this week.
Pick the colored part of the verbena blossoms, throw away the greens. Toss with rosemary blossoms and set aside for garnish, do not bruise the flowers!
Snip all herbs finely, put in a small bowl. Add 2 Tbs. raspberry or plum vinegar, 1 tsp. honey, a dash of sea salt, and stir to moisten all herbs. Toss this dressing with fresh lettuce or cooked greens. Excellent with steamed lambs quarters, which are coming into abundance now. Top with grated cheese, if desired. Sprinkle with the little flowers just before serving, with hot garlic toast on the side.
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Fire Ant Control
March 20, 2007 21:54
The outdoor season is upon us, the bugs and the bees are stirring, and everyone is asking what to do about the ants that have all come to the top after that rain last week.
Ants are an important part of your backyard ecosystem, please don't kill them unless they are actually a danger.
Just because they run out and sting you when you disturb their nest is no reason to obliterate them all. Fresh coffee grounds (not used), cinnamon, or lye soap will either drive them away or kill them forever, without harming you or your pets.
The best you can hope for, sometimes, is to convince the ants to stay in a part of the yard you don't use much, so they can go about their work without you stepping on their house. You'd run out and sting someone who did that to you!
In your house, put boric acid in all the cracks where pets won't get it on their feet. When you go out and expect to encounter ants, dust your arms and legs with diotomaceous earth, and they won't crawl on you.
When you want to sit outdoors, sprinkle a line of coffee grounds or cinnamon powder in a circle around your
space.......no ants, unless they are already inside there with you (LOL).
Lye soap, about half a bar melted in 5 gallons of water, will instantly kill several fire ant mounds.
Drench a circle all around each mound to prevent escape, then scoop a hole in the center and flood the mound. If you don't get it on yourself directly, lye soap won't hurt anything. I have enough for several people, if you want some, it's cheap. I bought 20 pounds online from MoSoap. 2 pounds was enough to control 10 acres, 5 years ago with no return fire ants, so there's plenty left over for y'all, just ask......
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