A Mountain of Chard...

...literally. 

A couple of weeks ago it became obvious to me it was time to pick the golden chard.  It grew beautifully this spring but the leaves were getting very large and once that happens, the chard turns tough and fibrous and I don't like it any more. 

So, it was time to pick it, blanch it and freeze it for the fall.  And that's what I did.  But what a tedious task.

I had to remove the tough stem off every single piece of chard you see on my counter above, 

wash it, slice the leaves into ribbons,

blanch it bunch by bunch in boiling hot water,

chill it down in an ice water bath, wring the water out and separate the cooked chard into two cup bunches.  It took me nearly all day. 

And when I was done, I only had eight cups of blanched chard to show for it!  Chard is like spinach, it cooks down to nothing. 

 

But hey, that's OK.  I was able to process and freeze all of it, although I still have another 2 rows of chard growing in with my peppers.  But they are much younger and I will likely use it up before I have to blanch and freeze it all.

So now I have all this lovely, fresh chard in my freezer ready to throw into soups and stews this fall and winter.  Was it worth the effort...you bet it was :) 

Beautiful Spring Salad

Here is a sample of what dinner salads in my house have been looking like for the past few weeks.  Take a Little Gem Romaine, add some spicy arugula and finish it with some gorgeous Lolla Rossa red leaf lettuce.  Top with a crumbling of blue cheese, some good peppery olive oil and voila~~a spring garden salad.

Doesn't get any fresher than this :)

Farmer's Market Bounty

Look at all this beautiful produce!

Last weekend my husband and I went to the Pearl Farmer's Market for the first time this season.  We were not disappointed (we never are, really).  What a haul we brought home:  Baby bella mushrooms, swiss chard, baby carrots, red cabbage, gorgeous spinach, Brussels sprouts, baby beets, radishes and plump, juicy strawberries.  I just love, love this stuff!  (As if you didn't know that already!)  And one of the cool things about all this produce is, with the exception of the strawberries and the mushrooms, I have been able to, and still do, grow all these vegetables for my family and friends in my little Texas hill country garden.  I'm very humbled when I think about it.  How blessed I am.

Tomatoes Are In the Ground

Yay!  I finally planted these babies and I must say, they are beautiful!  Each plant stands at least a foot tall, some of them are even taller.  And they are so healthy.  These are the first tomatoes I've ever planted in my garden that I grew from seed.  Well, how about that! :)

Yes, you could say, I'm a little proud of that fact.  Don't mean to be cocky or anything, but I nurtured and babied these plants.  I'm so happy and thankful to have gotten them to this point.  And after I planted these seedlings last night, it R.A.I.N.E.D!!  You have no idea how wonderful the sound of that rain was overnight.  It's been months, yes, months, since we have any rainfall.  And it was so very welcome here in the hills of South Texas. 

Anyway, I planted nine plants.  And yes, I probably overplanted for that bed, but I'll make it work:)  I'll just have a lot of tomatoes to cook with, give away, make sauces, maybe can some, etc.  I planted three Martian Giants, three Peron Sprayless,two Chadwick Cherries and one Genovese.  Here is a link to a prior post on my blog, describing these tomatoes.

So we'll see how these tomato plants fare through this coming summer.  And you can bet, I'll keep you posted!

Kitchen Garden Herbs

Where would a gardener be without a kitchen herb garden?  I would be lost without mine as I use fresh herbs in my cooking every single day.

Even during the dead of winter, I have herbs on my back patio.  These are usually the hardiest herbs:  thyme, rosemary, bay leaf and maybe a few chives.  But come the spring, it's time to rejuvenate the herbs and plant fresh seasonal ones.  Usually all I do to revive my herbs is add fresh compost to the pot; mix it into the existing dirt and water well.  That's pretty much all it takes to revive the herbs.  That mixed with warm spring sunshine and before you know it, the herbs are growing strong and standing tall.  Here's what I have on my back patio right now:

Lemon thyme

Lemon thyme

Old thyme plant that comes back every year.  I bet this plant is 6 or 7 years old.  It looks kind of trashy now, but it comes back full and lush in just a couple of months.

An old sage plant that I thought was dead till I looked closely and saw this brand new growth. I love it when that happens!

New sage plant

New rosemary plant, although my old one is still alive and producing well.  

An old bay leaf plant that got some frost damage, but a little pruning does wonders in bringing it back to life.

Another old plant~~my chives.  Again, I bet this plant is at least 5 or 6 years old.  And it comes back every year without fail.  

My old peppermint plant.  You just can't kill this baby!

And these are two old parsley plants and they, too, come back every year.  My problem with parsley is that the plant can't keep up with how much I use it.  I use *a lot* of parsley! 

Additionally, I planted a full pot of sweet Genovese basil and a full pot of purple ruffled basil...I mean, where or where would an herb garden be without sweet basil?!  :) This is also one of my favorite times of the season...when I can pick fresh basil again!  It's like going all winter without fresh tomatoes and NO basil.  It's torture, but oh so sweet when the spring and summer finally produce these two quintessential summer staples.

It really doesn't take a lot of effort or time to grow a kitchen herb garden.  And the rules (if you want to call them that) are simple:  grow what you like to eat! 

Star Hibiscus Awakens

This is a beautiful Texas Star Hibiscus plant that I blogged about last summer.  Again, this past fall, I cut it back, set it in the greenhouse, watered it regularly and waited for spring.  And again, it didn't disappoint me.  It seemed like overnight, this beautiful plant burst from its winter sleep and grew seemingly four inches!  It's one of the prettiest plants that live on my back patio during the summer and I'm so happy to see it wake up!  And I can't wait to see those gorgeous red flowers.  The hummingbirds love them too :)

 

Garden Seedlings

Yes...geeky me again with an update on the seeds I planted directly in my garden.  With the exception of the carrots, which typically take a little longer, all have begun to germinate too!  The weather has been very cooperative with sunny, very warm days which is perfect for seed growth.  We had one cold night where the temperatures here in the hills dipped to around freezing.  But I covered each bed with a frost blanket and that provided just the protection the little seedlings needed.  All came through the cold night just fine.

Now I know it's really hard to see these little buggers, but they are there and get a little bigger every day.

Romaine and golden chard

 Arugula

 Arugula

 Gold beets

 Red beets

Red leaf lettuce

I have to say my spring garden of 2011 is off to a very good start and I'm very much looking forward to cultivating and nurturing this garden along as spring turns into summer.  That's when the real challenge of gardening in South Texas begins...dealing with the extreme heat that plagues us every summer.  But I prefer to live one day at a time and deal with challenges as they present themselves.  And I'm happy to say, today was a good day :)

Tomatoes, Peppers and Eggplant

More seeds started!

These summer vegetables~~tomatoes, peppers and eggplant~~are a little more susceptible to frosts and cold nights; but it's plenty early for me to get their seeds going in the greenhouse to transplant into the garden when the weather warms up, likely mid to late April in the hills here in Boerne.

I have this pretty cool set up where I plant seeds in these little grow plugs,

 

 

 Set them in a float tray, 

 

Place a hothouse dome over the whole thing, 

Set it on a seed heating pad 

  And place the whole contraption under my grow lamp in the greenhouse

Voila!

This is the first year I've used this set up and I'm anxious to see how it works.  I need to keep the little plugs moist but it should work like a charm in getting the seeds going.  I checked it this morning and the little plugs are moist and warm on top of the heating pad so I'm pretty confident it'll work the way it's supposed to.  But...we'll see.  Right now the greenhouse is open but if it's going to get cold, I'll just close the door and windows and it stays pretty toasty in there, especially if I turn on the two heaters.

I did a little Mickey Mouse legend in my gardening notebook so I would remember what I planted in which plugs :)

 

Anyway, here's what I planted:

"A superb sweet pimento that is a favorite for fresh eating.  Clusters of 8-10 thick-walled, juicy pimentos per plant.  Fruits are flattened globes with gentle lobing.  Green when immature, cherry red when ripe."

"The largest of the sweet stuffing peppers, these are first-rate fresh or roasted.  Long and tapering with a non-bell shape.  When they are ripe, the fruits turn a stunning red, with an occasional brilliant yellow.  Tall plants bear an abundance of fruit."

"An oversized, juicy cherry tomato with great flavor and few seeds.  Vigorous vines are highly productive and disease resistant.  Selected by the late horticultural genius, Alan Chadwick."

  "Heirloom.  An old Italian variety excellent for fresh eating.  Prolific vines are vigorous and lush.  Indeterminate."

"Rich, smooth flavor and perfect acid/sweet balance in a medium-sized beefsteak tomato.  An exceptional fresh slicer.  Extremely productive plants produce up to 50 tomatoes each.  Trellis for highest quality fruit."

"Introduced from South America in 1951, this flavorful, prolific, mid-season variety bears firm, vitamin rich, crack-resistant fruit late into the season.  Indeterminate variety needs trellising."

"A beautiful, white to pale green eggplant is creamier and less bitter than the purple types.  Extremely productive plant and the earliest maturing in our (Seeds of Change) trials.  A great choice for container gardening. 
*Note from me:  I'm not a big fan of purple eggplant, so I'm very anxious to see what these little
white ones taste like. 

Again, maybe I'm overly optimistic about my gardening abilities, but I do hope these seeds germinate and grow into little transplants that I can nurture and eventually plant in my Texas garden.  All of these varieties are new to me so I have no idea what to expect.  But I do know that I'll watch them carefully and do my best to bring them all to beautiful, healthy plants that produce an abundance of fruit that I can share with my family and friends.  I guess...stay tuned :)