Have extra tomatoes? Make sauce!

Tomato sauce in Weck's canning jars

Sunday, July 30, 2023

  

For those lucky enough to be having a bumper crop of tomatoes or have a friend who is begging you to take their extras, making tomato sauce is an easy way to preserve the extras for winter that can be stored anywhere, in the pantry, kitchen, basement or even under the bed!  All you need are some canning jars, tongs, and a stock pot.

 

I slice the tomatoes we can't eat fresh, put in quart bags, and freeze until I am ready to can when it cools off.  There is no reason to not can now and skip that step!  I don't remove the skins or seeds when I make sauce.  I have not found that it effects the flavor of the sauce so why spend all the extra time and effort to remove them?

Tomatoes are considered an acidic vegetable so simple water bath canning is all that is needed to process the sauce for food safety.  Always follow the recipe exactly to ensure the acid level is high enough for water bath canning.  If a recipe calls for pressure canning, also follow it exactly as the time for canning under pressure is critical for making sure all bacteria is eliminated during the canning process.

I follow Ball's "Complete Book of Home Preserving" for their tomato paste recipe which makes a thick sauce.  Just put 9 cups of fresh, pureed tomatoes in a large pot, 1.5 cups of pureed sweet bell peppers, 2 bay leaves, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 clove of garlic and simmer about 2.5 hours to concentrate the flavor.  You can simmer more or less to the taste you prefer.  Remove the bay leaf and garlic clove.

I use Weck's brand canning jars and pint sized for canning my sauce as that is the amount I use for soups, chili, and spaghetti sauce.  Weck's jars are pretty and the lids are glass so they can be re-used for a lifetime.  Ball and Mason jars are more readily available in big box stores and easy to can with.  I just like using jars/lids that I don't have to buy more of each year and that are as safe as possible.  Glass is the safest on the market.

Easy, low tox canning of summer's bounty

Boil the jars, lids and seals as the sauce is close to being done.  Add 3 teaspoons of lemon juice to each pint jar, fill with the hot tomato sauce to within 1/2 inch of top of the jar, and seal the lid.  Make sure that the rims are wiped clean before putting on the lid so you will get a good seal.  Follow the instructions for the type of jar/lid system you are using.  

Place all the filled jars in a large pot, insuring they are fully covered with water.  Bring to a boil and continue boiling for 45 minutes.  Remove the jars from the pot and let cool.  Follow the jar/lid manufacturer's instructions for when and how to test the seal.  Test each seal before storing.  For any that the seal is broken, either put into the refrigerator to use in the next week or so or you can put into quart freezer bags for longer term storage.  Some lid systems require you to wait until completely cool (24 hours later) and the conventional metal lids will make a popping sound when they are sealed usually within 30 minutes of being removed from the pot to cool.

This type of canning is called "water bath canning"; no special pressure canner is required.  In general, any crop that is acidic by itself like tomatoes or is preserved using an acidic liquid or solid like vinegar and sugar are good candidates for water bath canning.  Do follow the recipe from a reputable source to guarantee food safety.

Ball's canning books have lots of tips on water bath canning so it is a great resource to use.  You can also look up their canning tips on-line, too.

Time for first round of fall and winter sowing!

Savoy cabbage in November edible garden

Saturday, July 29, 2023

It may seem crazy to be sowing seeds in July for your fall and winter garden, but it is the time to do so for several cool season edibles.  Everything you can grow for spring, you can grow for fall.  For winter harvests, just look for cold and winter hardy varieties.  

You can garden edibles year round, even in a small space.  You can garden year round in small space  The trick to harvesting all fall and winter is to have your veggies to full size by mid-October.  With the shorter days of late fall and winter, your plants will not grow much after mid-October through mid-February.

In the fall, I plant those varieties that are cold tolerant to extend the harvest as long as possible into winter.  Depending on the severity of the winter, many cold tolerant varieties revive in the spring and provide a really early, nice harvest surprise.  Look for varieties that advertise being cold hardy.

Because daylight hours are getting shorter in the fall, you will need to add about 2 weeks to the “Days to Harvest” your seed packet gives as the seed packet dates are based on spring planting.  Plants grow slower in fall because the days are getting shorter instead of longer.  Frost date look up

Just like in spring, seeds have to be kept moist to sprout.  You can also plant the seeds in peat pots or you can reuse the plastic annual trays you got in the spring.  Just be sure to sanitize any pots you are re-using.  You can put the plastic trays in a water catch pan, find a shady spot convenient to watering, fill with seed starting mix, sow your seeds and keep moist.  When the seedlings get their true leaves on them (second set), they are ready to harden off before transplanting into the garden.

There are some veggies that the temps are too high to germinate in our Zone 7 this time of year, like lettuce.  These you will have to start on the cool side of the house in the shade or you can start inside the home and move outside into the shade after sprouting.  Just like in spring, you need to make sure your seedlings are hardened before planting into the garden bed or placing in full sun.  

Indoor seed starting tips

Ideal soil temperatures for seed starting

"Hardening off" seedlings

Good choices for fall planting:

Root crops-Beets, Burdock, Carrots, Celeriac, Kohlrabi, Parsnips. Radishes, Root Parsley, Rutabaga, Salsify, Scorzonera, Turnips  All about beautiful beets All you need to know about growing carrots Another spring veggie-kohlrabi  Easy to grow crispy, peppery radishes All about turnips

Greens-Chard, Lettuce, Mustard, Collards, Chicory, Kale  Growing fabulous lettuce and greens

Fall and winter greens
Brassicas-Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower  Broccoli and cauliflower growing tips

Cabbage is nutritious and easy to grow

Choose varieties that have terms like cold hardy, frost tolerant, overwintering in their descriptions in catalogs or on their seed packet to extend your season into early winter.

Fall garden

Below are some general planting times for cool season crops for our Zone 6/7 garden:

July

Beets, carrots, Asian greens (pak choi, tat-soi), cilantro, collard greens, endive, escarole, frisee, fennel, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, mustard, onions, parsnips, scallions, and Swiss chard.  Use transplants for broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage.

August

The rest of the greens (arugula, corn salad, lettuce, miner’s lettuce, spinach, mustard, endive), kohlrabi, onions, snap peas, scallions, cabbage plants, radishes, and turnips.  Peas and Fava beans can be planted in August for spring harvests in Zone 6 or higher.  

September

Plant more greens, carrots, and radishes.  September is also a great month for starting perennial veggies, fruits, and herbs as well as flowers, trees and shrubs.  Midwest Perennial Vegetable Garden

October

The month to plant garlic for next year’s harvest and over-wintering onions.  Order your favorites early as many sell out quick.  Time to plant garlic! With growing tips......

If you don’t want to start seeds, some big box stores and local nurseries have begun to have fall planting veggies.   If none in your area do, there are many mail order seed companies that carry fall bedding plants.  Late August, early September is the best time to get transplants into the garden for fall and winter harvests.

With cover, you can harvest all winter crops of arugula, beets, chicory, corn salad, lettuce, mustard greens, parsley root, radicchio, radishes, spinach, and Swiss chard.  Extend the season with protection for plants

Potted winter lettuce and greens in mini greenhouse

The following don’t require covering for winter harvesting: brussels sprouts, winter cabbage, carrots, collards, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, bunching onions or Egyptian onions, parsnips, rutabagas, turnips.

Fall and winter harvested veggies are at their crispest and sweetest after a light frost.  The cold temps concentrate the sugars, making them extra yummy!  

It only makes sense to keep your garden productive through all four seasons.  The great thing about fall and winter gardens is there is very little pests, disease, or weeds.  Winter gardening is the least labor intensive of all. 

Quick tip-freeze and dry in small batches

Daily summer harvest from small space garden

Sunday, July 23, 2023

To keep plants producing, you should harvest often.  I like to do a garden tour to start off my day, every day.  Some may be wondering how to preserve a handful a day.  I either dry or freeze in small batches what I don't eat that day to preserve the peak flavor.

To get the maximum production from your plants, pick the veggies as often as they are ready.  This does a couple things to stimulate more "fruit" production.  

I keep freezer bags going in my kitchen freezer so I can just process and add to them every time I have extras.  I like to freeze tomatoes, green beans, squash, okra, and berries in quart size bags.  Sweet peppers and hot peppers in pint size bags.  This is the quantity I use them in for cooking.  I label each bag with the vegetable or fruit type and the year.  You get the best flavor if you eat frozen goods within a year.

For tomatoes, I wash and slice and put into a quart bag about daily.  When it is full, I move them on to the chest freezer in the basement.  Same for green beans, I just wash, snap and put into a quart bag until it is full then move to the chest freezer.  I wash, slice off the stem, then slice each okra into about 3/8" slices and put in a quart freezer bag.  Berries are just washed, allowed to dry off, then frozen in quart bags.  If you make sure they have dried off before putting into freezer bags, you can easily remove just a few berries for your yogurt each morning.

The sweet peppers and hot peppers I want to use in salsa and cooking, I wash, remove the stems, slice and put into pint bags.  When a bag is full, I move from the kitchen freezer to the chest freezer.

For the peppers that I am going to use for chili powder, I slice in half and put outside on a screen to dry.  As they dry, I bring back inside and store in a quart jar with a paper towel over it until there are a few to go ahead and grind into chili powder.  

For our shiitake mushrooms, I just let those dry on a paper towel on the counter.  When completely dry, I put into a quart jar and cover with a paper towel or towel until ready to use.

For cucumbers, I use the extras for pickles and pickle relish.  It only takes 1-2 cucumbers for a quart jar of pickles.  I will wait until I have 4-6 fresh cucumbers and then make a few jars of pickles or relish. 

Squash has to be blanched or cooked to preserve the flavor.  For the extra summer squash like zucchini or Trombetta, I make these into zoodles and blanch before putting into quart bags to freeze.  For winter squash like spaghetti squash, I bake, scrape and put into quart bags.

The only way I have found to preserve eggplant where it maintains its taste is by making the dip, baba ghanoush.  I have tried baking and blanching but the taste wasn't good after a few months.

For herbs, I cut them back by about a third, put into paper bags loosely and put in an upstairs warm closet to dry.  You can dry outside or in the garage or attic as well.  After dried, I remove the leaves from the stems and put into quart or gallon ziplocks until I am ready to make a seasoning mix or refill a spice jar.

By preserving a little at a time, it makes it a much more manageable task and ensures you are preserving the flavor of your edibles at their peak.

Quick tip-Pick often to boost your harvest

Sunday, July 23, 2023

Plants have a built in survival instinct.  For plants to survive, most veggies we grow must produce seeds.  They put the most they can into making as many seeds as possible.  Their seeds are contained in the fruits they produce, ie, the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, etc., that we harvest and eat.    

To get the maximum production from your plants, pick the veggies as often as they are ready.  This does a couple things to stimulate more "fruit" production.  I have found that most vegetable plants cannot grow their "fruit" to full size until one is picked; the plant can only support a finite number of developing fruits.  As soon as you pick a vegetable plant's "fruit", it now has the capacity to grow another to full size.  Since the plant is programmed to make sure it is making seeds for the next generation, it will continue to bring the next "fruit" to full size and ripeness.

Most vegetables and fruits are at their peak in the morning before the sun starts beating down on them and the heat gets going.  So, picking leaves and fruits first thing in the morning gives you the best tasting and crispest veggies.  The same can be said for picking right after a rain.

Most veggies you want to pick at the peak of "ripeness".  This varies by vegetable and fruit.  We are all familiar with a nice red, ripe tomato so that one is pretty easy.  I do like to pick my tomatoes about a day before peak ripeness to keep the birds and raccoons from sampling them before me!  They finish ripening on the counter by the next day.  Pick them too early and they will finish turning red, but the flavor will not be as good.    

For peppers, I wait until they are well into turning to their mature color.  You can pick when they are green as well.  Keeping them on the plant longer gives them a more complex flavor, but they are still tasty green.  

For eggplant, you pick them when they are at full size and still shiny.  When they start turning dull, it is past time to pick!  The longer you wait on eggplant, the more tough the skin gets, the more bitter the fruit and the bigger the seeds.

For summer squash, the longer you wait, the bigger the seeds get.  As soon as they are either full size or as large as you need, pick and prepare.  For winter squash, it varies so read the seed packet.  Many like butternut and pumpkins are left on the vine until fall and the vine dies back.  Others like spaghetti squash and mashed potato squash are picked as soon as they are full size.

Cucumbers are similar to summer squash.  You can pick them at any size.  Read the packet on what the recommendation is.  The longer they stay on the vine, the larger the seeds and seed cavity becomes.  I haven't found the taste effected but the skin does get thicker and tougher the longer you wait.

Okra is similar to summer squash and cucumbers; there is no penalty for picking too young.  The younger pods are crunchy and can be eaten raw.  Wait too long and the pods become tough.  Check the seed packet for the optimal size for picking. 

For snap beans, pick when the seeds just start to swell in the pod.  Waiting longer can give you stringy, tough beans.  For shelled beans, remove the pod when the pod at its stem has turned brown.

For greens, pick the outside leaves to keep the center producing so you can harvest over months from the same plants.  For greens, it is critical to pick first thing in the morning or right after a rain for the crunchiest and sweetest taste.

Mediterranean herbs are the exception.  They have the most intense flavor at the end of the day.  So, pick them in the late afternoon or evening before the dew comes.

d where they normally are for this time of year.

If you want to save seed, choose the fruit you want to let use and let it ripen fully on the plant so you have the plumpest seeds.  You always want to chose the fruit that has the qualities that you want to propagate.  If you want early maturing, choose the earliest fruits that came on the plant.  If you want the biggest fruit plants next year, chose the biggest fruit the plant produces this season.  Letting them go past their prime for harvesting will slow down what the plant can produce for the time it takes to get a fully ripe or past ripe fruit, but I think it is worth it to take the best each year for next year.  You're creating plants that are ideally suited to your growing conditions and producing the traits you want most.  

What's happen' in the mid-July edible garden

Baby peppers on potted pepper plant

Sunday, July 16, 2023

We are harvesting tomatoes, peppers, summer squash, snap beans, lima beans, eggplant, herbs, onions, lettuce, Red Malabar spinach, New Zealand spinach, Chinese Multi Color Spinach amaranth, Love Lies Bleeding amaranth, and sprouting broccoli.  Petunias, zinnias, fairy lilies, daylilies, marigolds, lantana, gardenia, Love Lies Bleeding, Cock's Comb are all blooming.  We are in a moderate drought so are having to water the pots 2-3 times per week and the garden beds weekly.

We have had spells of warmer than normal temperatures in mid spring followed by cooler than usual temperatures in May.  Peppers, eggplant, beans, and squash are all behind where they normally are for this time of year.  

I just started getting baby eggplants and squash.  I bought a Japanese eggplant transplant and I have harvested one fruit off of it and there are 2 more that are close.  One of the eggplants I started from seed is flowering and has a baby eggplant on it, Daimaru.  The others I started from seed are almost big enough to start flowering.  I started getting summer squash from the volunteers that came up at the end of June.  The summer and winter squash I started from seed have baby fruits on them.     

I got some snap Blauhilde beans and Christmas Speckles lima beans, but the vines are currently not producing or flowering.  The winged bean and 1500 Year old bean vines have yet to flower this season.  

I had to restart my cucumber seeds 3 times.  The latest seedling is growing very well and I expect to see flowers and fruits soon.  

The Ancho pepper plants have fruits but the sweet pepper plants have not flowered yet.  The cayenne and Chipetlin that I overwintered in the basement have been producing regularly.

  Peppers are for every taste and garden

Tomatoes are pretty well on schedule this year for fruits.  Got our first ones last month and production has been pretty steady since the Fourth of July.  I have flowers and tomatoes on all the plants except the Brandywine.  My tomato plants don't look very busy, but are producing.  I am getting several ripe ones each day.  I think I have voles in my garden beds.  Their tunneling destroys root systems and they like to eat roots!  I had one plant that looked like it was going to die but it is recovering.  My Chocolate Lightning dwarf has had a tomato on it for weeks and was dark green and bushy.  Now whole sections of the plant are wilting.  Probably the voles.  I read that voles do not like coffee grounds so I am now putting all our grounds around each tomato plant and when I dig into a vole tunnel, I add grounds into each tunnel before I close back up.  Fingers crossed this works!

I do have 4 seedlings that I started late.  It is always a good idea to have 2 plantings of tomatoes if you want to have alot of tomatoes.  As the early plants start dying back, you can count on the younger plants to pick up the slack.  

My husband is growing his upside down in 5 gallon buckets with an auto watering system and fertilizer spikes to keep it as maintenance free as possible.  He was given 6 plants from a neighbor that thought they were beefsteak, purchased 3 Brandywines and 1 Black Prince.  He has gotten lots of cherry tomatoes, both red and yellow ones, 2 from the Black Prince, and so far none from the Brandywines.  One of the Brandywine's has a huge green fruit on it, but it just doesn't seem to want to ripen yet.  Brandywine tomatoes have about the longest "days to harvest" of any tomato plant at 100 days so not surprising it is the last one to produce.

His system is working well.  His plants are staying green and are fuller than the ones I am growing in the garden.  His started getting yellow leaves in the last couple of weeks but that is not unusual as tomatoes lower leaves won't be getting as much sun as upper leaves grow.

Oregano in bloom

Our basil isn't very big yet.  I transplanted them late as it took forever for them to take off after sprouting with the cool May we had.  Probably be at least a couple of weeks before I can do my first harvest for pesto making.  They should still regrow to give me at least one more good harvest before fall.  Basil basics-harvesting, preserving, growing basil

Oregano is in bloom.  The bees love the purple flowers!  I need to check to see which herbs I need to dry to make my herb blend before summer is over.  I use this blend on/in everything from sauces to eggs to grilled chicken.  Harvest and preserve your herbs

Lettuce gone to seed

I fertilized all the pots again as well as the veggies in the garden first using Epsom dry fertilizer and a couple weeks later, Jobe all  natural fertilizer spikes.  It is good to fertilize pots biweekly and garden plants monthly during the growing season to give them the nutrition they need to produce well.  The fertilizer spikes are slower release so hopefully this round will get me through the season. Summer edible garden tips

  

Most of the lettuce has gone to seed.  When you see the white fuzzies, they are ready to save.  I just pull the seed heads, break apart, put in a ziplock freezer bag, label with type and date, and store in the refrigerator.  You can also leave them on the plant and you will get volunteer lettuce plants.  This year, I am being lazy and just either bending the seed heads over a pot that I want to get more lettuce going or cutting the seed head off and putting it into a pot to re-seed my pots.  It takes a couple of weeks for them to be of baby lettuce size to harvest.  I have several seedlings coming up. 

 

Succession planting of lettuce and planting types that are resistant to bolting can keep your lettuce crop going.  Plant them in the coolest part of the yard where they are not in full sun all day and get shade in the afternoon.  Pots are a good option to be able to move them to the cooler part of the yard.  Growing summer salads  Bolt-free, sweet summer lettuces

You may have to start the seeds indoors this time of year because lettuce doesn't germinate very well if soil temperatures are about 70-75 degrees F.  Never ending salad from one packet of seeds  Seed saving-fun, easy and a cost saver

In the greens department, summer is a hard time for the most common crops we grow for salads.  Sprouting broccoli, some lettuce, different types of sorrel, leafy cabbage, sweet leafy mustards, amaranth, sprouting broccoli, arugula, dandelion greens, chard, lettuce, kale, cress, orach and herbs are all options.  The heat increases the sharpness of most of the traditional greens.  

I added a couple of varieties of greens that have a similar taste to spinach and lettuce a few years ago.  Red Malabar spinach, New Zealand spinach, sprouting broccoli, and Hilton Chinese cabbage are now staples in my summer greens garden.  They are not true spinach or lettuce but have similar flavor and are heat tolerant.  They don't get bitter in the heat.  

If you have extras of chard, dandelion greens, sprouting broccoli, sorrel, sprouting broccoli, kale or cabbage, you can blanch and freeze them for steamed winter greens.  Freezing the extras for winter

The annual flowers are doing well in the garden right now.  They attract all kinds of beautiful butterflies and moths as well as bees.  I love watching all the bees and butterflies that are visiting the garden. 

Key chores to keep the summer garden producing is to pick often, make sure plants have even moisture, keep ahead of pests, and give the plants the nutrition they need to keep going. 

This time of year, it is so nice to be able to walk through the garden and pick what is ripe for dinner and watch the garden grow. 

Annuals versus Perennials

Lots of fuchsia colored volunteer zinnias in the summer garden

Saturday, July 15, 2023

Annuals are ones that come up once, set seed, and die.  Perennials are ones that after being planted, come back year after year.  Perennials can also produce seed, nuts, or propagate underground.  Some plants are perennial in warmer regions but are annuals if left outside over the winter in colder climates.  Many of our favorite vegetables we grow in our edible gardens are perennials in warmer regions but annuals in our climate zone.  There are also perennial vegetables that survive our winters.  Annuals and perennials have advantages and disadvantages.  

Most of our garden veggies are annuals in our climate zones in the Midwest and further north.  Favorites like eggplant, tomatoes and peppers are all perennials in their native warm zones.  Other common vegetables that are perennials but treated like an annual are alliums which include onions, shallots, leeks, chives and garlic.  If their bulbs are not harvested, they will come back in the spring.  Perennials that we harvest that come back every year are veggies like cold hardy artichoke varieties and asparagus.

There are many edible greens that are not well known, but are perennials as long as you don't pull up the entire plant and just harvest leaves as you need them.  Examples include varieties of kale like sea kale, Western Front kale, Walking Stick kale, Dorbenton kale, perennial broccoli like 9 Star, several varieties of sorrel like Profusion sorrel, dandelions, Turkish rocket, and Sylvetta arugula.

Besides the advantage of not having to plant perennials each year, another great thing about edible perennials is that they are up and ready to eat before anything else in the garden.

The great thing about most annuals is that they flower quickly and many times repeatedly.  This holds for flowers and edibles.  They know they only have a limited time to ensure the continuation of their kind so kick it into gear early and often.  

There are many "self-sowing" annuals for both edibles and ornamentals.  

Self sowing herbs:

Basil (bring in the volunteers to overwinter in a pot)

Borage

Chamomile

Cilantro

Dill

Oregano

Parsley

Self sowing edible flowers:

Calendula

Chamomile

Marigolds

Nasturtiums

Sunflowers

Self sowing vegetables:

Celery

Beets

Broccoli raab

Carrots

Egyptian walking onions

Parsnips

Radishes

Runner beans

Sprouting broccoli

Squash

Tomatillo 

Tomato

Turnips

Self sowing greens:

Amaranth

Arugula

Chard

Collards

French sorrel

French dandelions (bred to have larger, sweeter leaves than “common” dandelions, but both are very nutritious and great in salads) 

Kale

Lettuce

Mache

Miner’s lettuce

Orach

Mustards (Giant Red Mustard does great in our garden)

New Zealand spinach

Purslane

Red Malabar spinach

If you leave any of these to flower and set seed this year,  you will have many "volunteers" sprouting next season.  A watch out for self-sowers is that they can become invasive if left alone.  If you get more than you need, just pull the unwanted seedlings.

The edible perennials I have in our garden are asparagus, Egyptian walking onions, chives, oregano, thyme, sage, tarragon, sorrel, and a winter hardy chard.  

I have many volunteer annuals in the garden: amaranth, ground cherries, basil, carrots, marigolds, summer squash, celosia, sunflowers, zinnias, sprouting broccoli, kale, lettuce, dill, cilantro, orach, Red Malabar spinach, New Zealand spinach, Ruby Streaks mustard, Giant Red mustard.  I move the volunteers where I want them in the garden once they are about 6" tall.  By this time, they have a good root system and transplant well. 

Tomato season is here!

Saturday, July 8, 2023

 

In our garden, the Fourth of July marks the beginning of tomato season.  This is when the first tomatoes are ripe.  Time for BLT's, juicy burgers, tomato cucumber salads and many more dishes that ripe tomatoes shine!

It may seem crazy to be sowing seeds in July for your fall and winter garden, but it is the time to do so.  Everything you can grow for spring, you can grow for fall.  For winter harvests, look for cold hardy varieties.  

I always look forward to the Fourth of July in the edible garden as that is when I can bank on tomatoes being ripe.  If I'm lucky and started early ripening or cherry tomatoes, I will get a few before the holiday, but after the Fourth, I can count on ripe tomatoes daily all the way through the first killing frost.  

Key to on-going tomatoes is some basic maintenance, harvesting regularly and keeping an eye out for pests or disease.

Tomatoes are native to Mexico so a little dryness doesn't hurt them; some feel that keeping them no the dryer side enhances the flavor of the tomatoes.  Too much water can cause rot and disease.  If Mother Nature doesn't provide the inch of rain, I use a soaker hose to give the bed a good watering.    I make sure they get an inch of water each week, to not get the foliage wet when watering and to water in the morning to ensure that the foliage drys during the day.

Some think if a little water is good, a lot of water is better.   Not so with the tomato plant.  They are susceptible to fungal diseases which love moisture.  Too much water will also leach out nutrients like calcium from the soil, causing "blossom end rot" which is a rotten spot on the bottom of the tomato.  Lastly, overwatering can cause tomatoes to be tasteless and to crack, inviting rot in the cracks.

I fertilize with an organic dry fertilizer that I put under the mulch at planting, at first flowering and then monthly.  If not mulching, dig the fertilizer into the soil.  I use a fertilizer for tomatoes which provides the balance needed for all fruiting vegetables.  Some think that if a little fertilizer is good, more is better.  Not so.  If you over fertilize, you can end up with a huge bushy plant that produces no fruits.  If you see that the leaves on your plant are turning yellow, you can use a water soluble fertilizer like Alaskan fish fertilizer that you mix in with water and water the plant.

A plant will do its best to produce fruits to ensure that there will be more tomato plants in the future.  If you pick the fruits, it will stimulate the plant to make more fruits.  And a plant can only support so many fruits at once.  Harvesting often will keep the tomatoes coming!

I have found harvesting when the tomatoes just start turning red keeps the raccoons and birds from eating them before I can pick them.  I just put them on the counter where they get some sun and they are fully ripe in a day or two.

If I get more tomatoes than we can eat, I slice and freeze the extras.  Come fall, I will can all the frozen tomatoes from last year into sauce and any from this year that I don't think we will need for winter and spring cooking.  I have found that I don't need to blanch tomatoes or peppers before freezing.  I slice what is ripe that day and put in a freezer bag in the freezer with what it is and the year.  When I have a full bag, I move to the upright freezer.

Since tomatoes are susceptible to fungal diseases, many recommend that you put some kind of mulch around your tomato plants so dirt and fungal spores don't splash up onto your plants.  I prune any leaves with spots on them.  If they did have an infection on them, it keeps many diseases from spreading to the rest of the plant.  Any leaves that may have disease should be put into the trash and not composted.

The only pests I have with my tomatoes that cause any issues are birds that peck on the ripe fruits, raccoons that ferret away ripe fruits, hornworms that will quickly eat every leaf on your plant and voles that dig holes through the roots of plants and eat roots they like.  This causes my plants to wilt and the leaves to yellow.  They seem to recover on their own over time if I hand water them every few days to allow the roots to regrow.  I have tried vole vibration deterrents and it may have helped but not eliminate them.  I read that they don't like coffee so I am trying putting my coffee grounds around the garden and in any holes I dig up.  Fingers crossed!

For hornworms, I look at the leaves of my pepper and tomato plants.  When it looks like something has been wolfing down the leaves, I inspect for the large green hornworms, both on the stems and leaves as well as the undersides of the leaves.  If you find any, check back over the next few days for any you might have missed. 

Some gardeners see their production go down over the summer.  My plants usually produce until the first killing frost.  If you want to hedge your bets, you can start seeds or buy transplants now.  They will start producing faster planting now than in spring since there is much more sunlight and warmth now than spring.

What to plant in July's edible garden

Onion, oregano, catnip and zinnia in July garden

Tuesday, July 4, 2023

You can still plant for summer harvests, but July is also the month to start planting for fall harvests.  It may seem crazy to be sowing seeds in July for your fall and winter garden, but it is the time to do so.  Everything you can grow for spring, you can grow for fall.  For winter harvests, look for cold hardy varieties.  

The trick to harvesting all fall and winter is to have your veggies to full size by mid-October.  With the shorter days of late fall and winter, your plants will not grow much after mid-October through mid-February.  This means you start sowing seeds July-August for fall and winter harvests.

The change I make from spring to fall plantings is for spring, I plant those varieties that are heat tolerant.  In the fall, I plant those varieties that are cold tolerant to extend the harvest as long as possible into winter.  Depending on the severity of the winter, many cold tolerant varieties revive in the spring and provide a really early, nice harvest surprise.

Because daylight hours are getting shorter in the fall, you will need to add about 2 weeks to the “Days to Harvest” your seed packet gives as the seed packet dates are based on spring planting.  Plants grow slower in fall because the days are getting shorter instead of longer and steadily cooler.  Frost date look up

Just like in spring, seeds have to be kept moist to sprout.  You can also plant the seeds in peat pots or you can reuse the plastic annual trays you got in the spring.  You can put the plastic trays in a water catch pan, find a shady spot convenient for watering, fill with seed starting mix, sow your seeds and keep moist until sprouted.  When the seedlings get their true leaves on them (second set), they are ready to transplant into the garden or a larger pot.  In hot temperatures, I transplant to a larger pot and let them get to a good size and transplant into the garden bed when it is calling for rain.  I will keep an eye on them after transplanting and water as they need it.  Peat pots require daily watering in summer months because the pots are so porous. 

Summer seedlings

There are some veggies that the temps are too high outdoors to germinate in our Zone 7, like lettuce.  These you will have to start inside or on the cool side of the house in the shade.  Lettuce has a hard time with germination with soil temps above 70.  

Indoor seed starting tips

Ideal soil temperatures for seed starting

You can also plant a second crop of summer veggies and herbs early in the month to keep the harvests strong through October.  Look for varieties that have short "days to harvest" or purchase transplants.  Summer lovers with quick harvest times include basil, beans, corn, tomatoes, and zucchini.

July-Seeds or Transplants

Asian greens (pak choi, tat-soi) Fall and winter greens

Basil  Basil basics-harvesting, preserving, growing basil

Beets All about beautiful beets

Broccoli  Broccoli and cauliflower growing tips

Brussel sprouts  Growing Brussel sprouts

Bush beans  Growing beans

Cabbage Cabbage is nutritious and easy to grow

Carrots All you need to know about growing carrots

Cauliflower

Celery  Give celery a try, an easy to grow garden staple

Chinese cabbage

Cilantro  Growing cilantro (coriander)

Collard greens Grow a southern favorite-collards 

Corn  Growing corn

Endive

Escarole

Fava beans Grow a European favorite-the fava or broad bean 

Frisee

Fennel Growing fennel

Kale  Grow one of the super greens this year-kale

Kohlrabi  Another spring veggie-kohlrabi

Leeks
Lettuce, heat tolerant varieties  Everything you need to know about growing lettuce

Mustard  Mustard greens

Onions  Everything to know about growing onions

Parsnips

Rutabagas

Salsify

Scallions

Swiss chard  For year round steamed greens, grow chard!

Spinach  Grow spinach-a super nutritious, easy green

Tomatoes  Tomatoes 101, everything you need to know to grow great tomatoes

Turnips  All about turnips

Zucchini  Growing zucchini and summer squash

If you don’t want to start seeds, some big box stores and local nurseries have begun to have fall planting veggies.   These typically come into stores in late September.  If none in your area do, there are many mail order seed companies that carry fall bedding plants.