Bacterial Spot

I've been struggling with bacterial spot on my peppers since I was stupid enough to bring in an infected six-pack from the garden center. I always hate finding a new disease because I don't know yet how to fight it. Or if it is even possible to fight. Everything I read about the disease says my yields would be severely reduced. And the pepper fruit could be affected by the disease.

One control strategy was to pick off all the leaves that I saw that had any sign of the spot. I was doing this once a week, but it seemed that I was doing the plant more harm than good. It is hard to tell if the disease spread to new leaves is fast enough to warrant defoliating the plants once a week.

I would often get pepper drop after picking the leaves off and often not small little ones just setting, but half sized ones. So this week I left them on. I think next week if I haven't seen any massive spread, I'll pick out only the ones that are severely infected, but leave the rest.

Wednesday is always spray day provided it doesn't rain, which is my main line of defense against bacterial or fungal diseases. The typical spray that people would use for such things is copper sprays. Constantly using copper sprays in the garden can upset the micro nutrient balance of the soil. I tend to stay away from them. In addition the research that I've been doing says that bacterial spot is no longer controlled much at all by copper sprays. The bacteria has developed a resistance to it. I use Serenade. It is a bacteria that fights off other bacteria and fungi. I like it because it is non toxic. You will notice however that I use a respirator when applying it. And a full body covering that gets washed afterwards. And safety glasses (after spraying myself in the eye once, I always use eye wear when I spray). Though the spray itself isn't toxic, anytime you are exposed to large amounts of protein, especially inhaled, you can develop allergies to it. The last thing I need is another sensitivity. So I'm a good girl and spray safely. Though I always wonder what my neighbors think as they watch me in this get up.

Scotch bonnet with perfect leaves

Interestingly enough this bacteria is species dependent. Most of my peppers are Capsicum annuum - sweet and chili peppers. All of them have spots. But I also have scotch bonnet peppers which are Capsicum chinense. These are not affected at all. I have not one little spot on them. And I don't even spray them any more. They are immune. The Tabasco peppers on the other hand are Capsicum frutescens and are affected. In addition some peppers are just plain more resistant. The serrano peppers are growing well. The early jalapenos are having more problems.

Tabasco peppers, spot can be seen at the bottom left leaf

I also discovered that spraying with fish emulsion seems to help them out. It could just be because they grow faster that way and outgrow the disease a bit. But it could provide a bit of assistance. So I went to the internet to see if there have been studies on it. And lo and behold, someone did a study with neem oil and fish emulsion. Fish emulsion helps just a little, but neem oil is more helpful. Now I don't have any neem, and buying a lot of sprays to put on my peppers is not all that worth it. The peppers just aren't worth tons of money to deal with. And I like to keep my life simple. Though I am interested to see what Regalia might be like. It seems like a very interesting spray. It turns on disease fighting genes in the plants and works on all the things I have problems with. It is an extract of the giant knotweed. Hey knotweed is good for something! But like the aspirin I spray on my tomatoes early in the season, it is a better preventative than a cure. Maybe I'll get this next year to deal with my fungal issues. I like the idea of making the plant fight its own battles. And I don't have to spray every single week.

So the peppers are doing OK. They sure do look pretty, but so much foliage has been removed already. Many midsized peppers have been lost. I see some peppers starting to get bacterial spot on them. I don't like green bell peppers. I like red peppers. Though some are starting to turn, that process can take weeks and weeks. Do they have weeks? I don't know.

And now they have a new threat. The leaves of the Anaheims (mostly) have started to show signs of something. Mosaic virus? The neighbor that shares that side of the house with me does smoke, but I usually think of mosaic virus as mottling the leaves too not just puckering them. He also sprayed Roundup along the fence. But I didn't notice any of the leaves near the fence with any issues. I think he was pretty careful about spraying. And these are in the middle of the patch not near the fence. What else can cause this type of puckering? Well soon it might be time to rip them out.

And just to put the icing on the cake last night it hailed on us. At least we got almost an inch of rain to go with it. Of course it was after I had already watered the garden. The hail wasn't that bad as it didn't last long. The sunflower leaves seemed to get the worst of it. The poor peppers got a few shredded leaves. My first thought when I saw the hail start was, "what can I throw over the garden?" I really wanted to protect everything. I should look at the bright side of it all. The lettuce usually gets it worst and the lettuce was all dead from the heat already. Some days you just have to laugh.

And What To My Wondering Eyes Should Appear

But miniature melons and three tiny eggplants.

I leave the garden for four days and oh the changes I can see.

Yes I have to show you all those baby melons.

I wouldn't want to miss any.

And the corn has started to tassel.

The first snap bean is forming.

The Painted Lady runner beans are in bloom.

And best of all. No not the dying nasturtium. But the reason I let my nasturtium die due to aphids. Can you see all four in this photo?

There are so many ladybug larvae that I even found it in my harvest basket with no aphids in sight. I hope they eat white flies as I found an infestation in my tomatoes. Whiteflies don't live up here in the north, but are brought in on plants from greenhouses. I didn't bring any in. I'm sure they flew in from someone else who wasn't careful with their plants.

The first peppers are forming.

The pepper bed looks pretty good. I had to pull a lot of leaves off again, but not like before. One plant bit the dust and had to be pulled. I'll spray it again this week. Probably tomorrow as I watered today after ripping any infected leaves off.

And just because I can. Here is a photo from my trip. The only marble dam in North America is in western Massachusetts.

Garden Bloggers Death Day

Bring out your dead. Does anyone else really miss Kate from Gardening Without Skills? She created Garden Bloggers Death Day. A day to laugh at your mistakes and cry over how Mother Nature is treating you. But she hasn't posted since March. So this post is an ode to her.

I'll start with the easy things and then get into the really nasty. The first up is aphids. Oh my word do I have aphids. I have black aphids; I have green aphids. Above are my fava beans which are a sacrifice to the lady bug gods. I have found some ladies in the garden. This morning I found one right near these aphids on a leaf. It was one of the smallest lady bugs I'd seen. The other was on my chamomile and that sucker was huge. So far I haven't seen children, but I've got my fingers crossed. With zucchini I can hand pollinate, but with lady bugs all I can do to speed the process is provide a free meal.

The worst damage that the aphids have done so far is on my plum tree. If I'd noticed it earlier I could have helped it more. But the plum tree is not in the garden proper so doesn't get looked at every day. I noticed the leaves looked funny one day. Oh the poor tree. I took the hose and sprayed them down and checked the other trees. The apple tree had some too, not as much but enough that I needed to wash them off. I'll do it again in a week and every week after as long as I find a bad infestation.

Second up are my squash plants. They have some sort of fungus attacking them. I'm not sure what it is. So far no cucumber beetles, so I'm counting my blessings there. These will have to get sprayed, but the plants seem to be holding up OK.

The last is the worst. It is hard to describe how bad it is. Above is my pepper patch. It doesn't look all that bad does it? Yeah the lower leaves are all gone, but still things look green. I grew most of my peppers from seed, but I had germination issues. So I bought one six pack from Pemperton Farms down the road. Oh how I wish I hadn't. The plants looked fine. I really don't put them under a microscope since I've never ever had an issue with pepper diseases in the past. Peppers seemed safe.

Well it turns out they had bacterial spot, which whipped right through the peppers before I even noticed there was a real problem. Bacterial spot can wipe out the crop. I may or may not get any peppers this year. I'm trying to control it with two things. One keeping the peppers clean of any leaves that are infected. And two spraying with Serenade. Serenade and keeping infected leaves off is how I got a good harvest of tomatoes in 2009 when late blight went through the garden. I can only hope it works this time. Serenade is a biological. It is a bacteria that kills fungi and other bacteria. I read the list of which one it controls, but honestly I haven't a clue what bacteria it is that has infected the peppers. I speak Latin for plant names at times, but not so much for bacteria.

One of the reasons bacterial spot is not a big player is that it doesn't live long in the soil or on plant debris. It can last up to a year, but as long as you rotate your crops you should be fine. Except for one thing. The disease can be carried on seed and you can buy infected plants brought up from the South. So I won't be saving any pepper seeds this year. Which is too bad since I wanted to save quite a bit. None of the pepper plants will be put in the compost and the solanum rotation is every three years. So next year I ought to be fine. But I hope to get peppers still this year. I might not. Time will tell.

Signs of Things to Come

We are in a slight veggie lull. Thank goodness. I'm leaving on a trip and won't be picking anything while I'm gone. Allie who is living here for the summer might pick a few things, but mostly she will be keeping my plants where they belong. Like inside their cages, or up the correct string. It is nice to have someone who loves plants so much to look after the garden.

I still have to pick today though. I'll be picking chamomile, peas and any broccoli that is even close to being ready. I might pick some bok choy too, or I might wait until I get home. It depends if it looks like it is bolting. Luckily if I mess up and leave them a bit too long, they will still be fine. Unlike the bolting lettuce that gets so bitter, Asian greens are still good when they bolt and usually the flower stem is delicious.

I have a few Asian greens that are heat resistant that will grow over the summer, but the big stars are not the spring and fall crops you force to perform when they don't want to. It is the summer crops. I am impatiently waiting for them to start, and they are showing signs.

The cucumbers and melons are both putting out male blossoms. It can't be long before the females start to come out. Melons take forever to ripen, but the cukes are so fast once they start. The melons in particular are covered in male blossoms. They still seem to be happy even though we are in a cold spell right now.

The zucchini though has started to put out females. They aren't open yet. I wonder if it will open when I'm gone. I like to be around for the earliest ones. That way I can hand pollinate or just pick if there are no males around.

The solanum crops are getting bigger. The peppers just sat there looking sad for weeks - I'm hoping they were busy putting down good roots. They have perked up a bit and started to grow. The cayennes are the only one blossoming right now, but I see buds on others.

The tomatoes are growing like the weeds they are. They are all getting tall and bushy. And they have started to set tomatoes. Above are the first of the Cherokee Purples.

They are racing the Sungolds for the first ones to produce. I think Sungold will win though as it is just a cherry.

And the eight Heinz plants are wildly blooming. They have just started setting. These are classic determinants. They bloom all at once and produce over a short time. They put every ounce of energy into the fruit then die. They were the best tasting of all my paste tomatoes in the paste trial last year. So if I'm actually home during their brief spurt I'll be in major canning mode then. If not I'll get Alli to pick them and toss them on the counter or in the freezer for me.

And then there are my favas. Technically they aren't a summer crop, but I won't get to pick them until summer. I've never tasted a fava before. I hope I like them Not all of my favas will produce. I decided to let the aphids have at them. They seem to like certain plants more. I did see a lady bug the other day. So I'm hoping this feast of aphids will bring more.

And The Winner Is . . .

Number five. Emily from Greens and Jeans. Congrats. I'll send you an email so you can send me your mailing address.

Back to the Roots, the maker of the mushroom growing kit, is trying to support education and sustainability. So if you have a kit and want to help out, post a photo of the grown kit on their Facebook page. For each photo they receive they will donate a free kit and sustainability curriculum to a school classroom of your choice.

Now back to your regularly scheduled program. I've been behind in telling you what has been happening in the garden. With the hot weather, I wanted to make sure everything was planted up in the garden.

Earlier this week the trellis net came in so I put it up. I really want one that is 6' tall, but they make them 5' tall. So a foot at the top or bottom is always untrellised except with twine that holds the trellis on. The nylon mesh is for the cucumbers and melons to climb. Yesterday the melons went in. I also went by Pemberton Farms (which so sounds like a farm but isn't, its a nursery with a specialty grocery store) and picked up some sweet pepper plants. As I walked home the wind was whipping the poor babies around. I probably looked silly sheltering them in my hands.

Today I planted those peppers. Very, very early in the morning I planted them as I didn't want to brave the heat like I did yesterday. The humidity is supposed to be oppressive today. I went through my plant leftovers and planted some in little corners of the garden. Others got tossed. Tomorrow I want to pick the last of the spinach before it bolts as I'm sure it will soon from all this heat. Then I can plant up the last of the three sisters beds. I probably should have done it this morning, but I wanted to give them one more day. Silly since it will be so hot and spinach doesn't like to grow in the heat. Really what was I thinking?

So by tomorrow afternoon the whole garden will officially be planted up for the summer. I'll still have successions coming along in the greens beds, but the six summer beds will be finished. Maybe this weekend I can show off how the spring plants are doing. I haven't shown off my pea plants since my overhead views in mid March. And the onions are feeling left out too. The Asian greens bed and the lettuce bed have just gotten all the glory so far this year. But soon the peas will start to flower. I can't wait.

A Busy Yesterday

I've slowly been working on getting my bean trellis done. I've been doing an 8' long patch once a day. The work bothers my back a little, so I don't like to do too much at once. But now I have all three of the ones currently made all strung up. When the spinach comes out I'll have two more sections of trellis to make and string. But I've got a week or two before that happens if the cooler than normal temperatures continue.

I was thinking about weaving netting for the cucumber and melon areas, but it just takes too long and I hated doing it. So I tossed the little I made and ordered enough to cover them. The ones I ordered aren't quite tall enough to go to the top of the trellis area so I'll have to fudge that part, but they shouldn't be too hard to put up.

Then in the middle of the day my townhouse mate and I took a trip to Rockport and Ipswich looking for plants. There is a bamboo nursery in Rockport. I talked to the gal on the phone about what I needed, but when I got there they didn't have any left (Fargesia robusta in small pots, they had large pots, but at $130 a pot, we weren't biting). She did talk to us about our needs for a while and decided that that bamboo was the one we needed for the spot. At least lunch in Rockport was nice. We sat overlooking the harbor. And the bamboo was ordered over the web later in the day at $30/pot.

Then it was up to Ipswich for the Clematis Nursery which isn't far from Crane Beach. They also didn't have the clematis that our designer said to put there, but after talking to her, we decided it wasn't the one we wanted anyway. Sally our designer picked that one because it was tall and I said I wanted a vine to go over the top of the fence. But the reality is we would rather have a longer bloom period and the one she picked doesn't bloom all that well. So instead we got a good bloomer.

Since we were right next door we stopped in at Russell Orchards and got some of their honey, some hard cider (both apple and pear) and some fruit wine (strawberry/rhubarb and apple). And of course we got some apple cider donuts for our families.

Trying to stay organized

Later in the afternoon it was time to put in the rest of the tomatoes and peppers that had been hardened off. The peppers were put about a foot apart in three rows down the bed. Not all of them are in. I have some more hardening off that were late and I'll have to pick some up from the nursery as mine just didn't germinate well this year. I'll buy more sweet peppers.

As I was putting them out I decided to just put in the first four eggplant too. Usually I don't plant them this early as they are such heat lovers, but with much more time they will really overgrow their pots. I have four more plants that I started later. So if these have problems I'll just pull them and replace them.

Another stick farm, the peppers are still very small

Now I just need some warmth to come in. We have had the perfect spring for greens this year, but if we don't get out of our cold pattern my warm weather veggies won't produce. Next week looks like a really wet week. Rain everyday with no sun at all. I often cover my tomatoes when May gets like this, but right now I don't have the materials to do it. Maybe I should hit the store on Saturday before the rain starts. I might get a chance, but this is another busy landscaping weekend. We have more plants to dig in and a huge load of mulch.

This and That

Yesterday was a very cold windy day. I had planted out some seedlings on Tuesday and I worried about them. My weather station doesn't seem to do wind correctly. It claims that our gusts maxed out at 19mph. I'm guessing much higher. My husband is convinced that the speed measure is too low also. Though I'm not sure how to calibrate it as what is the real speed?

I feel really sorry for my seedlings that are outside at this point. I should have brought them inside during the wind storm, but I didn't. They really got whipped around. I'm a bad mom sometimes. One of my wintersown containers even blew away and scattered the contents everywhere. This was not a tall water bottle either. It was a short wide container.

We had a frost warning last night. Since Laura told me that celery doesn't like to be frozen I figured I'd better protect it. This wasn't an easy thing in the wind. I was going to take a photo of my upside down barrels with cement blocks. With the wind the cement blocks were necessary. But of course I forgot. It turns out we didn't get a frost. But the four that were under the pails look beautiful and large this morning. The one single one that I didn't protect looks pretty ragged. I guess it must have been a windy night too. Poor little thing. Maybe today will be easier on it.

And speaking of weather, Tuesday they say we will get a nice warmup. Whoohoo! Some say upper sixties, but one weatherman says in the 70s. Either will be a nice change from our cold rainy weather. I can't wait to not shiver when I go out to the garden.

And speaking of shivering. Notice I have to wear my down coat when I go out in the morning ot check on my spinach. Just look at those leaves. This is not some gigantic spinach variety either. It is just Space spinach. But some of the plants are just growing huge in the wet cool weather we have been having.

Or maybe it was just the threat of the trench that got them. They saw their poor tossed off brothers as I was digging in the asparagus. Maybe they figured they had to start growing or that would be their fate.

And to totally switch the subject again, my peppers just aren't germinating well. The last couple of years I've chitted them before planting and they all came up well. I never used my heating mat and I still got them to germinate. This year they are on the germination mat in blocks and they just won't come up. Especially the sweet peppers. I've taken them off the mat in hopes that they will start coming up. The tomatoes are having issues too, but I think I might get enough of them. So I've started to chit more seed. I don't have much time before planting season though. I might just be buying pepper seedlings from the nursery this year. I know I will for the sweet peppers and I used all the seed up in the first round. Note to self: next year don't use a heating mat, just chit the peppers and tomatoes.

More Soil Blocks

No photos today. It seems to be Monday's theme since I had no photos for Harvest Monday either. But how many photos of soil blocks do you want to see? Once they have seedlings, yes, but as they get planted not so much.

Today I planted my peppers in microblocks. I put one seed in each. I was distressed to find that Carmen only had 10 seeds. I wanted to plant 20 seeds and move the best 10 up to the 2" block in a week or two. Chocolate only had 17 seeds. I really hate that for small numbers of seeds. I wish the catalog would tell you how many. The catalog says 160 seeds per gram. And the Carmen pack was 0.1g. So there should be about 16 given that, but nope. The Chocolate is 0.2g so should have 32 right? Nope. I just hate that.

Anyway after sowing I covered with vermiculite and put the blocks on the heat pad. This is the first time that has come out. I only use it for the hot weather plants. The others germinate just as well without it. The following pepper seeds were planted:

• Anahiem x10
• Big Chili x5 (the last that Dan gave me last year)
• Carmen x10
• Cayenne x5
• Chocolate x17
• Early Jalapeno x10
• Feherozon x10
• Krimson Spice x10
• Serrano x10
• Tabasco x10 (from Barbie)
  
• Scotch Bonnet x 5 (from Letti)
  

Then I made my 1 1/2' soil blocks for the rest. The basil was put on the heat mat too, but nothing else.

• Bodegold Chamomile x 16
• Sage x 2
• Oregano x 2
• Goldstrum x 2
• Ground Control Marigold x8
• Dianthus Rainbow Loveliness Mix x 12
• State Fair Zinnia x 6
• Genova Basil x6
• Cosmos x 12 (from Silence)
  
• Borage x6
• Nasturtium x6
  

Again I had seed count issues. I only had six seeds in the zinnia pack. Who just plants 5 zinnias (assuming one won't germinate)? I'm going to have to buy more if I want zinnias on the rock wall garden this year. Then on the other side of the coin, the basil pack had four grams in it. Yes four grams for $1. Well damn that is a lot of basil seed. And the chamomile pack has an amazing amount. The seeds are so tiny that one gram of seed is huge. No one could use that much chamomile seed in a year. Well maybe if you seed outside as you can't tell where you put it or if the wind has blown it away.

My form that tells me when to plant things was also telling me to plant tomatillos again this year. I'm thinking not so much. I loved them last year, but I still have more than 3/4 of my tomatillo salsa left. I don't need to make more this year. I don't use it for much else. Too bad though, I wanted to see if the mutation of my tomatillo would run true. I guess I'll see another year.

I don't have many seed left to plant indoors. I've got eggplant and tomatoes in a week. I ought to have my brassicas planted outside by then so there is more room under the lights. I've got my cucumbers two weeks after that. My melon a week after that. Then my summer lettuces in mid May. I don't have any of the fall veggies on the schedule. I just do them without a schedule usually, but maybe this year since the garden is so large I ought to plan it so I don't forget something.

And as a side note. I'm really messing up the timing of the posts that I've already written for this week. My Tuesday post is about what I did over the weekend and lies about when I plant my onions. My Wednesday post corrects the lie and talks about what I did on Monday morning. This post is also about what I did today - Monday afternoon. I thought about at least keeping the timeline straight and posting this on Thursday. Ack it has been too busy with gardening chores recently. And only more to come.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Today I noticed I still hadn't done anything with the hot peppers. I thought about making more pickled peppers, but I wanted to do something different. So instead I made hot sauce. I looked at a recipe for Louisiana Hot Sauce, but it was so boring. Yes I wanted mostly chilies and vinegar, but you have to have at least some garlic and a little bit of sugar helps you deal with the heat.

Daphne's Green Hot Sauce

• 14 green cayenne peppers and 22 serrano pepper (or any kind you've got)
  
• 2 cloves of garlic
  
• 3/4 c vinegar
• t sugar
• t salt
  

Roughly chop the peppers and garlic. Toss everything all into a small saucepan. Boil covered for 10 minutes or until the peppers are soft. BTW I should emphasize that the pan needs to be covered. It really turns the house into a smelly place and a cover helps a lot. You really don't want to choke on hot pepper fumes. Put it into a food processor and process until smooth. Pour into a sterilized jar. I used an old vinegar jar.

You could process this I suppose. But why bother. Anything with this much vinegar will keep forever. I just put mine in the fridge. Though if I had a lot of peppers, I could process it and give it out as gifts. I certainly don't need more than one bottle in a year. Hmm but if you gave it out as gifts you couldn't have it in a tall thin bottle. And hot sauce in a canning jar just isn't right. Do you know of anyone that makes canning jars for things like vinegar or hot sauce?

One drop of this is really hot. It is perfect to spice up anything. If that chili is a bit too mild just a touch of this and instant heat.

And speaking of heat. I opened the windows in the lower part of the house to get rid of that peppers and vinegar smell. I turned the heat off but so far the house hasn't dropped a degree. It is amazingly warm today. It might get up into the mid 60s.

Pickles and Relish

As the produce threatens to take over my counter and refrigerator yet again, I decided it was time to do some more preserving. I hate when my produce rots before I can get to it. I took the weekend off from canning because I needed a break from it, but Monday afternoon I was ready again.

The first on the list was the pile of cucumbers in the fridge. I used Pat's Zucchini Relish recipe that Granny posted with cucumbers instead of zucchini. I doubled the recipe. It still didn't do much to take down the number of cucumbers. But I was on to sauce. I made some tomato sauce and some tomato juice.

With some juice that I didn't can, I made a great discovery. My fresh tomato juice makes a much better Bloody Mary than the tomato juice from the store. I couldn't find the regular vodka (probably lost in the basement somewhere after the move) but citron vodka is a great twist to the regular one. I didn't drink this until the evening though, after I was done with the canning.

Then today I finished off the cucumbers by making a big batch of refrigerator pickles. Sadly later that day I went out and found I had yet more to pick. It is never ending in August. Especially with the weather being so good.

Those weren't the only refrigerator pickles either. I made some from the jalapenos I picked last week. Last year I found I liked using them from the pickle jar instead of from the freezer. So this year I'll pickle quite a few and only freeze a little. The Sweet Cherry Peppers have been ripening. I'm making sweet pickled peppers with them. I'll chop them and use them on sandwiches. Yum. They only come out in ones or twos from the garden so refrigerator pickles are the way to go for them.

Then the zucchini got grated for winter bread and soup. I still have some beans to cook up and some chard to blanch and freeze, but I cleaned out the fridge a bit at least. Until the next time I venture into the garden.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Though in reality it went the bad, the ugly, and the good. The bad part was this morning. I was out in the tomato patch defoliating the tomatoes that are getting sick. Sigh. No that isn't the bad part. That didn't even make the grade. You will have to wait until the end of the story to hear the bad part. Angela was telling me that she thought my problem might be russet mites. I think she may be right. I noticed that my hands were getting red and not the typical yellow. I've never had my hands get red from tomatoes before - tomato foliage at least. I've never had russet mites in my tomatoes before either. It has been hot, dry, and humid.

Anyway. I use scissors to cut off the foliage. I like them because I can throw them in the dishwasher to sterilize them. I have four of them I rotate. Some days I use all four. I was sleepily snipping away at 6:15 in the morning, not quite awake. So of course I got too close to my left thumb. Ouch. That's the bad part. I had to go in a wash all the yuck off the hands and figure out if my nasty cut was deep enough to go get stitches. I decided not. I do need to go to the drugstore soon though since I used the last of my butterfly bandages. It was not a good start to the day. I left the rest of the yellowing tomato foliage for tomorrow.

The ugly was the result of my stove. I was canning tomatillo salsa, but sadly wasn't using my old stove. I'm using the new stove in my brand new house. Did I tell you I HATE my new stove? The heat from the flames travel up the sides of the pots and make all the handles hot. Not just hot, but burning hot. It also makes the microwave handle above the stove too hot to touch. Anyway I now have not one, but two different burns. The first one was the worst. I have some nice white and red patterns. Very ugly.

The EVIL Stove

Washing tomtillos

But at least it was the result of the good. I made some tomatillo salsa today. I had picked all my tomatillos on Tuesday both the ripe and unripe ones and they needed processing. I made a whole three batches which made just over 8 pints. I figured it would take me about 3 hours to do. It took 4 1/2. Dicing things up always takes me longer than I expect. Most of the peppers were from the garden too. I had the Big Chili IIs (from Dan) and the early jalapenos. I also had poblanos from the farmers market. I'm really impressed with the Big Chili IIs. They had a lot of nice peppers. In general the plants are struggling this year because they are too crowded, but those have produced pretty well so far. And they are very tasty once they are roasted and peeled.

The Good, and it was quite good

I had more tomatillos than I needed for three batches of salsa, but not enough peppers to make more. So I made tomatillo sauce. Just tomatillos nothing else (well citric acid to make it safe). I haven't a clue what I'll do with it, but I needed to get them off my counter.

Planting the Solanum Bed

Monday I deserted my relatives for a few minutes and planted out my tomatoes, peppers, and tomatillos. These take a long time to plant as I actually dig a deep hole for the tomatoes and amend the bottom of each hole. I put in one cup of 5-3-3, one cup of bonemeal, one cup of powdered eggshells, and one cup of Azomite. Above you can see how I protect my tomatoes from cutworms. Those are hosta flower stems from last years flowers. I like this way of doing it as the stems just rot out over time and they are very quick to stick in. I used to use cutworm collars made out of newspaper, but were just too fiddly to get right. Occasionally the cutworms will climb the stem and cut off a branch, but not often. We get a lot of cutworms here. I even killed about 12 cutworms that I found in my onion bed. I'd never seen them in the onions before, so didn't check. They killed about a row of the plants and severely set back a few more. I mean really? Onions? Onions are supposed to help repel these things.

After I was done I still had a flat of tomatoes left. I'll plant one of each variety at the new house in the bed behind the wall, but I still haven't had a chance to do that yet. I'll probably get to it this afternoon as we are getting a warm spell and the tomatoes will just take off with the heat. The 10 day forecast has lots of mid 70Fs to lower 80Fs with nights in the 50Fs and 60s. This is very warm weather for May.

Behind every other tomato plant I put in some Ground Control marigolds that were from seed I saved last year. They grew quite well. Now I don't amend the ground below these at all. They can get rather large and unwieldy. If anything I keep them cut back during the year to control them.

I planted out 12 peppers. I only have 25 total. So the other house will get 13. I'm contemplating if this is enough or not. I can always buy more seedlings. I'm so used to growing them again that I don't think about it, but I think I will get a few six packs of nasturtiums so they will start off bigger. I have seed, but never even thought about starting them. I think some nasturtiums trailing down the wall would be pretty.

I also planted two of my four tomatillos. I keep wondering how big they will get. I told myself I would always support tomatillos from now on, but I don't want to buy supports for both houses. Last year my cages were tossed as after 19 years they had rusted through and didn't support well anymore. I might just stake them. Stakes are cheap. As you can see the tomatillos are a bit yellow. They have been growing so fast and struggling with my treatment of them. I accidentally left them inside (with the lights turned off) for two days. The poor things have been recovering, but they still aren't happy.

At the end of the bed I planted out some really tiny basil plants. I have no clue as to why they didn't grow well for me. Maybe they just needed more time. Or maybe they needed more fertilizer. I've found the fertilizer that I add to my soil blocks lasts about three weeks in the small blocks and four weeks in the larger blocks. I need to get some liquid fertilizer for next years seedlings if I keep making my own soil. The Fort V soil from the Vermont Compost Company was better soil than I made. Things grew better in it. I just wish I could buy the large bags somewhere here around where I live. The small bags cost too much and if I ship it costs too much.

But now the plants are all out in the garden. I tried to row cover as much as I could for a couple of days. It helps with transplant shock as it protects from the seedlings from the wind. Sadly I don't have a large enough row cover to protect the whole bed. I think today I'll remove the cover as the weather is supposed to be so good. I think the direct sun will help them grow fast. Grow tomatoes, grow!