Old hat, zone 4, cold climate garden blog.

Growing your own herbs, vegetables and fruit organically is rewarding in more ways than I can express but showing off the fruits of your labor is one of the nicest parts. Seeing guests’ eyes light up when they realize that everything in that salad was grown within 50 feet feels great. We take pride in our hard work and in the food it produces so why not show off the natural beauty that these plants can have?
Some fruiting plants are as beautiful as a carefully tended flower and take up very little space which makes them ideal additions to  patio sets if you have them in a planter that matches the rest of the furniture. The most varied of these are hot chilies. It’s surprising how many different shapes, sizes and even colors are available when growing hot peppers. From the brilliant red of a fully ripened jalapeno to the deep purple that some ornamental varieties produce, these plants are beautiful and functional. And the colors sure don’t stop there with habaneros coming in every color from rich chocolate to blinding yellow. Even if you don’t like hot food, the fruits of these plants can provide an organic solution to those pesky nibbling deer or those neighborhood cats that love to use our garden as their litter box. In a food processor, blend equal volumes of fresh hot peppers and water. Allow it to settle and put the thin liquid into a spray bottle and apply to your trees and other plants you want to protect to stop hungry deer. The same solution sprayed on the soil of your beds will teach cats to looks somewhere else. Just be careful when handling hot peppers as capsaicin in the eyes is very painful. If you are growing superhot peppers use gloves at all times and you may even want to do this project outside. Also, be aware of wind direction when spraying your natural deterrent.
Window boxes and trough planters don’t need to just contain flowers or ornamental plants. Why not use them to grow vegetables that don’t need much soil depth? Alternating red and green romaine lettuce, kohlrabi and radishes are prime candidates. Let your guests see their food from planter to plate. Some may even delight in picking their own vegetables. Free help is always appreciated. Having the most commonly used plants that close to the house is also very convenient for those times when you don’t need to be trudging through the garden. We all know how easy it is to start on a small project and then suddenly we are covered in compost and the day is gone.
If you plan to entertain guests your patio set needs to include at least one good size table and what table is complete without a centerpiece? That center piece can be functional and beautiful at the same time. Find a planter that is fairly wide and similar in shape to your table. I suggest glazed earthenware. Fill it with edible herbs like purple and Thai basil, thyme, rosemary, oregano, tarragon and sage. Let your dinner guest pluck a leaf here and there to taste the fresh bounty and adjust the dish to their personal tastes. Eating directly from the plant is a great advantage that being completely organic can afford you. If you want to be really fancy you can find a sturdy rotating platform that can take the weight of the planter to every can reach each variety of herb.
Form and function don’t need to be mutually exclusive. Eating dinner outside, surrounded by good friends and thriving greenery while the sun slowly fades and laughter fills the air. Very few nights can top that.

Yesterday, while returning Toby, Phyllis’s sisters Yorkie, to his rightful owner after a weeks vacation we noticed the bright green and purple shoot of a crocus poking it’s head through a winter blanket of mulch.
Then Phyllis saw 2 robins hunting behind the studio and a flock of geese headed north and this morning I heard the whistling and clicking of the starlings calling to each other.
It looks like spring has finally sprung and after this long and dreary cold winter it’s none too soon.

This year we are approaching the gardening in a different fashion than we did in recent years past. That is, we have not even looked at a seed catalog.

Last year the garden was a disaster mostly because of family health emergencies and the poor economy.
This year we have not even thought of what we would grow. As a matter of fact, after looking at the books it is evident that we loose money with the greenhouse, it actually costs us to keep it going.
So we may not even open it up to the public this year.
We have decided to concentrate on the perennials. They are easy to grow and we can dig them from our existing beds.

At least that is the plan for now. More will be revealed in time!

This year we tried a new kind of summer squash and an old reliable zucchini. I for one am not impressed with the new squash. Since I did not order the seeds, (turns head to both sides looking around) but I can guarantee the crook neck will be on the seed list for next year.
As for the zucchini, what we have picked has been nice but what there has been of it is scant compared to past years. After asking around we found that other gardeners are experiencing the same results. Naturally we we right away try to assign blame to the weather. After all it can have been our superior gardening skills.

The weather has been hot, true, but we have had water in the garden well all season long. As a matter of fact a rather large bull frog has taken up residence. I can’t imagine how he got there because the stone sides of the well are nearly 3 foot high. I suppose he could have jumped it but why would he? Can frogs smell water? Maybe a trick from a tricksty neighbor?
Only the frog knows for sure and he is not saying. As long as there is water in the well he should be fine but he might be better off out of the well. Trouble is getting him out of the well. He has a little ledge to rest on but the minute anyone peers over the top he dives into the water. We will try a net attached to a long pole.

As far as the water goes we seem to be OK. It is raining right now, a slow soaking rain, and that should keep the tomato plants hydrated. Our garden is the low spot for at least 50 acres and so it usually does not need much watering which is good because we pay for the water. When we looked at the property to buy, everything out back was unmowed and very wet. The ground quivered under foot and there were legions of leopard frogs. At that time it was too wet for gardening but mowing helped to equalize the moisture content and it is fine for gardening now.

The tomatoes are coming in great. We grew a number of cherry tomatoes as well as early girl, better boy and brandywine.

The cherry’s are coming in first for us but they all are late compared to other gardeners. We started late this year but we are only a bit behind at this point. Growing so many cherry tomatoes was an experiment that is going well. The main problem is how to get rid of them. Giving them to friends and family works fine but we had high hopes of selling them at farmers markets. Farmers markets are fine to visit but for us the time spent is not productive. Our present arrangement does not allow use enough space out front for a proper vegetable stand. So we will continue to experiment in the hopes that we can find a better spot in the future.

The peppers are going gang busters. We set about 100 plants and with a yield of about 5 peppers per we have a bumper crop. The walls are not quite as thick as some we have grown but they are juicy and the flavor is great.

What we do not sell or eat fresh get cut into 1 to 2 inch pieces and frozen for future use. Already there are at least 10 stuffed quart bags in the freezer. We cull the crowders so the others have room to grow. More will be picked green and about 1/2 the crop will be left to turn red. The peppers sugar increases as they ripen so we ill have tart green and sweet red peppers for stirfrys and casseroles for a year or more.

Other choirs are winding down. Most of the perennials are sold and it looks like we will be starting fresh next year which is find because some of the old pots were full of weeds. Plus we don’t have to water them. I think we are not keeping the green house going this winter. We will be using a smaller version, yet to be built.

I procured a greenhouse hoop bender that will turn 2 pieces of 10’6″ 17 gauge chain link fence top rail into a 12′ greenhouse hoop. This make s the hoops much less expensive and there is no shipping cost. A larger bender available for 20′ hoops but we figure it’s better to start small and move up. Judging by the requests on Craigs List for greenhouse hoops we may be able to sell a few as well.

We are still putting up the end of the pickles. Last week we picked a wheel barrow load of cucumbers for pickles and they are nearly all caned as bread and butter or dill pickles, depending on the size.

Corn is everywhere. We don’t grow it because it takes up quite a bit of space so we get it from a road side stand. One stand we like is Hunters just outside Plessus on rt 26. They usually have a good supply of corn, pumpkins and other crops for sale all season.

They have an interesting way to buy the corn. It make buying just a few ears easy. They also furnish a can for husking and this year they are selling totes to carry the corn.

We had the corn last night night with our tomatoes and cucumbers. Perfect.