Easy Recipes From The Garden

I love having fresh flowers in vases scattered throughout the house, but many times it means hacking away all the flowers in my garden and not being able to enjoy them outside.

A good solution to this is a cutting garden. Many common varieties of flowers make excellent candidates for a cutting garden. Check out this list of 45 fantastic cut flowers at Organic Gardening. Simply plant extra of the flowers you wish to cut to avoid having bare spots when you do pick flowers, or separate the plants you have and place them into a separate garden designated as a cutting garden, and get cutting!

I came across a packet of seeds for Cleome, or spider plant, when purchasing my seeds to plant veggies this year. Intrigued by the unusual flowers, I threw a few seeds into my greenhouse kit and waited to see what happened.

Here are the plants a few months later. As you can see they’ve grown big and bushy, and are thriving in the outdoor (and the recent heat).

It looks like soon there will be a big round of brightly colored flowers blooming. The flowers are a great attractant to butterflies and hummingbirds, and the plant is drought tolerant.

The plant is self seeding, grows three to five feet tall, and blossoms from early summer until frost.

It’s not every day that I go to the grocery store and fall in love. But when I saw this little Micro-Tom tomato plant sitting outside the store with its buddies, all for just $1.99 each, I couldn’t resist.

The Micro-Tom is “world’s smallest tomato variety,” and was developed at the University of Florida. Plants grow up to 8 inches tall and produce tomatoes about one inch in diameter, or the size of a crouton.

I can’t wait for the fruits on this little plant to ripen. But for now he’s keeping the basil and parsley company on the back deck, strangely sitting somewhat in their shadows and getting partial sun, but lots of TLC from me.

While I’m still coming to terms with the fact that it is already July (where do the days go?), it’s time to start thinking about mid-summer gardening to-dos.

My gardening to dos are as follows:

• Water all containers regularly.
• Prune and deadhead all perennials to stimulate further blooms.
• Pull spent annuals and replace with fall bloomers such as mums.
• Weed, weed, weed.
• Pull the lettuce that’s bolted and sow some new seeds.
• Keep picking raspberries and strawberries, keeping an eye out for evidence of pests.
• Divide the bearded iris before they take over everything.
• Prune and fertilize roses.
• Keep checking on those tomato plants, watering regularly and watching for any color (other than green, of course) on the fruit.
• Keep cutting and using the herbs in the garden to encourage further growth.
• Enjoy my garden! As fast as summer arrived, fall will be here and the temperatures won’t be nearly as friendly and encouraging for outdoor activities.

What’s on your to-do list this month?

Lettuce is an easy to grow annual vegetable that should be a staple in every garden. There is nothing like going out to the garden and snipping off a few cool, crunchy leaves of lettuce for a salad or a sandwich (mmm …. BLTs!). Lettuce is easy to grow - just sow the seeds right into the ground (or in a container), and in a few weeks you’ll have leaves or bunches of lettuce ready for the picking.

Lettuce is a cool weather crop so start the plants early in the spring, or later in the summer. Keep the plants shaded for the most part, and pick off a few leaves every few days so that the plants continue to grow and produce.

I can’t believe the weather we are having lately. Here in zone 4/5 we are recovering from a serious heat wave. It’s the beginning of June and temperatures have passed 90 degrees. As I sip an icy cold lemonade and enjoy the air conditioning, it’s a good time to talk about hot-weather crops.

There are several vegetable plants that love hot weather. If you haven’t already, now would be a good time to plant them. If you have them already planted, be sure to water them regularly and check for wilt. You may also need to move them to a less sunny location to prevent them from drying out and wilting too quickly - especially if they are in containers.

Six hot-weather-loving plants every garden should have are: tomatoes, corn, hot peppers, beans, squash and cucumbers. All are easy to grow and will provide an abundance of veggies in mid- to late summer. Check the plant tags for complete instructions and be sure to mulch to conserve water and help the plants grow healthy.

On my property we have to contend not only with an ever-increasing number of rabbits, but squirrels and chipmunks as well. As such, after losing one too many strawberries to the varmints, I’ve looked into several ways to deter these rodents from enjoying the fruits of my garden before I can get a chance to.

There are several methods for preventing small animals from getting into your garden:

Raised beds. Raised beds function by planting your plants about 1 foot off the ground. Simply use bricks, wood or other materials to border the area, then fill with dirt, compost, etc., and plant as usual. For some reason, the height of the beds will keep rabbits and other animals from entering your garden.

Fencing. By putting a fence around your garden, you can keep unwanted rodents from entering. Use chicken wire or other fencing materials available at the home-improvement store. The height of the fence will depend on the size and leg span of the rodents in question — higher for deer, lower for squirrels or rabbits.

Cages. We’ve resorted to cages for our strawberry plants, to keep both the rabbits and chipmunks out. Using narrow wiring, we wrapped the material around boards and built a simple yet effective cage that the rodents can’t get into, but that allows plenty of circulation and sunlight in.

Here are photos of our strawberry cages, built with chicken wire and 2 x 2s.

I’ve had some readers ask about how to grow strawberries, so here is a short primer.

Strawberries are quite easy to grow. The plants are perennials and thrive in full sun. Soil should be fertile and well drained. Healthy plants will produce an abundance of berries for three to four years, after which they should be replaced, either with new plants or with the runners that will shoot out from the mother plants.

There are several types of strawberries:
June bearers usually begin to bear fruit in June. By the plant’s second year after planting, it will produce a single large crop over a three- to four-week period.This type also produces many runners and will spread rapidly.

Ever bearing plants will bear fruit beginning the first year they are planted- from June through August. This variety works well in northern areas, where summer days are long. The plants produce fewer runners so they are easier to control in a garden bed.

Alpine strawberries produce small but flavorful berries. The Alpine is one of the parent species of the other varieties.

Planting time depends on your growing zone. In areas with severe winters, dormant plants should be set out in early spring, while temperatures are still cold. In areas with milder winters, plants should be put in the ground in the fall, which will provide a crop of strawberries in the springtime. Any flowers that appear should be picked off during the first month to allow the plant to get established.

See tag instructions for more details on planting in your growing zone.

While asparagus is usually the first indicator of spring, I am always delighted when the first fruits begin to show up in my garden. Here in the northeast (zone 4/5) it’s still quite early and the hardiest of plants are just beginning to make their appearances. The lettuce is getting thicker, beans are starting to grow taller, and my favorite of all — strawberries are starting to ripen. I’ve had my eye on those little beauties for a month now, watching the bees buzz around the little white flowers and seeing the first green berries start to make their way out, and now we actually have enough to harvest:

While I won’t be making strawberry jam anytime soon, they will still be enjoyed and savored, eaten out of hand with dreams of many, many more to come.

I love getting deals and discounts in the mail, so I was happy to hear about the Home Depot Garden Club. When you sign up, you’ll receive a coupon for buy one get one on any shrub. The coupon is good from May 23 through June 12 - just in time to get a couple of new shrubs planted in your garden to add some nice summertime color.

If you are not a member, you can sign up here. Be sure to check the box for: “YES! Send me The Garden Club Newsletter E-mails featuring exclusive offers and coupons!”

I’ve had my eye on a couple of hydrangea bushes - I’ve always wanted a white on - and now is the perfect time to purchase them and get them planted.