Kara's Garden

Borrowing from Gardening Fool, I just had to repost this link.

www.whatsonyourfood.org

This site will tell you what pesticides are commonly found on different kinds of commercially available produce. It will definitely make you think about starting a veggie garden of your own...

I checked on the parsley today, and it is even more stubby than yesterday. These guys are making short work of my little herbs. I have both the large green spotted caterpillars, which are older, and the little black ones with a white stripe.

Here they are munching on my parsley.


When these caterpillars get upset (I don't know what upsets a caterpillar really, other than bugging it... get it? Ugh, that one was bad...) they put out these little orange 'horns' and excrete a musk that smells bad. I didn't smell anything, but this guy is obviously not a happy camper...

Today I was meandering through the garden, contemplating its destruction. I was thinking about what to pull out when, and feeling a little sad. Then I saw my flat leaf parsley plant! The day before yesterday, no lie, this guy was practically a bush. I checked my curly leaf parsley, same thing!
Get out the insecticide? NO WAY. These are Black Swallowtail caterpillars!I remember seeing one a week or so ago, floating around looking kind of droopy. She must have laid her eggs! Thank goodness I haven't had time to spray the garden (not that the parsley gets much spraying)! When these guys 'grow up,' they will look like this gorgeous butterfly (this picture is from www.butterflygardeningandconservation.com). I even pulled Carl up from the couch to check out our little chewers!

In Master Gardener training, I heard that these caterpillars can decimate a parsley plant in just a few days. I thought they were exaggerating, but they weren't! This plant was huge just a few days ago.

Black swallowtails like parsley and dill for their eggs. Other butterflies use different plants, for example the Monarch will only lay eggs on milkweed plants, because that is the only thing their caterpillars will eat. I had already removed my dill because it was running to seed- I should have kept it!

Butterflies and caterpillars are sort of like the 'canary in the coal mine' when it comes to ecological conservation. They are very sensitive to small environmental changes, so environmentalists use them as an example of what can happen because of global warming, pollution, and more. I sure hope I get to see all of these babies develop into pretty butterflies!

Well, I finally decided to give this whole canning thing a try!

Down here in Zone 10b, where the summer is so hot you can fry an egg on your FACE, my poor little vegetable garden is starting to die off. Since I can't look forward to fresh jalapenos, I'm going to 'put them up' so we can use them for 'deer nuggets.' I'll post the recipe when the first deer is killed this fall!

So, I read online all about canning, and then I found the instructions right on the back of the Ball jar container. Duh. But, Ball does have a nice website that has some great recipes for pickles and things. Looks like I'll have more to do this fall when I start the next garden!

Basically (it seems), you make a recipe for canning, put it in the jar, cook the full jars according to that recipe, take them out and TA DA! Canned food! Obviously, that is the condensed version (get it? HA! Sorry, I couldn't help myself).

I went all over the web trying to find a recipe for putting up jalapenos, but to no avail. Finally I came across how to preserve peperonchinis, which seem sorta like jalapenos, so I used that recipe. It was really, really simple- 2 cups water, 2 cups vinegar, and a little salt. Cook that just below boiling point, then fill hot jars with fresh jalapenos (I sliced mine in half, or you can slit them so the liquid can get inside the pepper), pour the hot vinegar mixture over the top leaving about 1/4 inch from the top of the jar. Put the lids on, then boil the jars for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, let them stand overnight (at least) without touching them, since the heat can make the glass fragile. And there you go!

Now, my first batch came out RIDICULOUSLY hot. I mean, fall on the floor and roll around spicy. Even Carl couldn't eat them. So I packed them up and gave them to my dad as an early father's day gift (love ya, Dad!). So, if you don't want fire engine hot, REMOVE THE SEEDS before you put up hot peppers!

I've been worried about this little guy. He hasn't been very happy since I got him, and I've been watching and waiting for some sign of life from the poor guy.

If you look at this photo, you'll see the sad old leaves that are cracking and just looking generally pathetic. But, if you look a little closer, you can see the new leaves starting to come out along the tops!
The instructions that were sent with this plant said not to repot it until there was new growth. I know it is time to move it, but it was so sickly for so long that I'm afraid to move it!

Miracle fruit, as I said in my previous post, is a small red berry that, after eating it, will make anything else you eat taste sweet for 15 minutes to an hour. It will take this little guy another year before it will produce any berries, but I feel much better about it now that the new leaves are coming out!

While I'm not so sure these guys will survive the summer, right now I have a rather humongous pumpkin growing along the back of my rocks. I planted the vines along the edge of the garden, thinking I would train them to grow along the rocks. I planted 4 vines, thinned out two, and this is what is left over. I can't imagine what it would look like if I hadn't pulled the others out! Right now, the vine wraps all the way around the entire tomato bed. Can you see the pumpkin hiding under the leaves here?

Our friend, Jethro, doesn't understand why we're growing yellow pumpkins. After looking around online, I discovered that most pumpkins are yellow this time of year. They won't become orange until August. Here is a closer photo of the pumpkin.

This month, I will be applying a nice fertilizer to the vine, as well as a fungicide to keep the pumpkins from getting icky. I am concerned about insects, so I'll keep up a little Sevin dust application here and there, as well as some Bt to keep them away.

Somehow in the last few weeks, we have become Banana connoisseurs.

It all began at a garage sale. A very sweet couple had a banana tree for sale that they 'thought' was actually a plantain. It was only $5, so we scooped that baby up and brought it home.

Later that morning we saw a sign for a plant sale and were drawn in. There we found a banana tree for $18 that was called an Ice Cream Banana. Well, with a name like that... home it came.

Last week, Carl went to BJ's and stumbled across this lovely red banana tree for a mere $10. Who could walk away from that deal? This one is currently my favorite. I love the variegated, or multi-colored, leaves. A friend of ours also has a red banana tree, and she says hers produces small, red fruit! She did warn me, though, that it wasn't as tasty as a regular banana, but I've read rave reviews online. Red bananas are mostly grown as foilage plants because of their beautiful leaves.

In keeping with our current theme, Carl and I have decided that a banana grove would look great out in the front pasture. We're going to collect as many varieties as we can find. Right now, though, they are all tucked in next to the water spicket along the fence line, because it leaks and it will keep the bananas nice and moist.

Bananas need a moist and highly fertile soil in order to grow. They cannot withstand freezing temperatures (looks like we need some more extra sheets this winter!). In South Florida, they will require fertilizing 4-6 times a year (3-1-6 is reccommended here) and regular pruning.

All that hard work means we can have more banana bread, though, like the loaves I baked on Monday! A very simple recipe I found online here:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

1. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
2. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

This is a great recipe- I made enough banana bread for the whole neighborhood, and everyone has raved about it!