I just added a new class to the line up today.  We are adding a class called Thyme for Tea.  This was inspired by some ladies in my herb gardening class.  I've ordered some tea supplies and I'm going home to line up some herbs for this class.  Stay tuned for the exciting details.

Got round one of the pumpkins planted last weekend.  Getting round two and some gourds planted this weekend.  We are so looking forward to having a pumpkin patch in the fall.  

We have kits (baby bunnies) that are doing very well and our next litter is on the way.  Lots of great organic fertilizer for our garden.  Now, we just need some rain.....

Had a great class today on how to grow terrific tomatoes.  We are planting all the standards this year and throwing in some new ones:  Cherokee Purple, Black, Brandywine, and the Pinappple Tomato.  Looking forward to lots of great sauces and salsas.

Everyone can create a backyard retreat for birds, butterflies, and bees.  You don't even need a lot of space.  Consider making a small container garden to attract some of the beauty of nature to your yard.

Butterrlies add a punch of color and beauty to your backyard.  Butterflies need nectar bearing plants and caterpillars need foliage.  You attract different types of butterflies based on the types of plants you provide.

Even though host plants aren’t top-of-mind when planning a butterfly garden, no butterfly garden is complete without these important, ‘behind-the-scenes’, plants.  Host plants are the nurseries of the garden. If you keep an eye out you’ll see the female as she flits around the plant, gently laying her next brood’s eggs, sometimes on the top of leaves but usually on the bottom, hidden from predators.

Then, in 10 to 14 days, the tiny larvae, less than an eighth inch long, emerge and begin eating the plant. It’s a fascinating process as they munch away, growing larger everyday. Equally fascinating is watching the caterpillar leave the plant to form a chrysalis.  
Host plants range from flowering plants like Milkweed and Passion Vine, to herbs like Fennel, to bushes as well as trees like Sweet Bay Magnolia.  By including both host plants and nectar plants in your garden, you can attract a wider selection of butterflies while providing an environment that supports their entire life cycle.

Common Host Plants
 Flowers:
Aster (Aster spp.)
Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa)
Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)
Coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea)
False Nettle (Boehmeria cylindrica)
Hollyhock (Alcea rosea)
Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja spp.)
Mallow (Malva spp.)
Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus)
Rue (Ruta graveolens)
Ruellia (Ruellia spp.)
Shasta Daisy (Leucanthemum spp.)
Silver Brocade (Artemisia stellariana)
Snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus)
Spider flower (Cleome hasslerana)
Sunflower (Helianthus spp.)
Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)
Swamp Verbena (Verbena hastata)
Tall Verbena (Verbena bonariensis)
Violet (Viola spp. )
Water Dock (Rumex verticillatus)
Wild Senna (Senna hebecarpa)
Woodland Stonecrop (Sedum ternatum)


Herbs:
Dill (Antheum graveolens)
Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)
Parsley (Petroselinum crispum)


Grasses:
Little Bluestem Grass (Schizachyrium scoparium)
Orchard Grass (Dactylis glomerata )
Panic Grass (Panicum spp.)


Shrubs:
Coontie (Zamia pumila)
False Indigo (Baptisia australis)
Spicebush (Lindera benzoin )


Vines:
Passion Flowers (Passiflora spp.)
Pipevine (Aristolochia macrophylla)


Trees:
Aspen Tree (Populus spp.)
Common HopTree (Ptelea trifoliata)
Elm Tree (Ulmus spp. )
Flowering Dogwood (Cornus)
Pawpaw (Asimina triloba)
Prickly Ash (Zanthoxylum americanum)
Sassafras (Sassafras albidum)
Sweet Bay (Magnolia virginiana)
Willow (Salix)

Choose the right variety - Some tomato varieties are determinate type plants, meaning they may grow to about three feet in height and then stop. Others, especially most of the heirloom types, are indeterminate, meaning they will grew as high as you allow them to grow. If your space is limited, choose determinate types like Celebrity, Sunbeam or Mountain Spring.

Don't plant them too close - Tomato plants need at least 1 1/2 feet between plants, preferably 2 feet, and that's for plants that are grown upright on stakes or cages. If no support is given and they are allowed to sprawl on the ground, tomato plants need twice as much room. Plants spaced too closely will produce few fruit and have more disease problems as the foliage stays wet. Plant according to how big they will get, not on the size of the transplants.

Plant what you can use - I love tomatoes. But, in a good season, we get lots of tomatoes!!!  Save room for other vegetables by limiting your self to 2 plants per person.  Or if you love sauces and salsas, learn to can and plant extras.  We have sauces and salsas all year round.  Bury tomato plants deeper than they come in the pot, all the way up to a few top leaves. Tomatoes are able to develop roots all along their stems. You can either dig a deeper hole or simply dig a shallow tunnel and lay the plant sideways. It will straighten up and grow toward the sun. Be careful not to drive your pole or cage into the stem.

Don't plant in shady spots - Tomato plants, like any plant that produces fruit, need at least 8 hours of direct sun. If you have less, you will have fantastic foliage but very few fruit. Plants derive energy from the sun and nothing can replace natural sunlight.

Plants neeed food -  Add some organic compost every other week and then give ample watering.  Lawn fertilizers give you lots of green, so don't use them on your tomatoes or you will get lots of green at the expense of your tomatoes. 

A little tip - Once the tomato plants are about 3' tall, remove the leaves from the bottom 1' of stem. They get the least amount of sun and are usually the first leaves to develop fungus problems.

Keep the plants well watered - When the soil around tomato plants dries out, a serious problem results. Calcium, one of the handful of minerals needed by all plants to grow, is absorbed by the plant's roots along with water. If water is limited, so is calcium.

Don't remove leaves or branches from mature plants with fruit - Some people think that tomato fruit need direct sunlight to ripen. This is untrue. Pruning the plant prior to fruiting is fine, as discussed earlier, but never remove foliage from a mature plant. This exposes fruit to direct sun and can lead to sunscald, a yellowing of the side exposed to the sun. The same holds true for green fruit you are ripening inside. Do not put them on a sunny windowsill. Instead put them in a paper bag and place them out of direct light.

Don't put fruit in your refrigerator - You've done everything right and now it's time to pick the first fruit, but don't be tempted to put that fruit in the refrigerator. Temperatures below 55F will destroy the fragile balance of sugars, acids and other flavor inducing compounds. Leave tomatoes at room temperature, away from direct sunlight. If you want them to ripen faster, put them in a brown paper bag.  If they are getting too ripe, make salsa or pasta sauce.


Simple Marinara Sauce
Ingredients

2 pound tomatoes
1 large onion
¼ cup of olive oil
4 cloves of garlic
3 leaves of freshly chopped basil
½ tsp of dried oregano
honey
salt and pepper to season 

1. Chop the garlic and onion into small pieces.
2. Heat the olive oil over a medium heat in a large saucepan.
3. Add onion and garlic and saute just a few minutes.
4. Add fresh tomatoes cut into quarters.
5. Then add the oregano, chopped basil, salt and pepper and stir the ingredients to mix thoroughly.
6. Bring the mixture to slow rolling boil, stirring occasionally.
7. Once the sauce begins to boil add a bit of honey to cut some of the acidity (I use between , reduce the heat to low and simmer gently for 25 - 30 minutes or until the sauce has thickened.
8. The sauce is now ready to serve. Can be frozen or canned.
   

Composting can reduce the amount of waste that goes into landfills and provide valuable nutrients for your garden.  You can start your compost in 3 easy steps.


Step 1:  Find a container for the kitchen. Some people like to buy a composting pail to keep their counter looking elegant. The white stoneware compost pail below can hold three quarts of material, so you won’t be running to the compost bin after every foray into cooking. It also includes a charcoal filter to reduce odor.

But you don’t have to buy a compost pail to start composting. Just find a large plastic container with a lid. Plastic coffee cans with lids work really well.

Step 2:  Find an outside location. Effective composting requires periodically turning materials to help them decompose evenly.  

You’ll need enough space to move materials around according to their stage in the process. If you have extra space for staging your composting, you can just make a neat, compact pile on the earth. Alternatively, you can buy a turning compost bin, which will mix your compost for you, and is perfect for small spaces.



Step3:  Start adding and turning. As you select materials for your compost pail, keep these rules in mind:
o No meat. Rotting meat attracts nasty vermin, like rats and maggots.
o No dairy products. Rotting dairy products also attract pests, so keep them out of your compost pile.

Your compost pile should contain organic plant material such as vegetable scraps, yard debris, and eggshells, which provide calcium. You need to get some green and some brown vegetation into your compost.  We add cardboard and paper to our pile as well.  Turn your pile weekly to help materials decompose .

Thanks for stopping by.  As I type this, I am back in California.  I love visiting family and friends, but I realize that I love my home and garden.  I love having space to garden and move around.  I don't miss the traffic and hustle and bustle.  But, I love the vast number of fruits and veggies that can be grown in CA.  I plan on trying some varieties in TX to see how it pans out.

I'm looking forward to getting home and getting my straw bale demo gardens in place and prepping for my spring classes and the start of our Farmer's Market. 

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