Tomato basil risotto

Made with onions, tomatoes and basil from the garden.

I use a very simple recipe off the Arborio rice package. This time I added some of my oven-dried tomatoes and dried basil. Definitely good winter comfort food.

Merry Christmas!

The garden - December 24th

I'm actually more excited about the solstice and the fact that the days are beginning to get longer, but I forgot to take a picture last weekend.

Radish Plan - major setback

If you need to catch up on the radish plan, click here and here.

I mentioned before that one of my dogs had taken a liking to the radishes and was chewing on them.

It didn't take the other dog long to get in on the fun. They chewed on the leaves and the roots. I figured once the ground froze, their fun would be over. Not so.

What once looked like this

now looks like this

and this

I can't find any radishes remaining in my yard. It's possible they grew deep enough that the dogs haven't been able to dig them all up, but I'm not holding my breath. I think my grand plan for soil improvement through radishes has been thwarted in a way I never saw coming. I guess my contribution to the cultivation of Groundhog Radishes is establishing that dogs love them.

Perp 1

Perp 2

Luckily, I've kept the gate on the garden this winter, so they haven't been able to eat the radishes I grew in there. Hopefully these will help the soil in this corner a little bit.

It's winter

Maybe not officially, but it's close enough, and there's nothing new in garden world.

The garden December 15th

In fact, this morning's picture of the garden hardly looks different than the one from last weekend.

The garden December 7th

Some of the snow has melted, and the sun is shining today. Temperatures are supposed to be warmer this week, so, if nothing else, my next picture will have less snow.

This weekend's birds: blue jay, junco, cardinal, downy woodpecker, sparrow, chickadee.

They must not read the blog

I just got done declaring that seven tomato plants was enough, and then I got this in the mail.

Totally Tomatoes

 

A catalog that declares itself "devoted to the avid tomato grower". I may not exactly fit that category, but just looking at the cover makes me want 10 tomato plants next year. (I do realize the picture is sideways, but I cannot figure out how to get a rotated version from photobucket to blogger.)

The same day I got the tomato catalog, I got this one, too.

Vermont Bean Seed Company

For a few seconds, I thought I could get away without looking at this one. Vermont is a long way away, and I prefer to buy from companies that are within a couple state radius, if I can. As it turns out, however, the Vermont Bean Seed Company's address is in Wisconsin, and they have runner beans, which I really want to try next year, so I guess I'll be keeping this one.

Getting these catalogs in December highlights one of the great things about gardening: optimism. The garden looks like this today:

And our temperature hasn't been above 20 for three or four days, but I can still imagine little green things growing next spring.

Today's birds: cardinal, junco, starling, downy woodpecker. I haven't seen many lately, but the snow makes them appreciate my feeders.

Things I learned this year

Last year at this time, when I was dreaming about the garden, I was very aware of my own ignorance. I knew I was venturing into something at which I could easily fail. At this point, though, I consider The Garden 2013 a huge success. That's certainly not due to the fact that I knew what I was doing, however, and I learned a lot of things along the way.

1. Seven tomato plants is enough for us.

I planted eight plants, and one of them did not amount to anything. Even with some blossom end rot, the tomato jungle was amazing, and I ended up with canned and frozen tomato sauce, canned tomatoes, salsa, pickled cherry tomatoes, frozen roasted tomato and vegetable sauce, oven-dried tomatoes, and whole frozen tomatoes. Enough of all of them for us to be enjoying tomatoes well into winter, and I was still able to give away fresh tomatoes.

2. Never underestimate a mother rabbit. Enough said.

3. When it comes to peppers, all I really want are red and green bells. I planted nine pepper plants this year, representing seven different varieties.

The variety was pretty, but none of them stood out flavor-wise. The only plant that produced a lot of fruit was the poblano pepper (the dark green ones), and I've discovered that I don't really care for them. In the end, I was disappointed that I didn't have more chopped red and green peppers in the freezer.

4. Everything takes up more space than the online garden plan says it will.



Zinnias - much more than one square foot

5. I shouldn't plant anything too close to the gate.



Those pretty pink zinnias wouldn't let me in.

6. The fall garden needs to be planted much earlier than August 31st.

Cabbage August 31st

Cabbage November 29th

7. Squirrels are really destructive. I lost almost all of my sunflowers to squirrels....

But all I lost to rabbits were a few leaves off an ornamental sweet potato.

And rabbits were actually living inside the garden at one point.

Cuter than any squirrel

8. I love growing potatoes. Seriously. I have to figure out how to store them, so I can grow more next year.

9. There's nothing more rewarding than eating something you grew.

Beets - delicious with Thanksgiving dinner

Ugly but yummy carrot pie

Homegrown potato salad

9.5. I'm a horrible food photographer.

10. I can't wait to do it all again next year!

The End

The cabbage finally called it quits, so The Garden 2013 is over.

Now I'm left to eat what I grew, reflect on what I learned, and start planning for next year.

The garden November 29th

Fuzzy tailed monkey rat

I am so glad

that I put suet out

for the birds.

Now you see them...now you don't

radishes in the yard

I mowed this group of radishes down before the really cold nights hit last week. I needed some green material for a compost pile.

This group did not get mowed down.

But the cold temperatures did them in.

And now Lucy (my German Shepard) is working on chewing up all the radishes she can find. Hopefully, she won't learn how to pull them out of the ground. Since she discovered them, I can't keep her away from them. Luckily, they don't seem to bother her stomach, which is notoriously sensitive.

broccoli after the hard freezes

the garden - November 16th

The broccoli tent used to be in the upper right corner of the garden. As you can see, though, the cabbages are still there.

Over?

After two nights with temperatures in the teens, I think the garden might be done.

Radishes

Broccoli

That's a look at the broccoli through its plastic tent. It doesn't look good. I couldn't get a good look at the cabbages.

I don't get home from work before dark these days, so I won't be able to see if they perk up today. Our temperatures are supposed to go back up a bit starting tomorrow. Guess we'll see if there's any garden left.

Fall in the garden

The garden November 7th

You can't see it well in that picture, but we had a heavy frost Thursday morning.

The radishes didn't look great. It warmed up over the weekend, however. Saturday morning they looked like this again:

I took advantage of the beautiful fall weather and spent some time outside, harvesting leaves. More on that later. When the sky looks like this, how can you not be outside?

I uncovered each of the cabbages and the broccoli plants to see how they're doing.

The broccoli leaves look good, but I don't see anything in there that resembles the part you eat.

 I can see the beginning of a little head of cabbage, but what are the chances it'll live long enough? Guess we'll see tonight. The temperatures are supposed to get into the teens. Either the cabbage will survive, or the fall garden will be over.

This weekend's birds: sparrow, blue jay, cardinal, junco, robin, white breasted nuthatch, ringneck dove, house finch, chickadee. I haven't seen that many birds in weeks!

Radish update

Have I mentioned the groundhog radishes are doing well? Look at the size of this one:

They're not all this big, but they're big enough.

While I was nosing around in the garden the other day, I found this under my chives.

Isn't it cool?