Comments on: What I’ve Been Up to in My Garden

By: Fern

Fern — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 22:55:17 +0000

Liz — Good luck with the chard! It’s such a beautiful plant, I hope you’ll post photos!

By: liz

liz — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:38:49 +0000

I love the stems, my boyfriend doesn’t. If you’re boiling or steaming the chard, you just have to remember to give the stems a head start by a minute or two. Off to go sow my chard seeds…

By: Fern

Fern — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 06:19:33 +0000

Ben — I hadn’t heard that. I’ll have to give it a try when I run out of water bottles.

Liz — That recipe sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing it. I harvested a bunch of leaves a few hours ago, and I like the idea of using the leaf and the stem.

By: liz

liz — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 05:49:22 +0000

fern,

Love the chard and chard cuffs! I’m going to sow some chard seeds tomorrow, hope it’s not too late.

Here’s a cook-it-to-death recipe that I love (from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian cooking for Everyone):

2 large bunches chard, sliced into 1″ wide ribbons
1.5 c. chard stems, trimmed and diced
1 onion, diced
1/2 c. chopped cilantro
1/3 c. olive oil
1 t. paprika
1 garlic clove pounded w/1 t. salt

put in a big heavy pot with a little salt. add 1/4 c. water, cover, cook over low for 45 minutes. Make sure it doesn’t dry out. yum. (It’s a lot simpler than it seems now as I’m typing it up).

Or…boil it for a couple of brief minutes and put good olive oil on it.

thanks for letting me indulge in a little chard-o-philia.

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:43:14 +0000

cool idea on the cups. I have heard that copper wire/sheeting works well also.

By: Fern

Fern — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 03:49:38 +0000

Louise — I just realized that I didn’t answer your question about pansies. I say go for it! A couple of six packs will set you back less than $5 and their flowers are so happy and peppy looking.

By: Fern

Fern — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:44:55 +0000

Ben — Grandma’s bloomed, so I have my fingers crossed that mine will too. Although my patio is a bit sunnier than her garden.

The cuffs around the chard are made from water bottles. They’re to keep the snails off my plants and they helped keep the plants upright when they were younger.

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:38:10 +0000

Good luck on the irises. It can be hard to get them to bloom in the warm SoCal weather. What’s the little support thing around the Chard stalks? Looks innovative

By: Fern

Fern — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:23:48 +0000

Marilyn — Thanks! I think about Gramma a lot when I work on stuff in my garden.

Jen — It’s kind of weird, because I have a hard time imagining what it would be like to not have a garden for a few months out of the year, which is the norm for most of the world. I understand the basics of first frost and last frost and of tender perennials, but it’s not something I think about very often. The only thing about winter that might kill my garden is that we get our entire year’s worth of rain over a period of a month or so.

Louise — Yep. My first frost date is December 8th. Pretty soon, we’ll start getting Santa Ana winds here in So Cal, and things will be pretty dry and warm until November. Today it is supposed to be slightly overcast and 79 at my apartment.

By: Louise

Louise — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:23:10 +0000

Gosh you can grow tomatoes up to December? My vegetables have come to a growth stunt because of a few chilly days. It’s 63 outside today and I had to put on a sweater this morning. I wonder what I can plant before the frost comes? Should I try pansies? My garden is looking a little pathetic now.