In My San Diego Garden and Kitchen
Baby Belle Peppers from Renee’s Garden are annual favorites. They’re available well before my blocky green or red bell peppers. The short plants are bushy and productive. I pick larger ones green as needed while others mature to red or orange. Cut in half and cleaned of seeds they freeze well for use during the winter months.
The best garden news this week is that we harvested the first of the Sugar Pearl corn 76 days after planting. It seemed slower with our cool summer but actually fairly typical. Perhaps we were just anxious. No protection erected for raccoons this year and hope we don’t regret the choice. The neighborhood critter population seems down from other years and bird spikes atop our alley fence likely helps.
Last night’s dinner was mostly from the garden—zucchini pancakes, tomatoes, corn and black mission figs from a neighbor.
My homely Rosella Purple Dwarf tomatoes are finally producing at a rate that I can share with friends. Earlier problems with worms have abated and they are luscious.
Here’s one of several garden gift plates from last week. I usually harvest several zucchini daily and though pole beans have slowed, I’m hoping the blossoms portend another surge to freeze green beans for the winter.
The first of the strawberry guavas were ready last week. They are larger and fewer in number, a good sign. Another neighbor shared passionfruit with us. This is the season of abundance. We live at the bottom of a hill and we often see fruit—passionfruit, oranges and lemons that roll down the concrete alleys. Generous (or overwhelmed) neighbors often put their citrus out in boxes at the curb in the winter months.
The gathering of garden flowers Sunday morning for a church entry bouquet brings joy. Here cosmos, zinnias, scabiosa, feverfew, yarrow, cuphea and chocolate lace flower.
Check the What I’m Planting Now page as I begin to plant the cool season garden. Then head to Harvest Monday, hosted by Dave at Happy Acres blog and see what garden bloggers around the world harvested last week.
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