Beets! Beets! Beets!

I pulled in another crop of beets this morning and made what is now my official favorite pickled beet recipe.  Not only does this make delicious slightly sweet-slightly sour, slightly spiced pickled beets, the process doesn't involve canning.  And due to the vinegar content, the batch will last in your fridge for up to 6 weeks.  Though usually they are gone long before then!

I found the recipe on a site called BellyFull.Net and you can find the original version here:  BellyFull.Net Refrigerator Pickled Beets  But because websites often disappear on me, here is my own copy for saving: 

 Refrigerator Pickled Beets

• 4 medium roasted beets, cooled, peeled and sliced
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground mustard
• 5 whole black peppercorns

Bring the vinegar, water, sugar, salt and mustard to a boil in a medium saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved.  Simmer for a few minutes, take off the heat and allow to cool a bit.

Add peppercorns and beets to a clean glass jar with a tight fitting lid.  Pour the brine in, covering all the beets.

Cover and set aside for several hours before transferring to the refrigerator.

You Dirty Rat!

 We have a rat!  Thankfully, not in the house, but in the second place I least want them:  In my vegetable garden!

This isn't the first time I've had mice and rats in my garden.  After all, they don't coin my town "Rodent Park" for nothing.  But it has been a few years.  I thought I'd solved my rodent problem by rat-proofing my compost bin.  And indeed, it's not the compost they're in.  Curiously, I can't find any signs that they've been eating anything--YET.  But we do have the telltale droppings around our garbage cans and through this garden path:

Luckily, I already had today off work.  It gave me the chance to go out and quickly take some corrective measures.  

The first one was to pull in all the tomatoes I can at the moment.  In the past, rodents have only come for my tomatoes or my compost, and the tomatoes they prefer are the juicy ripe ones.  So I'll be picking just as they turn on a daily basis until we stop seeing signs of rats.

Then I spent the morning doing a major garden clean-up, knowing that rats prefer areas where they can take shelter and hide.  I did my best to clear out what was spilling onto the paths, pulling out plants that had reached their end, and cutting back what was growing out of control.  After all, one can only eat so much spaghetti squash!

The bright side is new planting space for my fall garden.

And a full wheelbarrow of greens to add to my compost bin, with the loving help of my hubby!

So between this and traps, our rat problem will hopefully be a fleeting one!  Every year, it's something.  I thought I was doing pretty well with only an occasional tomato horn worm and a few cucumber beetles.  As always, nature insists on reminding me it's out there!

Happy Gardening!

When You Can't Go Out Go UP!

I recently snagged this metal garden arbor from Hay & Needle for $90 and free shipping.  I buy a lot from this company and they've never let me down.  This latest purchase will be my 5th arbor, so no doubt, I have a thing for vertical gardening!

You see, as I was planning my upcoming season, I ran into a familiar problem:  I want to grow too many things for the amount of space I have.  Add the challenge that I never plant the same thing in the same space two years in a row, puzzling out my garden plots can be a big challenge.

So with more plants than space, my only options are:

1. Add more space (nope, too much work)
   
2. Grow fewer things (haha yeah, no)
3. GROW UP!

A-hah! #3!!

My vegetable garden already has three arbors and two 4' X 6' trellises.  About half of what I grow, grows UP, and that includes most tomatoes, cucumbers, pole beans, peas, and some varieties of squash and melons.  I absolutely love trellising for it's space-saving benefits, but I also love that it creates interest and a "secret garden" feel to the space.

Here's a photo from early in the season when you can easily see the structures:

And here is later, when it's all in full swing:

While trellising has many benefits, thought has to be given to placement.  You don't want tall plants to shade out any sun-loving plants north of them.  And I've made some mistakes.  In the photo above, I've joined two arbors to form a bean tunnel.  And while my bean tunnel ended up being everything I'd hoped, I found that pole beans--growing very thick and tall--were shading out too much of my garden late in the day.  So I've had to adjust.  Now I only plant lower growing tomatoes, cucumbers, melons or peas in that spot.

On the flipside, plants such as carrots, beets, lettuce and many herbs are very tolerant of--and even prefer--some shade, especially in the hottest hours of the afternoon.  So shade isn't always a bad thing.  You just need to think about and plan for it.

Here's a copy of my garden plot with the planned placement of my new arbor shown in red.  I won't be able to install it until fall, but knowing I have it helps me figure out my garden plots for the upcoming seasons. 

I know next summer seems like a long way off, but if you're planting things like garlic, onions or shallots, they will go in well before Halloween and will stay there until at least June of next year.  So I was quite serious when I said I have to "puzzle this out".  With my summer crop in the ground now, a fall crop, things that will over-winter and more vegetables I want to plant for spring, I have to use several iterations of this plot map to help me puzzle it all out.

Fortunately, I'm very fond of puzzles, love plotting, planning and scheming.  So for me, this is one of the funnest aspects of vegetable gardening.  AND I get to do it at the comfort of my kitchen table with a nice glass of wine, which makes it one of the easiest of garden tasks! 😄

Happy Gardening!

    

August Garden Activities

Here's what's on my garden to-do list for August:

• Planting one final succession of pole beans this weekend.  I've been staggering plantings since April, planting a handful of beans every 60 days.  Right now is probably the last I can stretch that growing season, but I'll give it a try.
• Planting snow peas around mid-month.  If you want to order on-line, now is the time to get them.  Look for varieties resistant to powdery mildew or otherwise recommended for fall.  I've purchased Oregon Giant from Johnny's, but many varieties are suitable for the season.
• Planting broccoli and cabbage starts later in the month.  Look for fall varieties such as Arcadia, Marathon (broccoli) and Gonzales (cabbage)
• Planting carrots, again--look for varieties suitable for fall planting.  This year, I'll be giving Kyoto from Baker Creek a try.  
• Starting bok choi seeds indoors toward the end of the month for transplanting in September.  My favorite is Mei Qing Choi from Johnny's.

How do you know what varieties are suitable for fall?  Most seed companies will give you those recommendations in their catalogs and on their websites. Reputable nurseries, like Cottage Gardens and Harmony Farms will only put out the appropriate varieties for the season. 

Also, if you're ordering seeds for fall, now would be the time to pick up some lettuce, arugula and beet seeds so you have them.  I won't be planting mine until September, but the best varieties often sell out, so grab 'em while you can.

More August Activities:

Want to start a compost pile?  Now is the time to start thinking about it, as fall is the best time to start composting!

I've done several blogs about my experiments in composting.  I had to do a lot of trial and error to find what worked for me, but I'm so glad I kept at it.  Composting is the absolute best way to get good soil in your garden, make use of all your kitchen and garden waste, and save money in the process (quality compost is EXPENSIVE!)  

Though I have many more composting discussions planned, you can see my past experiments here: Lori's Compost Posts

The most recent post is about the double-bin rodent-proof compost bind I'd made myself.  I can tell you three years later, it's still rodent-free and is working fantastic!  But if that is a little too aggressive for your needs, I've also discussed other things I've tried and how well they worked.

So there you go for August!  Enjoy this summer weather and Happy Gardening!