Showing posts with label gardening. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gardening. Show all posts

Friday, May 17, 2013

Omaha backyard salad


We don't need no stinkin' supermarket; we got a back yard. And a front one.

What you see here is an Omaha backyard salad, consisting of dandelion greens and mint from the yard, and some onions, Parmesan cheese and cherry tomatoes from the store. So I guess we need the stinkin' supermarket a little bit.

Put a little bit of sweet Sicilian dressing on there, and you officially have some cuisine.

Tonnaire! Ça c'est bon, oui!

Friday, July 30, 2010

Lâche pas la tomate, mon nèg


May, June, July . . . well that took long enough.

The first tomato of the season, that is. Yeah, it looks like it's going to be another one of those too-cool years where the tomatoes make late and get ripe later.

That's how it went last year, and when we finally started to get a bunch of ripe tomatoes, the blight hit. Wiped out most everyone's crop hereabouts.

This year, we've had precious few really scorching-hot, perfect tomato weather days, but it looks like we're getting a decent number of fruit on the vines. So far, too, it looks like the blight is being held at bay.

(Yes, it's extremely difficult to type with your fingers crossed. Knock on wood. And where's my damned rabbit's foot?)

On the other hand, the jalapeños seem to be doing fine. I've already picked a small mess of them. A couple of those went into a bottle of red wine vinegar to make hot sauce for the mustard greens in the bunny-proof wheelbarrow bed.

Ah reckon that's about it for the Revolution 21 farm report. I'm your Mighty Favog reporting.



P.S.: The headline? A pun probably understood only in Quebec or south Louisiana, based on "Lâche pas la patate," or "Don't drop the potato," which is a colloquialism for "Hang in there."

And no, "mon nèg" has no racial connotation whatsoever here -- it's a Cajun term of endearment.
For what it's worth.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

. . . then the rains came


It's not this way in Louisiana come summertime.


There, I never had to study the radar, then go over the forecast again, then look at the sky, then just end up doing what my gut said and not watering the garden today because I figured it'd probably rain. No, I just had to look at the clock, and figure there would be a thundershower about the time the big hand was on the 12 and the little hand was on the 3.

TURNS OUT that today -- at least -- I guessed right. The vegetable garden and the wheelbarrow full of greens are happy now.


THAT'S Nebraska for you. That's the Great Plains for you -- the most aggravating place in America for figuring out just what the weather is gonna do.


AND THAT'S IT for the pictures. I was starting to get wet out there.

Just hangin' out


I'm just hanging out right now, having some coffee while I wait.


I'm waiting to see whether these clouds below will turn into the thunderstorms forecasters were worried enough about to issue a tornado watch.


It certainly feels like storm-producing weather out -- windy, 94 and muggy, one of the few mid-summery days we've had so far this year. Right now, the storm prospects for Omaha are kind of iffy, but the weatherman says if these clouds are going to turn into some storms, it won't be too long.


If they do, I won't have to worry about watering this.


Or this.


Look how fast the mustard greens are growing. I can almost taste 'em now.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Farmer Favog's Almanac


The backyard garden has been in for about three weeks now, and the wheelbarrow greens garden has been in about a week.

Here's how it looks after a week of rain and warm weather.


The mustard greens have sprouted, and they're growing fast. The green onions, we're still waiting on.


The first thing we get every spring, though, is the wild mint all over our yard. When some plants go nuts all over the yard, you just don't mind.

There's little better than tea steeped with a big, big sprig of mint in the bottom of the pot.

Ditto for mint juleps and mojitos -- God's gift to the liver, both.


Even the houseflies agree.

Thursday, January 07, 2010

Five months


Oh, how a mere five months (and a little bit) fly by.

Oh, what changes a mere five months can bring here on the Great Plains.

Above is the wheelbarrow garden bed in our back yard, as pictured July 28. Back then, it was in full flower despite the cooler-than-normal summer, and we were picking messes of mustard greens every week or two.

BUT ALL GARDENS come to an end, and both of ours were done by Oct. 10 (above). It was the first of many snows this fall and winter.


AND NOW, our little wheelbarrow garden bed as seen an hour or so ago. Yesterday's snow is blowing, and the mercury is dropping like a rock.

The forecast, according to Channel 7: Low tonight will be minus-13. High Friday will be minus-5. Low Friday night -- 23 below zero.

Once again, the pioneers were not wimps. Come to think of it, neither are we.

All right, let's go. Bundle up and git 'er done!

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Anybody need some peppers?


And . . . that's a wrap.

The last of the peppers from the backyard garden.

WE BARELY DODGED an icy bullet when we had a freeze the other night. Now that we're supposed to have another freeze this week and snow (!) Sunday, today probably was as good a time as any to pick the rest of the peppers.

I think I'll get out there tomorrow and dig up the chives and pot them so we can keep harvesting them all winter. And harvest the green onions and last mess of greens out of the wheelbarrow.

But with this last massive pepper haul, I'm feeling rather like Forrest Gump's Army buddy Bubba did about shrimp. You got your raw peppers for salad, you got your pickled chili peppers for hot sauce, and you got fried peppers, roasted peppers, baked stuffed peppers, diced peppers for salsa, strip-cut peppers for dipping. . . .

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Wheelbarrow garden 1, Wascally Wabbits 0


Just came in from the big vegetable garden, where the tomatoes -- as usual -- are outstripping the space allotted and the sticks that are supposed to hold them up.

The big backyard garden also is where stuff -- meaning dogs and other critters -- messes up the mulch carefully placed around the peppers, which otherwise seem to be doing fine. Fine, thanks to the copious amounts of water I put on the garden every day or two.

We seem to have slipped into another dry spell here in Omaha, by God, Nebraska.

THESE PICTURES, however, are of our wheelbarrow garden, designed to keep the critters -- and that means you, Bugs -- out of the greens, green onions and cucumbers. I have another bell pepper in there, too, but I'm probably going to transplant that into a pot.

The idea came to me when I saw a web page devoted to building a tabletop garden bed. It looked like a lot of trouble, building it out of lumber and all.

One of the advantages was supposed to be the ability to move it to a shadier spot in the heat of August, so as not to burn your greens up. That would be a two-man job, and Mrs. Favog, I am sure, would tell me she was not that second man.

Thus, my idea for the wheelbarrow garden was born. It's deeper, I didn't have to build it from scratch, and I can roll it to where the sun is.

Or isn't, as the case may be.

The mustard greens seem to be doing quite nicely this week . . . and that's after I cut a mess of them Saturday. Had them last night -- tasty.

This ends your Revolution 21 gardening tip of the day. Thank you.