AZ Plant Lady

Preserve Fresh Herbs By Freezing Into Ice Cubes

I love growing herbs in my garden and one of the reasons is that they thrive in our hot, dry summers with minimal fuss.

I must admit that I sometimes forget to make use of my fresh herbs, or sometimes I have more than I need. Some frost-tender herbs like basil don’t grow in winter in my garden – so either I have too much in the summer and almost none at all in winter.

Well, no more! Did you know that you could freeze your fresh herbs so you could use them during the winter months?

I tried this with my chives earlier this summer and it was so easy to do.

Here is how to do it:

Choose your favorite herb…

Wash them.

Chop them into the desired size.

I just love chives.

Place your chopped herbs into an ice cube tray, filling up each one about 3/4 of the way full.

Fill up with water, taking care to allow a little room for expansion since water expands when it freezes.

Put in your freezer for a few hours.

Freezing herbs

Once frozen, pop out your ‘herb cubes’ and put them in a freezer container or plastic container and store in your freezer.

Freezing herbs

Now, whenever you need fresh herbs when you cook, add a few ice cubes to your favorite sauce.

**You can also freeze herbs into ice cubes using olive oil instead of water, if desired.

Another great way to preserve herbs is to dry them.I talked about how to do this in an earlier post – “How to Grow and Dry Herbs”

A Tale of a Street and Two Trees…

AZ Plant Lady, Trees

Last month as I was leaving from a landscape consultation, I took some time to drive by a few of the landscapes in the neighborhood.

I immediately noticed that quite a few people had Olive trees growing in their front yards.

Olive tree

There was a large difference in how some of the homeowners pruned their Olive trees…

Believe it or not, both of the trees pictured above are the same type of Olive tree.

Some people like to formally prune their Olive trees while others like theirs to grow naturally.

Which one would you prefer?

OR

I know which look I prefer and it is much healthier for the tree and much less maintenance.

How about you?

Which style of pruning do you like – formal or natural?

A Lapful of Apples and Caramel Apple Jam

AZ Plant Lady, Fruit Trees

Last week, I shared with you our latest apple harvest.

My kitchen was filled with bags and bags of delicious, crisp, apples from my mother’s apple trees.

(I don’t have any apples from my trees yet because they are too young).

admit that I didn’t get to my apples right away. So, they sat in my kitchen. My granddaughter, Lily, had other ideas for the apples.

A Lapful of Apples and Caramel Apple Jam

She would pick out a couple of apples from the bags.

Lily then brought them over to me.

And, proceeded to put them in my lap.

By the time she was done, I got the message she was trying to tell me….

It was time to start making some treats with my apples.

In the past, I would make homemade applesauce. Once you have tasted homemade, the store-bought just doesn’t cut it.

This year, I was inspired to make something new.

How does Caramel Apple Jam sound?

I found this wonderful magazine at the checkout lane (after I had glanced over the tabloids to get my weekly update on celebrity happenings 😉

The magazine is a Better Homes & Gardens special publication devoted to preserving fruits and vegetables (I have seen it at Walmart and Barnes & Noble). It is filled with jams, jellies, sauces and so much more. I dog-eared half the magazine with recipes that I want to try.

Well, I decided the Caramel Apple Jam would be my first recipe to try.

The hardest part of making fruit jams is peeling and chopping fruit. So, I finally got smart and asked my 15-year old daughter to help me.

Chopping apples went so much more quickly with two people.

Like applesauce, we cooked the apples and then put them through a fruit mill, which removed the peels and ‘mushed’ up the apples to the consistency of applesauce.

At the same time the apples were cooking, I made the caramel from white sugar.

Then combined the two, put it in jars and processed them with my boiling water canner.

The Caramel Apple Jam tasted so good that I made two more batches that are now sitting in my pantry. It tastes great on toast or served warm over vanilla ice cream. My husband likes eating it plain out of the jar 😉

With my leftover apples, I sliced them up and added flour, sugar, cinnamon and lemon and froze them. I’ll use them later for apple pies, this fall.

How about you?

What are enjoying eating from your garden this summer?

The Chicken vs. The Caterpillar

AZ Plant Lady

I don’t think that my sister’s chicken has ever seen a caterpillar that large before.

Do you think she will eat it? Or will the caterpillar emerge victorious?

I’ll let you know at the end of this post…

Those of you who have ever grown tomatoes probably recognize this green, horned caterpillar.

If you are not familiar with this green menace, let me introduce you to the ‘tomato hornworm’.

As their name suggests, they love to eat tomatoes and the leaves on their plants.

What you may not know is that also like to eat potato, pepper and eggplants as well.

What is even worse, is that they can be a little hard to find. With their green color, they blend in well with the tomato plants. Tomato hornworms also tend to hide underneath the leaves.

At this point you may be wondering if you have these pesky caterpillars on your tomato plants. How can you tell?

Well, some telltale signs include holes eaten from the leaves and tomatoes. You may also see little green pellets (caterpillar poop) on the leaves.

The only way to know for certain is to go looking for them.

So what do you do if you find out your tomatoes are infested with these caterpillars and how did they get there in the first place?

Well, tomato hornworms grow up into moths who in turn, lay eggs on the underside of tomato leaves. The eggs hatch in about a week and the newly emerged caterpillars start eating non-stop for 4 – 6 weeks.

As if that weren’t enough bad news, as the caterpillars grow larger, they eat more. After about a month on gorging themselves, they drop into the soil where they form a cocoon and transform into a moth who will start the cycle again by laying eggs.

How can you do to get rid of them?

Well, there are a few ways to get rid of them and even help to prevent them in the future.

Tomato hornworm

– The easiest way to get rid of a current infestation of tomato hornworms is to simply pick them off and dunk them into soapy water, which kills them.

– If pulling off large, green caterpillars isn’t your thing, then you can spray them with a product that contains Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis), which infects the stomach of the hornworm, killing it. Bt is safe for animals and plants.

– There are some wasps that will act as parasites to the caterpillars and lay their eggs directly onto them. The eggs hatch and the larvae eat the caterpillar.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not have to deal with tomato hornworms at all. So, I am all about prevention.

– In the fall, till the soil around your tomato plants. This will unearth any cocoons that are attempting to overwinter in the soil, which kills them. Do this again in spring, before planting new tomato plants. This is usually 90% effective in getting rid of tomato hornworm cocoons before the moth emerges.

Okay, so back to the chicken, caterpillar face-off…

My sister’s chicken Francie is a ‘naked-neck’ chicken and yes, she is supposed to look that way 😉

It turns out that the chickens were a little put off by the large size of the caterpillars. So, they wouldn’t touch them.

That is until… the caterpillars were cut up into smaller pieces. Then the chickens couldn’t eat them fast enough. (I know, kind of gross, isn’t it?)

**I want to thank my sister, Grace, for her fabulous pictures. You can find out more about her photography, here.

Container Corn is “For The Birds”

AZ Plant Lady, Containers

You may remember that earlier this year, I was excited to try my hand at growing container corn.

I learned about container corn when I was reading through Burpee’s catalog. They had a hybrid corn called, ‘On Deck’, which was specially bred to grow in containers. Each stalk was said to produce 2 – 3 ears.

Well, I like to try new things in the garden and then tell you all about them. So, I ordered the seeds and got ready. You can read about how I prepared in my earlier blog post “An Old Whiskey Barrel and Corn Seeds”.

I hand-watered my seeds and was delighted when they quickly sprouted.

I planted a few nasturtiums in the front because I like to grow flowers with my vegetables.

The corn grew quickly, but I started to see a problem…

The corn on the outside was not growing as quickly as those in the middle. I suspect that maybe that was because the corn in the middle received more water and/or had more room to grow their roots.

The reason it is a problem is because in order to have a good corn crop with ears full of kernels, they need to be adequately pollinated. This is achieved by having multiple rows of corn.

In this case, I had plenty of corn stalks for pollinating. The problem was that the outer corn weren’t maturing as quickly as those in the middle.

As a result, the inner corn stalks started sprouting corn before the outer stalks and there was not enough pollen available.

I did get 3 tiny ears of corn among the center stalks – not worth eating at all.

I was going to pick the ears of corn so that I could show you how small they were. But…

The birds got to my container corn first.

I have grown corn in my vegetable gardens every year and have never had a problem with birds eating it.

But, they evidently loved my container corn.

**I watered my container corn diligently, taking care not to over water. They were planted in good-quality planting mix and given slow-release fertilizer.

While I did like how they looked growing in my whiskey barrel, I am not impressed with their uneven growth and lack of corn.

Needless to say, I won’t be growing container corn anytime soon. I am planning on planting strawberries in it this next spring though 🙂

A Summer Edible Garden: Part 2

AZ Plant Lady, Vegetable Gardening

I hope you enjoyed the grand tour of my edible garden that I created in my side yard.

Today, I would like to show what is happening in my original vegetable garden…

As you can see, there is a lot growing in this area.

Among the vegetables is a giant sunflower, pots filled with ornamental plants AND vegetables and hollyhocks that have finished flowering can be seen alongside the garden.

Off to the right side, you can see my container corn.

And yes, those are plastic patio chairs inside my vegetable garden. (I’ll explain why later.)

This edible garden is actually made up of three parts. My original vegetable garden was a fenced in square space. Like many gardeners who like to grow their own food, I realized that I needed more space – so we added on an extension a couple of years ago…

The third part of my edible garden consists of vegetables growing in containers along with ornamental plants…

I currently have zucchini growing in the closest pot along with a jalapeño plant, parsley and sweet potato vines.

The middle pot is filled with a Thai pepper plant, chives, cucumber, celosia and kangaroo paw.

The third (and my most favorite container) has a bell pepper plant, cinnamon basil, green & purple sweet potato vines, dianthus and angelita daisy growing inside.

The outer vegetable garden is filled with sunflowers and bush beans.

Our family loves to eat ‘string beans’. They are easy to grow and to freeze for later.

Here is something that you may not know about growing beans. “They make their own nitrogen, so you don’t need to add any nitrogen fertilizer.”

In fact, if fertilize them with a fertilizer that contains nitrogen – it can cause them to grow beautiful leaves, but not beans. That is because there needs to be a balance between the other major nutrients – phosphorus and potassium.

If you do apply a fertilizer, make sure that contains a low amount of nitrogen.

I have lots of cucumbers growing in the original vegetable garden along with a couple of pumpkin plants.

As a child, I grew up calling cucumbers ‘gurkens’, which is what they are called in German. I spent some time when I was young, in Germany, visiting my grandparents while my grandfather was working over there.

I love cucumbers and we eat them 3 or 4 times a week.

It can be a little hard to spot ripe cucumbers. Most of my cucumber plants are growing up onto the trellis, but sometimes you can find cucumbers growing on the ground. You need to move the leaves aside to see them.

I like to eat cucumbers with salad, using my grandmother’s ‘top secret’ salad dressing recipe.

I only wish that I could grow cucumbers and leaf lettuce at the same time….

Okay, back to the patio chairs sitting in my garden.

Why on earth would I place chairs in my garden?

Well, they are an easy way to provide shade for vegetables that quickly wilt in the full sun.

And so, that is what is going on in my edible gardens this summer.

**I am excited to share with you a gardening video that I made for Troybilt as a part of my involvement with the ‘Saturday 6″.

I’ll debut it for you on Monday 🙂

My Summer Edible Garden: Part 1

AZ Plant Lady, Vegetable Gardening

It may be awfully hot outside, but my garden is awash in brightly colored flowers from my single bougainvillea, Arizona yellow bells and ‘Rio Bravo’ sage, which shrug off the summer heat.

Last year, we decided to create an edible garden along the side of our house.

This was a large underused area that we look out at from our kitchen, family room and bedrooms.

To get it ready for planting, we had our ghost gum eucalyptus tree removed. It was a beautiful tree, but was quickly outgrowing this area with its overhanging limbs.

The next step involved pulling out some of the flowering shrubs along the back wall and along the side of the house. We kept the flowering shrubs along the side wall, because they add beauty and help to break up the bare expanse of the wall.

This is what the side garden looks like today…

The centerpiece of the edible garden is the vegetable garden. Right now, it is filled with corn, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers and sunflowers.

In front, is my colorful container filled with a variety of herbs including basil, parsley, sage and thyme. I bought an inexpensive plastic container and spray painted it a bright blue. The container is connected to the drip system of the vegetable garden.

In the foreground (not pictured) is our new Arizona sweet orange tree. We planted it last year and are excited to have three oranges growing on it.

You may be thinking that three oranges is not much to be excited about, but the first couple of years after a citrus tree is planted – you are lucky to get any fruit at all.

Newly planted citrus trees shouldn’t be fertilized during the first year, because you want them to focus on root growth, not upper growth when there is not a substantial root system for them to rely on. Since it has been a year since we have planted it, we will fertilize this year.

In front of the vegetable garden are a pair of new peach trees.

I love peaches and have enjoyed the fruit from my mother’s peach trees for years. I finally decided that I wanted to grow my own.

We got 18 peaches this year, which is a lot considering that we planted them in January.

Notice the green plant at the base of the peach tree? It is a gourd plant that will quickly grow and cover the ground. This will serve as a ‘living mulch’ and help to prevent weeds and shade the roots of my peach trees.

Inside the vegetable garden, sunflower seeds are beginning to form. It is so fun to see the birds hanging upside down trying to get to the seeds.

You can allow the birds to eat the seeds or if you want to save them for yourself, simply tie a paper bag around the flower to keep the birds away.

I’ll probably save some flowers for ourselves and let the birds enjoy the seeds of a couple of unprotected sunflowers.

A large zucchini plant is growing in the background and as anyone who has grown zucchini will tell you, it is prolific.

The slightly wilting plant in the foreground is a pumpkin plant. If you want a pumpkin for fall, then June is when you want to plant them.

It is normal for the leaves to wilt slightly during the heat of the day. They will return to normal later in the day.

Zucchini can hide underneath the large leaves of the zucchini plant. I’m going to use this one to make my chocolate chip zucchini bread. It’s delicious and your kids will never know there is zucchini in it 😉

I found the recipe on Pinterest and have already made it once. My family keeps bugging me to make more. Here is the link to the recipe, if you are interested – Chocolate Zucchini Bread

My tomatoes are flourishing in the natural shade provided by my sunflowers.

One of my cherry tomato plants has even decided to expand a bit outside of the garden.

Behind the vegetable garden are my two apple trees, planted this January. One is a Anna apple tree and the other is a Dorsett Golden. These apple trees do well in the desert and although they will produce apples if planted alone – they will produce more apples because they will cross pollinate each other.

It will take a few years for any apples to appear, but the blossoms in spring are just lovely.

Behind the apple trees are six blackberry bushes. This year, we enjoyed the berries so much and are hoping for even more next year as they grow larger.

Blackberries won’t produce the first year after planting because the berries appear on 1-year odd canes.

Did you know that there are now thornless varieties of blackberries available? I have one….I only wish that the other five were thornless 😉

Well, that is what I have growing in my side edible garden.

Tomorrow, I’ll share what is growing in my original vegetable garden.

What do you have growing in your garden right now?

A Summer Edible Garden: Part 2

Neglected Herbs Lead to Beautiful Flowers…

AZ Plant Lady, Wildflowers

I have a confession to make…

Sometimes I am a lazy gardener. Are you shocked? Will this revelation cause you to stop reading my blog?

In my defense, I must say that life gets rather busy and at the end of a long day, I forgo the opportunity to do some needed garden maintenance.

However, my reluctance to perform needed maintenance has a rather beautiful benefit…

Neglected Herbs

My herbs begin to flower in the absence of harvesting their leaves.

Now, I like growing herbs and harvest them so that I can use them both dried and fresh.

But, there are times that I don’t get out to harvest the leaves. When herbs are allowed to grow without harvesting the leaves – they begin to flower.

My sage (above) has beautiful purple flowers, don’t you think?

Neglected Herbs

Now, my green and purple basil plants are beginning to flower as well.

Herbs are best harvested before the begin to flower for the best taste.

So, what do you do when they start to flower? Well, you have two options…

– You could let them flower for a couple of weeks and enjoy their beauty.

– Or you could prune them back severely and let the leaves grow back so you can harvest them.

What do you think I should do?

A Harvest of Plums

AZ Plant Lady, Fruit Trees

Last Friday, my mother came over for dinner and brought with a box full of sweet, tart goodness…

Plums harvest

Don’t these plums look delicious?

There is a single plum tree on the family farm that is incredibly prolific.

Plums harvest

Every year, I look forward to making jam ever since my mother taught me how 3 years ago.

I usually have enough jam to last our family an entire year plus more to give as gifts to teachers and friends over the Christmas holiday.

After my mother left that evening, I got right to work and made my first batch of plum jam.

This time, I left the peels on the plums, which dissolve during the cooking process and create the beautiful ‘plum’ color.

Other years, I have peeled the plums by boiling them first for 40 seconds. It is a rather tedious process, but some people prefer plum jam without the peels.

For me, I like to make things simple – so the peels stayed.

Every summer brings a wonderful fruit harvest. First are the peaches followed by the plums. In a couple of weeks, I will be busy with the apple harvest. I got a new recipe for apple caramel jam that I can’t wait to try out.

For more information on how to make your own jam, check out my post “A Harvest of Peaches and Jam”.

**It may be hot outside, but there a lot growing in the garden. Join me every day this week as I post what is happening in my garden.

The Green Spaces of Chicago

AZ Plant Lady

Downtown Chicago is a very beautiful place with its architecture and the river flowing through it. However, most of my attention was focused on the green spaces.

How much can we see in 2 1/2 hours of walking?

My husband and I found ourselves with a few hours to kill before flying home after seeing our daughter’s graduation from the Naval base. So, armed with our camera and walking shoes, we set off.

We began our journey at Millenium Park, which is nestled in the heart of downtown Chicago along Michigan Avenue.

“Cloud Gate” or as most Chicagoans refer to it “The Bean” is a must see.

It looks like liquid mercury and reflects the skyline and city towers.

You can walk underneath it AND take a picture with your husband without having to ask someone else because of the reflection.

After viewing the ‘shiny bean’, we started walking along Michigan Avenue toward the Art Institute of Chicago.

I just love buildings with large lions standing in front of the entrance.

There was a huge line of people waiting to go inside once it opened. But, I must admit that I wasn’t going to waste my time going inside when I could see the pretty gardens surrounding it.

As we approached the South Garden of the Art Institute, I was surprised to learn that it was built upon a parking garage…

Staggered rows of hawthorn trees in raised beds provided a beautiful, shady oasis inviting passersby to stop and rest, read a book or even eat lunch.

Green Spaces of Chicago

Rows of ornamental alliums lined the pathway through the North Garden.

These flowers were large and so beautiful.

The North Garden was filled with beautiful perennials that had different shaped foliage and heights, which is a great way to add texture and interest to the garden.

Here is another example of two plants that have contrasting foliage. By placing them together, you highlight the differences between them showcasing their individual beauty.

This perennial plant caught my eye with its tiny blue flowers and pretty foliage.

It is called Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’ and is a really wonderful plant that grows well in the shade. Slugs, deer and rabbits DON’T like it, which makes it a popular choice for woodland gardens. Which means that I won’t be growing it in my garden – it’s too hot with too little shade where I live).

Now, we were continuing our walk onto the Lurie Gardens.

On the way, we say a few hot dog carts selling Chicago-style hot dogs. I didn’t get one because I LOVE using ketchup on my hot dogs and didn’t want to offend anyone 😉

The Lurie Gardens were beautiful. Just look at the deep purple of the Meadow Sage.

The tulips were on their way out, but we could still see some white ones hanging on. Look at the layers of plantings above, with the different textures – I love it!

Green Spaces of Chicago

Whenever I visit new places, I like to see the different types of plants that grow there.

This interesting plant is known as ‘Prairie Smoke’. It is easy to see where it got its name.

I love blue flowers in the garden because blue is a color that is often absent in the garden.

This is Willowleaf ‘Blue Star’.

Peonies ready to bloom. One of two plants that I really wish would grow in my desert garden…but peonies need cold winters.

I liked the blue spiky flowers of Quamash.

There were docents, leading tours of the garden, which is free to all who visit.

In fact, to this point, we had not spent any money except for parking. The parks and gardens were all free.

Now, it was time to explore the streets of Chicago where I was happy to see many beautiful examples of creative container plant combinations.

Please come back to see more of our adventure in downtown Chicago where you will see my second favorite plant that I wish I could grow in my garden…

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Preserve Fresh Herbs By Freezing Into Ice Cubes

A Tale of a Street and Two Trees…

A Lapful of Apples and Caramel Apple Jam

The Chicken vs. The Caterpillar

Container Corn is “For The Birds”

A Summer Edible Garden: Part 2

My Summer Edible Garden: Part 1

Neglected Herbs Lead to Beautiful Flowers…

A Harvest of Plums

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