Hot Sauce Bath 19 – entry 5
Added another 4 ounces of fresh peppers and 1 tsp of pickling salt. Peppers are really starting to ferment and become mushy now. Jar is almost full too. Soon it will be time to add the oak and let it reset over the winter.
Build a Keyhole Garden
Keyhole Gardens are water efficient, easy to maintain and super productive in a small space. Here's how I built one without breaking the piggy bank. So I was sitting around late last winter reading the week’s Costco circular when I ran across an article about the success of something called a “keyhole garden” in [keep reading...]
Hot Sauce Batch 19 – entry 4
Added 8 more ounces of hot peppers and 1/2 TSP of salt. No additional water. Will probably have just one more addition because the weather cold nights are knocking off the pepper plants.
Video: “Happy Red” Japanese Tomato
Bought a Japanese tomato with no idea what it would be. I wasn't disappointed.Last spring I picked up a variety of odd-ball tomatoes from a local nursery. One was a complete mystery because the tag was printed in Japanese. An attempt to use Google Translate revealed only that it was "happy red" and "not much [keep reading...]
My Keyhole Garden Through the Year
Last winter I decided to build a keyhole garden. Every few weeks I'd go out and take a photo of it so I could remember how it progressed through the growing season. I'll write in detail about how I came to build a keyhole garden and what I learned soon. In the meantime, here's a [keep reading...]
Hot Sauce Batch 19 – entry 3
Forgot to take photos of last week's addition. 6 ounces plus 1 cup water, 1/2tsp salt. Woops. Also, too much water let the peppers float on top and get a white mold. Woops again. Pay attention. Scraped off the fuzzy white mold and added 6 more ounces of fresh peppers. The peppers from week 1 [keep reading...]
Plain Old Burlap: The Most Versatile Plant Protection
When it comes to protecting your plants from the elements, consider this humble, all organic fabric If you live in one of the warmer climate zones here in the south and western United States, fall presents a different set of garden challenges than it does for our neighbors in cooler places. While they’re taking precautions [keep reading...]
Fall Finally! Let’s Get to Work!
I’ve been reading “what to plant for fall” stories since August. In some ways I’m jealous of people who can start their fall garden in late summer, but it’s not an option here in the San Diego county foothills. By August the sun is directly overhead and it hasn’t rained in four months or more. [keep reading...]
Hot Sauce Batch 19 – entry 2
Added 3 ounces Black Mamba peppers and 2 cloves of fresh garlic. 1/2 cup of water and 1/4 tsp salt added as well.
How to Save Seeds the Lazy Way
Summer's Over! Let's get a start on next year's garden now with little to no effort Happy first day of Autumn. With the exception of the pumpkins and some stragglers in the beans and tomatoes, my summer garden is pretty much done. But before I clear out the beds to make room for fall and [keep reading...]