Date: August 12th 2009

August 12, 2009

Dear Folks,

Well the pumpkin seedlings are up, the Arabian Jasmine is blooming and
it is overcast this morning - all's right in a desert garden!

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it short and to the point.

. . .
Cool Weather Seeding and Bird Protection.

If you want pumpkins for the holidays this is the last time to get your
seeds in the ground. If you plant later you will still get them, just not
necessarily in time for halloween or Thanksgiving.

Fall garden sowing is in full swing now -- sow seeds - without pre-
soaking as I usually recommend - so the cooling soil germinates the
seeds at the best time. Plant herbs every 2-4 weeks for a continuous
crop. Plant veggies like the cabbage family once or twice depending on
how much you want. Plant small root crops like carrots and radishes
successively like herbs. Because radishes can be ready to harvest in as
little as a month, you can simply replace a harvest plant with one or two
seeds.

Chicken wire hats - my first planting of the pumpkins about 2 and half
weeks ago was dug up and eaten by the birds. Well, you'd think I would
know better, but I'm always optimistic that the critters have enough else
to eat in the garden without going after new stuff but that's critters for
you.

We learned long ago to keep a roll of 12-18 inch chicken wire handy to
form into tubes or boxes to act as hats while something is getting going
in the garden. Because the lightweight wire is so malleable, you can
make any size or configuration you need.

For things like my pumpkin seeds I use a tube about 6 inches across,
plant the seeds, cover them lightly with soil, place the wire tube over,
nestling it a little in the soil, and crush some dried leaves on top of the
soil to help keep the seeds moist and from the eyes of the birds, water
enough, but not so much you dislodge the seeds - works all the time,
unless the tube gets dislodged. After several weeks of growth I can
usually remove the "hat". For new seeds I sprinkle every day until I see
growth - this in addition to any regular watering you may be doing in that
garden -- in this garden it is deeply watered every 6 days, other gardens
require more frequent watering. I also chose to place the pumpkin where
it gets run off from our using our cowboy cool tube (a horse trough).

A similar tube is also a 'brace' for getting plants like Bay Laurel started.
Even though the bay herb is a multibranch shrub, it takes a couple of
years to get a good height on it. Meanwhile, it is subject to breakage
from birds, and even twigs from nearby trees damaging it. I lost one last
year to that kind of activity, so when my seeded in bay sprouted and
started to grow I placed a chicken wire tube around it to provide some
damage control. Working nicely. By the way I don't recommend trying
to grow bay from seed - 1 seed out of 15 sprouted and it took 6 months
to do so!

Making a box hat either in a square or a long tube works for large
squares of need seeds or transplants or in the case of row planting like
radishes. You can create a squarish tube of the chicken wire several feet
long to act as "seed saver" -- just remember to cap the ends or the birds
will walk right in and do their own harvesting straight through to the
other end.

Major planting (seeds) or August included:

Anise, Beans, Snap, Bok Choy, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage,
Caraway, Carrots, Cauliflower, Chervil, Cilantro, Corn, Cucumbers, Dill,
Fennel, Onions-Green, Greens, Kale, Kohlrabi, Lettuce, Marigold,
Mustard, Nasturtium, Parsley, Pumpkin, Winter Squash

Reminders, reminders -- the consistent comment I receive from readers
and audience members of my lectures is they don't always remember to
check when to plant things -- our lives have gotten so busy in general we
all need reminders.

If you want to receive indepth reminders of when and what to plant and
how to make your gardening in the desert more successful consider
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service. $15 for the year if you sign up before the end of September. It
will be $21 for the year after that - still a fair price but take advantage of
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IN THE KITCHEN:

Many of the herbs are finishing flowering at this time of year and that
means hard woody branches or twigs because the plants have put out
flowers and stopped rapid new growth. These are so useful, don't
discard them: skewers, smoking enhances on the grill and used like bay
leaves in soups, stews or sauces.

ROASTED VEGETABLES

Any assortment of your garden produce or from the farmers market
works. Cut into 1 inch pieces, coat lightly with oil, and place on cookie
sheet or in pan. Lay some of those woody herb stems over and around
the veggies. Roast at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes. Discard the
dried herbs.

I like roasted vegetables and I tend to do a large batch up at a time,
because I can use them in several meals.

1st meal is hot from the pan as a side dish for lunch or dinner
2nd meal can be part of a tortilla "pizza" (see recipe below)
3rd meal I puree the vegetables for a pasta sauce, heat, taste for spice
and herb additions needed, thin if needed with a little broth, wine or
water, and toss with fresh pasta, olives or capers and a generous topping
of parmesan cheese.

TORTILLA PIZZA

I may enjoy cooking really large meals once in a while, but I'm always
looking for something I can do up really fast - and I love pizza. I use my
toaster over for this because it only takes about 4-8 minutes to have a
personal pizza - or one to share with a friend, after chopping ingredients -
- if you find you like these too, keep chopped ingredients on hand in the
frig and then it only takes a minute to assemble and you are eating 8
minutes later. I use a glass pie plate so you can keep things together
easier.

1 10inch wholewheat flour tortilla
1/2 cup - 1 cup of roasted vegetables*
Mozzarella cheese cut into strips
Shredded parmesan
1 teaspoon of capers or 1 tablespoon of olives chopped

Assemble:
Preheat oven broiler or set toaster oven rack to toast position, and turn
to toasting setting.
Place tortilla in the pie plate, layer half of the mozzarella on the tortilla,
top with veggies and capers or olives, layer rest of the mozzarella and
top with parmesan. Toast for 4-8 minutes but watch closely because
the thin tortilla may burn. The cheese melts fast.

Serve and enjoy.

*Instead of roasted veggies, cut and use thin layers of tomatoes, peppers
and onions.



Have a great day,

Catherine
The Herb Lady
http://www.herbs2u.net/
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