I’ve posted pictures of the annual household garden in the Pictures section. For those of you too lazy to click on multiple links:

http://www.stickman.org/Pictures/Pictures-2008/garden2008/

So far, we’ve picked about a half-dozen tomatoes (early blooming Romas and large Grape tomatoes). 4 zucchini (including the one pictured - I picked it after the picture) and half a dozen cucumbers. We also picked some green peppers and one of the chiles this evening (which we’ve come to realize can’t be Serrano Chiles because they’re not the right color).

This garden doesn’t vary much from last year except it’s twice the size and we’ve added a bigger assortment of herbs. Our one disappointment this year is that both Sweet Basil plants we’ve planted are doing poorly - but in different ways. One is small, but the leaves are deep green and very flavorful (but way too small). The other is pretty big, but the leaves are very light green and taste like, well...leaves....

Will probably update this as the summer goes along.

This year’s garden is courtesy of my second cousin and her family. They bought me a huge gift card to Lowe’s for my birthday, and I spent a bunch of it on garden stuff! Thank you all!

Tags: Gardening

With the garden in full production mode, the family has been hard pressed to come up with new ways to consume all the produce. We stumbled upon a recipe (on the back of a box of pasta) that seemed perfect for our garden's abundance of zucchini, tomatoes, and basil.

Penne w/ Zucchini Sauce and Sausage

1 lb. Italian Sausage (crumbled)
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 medium zucchini, chopped (2 cups)
1 cup chopped plum tomatoes (approx 4)
10 fresh basil leaves, torn
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 t. salt
1/8 l. ground black pepper
1 lb. Penne pasta
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
1 T. chopped parsley

Boil pasta according to package. Drain.
Cook the sausage in a large skillet over medium-high heat until done. Remote from skillet and set aside
Heat oil in a skillet. Saute zucchini, tomato, basil, garlic, and seasonings 6-8 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.
Add sausage to vegetables. Stir. Add sausage and vegetables to hot pasta. Toss. Sprinkle cheese and parsley.

Notes - basil needs to be fresh. The quality of the sausage obviously makes a difference. Don't overcook the pasta. We also find the dish tasty the next day as a cold leftover.

Tags: Gardening

So it's early July and the garden has just been working overtime.



Zandra's happy as she loves tomatoes. We've already picked a few and according to her, they are yummy. Along with the cukes and zucchini. Just picked some peppers last night. Hoping this keeps up for the summer -- still a long way to go.

More garden pictures here.

Tags: Gardening

Arrrgggh...

In our neighborhood, having a sprinkler system is (at least to me) a requirement to keeping your lawn in a condition that won't draw the ire of the Home Owners Association. So it's fine that people have them to water the lawn.

What drove me nuts this morning was someone's sprinkler that was watering a full 90 degrees too far - thus doing an extremely good job of watering the street.

And me as I drove by with the top down on the Mini.

Not only does sprinkling the street waste water, but it presents a hazard (slippery pavement). And annoys me. Time to say something to the HOA.

Tags: Gardening

So every year since getting married, I've tried to have a garden. This year is no different - we have 4 varieties of tomatoes, 2 varieties of peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, and some various herbs.

Moving to Maryland, it was apparent last year that the soil in our particular area isn't very, um, fruitful (vegetableful?) and last year's tomato crop yielded, maybe about 10 tomatoes.

So this year, I made a number of changes - I moved the tomato garden to the side of the house with more sun, worked a *lot* harder to condition the soil, and mixed in some additional fertilizer to get the plants started.

Something worked. The plants this year are great and I've already got more tomatoes growing on the plants than I harvested all last year.

Pictures as I get a chance.

Tags: Gardening