Weeds Suck

Pulling weeds has got to be the least fun thing in the garden except for maybe mosquitoes. They really do suck. Re-categorizing the process of weeding as making compost helps mitigate the pain. Doing the job often also makes it less odious. Try pulling 1 5 gallon pail full of weeds per day. That takes 5 to 10 minutes and eventually, unless you have a huge garden, there won’t be enough weeds to fill the bucket. Put them in the compost

In raised beds, the weeds between the beds are only an aesthetic problem. In many cases they can just be mowed with a lawn mower. We pick up bagged leaves on the side of the road for mulch. The bags are laid between the beds and the mulch is put on top of the bags. This makes a nice surface for walking, conserves moisture and makes a great habitat for earthworms.

The real puzzler about weeds is: “Why does such thick, luscious grass grow in the garden and not on the lawn?” Perhaps planting vegetables on the lawn will help.



David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://davidsegrest.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/

Yogurt

When using home raised or canned fruits or vegetables with yogurt, it only makes sense to use homemade yogurt. Making yogurt is easy as pie. The trick is to use the best yogurt possible as a starter, because it will have the best culture. We use the Greek yogurt from the Greek Wholesaler.

Any type of milk can be used. The quality of the yogurt will come from the milk, so it is worth the money to use a good organic. Organic Valley is the best we’ve found. Yogurt can be made from low-fat or even skimmed milk. Just heat whatever quantity of milk you want to use to just below boiling. Using a thermometer let the milk cool to below 115 degrees. Put one or two teaspoons of the starter yogurt in the warm milk and mix it up well. The quantity of milk does not really matter, the culture will grow.

The warm milk should be poured into warm jars and placed in a cooler full of 110 degree water. Close the cooler and let it sit. It will be yogurt in about 8 hours, but we usually leave it overnight. Refrigerate it when it is ready. Mix it with Jam or canned fruit, make Tajiki, or use it anyway you would use sour cream.



David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://davidsegrest.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/

Progress Report

Many parts of the garden were planted late this year. For late June the results so far are pretty good. The early garden is gone except for a few onions and a few cabbages. Sugar peas were harvested, but health problems caused an absence of gardeners footsteps and allowed the weeds and grass to overwhelm the peas. Everything else can only be seen as a huge success.

The late garden (part of which was later than usual) is doing well too. It has produced lots of tomatoes. The 1st usually comes around the 4th of July. This year the tomatoes started in late May. We did not have enough to can, but too many to eat so last night we cooked the spare tomatoes into a sauce that will be used to make a squash lasagna this weekend. A volunteer has provided a huge volume of patty pan squash. Two yellow squash have been picked and one zucchini, but the plants are loaded. The planted patty-pans are covered with baby squash as well. The spaghetti squash are starting to climb the fence. Two small bags of jalapeños have been picked. The other peppers except for the ghosts have little peppers. The ghosts have blossoms. The cucumbers are ready to be trellised and the okra has blossoms. There are 3 eggplants that are too small to pick.

Almost all of my gardening buddies are reporting the best garden ever this year. Mike Swol has gotten enough cucumbers that he can share with me as ours have not come in yet.



David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://davidsegrest.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/

Sauerkraut

This was sauerkraut weekend. My friend Jane loaned me a huge crock. It looked like 7 gallons, but it turned out to be over 10. After being chopped a 20 gallon trash bag of cabbage only filled it half full. 7 more large heads brought it up to ¾ full. That was enough chopping.

The process is to wash the cabbage and cut off any damaged parts. Deer and rabbits munched on some of the heads. The places where they had bitten were sheared off. Then the heads were chopped until a large bowl was filled. ½ carrot and 1 spring onion were chopped fine and thrown in the bowl along with a single clove of garlic, also chopped small. About 2 or three tablespoons of salt were added and mixed in. A little bit of caraway seed was sprinkled on top and the whole bowl was dumped in the crock and tamped with my fist. This is done until the crock if full or the chopper gets too tired or until there is no more cabbage.

A follower of some sort needs to be put on the cabbage to keep everything down (we used a pot lid) A half gallon of water is put on this for weight. The crock should be checked every 2 or 3 hours to make sure that the kraut is still down. Within 24 hours if the water hasn’t risen enough to cover all of the cabbage, salt water should be added to bring the level above the follower.



David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://davidsegrest.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/

Late is Ok

The mystery tomato turned out to be a Rutgers Because of a combination of circumstances some parts of the garden were very late being planted this year. It was mid-May before the squash got planted. It is doing great now and there are little yellow crookneck and zucchini squash on the vines. One of the spaghetti squash is starting to run. Good fortune sent us a patty-pan volunteer that has provided squash and onions and squash casserole material sufficient for our needs so far. Thanks to the volunteer, our garden actually produced squash earlier than many of my friends gardens. The eggplants were late going in as well, but they have blooms and seem to have avoided the flea beetles this year. The cucumbers were not planted until late May and the plants are still pretty small. That is the only regret for late planting so far. David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://davidsegrest.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/

What Kind of Tomato is This?

The answer’s are multiple guess. When the little tomatoes in the greenhouse were transplanted, two of them were transplanted without being labeled. The plants looked too healthy to be thrown away so they were planted in the garden and labeled “mystery”. One of them had its first tomato yesterday. The identity can safely narrowed down to 4 varieties. The varieties planted were Marglobe, German Johnson, Rutgers, Celebrity and Bloody Butcher. The Bloody Butchers have been producing for a couple of weeks. It is definitely not that. It is not red enough for a Marglobe so the other three choices will be it. Would you like to guess? The answer will be apparent in a few weeks when the other plants start producing. There are also 2 volunteer tomatoes in the garden. They are loaded with full-sized fruit. There variety may never be known. Because of where they are came up, Marglobe is my best guess. David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://davidsegrest.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/

Early Tomatoes

This was the best greenhouse year ever. The plants were so healthy and abundant that there were more to give away than were needed for planting. 5 varieties of tomatoes were planted. Marglobe was planted from old seed and by planting time there was only one plant. Celebrity, German Johnson, and Rutgers were planted as well as a tomato we haven’t tried before. Bloody Butcher. The pictures of bloody picture looked like a blood red vine tomato. It turned out to be red, but not so red as the pictures. I also expected a larger tomato. They turned out to be only a little larger than a cherry tomato. They are very early though. The 1st was picked on the 20th of May. Normally our first tomato comes close to the 4th of July. They are also quite delicious, tasting like an old fashioned tomato. The really great thing is that the mesclun is still producing and a salad can be made with everything from the garden. No cucumbers yet, but they were late being planted. Bloody Butcher will stay on the planting list next year. David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://davidsegrest.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/