Judith remains vigilant in her garden, keeping on top of weeding, moisture levels, and fertilizing. She even offers a recipe for Swiss Chard, a favourite of hers.
Greetings fellow gardeners,
The heat seems to be returning and I am finding more pests. The cucumber beetles are still not here but I remain vigilant, and the plague of earwigs continues. Ah the joys of August.
I have been doing lots of weeding which usually involves pulling out copious amounts of goutweed. The side corner where the poison ivy has been creeping in is almost all covered with one or two layers of cardboard. I cut down the poison ivy before I covered it with layers of cardboard to make it difficult for the poison ivy to grow. The cardboard area will soon be covered in soil and as it is a shady area, I decided that I will add bloodroot plants to hopefully replace the poison ivy. The wild parsnip is now under control. Most of the plants have been pulled and the seed heads are removed. Unfortunately, I did not escape its bite this time, but the blisters are finally healing. My own fault for not washing with Sunlight soap. It is the same soap my mother used to make me wash with when I got too close to the poison ivy.
Little cucumbers are forming on my cucumber vines. I can hardly wait for those bread and butter pickles. If your vines have lots of flowers but no little cucumbers, you can help to pollinate it. Take a small paint brush or a q-tip and gently gather pollen from the cucumber flowers. Gently stir the pollen about in each flower and that is it! Cucumbers should start forming soon after.
So, I was all set to eat my radish seed pods but I got busy. Life can be like that. Yesterday I went to check on the pods and they had all popped! Radish seed pods form quickly from the flowers and should be picked when green. As they continue to grow, they get brown and crispy and pop open to distribute the seeds. I will try to be more diligent. The vining spinach in the same planter is starting to form little flowers, which will give me seeds. I want to collect these as I love this particular spinach. It is an open pollinated heritage spinach so I should get the same plant from the seed.
Spinach flowers
The Swiss chard that is also growing in my cool weather planter is very ready to harvest. I have grown to love this vegetable. I prefer it to kale which to me has a bitter bite to it. I am going to pick some Swiss chard for supper tonight. You do not need to limit yourself to salads for Swiss chard, it is quite delicious as a warm side dish, and I am including a recipe for you to try.
Swiss Chard
Sauteed Swiss Chard with Parmesan Cheese
Melt 2 tablespoons of butter and olive oil over medium-high heat.
Stir in about a tablespoon of minced garlic and ½ an onion that is diced and cook less than a minute.
Gather a good bunch of Swiss chard and remove the stems and center ribs. Chop them up and also chop the leaves but keep them separate. The stems and ribs take longer to cook.
Add ½ cup of dry white wine or water and cook the stems and ribs for about 5 minutes. Then stir in the chard leaves until they wilt and add about a tablespoon of lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese and a pinch of salt. Yummy!
I am stalking my weather app these days, so I do not overwater. The humidity is tough on plants, but they will get through it just as we do. Remember your weekly feeding of organic fertilizer as your tomatoes can use that extra push. Enjoy your week.
Judith. (Email: sghorticultural@gmail.com)
Veggie Bites are available at https://sghorticultural.wixsite.com/website or https://gardeningcalendar.ca/articles/veggie-bites/
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