Lovely evening on the balcony

Cool air, a glass of wine and a new book made for a lovely evening on the balcony.

Balcony garden update — pea flowers, tomatoes, peppers

The snow peas are blooming. I just love their little pink flowers!


When they outgrew their stakes they started weaving their tendrils into the back of the chair. So, I don't have to worry about building another trellis, but I can't move the chair.

The garden peas are moving quickly. I just harvested a couple pods this morning and ate the peas raw. They were so cool and sweet. I hope a good bunch of them will ripen at the same time, so I can have a bowl of fresh, steamed peas with butter and salt. Mmmmm.


And I noticed I have a few tiny baby tomatoes!




The Anaheim pepper isn't looking that great. It's dropping blooms — a problem I had with all my peppers last year except for the Anaheim. It may be because of the extremely high temperatures (highs in the upper 90s) we had Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It ought to send out more flowers if the temperature evens out. Just to be sure, I watered it with a solution of Epsom salt; I guess sometimes they like a bit extra magnesium.


I haven't had any problems with the bell peppers or this Garden Salsa pepper — it even has 3 little peppers growing already.

Baked Jalapeno Poppers with Garden Herbs

Garden bloggers have been all over the herbs lately. I liked the post on Growing your Own Garnishes over at aHa! Modern Living — a blog I only recently started to follow. The awesome daily garden inspiration blog Studio 'g,' did a quick post on a container herb garden in an alley. And of course LotB has their photo contest! The prize? Labeled herb planters!

This spring I've really come to appreciate my herbs. I enjoyed them last summer, but now I can say that without a doubt they're the best part of my balcony. It's so easy to clip a couple chives to dress up a baked potato; or snatch a handful of oregano and basil to add to tomato sauce; or pinch a leaf of lemon verbena and a fistful of mint to mix for sweet tea; or a handful of sage, thyme and rosemary for Thanksgiving stuffing; or...well, you get the idea. I really rely on my collection of herbs to enhance (and sometimes inspire) my cooking.


My husband and I love the kind of jalapeno poppers you can get at any run-of-the-mill restaurant where the most popular item is beer-n-burgers. They're breaded and fried and absolutely one of my favorite guilty pleasures. (Plus being a vegetarian at a beer-n-burger joint isn't the easiest thing, and sometimes this is the only thing on the menu I can have...besides fried cheese.)

My homemade version takes advantage of the herbs I have growing right now, and adjusts to our diets, and my aversion to making battered foods. (I just hate getting my fingers covered in layer upon layer of eggs and breading.)


Baked Jalapeno Poppers with Garden Herbs

6-12 Jalapenos (depending on size)
8 oz cream cheese (1/3 fat)
1/2 c cheddar cheese
A handful of herbs — I used chives, green garlic, oregano, green oregano, and lemon thyme.
Salt + pepper
Breadcrumbs




Heat oven to 350. Oil a baking sheet and set aside.
Slice the jalapenos in half, remove the seeds and membrane.
Add both cheeses to a bowl and heat in the microwave for 1 minute. Add minced herbs and mix. Salt + pepper to taste.
Spoon the cheese/herb filling into the peppers, dunk the filled side in the breadcrumbs, place on the baking sheet.

(Count yourself lucky if you have leftover cheese filling — it goes really well with crackers.)

Bake poppers for 30-40 minutes.
Serve immediately, but be careful, they're hot! :) We found they go really well with milk.


They turned out pretty good for being an experiment. My husband called them "restaurant quality," which I think is a complement. Really, the fresh herbs just made a huge impact.

Wildlife on the balcony — goldfinches

Last night I finally planted beans, a bunch more nasturtiums, and a few marigolds.

This morning I woke up to this.

This lovely lady goldfinch was having my marigolds for breakfast! I saw her mate flying around, but I didn't get a shot of him.


Last year I had hummingbirds going for the nasturtium flowers, this spring I had robins looking for worms, and now goldfinches! Awesome!

Chive flowers II

Strawberries + Garlic — a plan to deter Japanese beetles

I had a helluva time last year with Japanese beetles. They liked my bush beans and cinnamon basil, and they really liked the strawberries.

My poor, poor strawberries. They were attacked by the beetles and got fungus spot. I spent several minutes every morning picking the bugs off and drowning them in soapy water. Some days I'd have a quarter cup of bugs! It was really gross work. I did not like it and I don't want to repeat it.

To avoid that unpleasantness this year, I'm using companion planting to deter the critters. In my online research 2 plants were consistently recommended for discouraging Japanese beetles — rue and garlic. If you don't know what rue is, well, it's a weedy looking, very large and smelly (that's what deters the beetles) plant from the Mediterranean. (And it'll give some people a rash like poison ivy.) Since I don't have a nice big garden where I can put such a plant in the corner (away from my skin) I'm going to go with garlic.

I grew garlic last year (and it was one of my favorite crops), but it was a few feet away from the strawberries. This year I planted garlic bulbs among my new strawberry plants. So now I have 2 crops in 1 pot — it's efficient and the garlic will protect the strawberries.

I'll also inter-plant garlic with the beans...whenever I get around to them. I was going to go to the store and get seeds last night, but I'm trying to ride my bike everywhere (and not drive at all). But it stormed, so I decided to stay dry and put it off for another day.

Tomato + Basil — classic companions in the garden and kitchen

Tomatoes and basil go together like peas and carrots, but I suppose that's another post :)

When grown together they are supposed to improve each others flavor and vigor, but that may just be an old wives tale, since I can't find any research to back up the claim. I will say it's convenient to plant them together so it's easy to harvest them together for all the tasty foods they go together in — soups, pastas, salads, etc.

The tomato I'm growing is the Patio by Bonnie. It's a very small, determinate plant. It's very sturdy, and not supposed to need support, but I gave it a little anyway since it can get pretty windy in Iowa. It's grown at least a foot since I bought it back in mid-April.




The basil isn't doing well though. It really didn't like all the rain we got the last few weeks. The leaves yellowed, and a few dropped off — a tell-tale sign of overwatering. But I swear I had nothing to do with it; Mother Nature is to blame.

They have been doing better since it warmed up. Highs are in the 80s, and it's supposed to stay this warm for the rest of the week. I hope they continue to improve.

Lettuce harvest

I've been eating the lettuce all spring, but not a lot, just a salad here, a sandwich there. But it got so hot this weekend (highs in the 80s) and it's supposed to be the same all week. So it had to come out of the garden before it bolted.

Here's the "before"

photo taken through the bedroom window

And the "after"


So, the fridge is full of lettuce. I guess my menu this week will be dominated by salads. Hooray!? I mean, I like salad, but I may have gone a little overboard with it this year.

First pea flower becomes first pea

Just 3 short days after the first pea flower of the year, it became the first pea pod of the year. And yes, it's the exact same one. And now the vines are covered in flowers. I can almost taste the fresh peas...ommmmmm...

Peppers + Violas II

I know I just did a post about the peppers, but I have to bring them up again because they just started blooming. Plus I have some pretty sweet photos I can't wait to share.

Anaheim

Garden Salsa

Garden Salsa

Garden Salsa

Red bell
almost there!

Red bell