Cardiff Garden Blog

I grow a lot of lettuce in the winter/spring season. The one I've come to love growing the most is a particular variety called Red Sails.  They tend to have a reddish brown hue on the ends of leaves. Such vibrant color and crisp taste. I love adding fresh lettuce to my tuna salad.  I'm the type that won't buy lettuce at the store for fear of it going bad in the fridge before using it.  When you grow your own its the freshest you'll ever taste.

I don't really delve much into flower growing, mainly because flowers themselves do not reap an edible product.   But in the past few years I've been more open to growing flowers if for pollinators to come to my garden but also just for common beauty. So when cruising through the garden department of Home Depot one day I stumbled upon the bargain bin shelf (every store has one). Usually you'll see plants that need a little TLC on these shelves. I always check them out because they usually come at deep discounts up to 50% off or more. So when I saw roses for only $5 I couldn't help myself. I planted them last fall on a whim thinking they may or may not take off. I was pleasantly surprised when this spring the bush went full bloom. Now I have fresh picked roses on my window sill to look while I wash my dishes.

Probably my favorite pepper to grow. It starts as a black pepper, then green, and then turning red when ripe.  I've had the same plant for over three years growing. It's almost four feet tall now and still putting out healthy shoots.   The fruit themselves grow no longer than a couple inches and tend to be on the spicier end of the heat spectrum.  I've had to support the plant with stakes because of the plants height and single stalk. Because of our climate here in San Diego I am fortunate to be able to grow things like peppers and tomatoes for more than one season at a time. If you cannot eat the fruit at time of picking the peppers can be dried out on a table or hung to dry and used as pepper flakes or tossed into a soup. The seeds can be saved for next year's crop.

I planted Kohlrabi along with some other cold weather crops in hopes of using my boxes for something in winter.  Its tough to find cold crops outside of the obvious onions and garlic that I grow every year. So when it looked about ripe for picking I was left with what do I do with them. I posted to my friends and one suggested that they can be cooked like a chopped potato.  After peeling and removing the root, I chopped them in small pieces. I spiced them with salt, pepper, garlic salt, red pepper flakes, and some olive oil I had infused with with Habanero peppers.  Lined a baking sheet with foil and put them in the oven at 450 degrees.  The smell was definitely different than that of potatoes but not bad.  A bit earthy like an artichoke and had the taste of a hashbrown. I made mine like I like my potatoes, a bit well done with a bit of char on them. And I was thankful I did for these. The char added an extra touch of crunch to them.  Wish I'd maybe would have left

I've had mint growing for some time now. Love its smell, and its supposed to ward of pest insects.  But I've always struggled to find something to actually cook or use it with.  I've heard the obvious cocktails and teas.  But I wanted something food that I could eat and not just drink. After exhausting my online searches for recipes I stumbled across mint chocolate chip cookies. The recipe much like all other cookie recipes followed the standard protocol only differing with the butter and mint.  The mint was chopped roughly and left in the melted butter on stove for 30 minutes.  This allowed the mint to muddle in the butter.  the final product was delicious.  Subtle and not overbearing yet noticeable. I ended up freezing my cookies. I tend to like them that way. I recommend you try own favorite cookie recipe.

What a great thing to grow in the cold and gray winter and early spring but lettuce.  I love growing different varieties to add to my sandwich or tacos.  They are super easy to grow and take care of and nothing tastes better than a fresh picked piece of lettuce.  My favorite variety is one called Farmers Market Blend. It has a mix of different types all in one pack and love the mix of flavors. The bigger fan leaves were part of an asian salad mix.  Towards the back of the photo you can also see some of my kale growing just a typical lunch sandwich packed high with fresh picked greens.

A few years back my friend planted a milkweed plant in his garden box in our backyard.  That plant birthed willow like spores that spread among the other garden boxes.  Milkweed is a favorite food source for Monarch butterflies.  So ever since then we have seen plenty orbiting the plants.   This is a picture of the flowers the plants produce.   The striped caterpillars are all Monarch happily munching away. The plants themselves will recover from their leave stripping.  How many do you count in this photo?   You should then expect to see these guys hanging in different places around your garden. These are the chrysalis to which the butterflies will hatch from.  I actually found one on a house plant I put outside for a week and after moving the plant back inside the butterfly hatched in my living room.   Having milkweed in your garden affords you these great opportunities to get up and close views of the beautiful butterflies.   I helped relocate this gu

This picture illustrates perfectly the lifecycle of a seed.  You can see the change from seed to plant. I use a method of sowing where you leave the seed on top of the soil and cover it with vermiculite to give it an easier chance to open and grow. It also promotes better root growth.  I planted these two days ago. 

I don't claim to make the best salsa (that's something my co-workers claim) but I do like the fresh flavors from making it from my garden ingredients. I want to show you my recipe for fresh salsa.  It starts with all fresh ingredients from the garden that you can source.  Peppers, onions, garlic, cilantro, tomatillo, lime, and salt.   I like to chop them all up in half or smaller and lay on a baking sheet with parchment paper and I place in broiler for 10 mins or until blackened.     Once the peppers, onion, tomatillo and garlic has been roasted, the next step is to blend in the food processor.  After all the roasted veggies are blended, place in pot on stove low heat.  Slow and low the longer it roasts on heat the better.  But you need to constantly sitr.  Last step after it's had some time to cool I add cilantro and lime juice. I like to also add green onions in this stage as well. I use the food processor to blend cilantro and onion into small pieces.

This year wanted to try less size for pumpkins and squash so I tried ornamental tiny pumpkins and gourds  Those are Jack be little pumpkins with my dried peppers on the kitchen table I think it's been easier to grow the smaller ones. Less water. Less time. Less effort. 

   So after seeing some cool photos of Quinoa looked like when grown I bought some seeds and decided to give it a shot.  Know I don't think I have ever eaten any Quinoa (knowingly) nor have I seen it grown.   Looks pretty cool by the way. And supposedly you can eat the leaves as well. I've grown a few plants and a few got to the point where I could harvest the tiny pasty like grains.   I have since dried them in my kitchen and I am in the midst of learning about how to further harvest them from the plant itself. What I found so far was quite labor intensive and seemed to involve water soaking the quinoa to remove chaff and other debris.  I watched a few youtube videos and I don't know if I really want to put that much effort into that little of a harvest. They are said to be delicious but just seems to be a lot of work. If you doubt me google harvesting Quinoa.

  So this is a new variety of pepper I'm growing this year called the Padron Pepper. It's said to be mild when green but after it starts turning red it will be spicier. I've eaten quite a few and they aren't bad. I like something with a little kick.  Healthy size too. Plant grows very hearty and bushy. 

So this picture illustrates about when you want to pick onions.  This white walla walla is starting to peel from its outer skin and its size looks about what you would expect an onion to come in.  If you wait too long it may split into more than one. After digging up its recommended to let them dry in a cool dry place   This giant here is elephant garlic that grows larger than a hand in a fist.  It's way bigger than the normal garlic you'd buy a the store. It's best enjoyed baked in the oven.  Garlic grows from a single clove to be a entire head. So if you get any runts or want to recycle, just plant a clove from this batch for next year.  

 I've  always plant garlic and onions in the fall. This year I pretty much used every box for growing them. I did this because the winters are unpredictable with weather and temp and both are very hearty. Also because I have plenty of pots to grow other things. The pots allow me to better manage soil nutrients and moveable to adapt to sunny or shady spots.  I used some old garlic from last years pick but also bought some at the local armstrongs garden store.  Garlic and Onions are virtually maintenance free. Just water and pick weeds. The trade off is the time it takes for yields. I expect maybe early summer for picking. 

Lettuce is definitely an easy grow. This year I'm growing in pots because it just has fewer issues. In the past in the garden boxes my lettuce was susptible to slugs and other garden pests. The pots elevate the from ground level. Not saying it's foolproof but haven't had an issue so far Nothing tastier then fresh picked lettuce. These two are Crisphead and Saladbowl Also growing Butterhead and Butter Crunch. Yeah I know that is why I label them all

So I am hoping I see a lot more of these purple balls. This is a purple variety of tomatillo I have growing. I have had success in the past with the green variety but never to many purple ones. All that I had never really produced fruit until this year. Plant still looks healthy too.  Here is another tomatillo variety the green type. It's grows very wildly and stretches well beyond its roots. This one is in a pot that you can barely see in this photo.  Another angle  The fruit grow into what looks like Chinese lanterns hanging on the branches. They start small and eventually outgrow their paper wrapping. They often have a sticky sap on the outside of the fruit as well. It tastes a bit between a cross of pepper and tomato. Great for salsa. I even have some growing from seeds deposited from tiny fruit from last season. Always cool when nature does the work for ya!