Cardiff Garden Blog

And boy it's got some spice. Just the way I wanted it to be.  First off gotta thank a friend for hooking me up with a blender without it I wouldn't be make any salsa. So here's my list of ingredients. Tomatillos Onion (white) Tomatoes (Cherry) Cilantro leaves (about a half cup) Lime (one squeezed for juice) Garlic (3 cloves) Yellow Pepper Habenero Peppers (2) Serrano Peppers (2) Banana Chili Peppers (2) Fresno Peppers (2) Jalepeno Peppers (3) After chopping the peppers, tomatoes, tomatillos and onions in half I placed them on a foil lined pan cut side down.  I made sure to remove the seeds and meaty cores of all the peppers. I also only chopped half the onion to roast. I will add the other half later after roasting. Once all the veggies are chopped and on the baking sheet it is into the broiler for almost 10 minutes or so. I left them in there until they blackened a bit. After removing them I left them to cool for a few mins before putting into the blender. No

I decided it was time to pick him. See this particular pumpkin is an "Atlantic Giant" and because he has the potential to grow up to 500lbs, only one pumpkin really grows at a time. So I've decided that he's about perfect size now. And just maybe I might be able to get a few more of these guys if I plucked him up.  I've noticed other little pumpkins growing on the vine but they usually just die off after a few days. See this guy here was sucking all the water and nutrients while still connected. I think he's pretty heavy. Close to 50lbs. Biggest pumpkin I've ever grown.  Something to try and best for next year.

I've been picking strawberries for about 3 years now. Not trying to brag but this one came out pretty well. Looks like a perfect strawberry to me. Deserving of a pic. And I will say it tasted just as good. Blurry in the back ground you can see one of my strawberry patches. I have about 4 or 5 scattered amongst the boxes.  Also noticed some blueberries coming up on my blueberry bush. I have two bushes at the moment and only one seems to be producing berries. I've learned along the way that they require acidic soil and I have added certain organic mixes to help ammend the soil.  This particular bush was really looking like it was on it's last limbs before I started nurturing it back to health.

Little update on how the pepper plants are coming along. Below is my cayenne pepper plant growing nicely. This guy is almost ready to pick. I've found these to be spicy. And spicy is just what I am looking for. I'm assembling all my ingredients to make some "spicy" Salsa Verde. I just need a few more peppers to ripen. My Jalapenos are also growing quite well. Plenty to pick for the salsa.

So a little while back a posted about my grapevine extending out from my fence into the alley. It needed some support for it to continue its growth. So I brainstormed and thought what better way than to re-use the stalks from the sunflowers as a natural trellis. So I found a few tall stalks that were great for the task. I literally had to hatchet the stalks down. My clippers weren't strong enough to cut through their thickness. I already broke one set of pruners trying. I stripped the leaves off and dug them into the ground. Then used a smaller stalk as a cross beam for the vine to travel down. I think they really work out well. They similar color to the vine itself and add a natural touch to what would probably be an artificial structure. I have no idea how long they will hold up but I'm hoping a long time.  Especially once the vine become entangled. I've also used some of the smaller sunflower stalks to create support sticks for leaning plants. I reccommend trying to

Saw these little guys on the vine yesterday. Was surprised to see them actually. I didn't think that my watermelon vines were that healthy. The leaves usually tend to be larger.   Either way I'll take what I can get. This poor guy was growing under the corner of the skateboard bed box and I guess a little too close. As you can see it has a nice dent in it. And growing a little deformed.  Either way it still should be good to eat. The Japanese have come up with square watermelons by having them grow into square boxes or molds.  I would like to try some more interesting shapes. Any ideas?

 So my grapevine is reaching out for support. I've tried to weave this vine into my fence but there are places where its just reached beyond for more. So i think I might try to build somekind of support structure into the alley. Maybe a simple pole or piece of wood to create a natural grapevine arch.  My strategy has been to weave each independent vine into others to create a super vine that can still reach out and support itself. Sort of looks like an elephant.

My garlic harvest, while not gigantic, very aromatic. I think I am going to save a few cloves to re-plant in the ground. These were no longer green from part of the plant sticking out above the ground so I decided to uproot. These will definately get used in some upcoming dinners.

I put my hand in the shot to give you a perspective on how large my pumpkin is growing. I'd assume it probably over 30+ pounds. It's starting to turn orange so I suspect it growth might be coming to an end. Either way it's gonna give me more pumpkin than I know what to do with. Here's hoping my girlfriend will make me some pumpkin roll and pumpkin pies.  There are other pumpkins growing from this particular vine so I might have more coming. I've also already started to see the new vines sprouting up that I planted two weeks ago.

These are some Tomatillos and peppers I picked yesterday. Brought them into to work for a coworker. I've also given them garlic and tomatoes in addition to the jalapeno and anaheim peppers seen here. It's sorta my Salsa Verde kit. Obviously I'm missing some ingredients but pretty close. I have cilantro growing in the garden but it isn't quite ready yet.     

Now these aren't as big as the one that I posted originally but they are close in size. I brought them inside to dry because if I left them outside the birds would go to town on them. The one to the left is closest in size to the super sized flower I got a few weeks ago.  I've placed them in a window that gets sun so that they can completely dry out. I think I am going to save some for next year and they harvest the rest for edibile seeds.  Maybe even try some different spices on them.