the p word

THE P WORD
whenever we get stuff out of our garden and i post
a picure here on this blog or
send it to my rainwater brother
i call it my garden p0eren
thats not a misprint

if i type in the real word
my blog gets overran with p0eren website searches
so i decided to call my garden produce
garden p0eren
hopefully to keep them from flooding my blog with perverts
looking for bad pictures

lets see if that works

remember the fall and the winter is the best time to garden
here in central texas
probably not so in the northern climates

this winter especially its been a good winter
since its so warm
we just need more rain

one problem is that the spinach broccoli and lettuce are starting
to bolt
which i never mind since the flowers on them produce a source
for bees and butterflies
my wife shes garden at her school is loaded with both

this is a broccoli from our garden
we eat it raw usually by itself or in a salad
the purple bracelet i have on is one
from the alzheimers association
advocating for their support

one benefit of this warm winter is that the asparagus is starting
to come up early
if youve never eaten asparagus organic of course right out of the
garden
you dont know how great a flavor it has
we almost never cook ours since it tastes so good
rarely does ours make it inside the house
this one didnt
the reason its so small is i ate the other half

this is a picture of my garden p0eren that we will be eating on for a few days
this is about 3ft x 3ft of produce
from left to right is
cabbage  asian greens  kale  rainbow swiss chard asian cabbage  and
yellow swiss chard

swiss chard and kale are two of the most nutritious veggies to plant
in your garden and may be the easiest to grow

these minus the cabbage will be rolled up like a cigar and trimmed
placed in a crockpot with chopped onions chopped garlic some salt and
pepper vinegar and brown sugar
its cooked for 6 hours on low
then served with cornbread and pepper sauce
that makes gardening worth it

this will make about 3 pots of greens which we will do on different days
the cabbage will be cooked separately

tomatoes grown in an organic garden especially heirloom varieties
have flavors that you cant get even if you buy organic ones at the store

the natural gardeners john dramgole and klbj 590 garden show host this
weekend talked about how to jump start their growth by 2 months

usually we start tomatoes in late march hoping to dodge the last frost
which always seems to get my tomatoes
then we are left with a short growing season before the hot summer
shuts down tomato production

here what he does at his place with a tweaking done by the ogd

i took cardboard cut the height of a 3 gallon garden container
a tomato plant
a hole dug the depth of the cardboard
a garden of rich soil amended with compost

the tomato is planted in the bottom of the hole surrounded
by the cardboard
then as the plant grows the cardboard is pulled up gradually
and more soil is added around the tomato plant
eventually the tomato after a few weeks will reach the surface of the
soil and the card board can be removed

then a 3 gallon garden container is used to sit over the tomato
plant and cardboard if cold weather arrives
this is covered with the white row cover or blanket or sheet
to protect it from freezing
when its warmer the container and row cover is removed

there are three cardboard tomatoes in this picture
one is covered with the container

the small black container thats buried in the ground
will be filled with compost water every two weeks during the
growing season
the compost water is made by putting good compost in a sock or
pillow case and soaking it in a 5 gallon bucket for two days
then its poured in the buried container
one is buried for every two tomatoes and are spaced 1.5 feet
from each plant

so thats how to get early ripe tomatoes in this strange central texas
weather we have

thats also how to produce good garden p0eren

the organicgreen doctor