Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Hot Hot Heat

It's friggin' hot, man.... summertime has been good and bad for the container garden. I really cannot believe the amount of water I lug from the tub to the deck. Note to self: look into garden hoses for next year. Seriously.

But I am starting to really enjoy my garden, eating loads of fresh tomatoes and peppers, watching my baby cukes grow, and enjoying the pretty wildflowers.


Look at these tiny cukes! They're so cute and prickly!


Another red bell pepper, almost ready to be picked! And I'm getting more blossoms, so hopefully we'll be enjoying the peppers for the rest of the summer.


The morning glory vines are really enjoying the bike trellis, although I have yet to see a bloom. I have a couple of buds, so maybe this week...


I nursed these two pretty flowering plants back from near death. I like how the morning glories have taken over the bottom right of the yellow shelf. Oh, yeah, and ignore the beer bottle on the bottom shelf. I must find a plant to put there...


So the biggest problem I'm having is my tomatoes splitting like this guy-- anybody have any ideas what's causing this? They are still tasty, however-- I just cut the bad parts out and enjoy them with a little basil, mozzarella cheese and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Mmmmmm....


Hyde is regulating the tomato plants. Lately I'm getting a lot of wilted and brownish leaves... I can't tell whether it's from the heat or from some disease. Anybody? I had to do some major pruning yesterday.


A LOT of pruning. (Please ignore the doggie snout in the lower left hand corner)


My herbs... check out this awesome step unit! My baby made that for me as a space saver, but I think it looks absolutely wonderful.


Of course we do other things on the deck besides gardening...


Check out this spread! Dinner for a week! I marinate the meat and vegetables and then Deb grills them up for me. We chop up the finished product and eat it all week over cold pasta or salad greens. So delicious!

This week's marinade:

~white wine vinegar
~Thai garlic chili paste
~zest of one lemon
~juice of one lemon
~honey
~salt
~pepper
~dried parsley
~sesame seeds

This week's veggies:
~red onion
~red bell pepper
~yellow bell pepper
~orange bell pepper
~green beans
~portabella mushroom caps

This week's protein:
~beef

I like to keep everything in the marinade for at least 24 hours, but they can marinade for as long as 2-3 days. (In the fridge, of course!)


A downshot of the bike trellis


I am the tomato pruning master of destruction! (Proper pruning technique: scissors in right hand, beer in left. Prune, sip, repeat.)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The cracking could be a variety of things...sometimes when the tomatoes do not have leaves covering them from the sun it could cause cracking, also the high temperatures (ie the name of the blog, haha) or if you do water them with rain water, that gives them nutrients more rapidly then some tomatoe skin can handle. But from my research it seems to be a natural thing

Mona Zenhom said...

Your plants look great, I need to develop my green thumb. The grilled veggies/meat/pasta/salad idea is awesome.