Plan Ahead For Delicious Fall Meals Fresh from the Garden

Even though it may be a scorching 100 degrees plus in many areas of the country in July, that's the time to start thinking about what you can plant for a fall harvest. There are many cool season vegetables that need to be started in July or August. Still questioning whether it's worth the effort to plant for a second season? There are a few fantastic reasons why you should consider a fall garden:

• It extends your fresh food season.

• Many crops, especially brassicas (like cabbage, kale, mustard) are less likely to be eaten by pests when planted in late summer/fall.

• Some vegetables like collards and kale taste sweeter after a little nip from a fall frost.

• Some crops like Brussels sprouts and cabbage produce best when grown in the fall.

• Some cool season crops are VERY cold tolerant and can even be harvested after it snows. If you plant now and provide a little frost protection, you could be harvesting fresh green onions, sage, and greens for your Thanksgiving dinner!

Here are a few of our favorite vegetables for the fall garden:

• Arugula - This spunky green can be started as late as 2-4 weeks before your first fall frost. Great for fall salads!

• Beets – You can enjoy both the green leafy tops and the bulbs. Try our new Beet Bull's Blood. This tender, sweet 1840's heirloom has deep red-burgundy foliage.

• Broccoli - A fast grower! With Broccoli Di Cicco, you can get florets in as little as 48 days! If you don’t get florets before frost, remember that the entire plant is edible.)

• Broccoli Raab - A delicacy that is hard to find in grocery stores. The tender shoots bud in just 45 days and taste like a cross between broccoli and asparagus.

• Collards - Not just for southern cooking! The amazing nutritious green leaves are frost tolerant and can be used when young in salads or when more mature as ‘wraps’.

• Endive and Escarole - Delectable and easy to grow. Their texture and snappy flavor makes any salad a gourmet experience.

• Kale - You can never have too much Kale! Eat the nutritious baby greens fresh in salads, sauté larger leaves in olive oil with a little garlic, or freeze and add to casseroles and soups during the fall and winter.

• Lettuce - All lettuces prefer to grow during cool weather. Start harvesting ‘baby greens’ from the very first shoots. Can’t you just taste that fall salad now? Picture a variety of red and green pretty leaves with a drizzle of olive oil and fresh garlic or warm pears, walnuts, and cranberries.

• Mache - You will never find a more delicate, buttery-flavored green for salads! It can also be cooked like spinach. Mache is a little slow to germinate, but VERY cold tolerant once started.

• Mustard - Adds interesting, peppery addition to fall salads and stir-fries. The lacy burgundy leaves of Ruby Streaks also make a pretty ornamental in containers.

• Peas – Sow now to harvest young shoots for salads and mature pods in fall. In Zone 8 and warmer, peas can be sown in fall for winter harvest.

• Winter Radishes – The crisp flavor of Daikon Miyashige White Radish adds a kick to fall salads and stir-fries. Watermelon Mantang Hong is uniquely colored with white skin and red flesh. For a unique fall treat, peel it and sautee with a little butter and salt & pepper.

• Spinach - When mulched, Bloomsdale can over winter in subzero temperatures. Our new Monstrueux de Viroflay has tender leaves up to 10" long for lots of greens for fall casseroles and stir-fries while the new Tyee has tender semi-savoyed leaves and matures in just 40 days!

Don’t miss out on planting a fall vegetable garden. When the first cold front drops down or you get your first snow…you’ll thank yourself for that hearty, nutritious meal fresh from your backyard.

And, don't forget about a few flowers to jazz up your fall containers and flower borders! Start pansies and violas now for blooms in about 12 weeks. The orange and black Pansy Bewitched Blend will look great with autumn décor like pumpkins, corn stalks, and hay bales. We've also just added a new variety, Viola Amber Jewels, a gorgeous blend of amber, copper, raspberry and plum. It will add some bright color to complement your fall mums. Sow both of these now for fall blooms.

From Botanical Interests http://www.botanicalinterests.com/gardening_notes_tips/fall_meals.html

Late July Plant Photos part 2

Pictured above: spanish lavender, purple fountain grass and pink zinnias

Late July Plant Photos part 1

Pictured above: bulbophyllum echinolabium orchid,

million bells hanging basket and cosmos

How to Plan your Fall Garden

What and Where to Plant:

First, consider where you have space from harvested crops or will have space in the next few weeks. Is there room to sow a little spinach in between your tomatoes? Maybe you could pull up your bolted lettuce and sow endive, escarole, or collards.

Container plantings do well in fall, because, with cooler temperatures, they don't dry out as fast. Consider some edible container plantings like mixing kale, mustard, or lettuce with pansies and violas. Green onions could add a spiky centerpiece. A container of mixed herbs like chives, oregano, sage and thyme could be started in the next few weeks to give you a punch of flavor for your fall cooking.

When choosing varieties, consider complementary crops to vegetables that you'll be harvesting in the next few weeks. Would some cilantro make a good salsa ingredient to go along with those tomatoes and tomatillos that you'll be harvesting in late summer and early fall? How about some fresh dill to add some zip to grilled salmon and roasted sweet corn? With a visit through your favorite recipes, you might find a handful of varieties that you can plant now to inspire you in the kitchen.

Mild climates and southern areas of the country that do not get frost have a wider range of options besides cool season crops. In those areas, warm season crops with a short crop time like bush beans and cherry tomatoes can be planted in August or September for a late fall harvest.

When and How to Plant:

To decide when to plant, look at the crop time listed on each packet, then count backwards from your average first fall frost date. One thing to keep in mind is that the hours of sunlight are declining now. So, it may take a couple more weeks over the crop time listed on the packet for your crop to mature. Though, crop times aren't as important for greens (like lettuce, kale, mache, spinach, etc.) that you can pick when at any stage of their growth.

If it's very hot outside in your area, you can start seedlings indoors then transplant outside in a few weeks. Or, start them in flats in a shady area outside where the temperature is slightly cooler.

To see a handy chart listing average planting times for fall crops, click here.

From Botanical Interests http://www.botanicalinterests.com/gardening_notes_tips/fall_garden.html

The Perfect Peach

Original post from City Dirt http://www.citydirt.net/newsletter/2010/07/21/the-perfect-peach.html

People transplanted to Northern California usually have an "aha" moment when tasting their first peach at a farmer's market here. You realize that is how a peach should taste. While you may feel some bitterness toward all the past peaches you ate prior to this moment, the new world that open ahead of you diminishes this anger. A peach is not just a peach in Northern California. They have names that sound like shades of lipstick: Red Haven, Autumn Flame, and Cal Red.

According to Kashiwase Farm salespeople at the Marin County Farmer's Market at Civic Center, all varieties peaches--and nectarines and plums have their own characteristics and things to look for when picking them out, but the best way to pick out a perfect peach, generally speaking, is to look for the boldest colors. Don't look for pale or perfect. The more color, the more flavor. And when picking out nectarines, the speckles are from sugar, so the more blotches, the sweeter the nectarine.

Some of the late July and August varieties to look for include:

August Lady: Classic yellow peach, ripens in mid-August high quality fruit which is a firm, flavorful fruit with a rich, red color, crisp flesh texture at commercial maturity

O'Henry: You will find these at the markets from now until mid August. Choose the deepest red and purple fruits you can find; these have lots of flavor and are perfect for grilling. Toss them in summer salads with goat cheese or ricotta.

Cal Red: These are late summer golden-red beauties, found at Frog Hollow Farm at Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market and at the Edible Schoolyard. Make a peach cobbler out of these and your friends and family will love you even more.

White Opal: These are very pale and super-high sugar content and very low acidity. It has hints of vanilla and is perfect for making bellinis. (See recipe below).

Growing Your Own Peach Tree

If you are a container gardener, the good news is, that you can grow miniature or dwarf peach trees in containers and avoid problems with a disease that commonly afflicts peach trees: leaf curl. Start with good, well draining soil. Use organic fertilizer and water regularly. When fruit starts forming on your peach tree, pinch off every third peach, or enough so that they will have plenty of room to grow and get larger. When selecting your fruit tree, keep in mind how many chill hours you have in the winter, how large the tree can get--do you want a dwarf or ultra-dwarf, and if you're going to get just one tree, it needs to be self-fertile. Keep in mind donut varieties like the Saturn Peach, as they have a delicious, delicate flavor, are small trees and require low chilling hours, which is great for California.


Recipe: Dry Creek Peach Bellini by Dry Creek Peach & Produce

Puree all ingredients below:
½ c. water
1/4 c. (approximately) lemon juice
½ - ¾ lb. white peaches
2 tsps. sugar
Strain the puree and then pour into a pitcher (preferably glass). Add one bottle of chilled Prosecco or sparkling white wine and stir. Serve in chilled champagne glasses and enjoy!

Look what's blooming at Sloat Garden Center this week! part 2

Pictured above: rudbeckia and hydrangeas,
purple lisianthus, orange erysimum and gala apples

Look what's blooming at Sloat Garden Center this week! part 1

Pictured above: calandrina, cabernet sauvignon grapes,
assorted rudbeckias, assorted penstemon and alstroemeria

Fall planting

Now is the time to plant Brussels Sprouts, Bok Choy, Kale, Chard, Broccoli, Turnips, Cabbage, Mustard & Collards...and don’t forget Sage for the holidays!

It’s Not Too Late for Beans and Tomatoes!

It’s Not Too Late for Beans and Tomatoes! There are 1 and 2 gallon tomatoes in our stores, some are even carrying fruit! And there is still time to plant the very prolific Bean. Beans can produce into the fall holidays if the weather is mild. Beans are available as annual bush or pole types. Don’t forget the perennial and beautiful Scarlet Runner Bean, which also attracts hummingbirds and has edible flowers.

Green Beans are highly nutritious (rich in iron and potassium), easy to grow and enrich the soil they grow in. They can actually add Nitrogen to the soil. Plant in rich, loamy soil (add Agricultural Lime if your soil is acid) in a sunny spot. They don’t need additional Nitrogen.

Beans are easily grown from seed if you want to try something adventurous. Bush beans can grow in a smaller space (basically 10 inches square), if you have a smaller garden. Since they produce a lot in a short amount of time these beans are great for canning. Last year ours were still producing for the holiday dinner. We carry Romano, Purple Queen and Haricot Vert “Mignonette” in bush form, and Emerite (another haricot vert –type slender filet bean) and the classic American Blue Lake in pole form.

For pole beans you can make a simple teepee with stakes tied together with twine, an old ladder or use extra tomato cages. Pinch back out the tips when they reach the top. You can also make a vertical wall using twine and poles. If you orient the wall north and south, the space on the east side can be planted with cool season lettuces or greens that will be protected by the tall beans.

Today is the last day of our Pottery Sample Sale!

Today is the last day of our Pottery Sample Sale! Don't miss out!

Check out pictures from the sale here: http://www.sloatgardens.com/potterysamplesale2010.htm

Pottery Sample Sale starts today!

Our Pottery Sample Sale starts today!

Check out pictures from the sale here: http://www.sloatgardens.com/potterysamplesale2010.htm

Our pottery sample sale starts this Sunday!

Our pottery sample sale starts this Sunday! Check out pictures from the sale here: http://www.sloatgardens.com/potterysamplesale2010.htm

Brussels in Bloom

Brussels in bloom

The annual Carpet of Flowers in the Grand-Place, Brussels

Close to a million begonia flowers were used to create the 300 square meters carpet this week. The pattern is based on a medieval carpet design. Craftsmen arrange the carpet by hand, directly onto the square's cobblestones, without any soil. Grass and tree bark were also used to provide color. The first Carpet of Flowers was created in 1971 as a way to promote begonias. Each square meter of ground contains more than 300 flowers.

Happy Independence Day!

All Sloat Garden Centers are open on July 4th (but closing early at 5:30pm).
Happy Independence Day and Happy Gardening!

Save the Date for our Pottery Sample Sale!