Bundle up!

With snow in the forecast and December right around the bend, it’s time to finish up winter preparations. Container plantings are my focus this week. I tossed pots of flowering annuals in the compost pile weeks ago, but I’ve enjoyed watching the hydrangeas and butterfly bushes as they prepare for winter. Once green leaves turned yellow, red, and a deep, silky shade of burgundy and the hydrangea flowers took on a lovely tawny color. Unwilling to miss this exhibit of nature’s beauty, I left the containers in place until the plants are now leafless sticks.

If left outside during Iowa’s brutal winter, the roots of these containerized plants will freeze and the stems will likely succumb to the drying winter winds. An insulating blanket of soil and snow buffer the temperature extremes for shrubs planted in the garden. An unheated, insulated garage will do the same for shrubs in containers.

I will water my containers well and then move them to the garage. Steer clear from storing woody plants in a heated space. The heat may promote unwanted midwinter growth. Optimally, the storage space should be consistently cool with temperatures ranging from the upper 20s to low 40s.

If you don’t have a suitable space to store your shrubs over winter, use the garden. Simply dig a hole in the garden and plant the shrub and pot. Place soil around the pot as if you were planting it. The soil will protect the roots from temperature extremes.

Fall dressing

It was out with the old and in with the new for the copper hanging baskets a few weeks ago. The annuals are in the compost heap. I replaced them with colorful gourds from a farmer’s market. The best things about these beauties, they don’t need water or frost protection to look great until Thanksgiving.

Buried Treasure

It felt good to get my hands in the dirt this morning. Most of my garden chores this time of year involve end-of-season harvest, weeding, and trimming up wayward perennials. The feel of cool earth between my fingers as I planted bulbs was just the inspiration I needed to finish preparing the garden winter.

I filled the part shade garden along my wrought iron fence with some spring bling. I planted the little jewels between hostas, deadnettle (Lamium maculatum), ferns, and coral bells (Heuchera spp.). Wanting the most bulb-bang for my buck, I focused my bulb planting in a garden that we walk by many times a day. The garden is right along the sidewalk that leads from the backdoor of our farmhouse to the distant garage, corncrib, and chicken coop.

Embracing the garden’s woodland feel, I planted four petite bulb species with the hope that the bulbs take on the look of woodland wildflowers come spring. ‘Minnow’ Narcissus is a tiny white-to-pale yellow daffodil bearing four to five flowers per stem. ‘Pink Giant’ Chinodoxa has a star-like pink flowers with white centers. Grape hyacinths (Muscari spp.) are 3- to 4-inch-tall stems with clusters of purple flowers. And ‘Ruby Giant’ crocus (Crocus tommansinianus) has purple flowers that hover just above the soil.

It’s not too late to plant spring bulbs. You can plant them until the soil freezes. Make your purchase soon though as supplies are dwindling. I love to shop at John Scheepers and Brent and Becky’s Bulbs.

Using her teeny shovel Hannah helped me dig holes. When it came time to place and cover the bulbs she was perplexed. “Mom, why are you hiding those?” she asked. I told her all about how they put down roots and then after the snow comes and goes, they’ll send up leave and flowers. I bet she’ll go check on them tomorrow to see if they have emerged yet. This will be an exercise in patience, for both of us.

Hide some treasures of your own!

Better than candy

Forget the Snickers, Crunch Bars, and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. I fill my candy bucket with these orange spears. Despite my foibles—forgetting to thin them, harvesting them in late October—they are scrumptious. Sweeter than any carrots I’ve bought at the grocery store, I find homegrown carrots rich in flavor. Carrots make there way into stir fry, soup, and salads at our house, but our favorite way to enjoy them is to cut them into 1/4-inch medallions, cook until tender and add a bit of butter, kosher salt, and brown sugar.

Carrots are members of the notorious dirty dozen—a list of 12 pesticide laden of fruits and vegetables compiled by the Environmental Working Group. Along with peaches, apples, and bell peppers, carrots in the produce section often contain traces of chemicals. This small fact makes growing them yourself even more enticing. Not only will your carrots be pesticide-free, they’ll also be flavor-rich.

Carrots were a plant-weed-forget vegetable in my garden this year. I planted the common variety ‘Danvers Half Long’ in late May. Growing 6 to 8 inches long and 2 inches thick at the shoulders, it’s perfect for multiple uses. I hesitate to plan shorter varieties such as ‘Thumbelina’ and ‘Short’n Sweet’ as I know I won’t bother to peel a 2-inch carrot.

Enjoying garden-fresh carrots until next March and beyond is as easy as scrubbing off the soil after planting, allowing them to dry, and then tucking them into plastic bags and storing them in the refrigerator.

Don’t worry the Halloween candy at our house will not go to waste! We’ll eat up all the Kit Kats right after we have a few carrots.

Green Envy

I wish I had as much energy as my green beans. This year they are more prolific than I am productive. Every few day I walk down the row and harvest another small bucket of slender beans. I am continuously amazed how fast these small buckets add up to a heaping bowl full of beans ready for fresh eating, canning, or the freezer.

This year I planted ‘Derby’ and ‘Slenderette’ from Renee’s Garden. ‘Derby’ is a long-established, standard variety. It has been through the gardening paces, winning the All-America Selections award, a sign of plant quality, vigor, and productivity. ‘Derby’ didn’t disappoint in the vigor category—it turned out copious amounts of beans. But more often than not, I was drawn to ‘Slenderette’ for the quality inherent in it’s name. The thin green pods were crisp and delicate all at once. If forgotten on the bush for a couple of days, they maintained this quality, to my amazement.

Living in an age where commodity food production is the norm, ‘Slenderette’ is a delightful departure from the standard green beans that overflow bins at the farmer’s market. With this tiny bit of new knowledge I’m going to look beyond the readily available bean cultivars next planting season. While may of us have embraced this idea concerning tomatoes (i.e. ‘Green Zebra’, ‘Yellow Pear’, and ‘Amish Paste’) for years, I have been slow to branch out into unique varieties of other vegetables.

And for all those beans this year, they are nestled in my freezer and a few are packed in jars in the cupboard. I delight thinking of the joy they’ll impart on some cold, snowy night in the middle of December.


P.S. With so many beans, yellow lab Annie had the chance to munch a few too. Variety means nothing to her. She quickly took a seat in the grass below the tiny hands that were feeding her though.

Rainy Day Remedy

I can’t think of a sweeter way to add sparkle to a dreary day than this little bowl full of ‘Sugary’ grape tomatoes. A steady rain began pelting the porch roof yesterday afternoon. Today, 24-hours later mind you, the steady pitter-patter of raindrops continues. Prairie Creek is out of its bank and ebbing and flowing through our bean field. The chickens convalesced to the coop for the remainder of the afternoon. And the dogs are sleeping away the day on their very own couch in the garage.

Any other August we would have welcome a gentle rain—a “good soaker” as we say. But the soil is saturated from previous liquid gifts from Mother Nature and another 5 inches is the last thing we need.

Which brings me to the tomatoes. A pick-me-up was in order this afternoon and the tomatoes seemed to beckon like little rubies just waiting to be gathered. Lacking proper rain attire, I donned my cotton coat, cowboy hat, and Birkenstocks and squished across the soggy grass to the garden. With amazing foresight—more like sheer luck—I planted my grape tomatoes at the end of the row so I could pluck them from the vine without sinking ankle deep in mud. I stuffed the pockets of my coat full of tomatoes and grabbed a handful of basil before retreating to the porch.

It may be raining outside, but we’re having little bits of sunshine for dinner tonight.

Cows and cotton candy

It’s county fair time. Once quiet fairgrounds come alive with 4-Hers shepherding sheep, church ladies cutting wedges of raspberry pie, and singsong tunes of the merry-go-round.

I love how the fairgrounds burst with activity at the same time that the garden is in full production. While the food stands are churning out cotton candy, the garden is bursting with green beans. This is an especially formidable arrangement for me as I encourage Hannah to eat up her beans so we can grab a pink ball of spun sugar.

Cotton candy in hand we carefully pick our way through the cattle barns (inevitably wearing sandals—a very poor choice for cow pie dotted walkways), peek in on the chickens, pet a goat, and then, with a little negotiating on my part, make our way to the horticulture building.

Almost as colorful as the carnival, the hort building dances with daylilies, zinnias, marigolds, and petunias. Little bits of cotton and plastic wrap keep the stems upright in their recycled water bottles vases. Blue ribbons denote plant perfection—the matched trio of hosta leaves, a gigantic dahlia, and perfect pickles.

I don’t visit for the blue ribbons. I go for the diversity. What are my neighbors’ growing? I always have the “if they can grow it, so can I” attitude and come home with a bushel of inspiration. Unlike show gardens and glossy magazine photos, there is something empowering about admiring the flowers and produce of neighbors. They plant and harvest in conditions similar to those on my farm and just look at their results.

Dahlias caught my heart this year. Yes, I’ll be growing them all next year—the cactus types, the sweet little pompoms, and even the big gaudy dinner plates because if Darla had success, so can I.

Bicycles and Blooms

More than 20,000 wildly enthusiastic bicyclists rode from west to east across the state of Iowa last week on an event called RAGBRAI . Along the 472-mile route, riders have the opportunity to park their bikes every few miles in tiny Iowa communities to partake in sweet rolls, berry pies, omelets, sweet corn, pork loin sandwiches, and a host of other Iowa delicacies that will fuel them on to the next stop.

No, this isn’t a mad dash to the finish line; it’s a leisurely two-wheel glide across our state. The dominant landscape is corn and soybeans with a smattering a yellow coneflower, swamp milkweed, and Indian paintbrush populating the roadsides.

Tiny towns along the route get into the celebration by sprucing up their streetscapes and, with the help of the local cheerleading squad or marching band, cheering the riders on as they pass through town.

This year I was one of those folks cheering on riders as they passed through my hometown. Someday I would like to be pedaling! Indianola greeted the riders in blooming style with flower-filled baskets hanging on the front of old bicycles. Simple plant combos like geraniums, sweet alyssum, and a bit of vinca were all that was included. And they were perfect. The riders smiled and waved as they passed, occasionally whipping out their digital cameras to take a picture on the fly.

For the love of zucchini

A quick peek under the sandpaper-like leaves of my boisterous a zucchini this morning revealed a plethora of sunny yellow blossoms each promising to produce a robust green fruit. While the tomatoes are slow to ripen this year, the zucchini looks to be thoughtfully picking up the slack and turning out bushels of fruit. I quickly promised myself to tend the plant vigilantly so as not to produce baseball bats, but respectable-size zucchini perfect for sautéing.

It’s inevitable that a fruit will go unpicked, languishing under leafy cover and growing to magnificent proportions. So Hannah and I chop, mix, bake, mix again, and spread. Finally we sit on the porch swing with the dogs at our feet and get delightfully chocolaty.

Chocolate zucchini brownies
3 cups grated zucchini
1 1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup oil
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. soda
1/3 cup cocoa
3 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup coconut
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Place grated zucchini in a colander for 10 minutes to drain excess liquid. Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Pour into a greased 11x15 pan. Bake at 350º for 30 to 35 minutes, until tests done with a toothpick. Dust with a sprinkle of powdered sugar. Or frost with quick and easy buttermilk frosting.

Buttermilk Frosting
In a small saucepan combine 1/4 cup butter, 3 T. unsweetened cocoa powder, 3 T. buttermilk. Bring to boiling, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Beat in 1 tsp. vanilla and 2 1/4 cups powdered sugar. Quickly spread warm frosting on warm brownies.

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