Zone 5b Garden Update – August 2021
Kale yeah I love my garden from my head tomatoes (wink)
What a busy August in the garden! This month I learned how to cook “southern style” greens recipe, roasted beets, multiple uses for zucchini, and continued to plant new seeds!
First, A Quick Southern Style Greens Recipe
Ingredients:
- 2 Cups Water
- 1 Cup Stock (Chicken Or Vegetable)
- 1 Clove Garlic
- 2 Pieces Bacon
- 1/2 Onion
- 1 Teaspoon Sugar
- Splash Of Apple Cider Vinegar
- Salt & Pepper To Taste
- Tabasco To Taste
Directions:
- Start boiling 2 cups of water
- While the water boils, prep & chop greens of choice – this recipe works great for turnip greens, or kale but I usually do a mix of turnip, kale and beet greens
- Once the water is boiling, add turnip & kale – this will help cut the bitterness of these greens. If using beet greens, do not add to the water. Boil greens for 2 minutes then drain
- In a large pot, dice the bacon and cook until crispy, then add your onion & garlic
- To the pot, add in turnip & kale greens, salt, pepper, sugar, chicken, and apple cider vinegar
- Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes, check to make sure there is enough stock in the pot, if the stock runs dry, add more stock or water
- If you are using beet greens, add them in when there is about 5 minutes left, they just need a little heat in order to wilt
- Serve with your favorite meal or eat the greens as a meal – add Tabasco sauce if you’d like
Next, A Look At The Garden Progress This Month
August has been a very busy month in the garden. My kale continues to produce, I’ve cut off large harvests, and it grows back so quickly. I love using the kale in the greens recipe above – it’s very simple and allows me to use a large amount of kale.
In addition to the kale producing, I harvested another beet. When I first started the garden, I didn’t like beets, I thought they were too “earthy” for me. I chose the Chioggia beet which is a mild beet and it doesn’t “bleed” like the standard red beet does. Chioggia beets are white & red striped – they look like a peppermint when you cut them open.
I’ve tried beets a few ways and found that roasted beets are my favorite way to eat a beet! Roasted beets are so simple – rub some oil on the beet, wrap in foil and place in the oven. Roast until a fork goes through, and peel after roasting – the skin should come right off. Alternatively, you can peel prior to roasting.
What The Zucciloupe
Zucchini’s a growing so fast I can barely keep up! My freezer is stocked with zoodles & soups and I’ve been able to enjoy zucchini chips & taco boats. My mutant “spaghetti zucciloupe” is producing slowly, which is nice because the zucchini’s are keeping me busy. I believe my “spaghetti zucciloupe” is a mutant of cantaloupe, spaghetti squash and zucchini. Some of these have been out there all summer and haven’t turned yellow, for this reason, I pulled one and cut it up. The inside looks like a cantaloupe and also smells & tastes like a cantaloupe. I’ve been eating these like regular zucchini. On the positive side, I did manage to get 1 to turn yellow, so maybe there is hope I’ll have spaghetti squash!
Not a single ripe tomato yet! I’m patiently waiting for some of the green tomatoes to get a blush of red. Cannot wait until I start getting red tomatoes! All things considered, I really can’t complain about my garden season.
Time For A Change
In comparison, I also find things that are not producing, and I’ve been planting seeds. Looks like I can plant seeds for maybe 2 more weeks so I don’t run into our first frost. This week I visited a local store that had seeds for $0.25 each! I stocked up!
In addition, I decided to pull my corn out this month. Based on the angle of the corn and the brown tassels, the corn was ready to harvest. I’m not sure I’ll be growing corn again, it took up a large amount of space, and it wasn’t very productive. Moreover, the stalk of the corn was very difficult to dig out of the ground. Now I need to drop some seeds where my corn was!
The last few things I harvested this month were carrots & potatoes. I have many more of both in the ground, and am looking forward to a larger future harvest.
Angie shows seed options that are available for a cheap price at Buds Warehouse 
Angie shows a 2nd tub of seed options that are available for a cheap price at Buds Warehouse 
Angie shows seeds she is purchasing for a cheap price at Buds Warehouse 
Angie shows freshly shucked corn from the garden and the differences that can be seen in kernel sizes 
Corn root that has been pulled out of the ground 
Corn stalks that have been pulled out of the ground 
Angie shows a freshly cleared section of the garden 
Fresh picked corn from the garden with green colored leaves and brown tassels 
Angie shows freshly picked bright orange carrots 
Angie shows freshly picked bright orange carrots 
Yellow spaghetti squash from the garden 
Harvested masquerade potatoes that are ready to be used
What About The Home Garden?
My home garden is very small, I only have a few (very small) pots on the porch. I also have been prepping for using the crawl space as a root cellar.
This week I added some lace to my pot to (hopefully) deter bugs from eating my crops! We’ll see how this works.
My update on using the crawl space as a root cellar is that I bought a thermometer / humidity gauge in the crawl space and I’m monitoring temperature & humidity. With this in mind, I ordered panty hose so I can store onions and string to help keep the sand moist in the totes. That’s probably all I can do for now until I get my produce to put in there! Hopeful that this will work.
A Quick Video Of The Garden This Month
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