Why I'll Never Be A Great Gardener

For one thing, I let my herbs flower and go to seed.  You're really not supposed to do that because you end up with "leggy" plants instead of nice leafy plants.  But they're so pretty when they flower and it's really cool if you end up with "volunteers," my grandmother's term for plants that self seed from the previous year.

Parsley In Bloom

I also can't stand to remove the really cute critters from my herbs.  The caterpillars that turn into Monarch butterflies love parsley.  How could I possibly begrudge this little cutie-pie a yummy snack?

Monarch Caterpillar Feasting On Flat-Leaf Parsley

It's kinda funny, a few weeks ago there was a group of monarch caterpillars on the curly parsley.  The current caterpillar gang is only eating the flat-leaf parsley.  I guess even caterpillars have their favorite restaurants.

Joys of a Kitchen Garden

This beautiful parsley is from our garden. Some of it is from a store-bought parsley plant that's been growing here for a year and a half. Some of it is from parsley plants that grew from seeds that I sowed in the spring. All are raised organically.

Lots of food plants are totally impractical, given the amount of time and money they require compared to their yield. Don't even get me started on those blasted rats with fluffy tails (squirrels) that ate all of our spring/early summer tomatoes! Herbs are a wonderful exception to that. We had great luck this season planting seeds for cilantro, basil, and parsley. We also planted basil, parsley, rosemary, culantro, chive, and oregano plants. We've had a great yield from them. We're already planning what herb seeds to plant next year.

It's so rewarding to grow a "kitchen garden." Fresh, home-grown herbs are the perfect addition to your recipes and besides being healthier than chemically raised herbs, they're also so much tastier when harvested just before cooking. We use organic fertilizers and as little pesticide (also organic) as possible. Of course, when we harvest herbs to cook with, we have to soak them for a while to be sure there are no cute little inchworms clinging to the leaves.

In the case of the parsley, the only real "pest" it has is the Monarch butterfly caterpillar. They seem to like the curly parsley much more than the flat-leaf Italian parsley. One caterpillar will pretty much strip a curly parsley plant of its foliage; however, then it moves along and the plant typically regenerates. Sure, we could use poison to keep the caterpillars away or crush them when we find them, but isn't it worth sharing a little of our parsley to nourish the caterpillars that will become the amazingly beautiful Monarch butterflies soon?

Fall is in the air ...

I love, love, love this time of year. Thanks in part to the fact that it's been raining for days on end, the temperatures here in North Central Texas are finally only reaching into the 70s and 80s during the day and mercifully falling into the 60s at night. It's starting to feel like Fair weather. The State Fair of Texas starts at Dallas Fair Park on September 25th http://bigtex.com/ This is the fair that each year gifts us with important culinary offerings such as fried Twinkies, fried Coca-Cola, fried bacon, and this year's awe-inspiring contribution, fried butter. The deep fried butter even made the David Letterman Top 10 list. Check this out: http://www.cbs.com/late_night/late_show/video/?pid=jB9jQIxrjoYO_WAf2lcAPiYMjtJB5mj0 Makes me so proud of my home state (hiding my face in embarrassment). Thankfully the State Fair of Texas also gave us the world famous Fletcher's Corny Dog, so hopefully it all balances out.

The Love Of My Life and I are just giddy at the thought that open-window weather is imminent. As soon as the temperatures get a little chilly we open the windows to enjoy the fresh, cool air and seldom close them again before the temps start getting hot again in the spring. There is that occasional week or two of below 32 degree temperatures here that might make us close the house up tight; but other than that, we enjoy the cold and just warm the bathrooms with electric heaters for our showers.

The rainy weather and cooler temps are like a happy pill for our little garden. The basil and parsley we planted, both from plants and seeds, is thriving. The rosemary and oregano plants are growing happily. The jalapeno plant is setting fruit like crazy, and hopefully the habanero and poblano will follow suit. The tomatoes should start setting fruit again now, as they like it when the nighttime temperatures fall below 70.

That's the trade-off here. The summers are pretty brutal, especially for folks who like cool weather; however, the fall weather is amazing and we often have short-sleeve weather even at Christmastime. All of that makes for a great fall growing season, maybe even better than the spring growing season.

We had lots of tomatoes on our plants in the spring and a few jalapenos; however, those "rats with fluffy tails," as my mom calls the squirrels, apparently invited all their friends over and helped themselves to our "salad bar" every night, so we've yet to enjoy the fruits of our efforts. Need to figure out a way to outsmart those little menaces so we can enjoy a fall harvest!

Next up on my blog to-do list is to start taking pictures of what we're cooking and our garden and posting them here. I'm not very technological so wish me luck!