Salsa Time

The first year of my garden, I was actually ambitious enough to do some canning and made salsa from my garden.  This year, not so much.  I did can a few beets, but today, I'm going to make some pico de gallo instead.  I've got ripe tomatoes, onions, jalapeños, and cilantro, so all the basics are accounted for.

I only put in one jalapeño plant this year.  I still have some canned ones from two years ago, as well as some frozen slices from last year.  I also only put in two chili plants as I have some of those yet in the freezer from last year.

And, while I'm on the subject of peppers, my mini bells are about ready to harvest.

I planted a larger variety of peppers the first year: pepperoncini, Heatwave (a chili), mini bells, jalapeños, and green and orange bells.  Way too many peppers, most of which I started indoors, and I didn't have a good setup for doing that yet.  Last year, I grew Black Hungarian, Cayenne Red and Thai Yellow in addition to jalapeños.  Still too many.  Black Hungarian, if you haven't heard of it, is a nice little hot, very dark purple pepper - so dark it looks black.

This morning I pulled up all my red beets and laid them in the plot to compost on the spot.  They never seemed to do anything.  I got less than twenty big enough to use this year, and they were small.  The yellow ones, which I planted a couple weeks earlier than the red, did fine.  Yesterday I planted what was my zucchini patch in more yellow beets.  If they mature, that will be great, but if I only get beet greens from them, that will be great, too.

I also planted some some zucchini in what was my beet plot.  The earlier zucchini didn't do very well.   Most of them produced plenty of fruit, but it rotted before it got to any size.   I think it was just too darned wet.  From here on out, we won't likely have the kinds of rains we had earlier, so maybe this planting will be okay.  Also, I put up a tomato cage for them to grow up in; something I'd seen in a comment at Baker Creek Seeds.  If that works, it'll be nice, because it will keep the fruit off the ground, and keep the plants from spreading out into other plots.

I direct seeded a few Brunswick and Napa cabbages on June 30, and they're finally starting to look like something.  They'll need thinning down to just a few good ones pretty soon.  No more than two or three of each, I think, with the small space I left for them.  If they come out okay, next year I'll make more space.  This is the first year I planted cabbages, and I'm not able to brag about my spring crop.

I haven't yet decided whether to plant fall lettuces.

The cat (who still doesn't have a name, and I guess never will) always comes out to the garden with me and finds herself a shady spot.

The lima bean plants are looking good.

Have a great Sunday.