Lamb's quarters soup: all vegetarian!

This summer, the amount of rain we had, perhaps coupled with our very liberal applications of hay, compost and manure and a huge success in Josh’s mantis infiltration program, has had an extraordinary effect on the size and robustness of the weeds in my garden which have found a place to pop up in the narrow spaces between the bales of hay. The good news is that there are limited places for them to grow so it is easier to keep them contained. I have, however, been very tolerant of the edible weeds, the wood sorrel and the lamb’s quarters, which have been featured in my salads and stir fries.



















My neighbour’s mother told me that lamb’s quarters make great soups, so I went on-line to investigate and found a quick and easy recipe involving fried onions, water, a bit of instant soup mix and handfuls of lamb’s quarters. I decided to thin the weeds from my garlic patch where some of the lamb’s quarter plants were actually taller than I am. It took some time for Josh and me to wash and pick off the leaves, but the actual cooking time of the soup was ten minutes.

During a heat wave, this was ideal. I added some wood sorrel, coriander and Thai basil, fried garlic and some Tom Yum paste for a Thai taste. When cooked in soup, the lamb’s quarters tasted very much like Gai Lan (a Chinese green which is the key ingredient in flavouring Won ton soup). Even my kids liked it and asked for seconds.

Some updates: I had promised to post some pictures of my friend Julie’s balcony garden. I have gone back to the previous blog entry and added her pictures so they are where they make the most sense.











I decided, for fun, to take some photos of vegetable flowers. To the right, a sunflower, which is the best known of edible garden flowers. Below, those are coriander flowers, which one can use along with the leaves for seasoning.



Below there is a cucumber flower with a baby cucumber starting behind it. They are pretty and yellow, and they fall off when the cucumber starts to get big.

 Above is a potato flower. I am not sure if one is supposed to pick them off or just leave them, but they are a pretty shade of pink. I thought these flowers deserved a chance to be showcased. They don't last long and no one fusses over cucumber or potato flowers. To the right is another cucumber flower.My campaign against cucumber beetles has been successful. I am still picking off a few and squishing them (not my favorite activity), at least when they don’t fly off faster than I can catch them. 

The good news is that the plants are thriving and I just had the second cucumber of the week for lunch today. They are pickling cucumbers, which are small. I found the long Japanese cucumbers were more fun, but these are tasty too.

It turned out that my pink and purple bergamot did indeed come back and bloomed a week after I had written them off. They look beautiful. I have had requests from Iulia and some of her colleagues at work for some of my Bee balm, which have spread nicely and I can afford to be generous. I have a bunch of yellow daisy-type flowers which Iulia saved for me from an office plant swap (nice idea!), so indirectly I have been included.

My first poppies bloomed, a surprising white and purple variety which I did not expect. Within days we had some violent rain storms and the petals were knocked right off, so I am a bit short on poppies again. I had several varieties, and so far only one has really matured and blossomed. Maybe we will have some action with the others later in the season.ned out that my pink and purple bergamot did indeed come back and bloomed a week after I had written them off. They look beautiful. I have had requests from Iulia and some of her colleagues at work for some of my Bee balm, which have spread nicely and I can afford to be generous. I have a bunch of yellow daisy-type flowers which Iulia saved for me from an office plant swap (nice idea!), so indirectly I have been included.

We spent a weekend visiting friends in the Laurentians who have been putting a lot of work into re-landscaping their large lakeside property. They have a vegetable garden, flower beds and wildflowers, and have just put in a network of stone pathways.

I was particularly interested in the paths, because this afternoon Josh rented a truck and took a friend to raid a pile of flat stones he found dumped on a vacant lot a few weeks ago. We may not have time to lay them this summer, but in case they disappear, I prefer to have them on the side of my house, and take the time to design the paths we want even if we only do the work next spring.

Bugged out

This year we have had a lot of rain, and cloudy days. It has been alternatingly very hot and muggy and cool, and unlike most summers we have (fortunately for me) not had a long hot spell. I say fortunately because I cannot take the heat, I am a fan of cold weather and love fall and winter. The garden, on the other hand, probably would be happier with a bit less rain and a bit more heat for this time of year. Particularly the tropical plants like the tomatoes and peppers which are much smaller than they have been the past couple of summers.

It has been a great year for bugs. So far, with help of 4 entire bags of Slug-B-Gone, I have kept the snail and slug population down to a trickle. This is miraculous because it is ideal weather for those pesky gastropods, and with the addition of loads of hay onto my beds, I have created the perfect condition for an epidemic. I suppose that I have the best conditions to test the effectiveness of the product and it is holding out. I have not put any beer out at all!

Josh went overboard on mantises this year, and put out nine ooths of Chinese mantises in the spring. I think some of them went onto neighbour’s gardens (my husband the mantis fairy) but the number of mantises in our yard skyrocketed this year. Josh does a daily census, and has been taking photos. He keeps track of where they are, which are male and female, and will be watching for signs of mating in the late summer. I also have been seeing the odd ladybug (who I faithfully deliver to the closest aphid infested tree), and a number of those soldier beetles.

I am not doing well with the aphids. All three of my fruit trees are infested, as are my big patch of orpines. I have been spraying them with diluted dish soap every few days, but now the leaves have turned rust coloured where I sprayed, and are drying up and dying. I also have spotted cucumber beetles and occasionally kill them but more often they fly or scamper off quicker than I can get them. I consulted Claude who recommended diluted soap, and went online to see what other suggestions. I saw neem oil turn up repeatedly for aphids and for cucumber beetles. Also, suggestions for cucumber beetles were deep mulch (straw or hay) around the base of the plant to prevent eggs/grubs getting near the roots, putting tin foil under the plant to reflect light under the leaves where the beetles feed in the shade, onion skins around base, picking off and crushing the beetles. So far the plants are flowering and seem healthy, but my experience last year was that they went from vibrant to dead within a couple of days.  I am checking them every evening now.

One of the websites I looked at said that aphids attack plants and trees that are weaker and it is important to fertilize them. Josh was trying to get some free composted manure from his parents, but it did not pan out, so I asked him to pick some up after work this week. He came home with bags of cow and sheep manure, and bought a few extra sunflowers just for fun. I noticed that one of the heads of my just-budding sunflowers had been knocked off and eaten already, so decided that I would need to get the coyote pee out ASAP now that I was adding some blooming sunflowers into the mix. I spent three hours after work on Wednesday liberally distributing some seven bags of manure everywhere except for the daylilies and the periwinkle, neither of which need any further encouragement, and then sat down to pour stinky coyote urine into Josh’s homemade dispensers (plastic containers with holes drilled in the sides, filled with cotton pads doused with pee).
 I put them up all over the garden, especially near to the sunflowers and tomatoes and cucumbers. The containers are clear with coloured tops (pink, red, blue) and look very decorative. Once Josh washed the spilled pee off the front steps, you could not smell the urine anymore.  So far, after 5 days and lots of rain, not one sunflower has been decapitated. Josh suggests reloading them every two weeks.  By the time I finished, I looked, smelled and felt pretty disgusting, so I ended off my evening of garden fun with a soap spray of all the aphid infested plants (and myself whenever possible), and a hot shower.

I was interested in finding some neem oil. Josh suggested health food stores. I called a few local stores  today.  One had neem oil in capsules, obviously for human consumption not to spray on plants. Another suggested I call back later when the owner was in. One could order it for me at $12.99 an ounce.  I took another approach and called a local nursery. The owner, Jack Vincelli, said he did not carry it but I was the second caller in as many days to ask, so he would consider getting some if there was a demand. He asked what it was for. I explained my problem and got a good lesson on what I should be doing.

First of all, I had no idea how my dishsoap should be in my diluted dishsoap, and it turns out that I have been putting in far too much. Mr. Vincelli suggested 1 tablespoon per litre of water, and add a half teaspoon of baking soda as well. I have probably been putting a third of a cup of soap in there, and that may well explain why everything I have sprayed (including an indoor African violet infested with mealybugs) appears to have been dying once I have sprayed them. He also told me that neem oil is great to put on fruit trees in the fall, because it has the effect of sealing any of the bugs that are dormant and smothering them, but would not be of much use this time of year. I told him that if he has neem oil in the fall I will gladly purchase it from him. He suggested that I brush the aphids off the leaves manually, get on a ladder to reach the leaves on top, and then spray the underside of the leaf, which is the most effective combination.  I am feeling more confident already that I may be able to kill the bugs, not the trees. He also recommended hanging my cucumbers rather than having them trail on the ground. I told him I have them trained to climb up, which is the next best thing. I am thinking of trying to hang them up next year.

Last week, I went over to my friend Julie’s duplex to see what interesting things she is doing on her balcony. She lives in a duplex with a large back balcony over the garage entrance. I had fun brainstorming with her about some ideas for climbing plants like morning glories and clematis going up her brick wall and cascading down off the balcony railing. I saw the new incarnation of her wall garden, with flowers and a bit of chive on top.

  

She is having trouble keeping the top half wet enough. She also showed me this hanging bag with a very healthy, vibrant but definitely upside down tomato plant. 

The weather has been kind to my lettuce which is bigger and tastier than it has been in years past. The peas are doing great. If they are snow peas they are ready and but I am leaving some to see if they will fill out. I think I threw out the package they came in so I am not sure, but they taste good as is.  The bee balm is in full flower and finally very happy where I put it. I did transplant some of the dwarf pink varieties there too, but so far it is all the big red ones. I am not giving up hope, because surprise, surprise, the white hydrangea bush reappeared and flowered last week after not turning up three years running.

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