Winter Greens Recipes

Winter Greens can withstand frosts, freezes and snow in the garden. These greens are full of vitamins and other things that are good for your body and health. Check out September post: Fall Garden for recipes on spinach and other tender greens.

Kale

Saute young greens in olive oil with garlic and a few pepper flakes. If you want to be 'old school' saute in bacon grease.

Frost on these veggies brings a more peppery taste to the greens. They also become tougher, so make sure you remove the veins from the leaves. You also have to cook them longer.

The typical southern way to cook these greens is in water or chicken stock with a ham hock. Today, you can use lean turkey bacon instead of the pig knuckle.

Use your slow cooker to make things easier and simpler. Serve with a strong vinegar, such as the garlic or pepper vinegar you made from earlier postings this month.

Collard Greens

Cook the same way as kale. You can always mix these greens together.

Mustard Greens

Much more peppery than the other greens.

To add more flavor and make your soups jam packed with good things, stir in a few handfuls of your favorite winter greens.

Roasted Tomatoes

Roasted Tomatoes

I believe there is nothing more special than roasted tomatoes. Certainly, there is no easier way to cook them.

Gather up all your ripe tomatoes, grape, pear, cherry, italian, slicers. Even your yellows. Cut them in half or quarters if large and place them in a shallow baking pan. Dust with your favorite herbs...rosemary, thyme, oregano. Salt and pepper to taste. Use fresh ground pepper if you can. It tastes better.

Finely chop garlic cloves to your taste. If you're making a large batch, you may even want to chop a whole head. If you plan to process these tomatoes, you can roast the garlic as well. Simply toss the cloves into the pan with their paper attached. Squeeze the roasted garlic from their paper shells before you process the tomatoes in the blender or food processor.

Coat your tomatoes with a liberal drizzle of good olive oil, toss and pop in to the oven set at 325F. Toss with a spatula a few times during the cooking process, especially if you've quartered them. Tomatoes are done when lightly brown on the edges and wrinkled.

Uses: Serve atop toasted French bread with cheese as a first course. Stuff a meatloaf for a grand surprise in the middle. Toss with pasta for a different kind of sauce. You are limited only by culinary imagination.

This recipe will freeze very well in a bag or container. You can also can it. A bit of lemon juice in the canning jar will assure a high level of acidity and safety to water processed canning. It will also add a freshness to the finished dish.

Happy Cooking!

Cheers, Mark

Classic French Vinegrette Recipe

How to use your homemade vinegars

This is a classic French vinegrette.

You can change this recipe and make it your own by changing the type of herb or herbs used.

No matter how much dressing you need to make, if you follow this ratio you will always have a balanced dressing.

1/3 vinegar to 2/3 olive oil...so if you want a cup of dressing you use 1/3 cup of your vinegar and 2/3 cup of oil. Don't worry about measurements. Eyeball it, like Rachel Ray.

1 to 2 tbs of Dijon mustard

Use salt, sugar and pepper to taste. If you're like me and live for garlic, finely chop and include a clove or to taste.

Tip: If you're using an herbal vinegar, chop some fresh to include.

In a bowl, combine all ingredients except olive oil. Whisk together. As you whisk, begin to pour oil. This will combine the oil and vinegar, emulsifying them. If you're as lazy as me and hate to wash dishes, combine everything, including the olive oil in a mason jar, screw in the lid and shake. Refrigerate the remainder.

Herbal Vinegars

Herbal Vinegars

Herbal vinegars are easy to make and are perfect for hostess gifts during the holiday season.

Through out the growing season, I'm saving unused wine in old glass jugs. One for white, one for reds. Just before frost, I make a trip to my favorite craft store and purchase decorative bottles of different shapes and sizes. Once home I run them through the dishwasher, then using thongs, dip each bottle into boiling water. I sit them on the kitchen table on a clean towel to cool.

You never have to worry about the safety of these gifts as the acidity of the vinegar will kill anything unhealthy.

Cut bundles of herbs, wash, dry and poke them into the bottle using a chop stick. You can use one type or a mix of herbs. You can even include the flowers. A dill white wine vinegar would look very pretty with the flower included inside the bottle.

A rule of thumb...Strong herbs will stand up to red wines. Sage, oregano, thyme, etc... Light herbs such as dill, basil, tarragon and chives are better off in white wine.

If you'd like to make garlic vinegar, steep the garlic in the vinegar mixture for 24 hours, then remove clove. The vinegar becomes too strong if steeped for longer.

I usually include about an inch of white vinegar in the bottom of the decorative bottle before I pour in the wine vinegar...that way I am sure the contents are acidic enough to inhibit anything bad from developing inside the bottle.

Fill the bottle with your leftover wine, leaving at least an inch of the bottle's neck empty. Cork bottle firmly. Store in a dark place for at least three weeks. Shake bottles every once in a while.

Tips: To make your gifts a bit fancy, melt wax in an old coffee can using a water bath. Color wax with a crayon. Dip the cork and the tip of the bottle in the wax. Set aside to cool. Tie colorful ribbon or raffia around the neck with a label.

Use your imagination and have fun. This is a great project for the entire family.

Cheers, Mark

Fall Harvest Recipes

Roasted tomatoes and Basil pesto

As promised, the following posts will give you some suggestions and recipes for the last of your veggie garden harvests. Included: roasted tomatoes to freeze or can. Basil pesto, How to make herbal vinegars for great holiday hostess gifts, Recipes for all sorts of southern greens. How to cook them when they're young and later when harvested after heavy frosts or freezes. If you have recipes you'd like to share, post them on the comment board or email them to me via this blog. Cheers and Happy Cooking! Mark

Plannting Garlic

How to Plant Garlic

Did you know that garlic reduces cholesterol, is a fungicide and antibacterial? The Roman armies used to carry raw garlic when they marched to keep their soldiers healthy.

I plant garlic in and around my roses for the same reason.

Plant garlic after the first frost. Why? Because you don't want any top growth before winter sets in. This will make the plant weak.

You cannot use store bought garlic heads because it has been sprayed with a growth retardant. Purchase your garlic from a seed catalogue, from the web or your local garden center.

Break apart the head into cloves. Do not remove the paper outer covering like you do in cooking. Plant the clove, point end up, root side down 2 inches deep in the soil. Cover. If you have compost or a bag of compost, top dress. Water and relax. The roots will grow out during the winter and the plant itself will push up in the spring after frost.

Harvest after leaves are 1/3 to 2/3 brown. If you wait until the plant is totally brown the bulbs will be inedible. Dig with a fork like potatoes or onions. Let the skins dry before storage.

Garlic is a member of the Allium family...as are lillies, onions, chives and society garlic. All look good in the garden!

Knock Out Roses

The Fearless Rose is a Knock Out!

By Mark S. Bowne

Throughout the centuries, roses have always evoked a rainbow of emotions; from the passion of a red rose on Valentine's Day to the anger and pain of a pricked finger by the cruel thorn. Fear; however, remains the emotion many gardeners associate with roses. Fear of pests, fear of disease, and fear of pruning. These fears may cause even the hardiest of plant lovers to run screaming from the nursery. Fear no more.

Enter the Knock Out rose. The so called 'no fear rose'. Bred by Mr. Bill Radler (one time director of Boerner Botanical Gardens of Milwaukee, WI) these roses are as tough as they are beautiful. Both resistant to pests and disease, Knock Out roses bloom spectacularly from May to hard frost of late fall. They are classified as a shrub rose and grow to about four feet tall, by four feet wide in a mounded form. They are very easy to grow. Simply cut them back to a foot tall in early spring (this keeps them bushy and compact) and feed them with your favorite rose food. I recommend Rose Tone for Espoma. Overhead irrigation is acceptable, but excessive water will reduce bloom and could rot this rose. It is very drought tolerant once established. You never have to deadhead this rose. It is self cleaning.

The history of the Knock Out rose is as amazing as the plant itself. Mr. Radler has grown roses since the age of nine and as a teenager made a promise to himself that he would develop a disease free rose. After many years and thousand upon thousand of trial roses later, Radler managed two promising candidates: the mother a shrub rose with strains of 'Carefree Beauty' and the father, 'Razzle Dazzle', an extremely disease and pest resistant plant with insignificant flowers.

Radler crossed these roses and held his breath. When the mother rose produced only one fruit (called a hip) that contained one seed, his dream almost ended. Luckily he managed to germinate this single seed and nurtured the seedling plant through the harsh Wisconsin winter. In the spring he planted the spindly rose in his trial garden not expecting much. Then it bloomed and it bloomed and it bloomed. Beautiful single red blossoms that never stopped.

In 2000, The Conard-Pyle Company of West Grove, Pa, (a wholesale nursery) introduced the new Knock Out rose to the horticulture industry. It was an instant hit and won the prestigious 'All American Rose Selection' award from the American Rose Society. The wholesale nursery's initial production run was for 135,000 plants. Today millions are grown. This makes the Knock Out rose the hottest selling rose in history.

Whether it's the original single red, the blush, the pink or the new double blossoms, plant this rose and FEAR NO MORE!

Fertilizer Information

This is a basic information posting regarding common fertilizers found in garden centers through out the United States.

The three numbers are known as the fertilizer ratio, the ratio between nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. Nitrogen is the first number and regulates green color and growth. Phosphorous regulates bloom and root growth. The third number, potassium also regulates root growth and the over all vigor of the plant.

1. Palm Tone (4-1-5) Tropicals, Hibiscus, Palms.
2. Garden Food (10-10-10 or 5-10-5) General plant food good especially for veggie gardens.
3. Triple Phosphate (0-46-0) Improves root growth and bloom.
4. Potash (0-0-60) Promotes plant vigor and disease resistance.
5. Rose Tone (6-6-4) Long lasting rose food for abundant blooms.
6. Plant Tone (5-3-3) Can be use on all plants: Flowers, veggies, trees, shrubs, lawns...
7. Holly Tone (4-6-4) Use on evergreen trees, shrubs and other acid loving plants. See bag.
8. Cottonseed Meal (6-2-1) Slow release food for trees and shrubs, especially boxwood.
9. Tomato Tone (4-7-10) Plump and juicy tomatoes.
10. Tree Tone (9-5-4) Use on any tree.
11. Kelp Meal (1-0-2) Source of nitrogen and potash for growth and over all health.
12. Bone Meal -Pure source of phosphorus. Also calcium. Use with tomatoes. Use with bulbs.
13. Magnesium Sulfate (4-0-0) Deep green foliage for all plants.
14. Miracle Gro (24-8-16) High nitrogen. Use on containers. Hanging baskets, etc.
15. Miracid (30-10-10) High nitrogen for acid loving plants.
16. Dried blood (12-0-0) Nitrogen for deep green growth.
17. Osmocote, many different ratios for many uses. It is a slow release fertilizer.

Butterfly Identification 10

The Monarch Butterfly

Host and Nectar Plant:

Host and nectar plants for the Monarch are from the Milkweed family. Asclepias. There are many. This picture is of Asclepia Tuberosa, or butterfly weed. It is a native plant and likes dry well drained soil.

See native perennial post for more information.

Butterfly Identification 9

The Silver Spotted Skipper

Nectar Plant:

Joe Pye Weed is loved by many butterflies. It is a tall perennial, but new shorter hybrids can be found. It likes a moist soil, so plant it by your mudpuddle or by the downspout.

Host Plant:

Wisteria is the host plant for the skipper, a very common butterfly. Be careful of placement of this vine as it can be extremely aggressive. There are reblooming wisterias now.

Butterfly Identification 8

The Painted Lady Butterfly

Nectar Plant:

Aster, a perennial fall flower is a butterfly magnet. Painted Ladies also enjoy butterfly bushes.

Host Plant:

The tall hollyhock is the host plant for Painted Lady butterflies. These plants are short lived perennials. Many consider them bianuals because the only bloom their second year.

If grown next to a wall, foundation or fence, hollyhocks can reach 7 feet. Their flowers can be found in a wide range of colors and in single or double blossom form.

Butterfly Identification 7

The Red Admiral Butterfly

Nectar Plant:

Anise Hyssop is a wonderful tall perennial with blue spiked flowers. Growing to 3 feet, this plant rarely needs to be deadheaded. The leaves are fragrant.

Host Plant:

OK beer lovers, this is a hops vine and the host plant for the red admiral. Hops has wonderful fall color. It can take some shade, but will not bloom well unless grown in full sun.

Butterfly Identification 6

The Fritillary

Host Plant:

Wild violet are only inches tall and bloom in spring.

Nectar Plant:

Fritillary butterflies love coneflowers. So do finches. There are new colors available now. Orange, red, yellow, white, even green...

Coneflowers are native prairie flowers that love dry, well drained soil. They are very drought tolerant. They grow to aprox. 3 feet tall and will rebloom all season long if deadheaded.

Butterfly Identification 5

The Cloudless Sulphur

Host Plant:

This plant is tropical.

Nectar Plant:

Beebalm is a long blooming perennial that not only attracts butterflies, but humming birds...especially the red flowers. It grows to about 2 feet and can take a moist foot. If your beebalm begins to thin out and look tired after a season or two, divide it. It gets lazy from time to time and division wakes it up.

Butterfly Identification 4

The Sleepy Orange Butterfly

Nectar Plant:

Coriopsis and other daisies. Coriopsis 'Moonbeam' is a dainty small (to 12 inched) perennial with

lemon yellow flowers. It has a very long bloom time if deadheaded.

Host Plant: Cassia.

This plant is tropical.

Butterfly Identification 3

The Cabbage White Butterfly

The cabbage white is the most common butterfly. Cursed by veggie growers everywhere, the cabbage white lays its eggs on plants from the cabbage family. They can strip a whole crop.

Still, it's a pretty little butterfly.

Host Plant: Any plant from the cabbage family.

Nectar Plant:

Catmint or nepeta (this is NOT catnip) is covered all summer long with butterflies. Nepeta, Walker's Low especially, is a low mounding perennial that grows to about 10 inches tall. It has a very long bloom time and usually needs deadheading (removal of spent blossoms for rebloom) only once a season.

It looks great with Knock out Roses.

Butterfly Identification 2

The Black Swallowtail Butterfly

Dill: The host plant for Swallortail Butterflies

Grow dill from seed in full sun and well drained soil.

It can be used to pickle cucumbers, in egg dishes. It's an excellent herb for fish and chicken. The seed can also be saved and used. Don't be shocked if the plant is chewed completely to the ground, so plant plenty.

Nectar Plant: Joe Pye Weed

Beloved by many different butterflies, JPW is a very tall perennial that loves moist soil. Some types can get as tall as 7 feet, though there are dwarf versions out there.

Grow in full sun. You can incorperate JPW in your mudpuddle area, or your down spout.

Tall version: Gateway

Dwarf version: Little Joe

Butterfly Identification 1

The Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

Dill: The host plant for the Tiger Swallowtail

Grow in full sun from seed. Use in salads, dressings, egg dishes and pickle recipies. The seeds can also be used.

The eggs look like little white drops of water. The caterpillars start out very small, but grow quickly. They can eat an entire plant to the ground, so plant tons.

Butterfly Bush: Nectar plant

I know the butterfly bush is on many invasive plant lists, but I have to have it in my garden. It's too important a food source. Just don't let it go to seed and you should be alright.

To keep your bush under control, cut it back to a foot tall in the spring and when you go to deadhead it (removing spent blossoms for reblooming) take it back by 1/3 instead of deadheading each flower. This keeps the shrub compact and undercontrol. I usually have to do this 2 to 3 times a season.

The Ideal Butterfly Garden

The Ideal Butterfly Garden

The ideal butterfly garden should include one or more of the following things...

Host plants (plants the caterpillars eat) and nectar plants (plants from which adult butterflies feed).

A fruit tree is another good thing to include because many butterflies like to drink fermented fruit. A drunken butterfly is a happy butterfly.

Small flat rocks provide a place for our winged friends to sun themselves in the mornings, while logs or brush piles provide shelter from predators and a place where they may hybernate.

Butterflies (especially males) love a good mudpuddle, though I've never seen them make a pie. They drink minerals and salts from them. Butterflies also drink water, but need a perch. A few large stones in a shallow pan or saucer makes and ideal 'watering hole'.

Fruit feeders are another useful tool in attracting butterflies. Simply place your 'too ripe' fruit on a platform bird feeder and stand back. They will flock to the fruit...the uckier the better. Melon rinds and banana peels are also welcome. Some favorite butterfly fruits: apple, peach, banana, and melon. There are a number of butterflies that feed off tree sap (Monarch) as well as dung and carrion...but not in MY backyard!

Birdwatchers may have to travel the globe to pratice their hobby, but 'butterflyers' can watch from the comfort of their own gardens. I hope this inspires you to take on another hobby and...

Happy Gardening!

Cheers, Mark

PS: Never ever spray a butterfly garden, please.

Native Grasses

Little Blue Stem Grass: Small prairie grass with blue color during the growing season. The wonderful thing about little blue stem is the fall colors of red and orange. It flowers in late summer with a corn tassle type bloom. Aprox. 2-3 ft tall at maturity

Purple Love grass: A very short grass, 1.5 ft tall with smokey type blooms is summer.

Muhley Grass: My favorite native grass, grows to about 3 ft with smokey pink/purple blooms. It has thin blades and flowers very late in the season. Sometimes not until October.

Dewy Blue Beach Grass: A switch grass that is local to our Dewey Beach Delaware dunes. Grows to about 3 or 4 ft tall with a blue tint to its blades.

Beach Grass Tips: Do NOT over water. Grasses like very well drained sandy soil, so let them dry back before watering them. Cut back these grasses in the spring, not the fall. All grasses have the potential for failure and rot if their crown is exposed to the harsh winter weather all season. The upright blades protect the plant, look great with snow on them. They also sound like the beach when the wind whips through them. They also serve as great cover for wildlife, especially birds.

Native Perennials

Verbena Hastata (vervane)

Tall perenial (4-5 ft) with spiked blue/purple flowers. As season progresses or plant is dead headed secondary blossoms emerge from lateral growth.

Drought tolerant and looks good behind red roses. Good butterfly nectar.

Swamp rose: a true rosa, not a mallow (hibiscus) This rose grows along the moist banks of rivers and wetlands. I have only seen pink ones, but you never know what mother nature has out there. Great by a downspout in your garden. Spreads rapidly and needs to be kept in bounds with severe pruning.

Joe Pye Weed (eupatorium)

There are many new hybrids of Joe out there now, many dwarf versions of the species. It can grow to 7 feet tall in a moist area and looks great planted with many of the other tall native perennials such as NY Iron Weed and Verbena Hastata.

Loved by butterflies, its bloom time is rather short if not in a moist area.

New York Ironweed

My favorite native perennial next to purple coneflowers. Tall and regal, this plant lives up to its name. It is tough and can take more abuse then anyother flower I know. NYI can get 5 ft tall and butterflies love it. It looks great surrounded by short clipped boxwood, or in a meadow of prairie wildflowers, or in your cottage garden. I use it as a back of the border plant when I need height, but don't want a shrub.

The best combination is with a black elderberry shrub!

Asclepia Tuberosa (butterfly weed)

As we say in the native plant business, this is an 'upland' plant. Meaning, a plant that likes a drying soil. One that is on higher ground. Beautiful orange flowers that look great combined with the deep purple of May Night salvia. Use care when transplanting and don't disturb the tap root. This plant is food for the monarch butterfly AND its larva, so it is very important plant in the butterflyer's world.

Grows to about two feet. Don't freak out if it's chewed to the ground, you'll have monarch butterflies to show for your devotion!

Asclepia Incarnata (Swamp Milkweed)

A 'lowland' plant, so it likes moisture. It doesn't have to be wet or boggy. Wonderful pink domes of flowers. It also is food for the larva and adult monarch.

Grows to three feet.

This plant will also be chewed to hell by the monarch larve, but it's worth it for both their beauty! It's always covered with aphids, but the plants don't seem to mind it, go figure? Never spray butterfly plants, please!

Agastache (Anise Hyssop)

Native more to the southwest, it is nevertheless found in the mid-atlantic states from time to time.

Lovely blue spiked flowers last almost all season long and I don't think I've ever had to deadhead it. It can grow to three feet tall and can become rather woody when old, so cut it to the ground in spring. Wonderful scent to the leaves. I plant it near the veggies because it really brings in the bees!