The Mono

I have planted the tomatoes and peppers. FINALLY. I threw in a couple of clumps of basil and called it a day. The watering is set up, everybody has a chunk of animal protein below the roots, they're ready to go.

I still have to sow beans, squash, and cucumbers (my attempt at cucumber seedlings for transplant failed utterly this year), and fill in a few holes in the sweet potato bed, then I'll consider the garden planted. It's smaller this year, but that's good -- even with a couple of transplanted volunteer tomatoes (KBX and Joyce's Brandywine) I have six fallow beds. Maybe it will make harvesting a little easier -- if this year is better than last, and it can hardly fail to be, I'll still get a decent haul.

My heart isn't in it this year, for some reason. It seems to be echoed by the seedlings, none of which actually took off... I was transplanting tomatoes that were three inches tall, not the twelve inches they should be by now. The peppers were dinky, and the cukes never got started. (I blame the potting mix -- it was a couple of hand-me-down bags.) They should do all right now that they're settled in, but I'm three weeks late now and just not feeling it. I have to grit my teeth and clear the squash and bean beds.

Maybe I lost my momentum while stressing about weed control this spring. With luck, I can grind the grassy weeds under my heel this year and I just won't have to deal with them at all next year. Oh, we'll have alliums and remnants of other invasives to stamp out, but I won't have to spend all my time and energy mowing vast areas of foxtails. Add that to (hopefully) a much easier gardening season this year, and perhaps that will renew my enthusiasm.

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It turns out that what I thought was a mahonia at Greg's place (I'm not too familiar with them, obviously) is actually Italian Buckthorn, Rhamnus alaternus. I saw a Coffeeberry in the nursery and it looked so similar to what I had ripped out next to the street sign that it got me thinking. A little hunting on the net turned up images that look exactly like the survivor in the back yard.

Not a bad plant, and I'll probably keep the one in back. It's something to keep in mind for an evergreen screening tree with small, glossy leaves -- it beats the pants off of privet, even if it does manage to sow a few volunteers from time to time.

A curious note: the reports on its berry color vary. Some say reddish, some say dark purple. The one Greg has is the dark type; I wonder whether it's a varietal thing.

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I'm going to have to pace myself with building compost piles... I just doubled the size of the front windrow, and I've already made a good start on mowing the Back Forty, which will have its own (monumental) version. If I'm not careful, I'll spend most of the next three weeks just turning and fluffing.

( Compost done large )

Nothing about this place is on a small scale. Seriously.

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Some years ago, bermuda grass invaded our property from the neighbors to the east. It crept across the gravel driveway, established in the front lawn, and went right across to the west side where the roses are. Horrible, horrible stuff. I was told repeatedly that there is no good way to take it out; some people say "till, rake, water, repeat" while others break out in hives if you mention "rototiller" and "bermuda" in the same sentence. Supposedly really HOT manure will kill it, but if you don't quite get it, you've just handed it a nutrient bonanza. And Roundup is useless on something with a root system that big.

I've discovered one foolproof way to exclude it, and even kill it, slowly: shade.

It really needs sun. It can withstand dry conditions and scorching exposure, but once the light levels drop down to "part sun", it loses its enthusiasm. Dense bushes, even deciduous ones, discourage it, and evergreen hedges such as boxwood act like a wall. It may try to climb up into the hedge if the pressure is great enough, but it won't just grow under. Since it wants warmth and sun, it's slow to start up in the spring, and if you can grow even an annual that is so dense it blocks all light by the time the bermuda wakes up, it will slowly give up ground.

This is where the fascinating part comes in. We've always had a bunch of red fescue in the lawn, which is usually cut short. Its preference is to grow long, though, forming silky mats of hair-fine blades up to two feet long, spreading slowly by stolons. It looks like a green ocean when fully grown, and feels wonderful to the feet. It mulches itself, reducing the need for water; that mulching effect also throws anything under the mat into dense shade. Like the short-clipped dormant stems of bermuda. By this week, the fescue was already long enough to flop over properly, but much of the bermuda was still waking up -- and I notice that there has been less and less bermuda over the two years we've been (ahem) erratic about mowing the lawn. It's retreating.

Red fescue needs more water than bermuda, but still not much if it isn't mowed. It also has a reputation as a shade grass, but it seems to be doing quite well out in the middle of the lawn with full exposure all day... if we can keep the soil under the mat damp, I think it'll grow across the whole lawn easily. If we do one mowing in the late fall, when the grass is all but dormant, that will keep the bermuda short in the spring so we can repeat the cycle.

The bermuda has suffered elsewhere as well; the eastern neighbor replaced it with a driveway, the western neighbor put in a very dense hedge, and the trees have shaded out a bunch of it on the sidestrip. We're due to get new gravel for the driveway this year, which will bury it on the margins, and I'll try to mulch it out of the two side areas (thick cardboard can do wonders). If the fescue can keep up its end of the bargain, we might actually be rid of the bermuda in a few more years. Benign neglect provides the keys to the impossible. :)

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The usual problem for gardeners is "So many plants, so little space!" Many of them are drowning in the shade created by the cute trees they (or their neighbors) planted twenty years ago, which aren't so cute anymore. I know so many who say "well, I don't have a lot of sun, and I don't know where I'll put it, but I'll find somewhere!"

I have too much space.

( No, really. I have an elephant and a fork, you see... )

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This was my second run at pâte a choux, made with the additional knowledge of several years of experimental gluten-free baking. It doesn't require any real tricks, just a decent recipe and Asian rice flour (which is very finely ground). And, to be honest, it's not difficult, especially if you have any sort of electric mixer. I've made waffles that were more complicated. Grip your courage, pull out your baking pans, and give it a shot... it's just a little milk, eggs, butter, and flour, after all. :)

( Recipe! )

To fill them, you can either split them open, or make a hole in the side to pipe things in. Traditional fillings are a ball of ice cream (profiteroles), whipped cream or custard (cream puffs or eclairs), lemon curd, chocolate mousse, cheese sauce, paté... they're pretty versatile, either sweet or savory. Dip the tops in chocolate if you like. Serve as close to immediately after filling as you can. Enjoy!

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For anyone in the SF East Bay, if you are interested in growing tomato plants this year, the Contra Costa Master Gardeners are holding a huge tomato plant sale this upcoming Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 10-3 at 2640 Shadelands Dr., Walnut Creek. Plants are $2 each (cash/check only), all of them heirlooms which have been tested in this area. Visit The Contra Costa Master Gardeners site for more info.

I'll be there from 10-12:30 on Thursday and Friday, happily answering any and all questions about growing tomatoes. I'm quite familiar with a number of the varieties (I was happy to see they have almost all of my rock-solid standby heirlooms) and I'll advise anyone on the best choice for a given taste or location. :)

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This was adapted from the Lemon Layer Cake recipe from Gourmet; you may recognize it as the same one that I used as a basis for my caramel buttercream cupcakes (which I know I posted a recipe for somewhere, but I can't find the post). No one would guess these are gluten-free. Not the finest texture, but if you don't mind a slight coarseness reminiscent of spice cake or carrot cake, these are really really good.

( Recipe )

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After the day (nay, week) I've had, it was a good evening to kick back with a beer and a brainless movie. I can't believe it had been that long since I last watched Ghostbusters. (I also don't know how I had missed the fact that Walter Peck was played by the same actor as Professor Holloway in Real Genius.)

On a similar note, my nomination for Most Soothing Trance Track is "Stage One" by Space Manoeuvres. I pulled it up (the mix on Expeditions by Sasha and Digweed) when I needed to relax on my way home today. Not ambient, not boring, not sleepy, just smooth. Musical comfort food.

I finished the last of a few things off today. Here's hoping next week is much more routine and manageable.

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So last week's dinner was indeed successful. The chile rellenos were particularly good... I have to confess, I couldn't improve much on Dinner at Christina's version, so I just multiplied it by 1.5 and used Monterey Jack. 8 chiles took a medium-sized rectangular casserole, so keep that in mind when choosing your pan size.

I topped that with a tomato sauce that tasted very, very close to the enchilada sauce I've had in restaurants; I used glutinous rice flour to thicken it instead of making a roux, which made it much easier to reheat. Recipe below.

The pinto beans were kind of seat-of-the-pants, just 1.5 cups soaked, drained, and cooked up with 1/4 onion, 5 cloves of garlic, oregano, black pepper, and salt. It made a massive amount (I thought beans were supposed to double, not triple?) so I still have enough in the freezer for a second round. Good, though don't skimp on the garlic, oregano, and pepper; it could have used more than it had.

I made up about 3 cups of rice with a teaspoon of cumin seed to fill things out. The flan came out well, though I managed to burn the caramel a little (the dark flavor complemented the orange, so that was okay). Recipe also below.

( Tasty! )

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