Gardening for Lazy People: The Cardboard Method

I recently read about a totally chemical-free way to get rid of weeds and grass in your garden.  It's so simple I can't believe it I haven't heard about it sooner! Now that it's time to rip out all the tired, dying plants lingering in our veggie patch, I thought we might try this technique.

Here's what you do:  First of all, clear all the big stuff out, like the sad droopy caged cherry tomato plants you can't even bear to look at any more, or the dried out string bean plants.  If your garden is like ours, there will be plenty of weeds and grass left.  Pull or clip any tall stuff, and go get yourself some old cardboard boxes- the bigger the better.

Break down each box into one big flat piece of cardboard, and put them on top of the garden, covering the entire surface.  Get out the garden hose, and soak the cardboard.  Anchor down with big rocks at the edges.  Water lightly once a week or so.  When frost threatens, water one last time.  Leave anchor rocks in place during winter.  (Don't forget to unhook your hose from the outdoor spigot and put it away for the winter- you don't want your pipes to burst!  Ask me how I know.  Sigh).

If you're even busier (or lazier) than us, wait until about April to do the cardboard coverage.  You should have a nice weed-free garden by planting time.

Garden Fresh Broccoli! Plus Spicy Ginger Beef with Broccoli, Revisited

The first broccoli from this year's garden was ready to harvest last weekend, and since then, we've been eating lots of garden-fresh broccoli.  I decided to start off by brushing one of my old-standby recipes, Spicy Ginger Beef with Broccoli, and ended up further fine-tuning the recipe, using stuff I've learned over the past year of cooking to make an already-great recipe even better. 

I also used a bunch of the hot peppers we've been growing.   We're getting a bunch of ripe ones now.

I made a really large batch (about 12 servings total), but the revised recipe, below, reflects the standard (already large) batch.  Either gives you a lot of good leftovers, and this dish freezes really well.   The broccoli does get a bit soggy when reheating, but the flavor is great.   Don't freeze the chow mein noodles, though.   Just add them after reheating.

Spicy Ginger Beef with Broccoli

yield = 8 servings
2           pounds beef (steak or stew), thinly sliced
2-4        red chili peppers, seeded and minced
1 1/2     teaspoon ground mustard
2           teaspoons minced garlic
1           teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1           teaspoon ground ginger
2           teaspoons sesame oil
1/3        cup light soy sauce
2 1/2-3 pounds broccoli florets
1 1/2    tablespoons peanut oil
1 1/2-2 tablespoons peeled, diced ginger
2          cans sliced water chestnuts, 1 drained, 1 undrained
2          tablespoons oyster sauce
2          tablespoons corn starch dissolved in 1/3 cup low-sodium chicken
                       broth, or water

Mix sliced beef with ground mustard, ground ginger, black pepper, chili peppers, garlic, 1 teaspoon sesame oil and soy sauce in a bowl or Ziploc bag.  Cover bowl/close bag and marinate at least two hours, preferably eight or more hours or overnight.

Steam broccoli until it is almost done; remove from heat.

Add peanut oil and 1 teaspoon sesame oil to wok, large skillet or Dutch oven.  Heat the oil over medium heat.  When hot, add the ginger and fry it, stirring often, until it is just starting to darken. 

Add the beef and marinade mixture. Stir-fry until the beef is nearly browned, then add water chestnuts, including the liquid from one of the cans.  Stir fry for a couple more minutes, then add oyster sauce and corn starch/broth (or water) mixture.  Stir until the liquid thickens.  Add the broccoli, stir to mix. 

Serve over rice, topped with chow mein noodles.

Notes: 
1.  The best way to slice the beef into nice, thin slices is to put it in the freezer for about 45 minutes before you're ready to prepare it.  The beef will then be stiff enough to easily cut as thinly as you  might desire.

2.  I don't specify a cut of meat to use because I've found it honestly doesn't matter if you marinate it sufficiently.  If I don't have time to let it marinate a long time, I tend to use sirloin, but round tip steak, chuck steak and stew beef work just fine.

3.  How many chili peppers one should use for this recipe depends on the heat of the peppers and personal taste.  That being said, the purpose of the peppers in this recipe is to add some heat, but they shouldn't overwhelm the other flavors.   I've gotten the best results from cayenne, serrano and red Thai peppers.  If you like things spicier, don't seed the peppers.

Berries and Grapes and Broccoli, O MY! (A Garden Update)

 It seems like every morning, we pick a bigger bowl of raspberries!  I know they won't be producing forever, but it's wonderful while it lasts! 



This morning's haul

Here's what the bushes are looking like:

 And more!

The grapes are starting to get bigger!  For awhile there I thought we were going to have teeny-weeny gooseberry-sized grapes.  I think these are a Concord grape, but I can't remember what we planted.  I guess if they turn purple, I'll know- the only choices at the nursery last year were a green grape and a Concord grape.  I remember smelling Concord grapes from when I was just a kid.  They grew in one of the alleys I took on my way home from school, and when the purple grapes were ripe, their scent was intoxicatingly intense.   I want to make grape jelly and/or jam.

Another view, note the old metal fence our backdoor neighbor is graciously allowing us to use:

Here's the broccoli.  I was beginning to think we'd have to eat the leaves and stems if we wanted any broccoli at all, but you can see that a little head has *finally* started to grow in the center of the enormously abundant leaves.

Jeffrey's breakfast this morning:  I think there's more fruit than cereal here!  But doesn't it look great?

The Garden is Coming Along Nicely

Last weekend I gave it a much-needed weeding.   The pictures below reflect the garden post-weeding.

Here's our broccoli plants, with the grape vine in the background.   That thing's really spreading out, and it looks like we'll be getting a lot of grapes.

And here are our tomato plants - one cherry tomato, one grape tomato - and our completely out-of-control raspberry patch.   Some of the raspberries are starting to show a bit of red now, so it won't be long before we've got a lot of fresh raspberries.  I've already got plans for those.

The Garden is Planted!

Today was a beautiful day, and I think we've passed the "last-frost" date for our region.  So it was time to get the garden planted. 
 We have a simple garden.  This year we planted broccoli and tomatoes in our small garden plot, and lots of containers of various sorts of hot peppers.  We don't need to have a really big garden, since we subscribe to Foxfire Acres CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in Des Moines.  We started with a half-season half-share last year, and went with a full season half-share this year since we liked it so much.  We just don't have room to grow things like squash, pumpkins, watermelon or sweet corn.  You can't see it very well in the picture, but our grape vine survived the winter.  Maybe we'll get enough grapes for a little batch of jelly.

Last spring we planted raspberry bushes, and they've really done well. Too well, maybe!  Does anyone have any good suggestions on how to tame them a little bit?  I'm afraid to prune them much, in case I prune off the part of the plant that makes the berries!

Here's all our hot peppers, potted up.  We have Jalapeno, Cayenne, Serrano, and Asian peppers.

Jeffrey took time out to plant a Prairifire (yes, that's how it's spelled) crabapple.  I hope it will bloom this year.  Prairifires have a deep magenta pink blossom.  I've wanted one for a long time, and we found one at the HyVee grocery for under $40.  We've been babying it with deep daily watering.  It's replacing a very thorny, very overgrown flowering quince bush.  I don't mind pruning bushes, but not if they have thorns.

We also planted a little catnip for our kitties. I love this planter!  The tail and head bob slightly if it's a windy day.

Kitchen Herbs

I've written several times about how nice it is to have fresh chives growing just outside the back doorstep.  We like other fresh herbs, too, and have come up with a plan to let them grow to their heart's content all summer and still allow us to enjoy them after fall's first frost.

We purchased  three inexpensive plastic flower boxes and loaded them up with our favorite herbs.  Here you can see parsley and two cilantro plants.

Here in the back you can see both Italian basil and Thai basil.  The front box has oregano, dill, and thyme.  We expect that the plants won't get super-big, because we'll be giving them continual hair cuts as we use the herbs for cooking.

We also have a medium sized flower pot that we've planted with rosemary.  A gardener I talked with says that rosemary likes to be kept very well-watered, so until the weather gets beastly hot I'm keeping the pot on our enclosed, windowed back porch so that I can see when it needs a drink of water.  And look!  Mom found me an owl cookie jar at a yard sale.  My great grandma had a cookie jar like this in her kitchen, and I've always wanted one.  Someone decided to use orange and brown paint on this one to replace the faded original red and black, but I don't mind.  I also keep the owl on the back porch, because it makes me smile everytime I come home from work and see him there in the corner.

As soon as I'm sure there won't be anymore frost, the window boxes will go outside for the summer.  So far they've made the trip outside and back twice as the weather changed! 

The container herb boxes are an experiment, but our hope is that we can continue to enjoy fresh, flavorful herbs into November and beyond.  We'll probably have to set up a grow-light for winter.  I'll let you know how that goes.

Jeffrey here.  This weekend I am planning (assuming weather cooperates) to plant our garden, but I've decided this year I'm going to plant my hot peppers in pots rather than in the garden, so we can enjoy them past the first frost.   Invariably, my pepper plants are still producing when the first frost hits, so this year, I'm going to take them inside when that time approaches, so we can enjoy fresh peppers into the winter, along with the herbs.