Enjoying the Summer

26 Aug 2012 2 Comments

by nadiaqh in Garden Fruits, Living Healthy, organic gardening, Vegetable/ Herb Garden Tags: , , , ,

Backyard gardening is the most rewarding in the summer when vine ripe tomatoes and everything else in the garden grows with ease.

Container Gardening with Plumerias in Full Bloom:

Growing extra to share with neighbors and friends is essential.

A gift that is always appreciated and well remembered.

Photo below: Desert King Figs (picked today) stuffed with Goat Cheese. 

From Garden to table:

Lemon, Anaheim Peppers, Banana Peppers, Beets, Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes and Apples all grown organically and picked ripe. 

* Thank you Jill for the gift of this new wire basket for my vegetable garden! 

HAPPY GARDENING

Backyard Blueberries

19 Jun 2012 2 Comments

by nadiaqh in Garden Projects, Garden Design, Garden Fruits, Living Healthy, organic gardening Tags: , , ,

Summer is here and my  garden is up to some magic again! This is year # 3  for my blueberry bushes and the maturity of these bushes are offering an amazing harvest. A few helpful hints for enjoying these blue beauties. For San Diego area and growing zones 7-10 purchase Low Chill blueberries such as Southern Highbush: Sunshine Blue and Sharp Blue are the varieties I planted in barrels with a drip water system. Acidic soil is the essential trick to a good harvest, I use azalea soil and add peat moss throughout the year. Toss in saved “used” coffee grounds each month and place at least an inch of compost to cover the soil. Planting several varieties in close proximity also helped, they seemed to attract more bees this year. Low chill blueberries bloom and fruit all year-long. Also, placing rubber snakes in and around the barrels diminished my bird problem.

Sharp Blue Blueberries grown in a barrel. Container Gardening at its finest!

If you are a “snack while you garden” gardener like me then this is the ideal fruit for you! It’s kind of cool getting full on blueberries :)  Happy Gardening!

Favorite Garden Moments

02 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment

by nadiaqh in Flowers, Garden Design, Garden Fruits, organic gardening, Vegetable/ Herb Garden Tags: , , ,

This is a photo gallery of my favorite garden moments from the last year. 

Desert King Figs and Heirloom Yellow Pear Tomatoes

7 foot Sunflower is a smile maker

Strawberries squeezed in anywhere I can find space

Herbs are always so rewarding to grow: Rosemary, Parsley Chives and Oregano

Sugar Baby Watermelon- another first for me in the garden this year- LOVED them

Growing short carrots was fun and great in soups and stews- super tasty

Dahlia flowers that continued to bloom month after month and made a great cutting flower

I planted Zinnia flowers for the first time in a rainbow of colors- very rewarding flower.

Happy New Year 2012 

Happy Gardening

http://www.nadiaknows.com

Sugar Baby Watermelon

11 Oct 2011 2 Comments

by nadiaqh in Garden Design, Garden Fruits, Living Healthy, organic gardening, Vegetable/ Herb Garden Tags: , , , , ,

 ♥  SUGAR BABY WATERMELON  ♥

Watermelon growing in-between planters

These melons were started as small plants vs. seeds in wine barrels with the vine trained to grow over the barrell and on to the ground. If your garden has space limitations then growing the vines on the ground and along pathways may give your vine plants that extra room needed for meandering growth.

Small sized watermelon almost ready to pick

* When a watermelon is ready to be picked  it should be ripe and ready for eating. Have you heard that watermelons do not continue to ripen off the vine? This was new information for me so I’m waited to harvest these beauties. Watermelon should have a dull colored rind and a brown dried stem when it is ready to be picked. Watermelon are heavy feeders meaning they need steady watering. The soil needs to be rich and fertile with a healthy amount of calcium in the mix. Trellising is also an option by using small fabric slings to support their weight as they are suspended in the air. Coastal San Diego gets a lot of overcast days with sunny and warm days leading into October creating a late growing season for my melons.

 Raised planter: watermelon, rosemary, eggplant, parsley and a few green onions.

Late growing season for watermelon in San Diego. The skin of the melon is a shiny green as it grows, then turns dull when it is ready to be picked.

Super Ripe !

Chula my Chihuahua with a Sugar Baby Watermelon. Watermelon = 7 pounds & Chula = 6.5 pounds

- In Search of the Perfect Muffin -

30 Sep 2011 2 Comments

by nadiaqh in Cooking, Garden Fruits, Living Healthy Tags: , , , ,

Here is a diversion today from the garden into the kitchen. I have been in search of the perfect breakfast muffin and getting closer to finding one. I am posting this one today with a few diversions from the original Dr. Oz’s : Apricot Pecan Muffin. In a quest for a low-fat, low sugar, high fiber, good tasting muffin that borders closely as being a “plonk” or a “scone” this is the best I have come up with. Believe me, I have made some really bad scones and muffins lately. Now the trick will be to just eat one in the morning! This altered recipe came out great. Post a comment if you have some ideas to make it even better, or share a link of your favorite! Maybe my lovely blogger from Kate’s Short and Sweet can help me find a great Plonk/Muffin recipe…

THE CHANGES I MADE ARE IN RED BELOW NEXT TO THE ORIGINAL RECIPE….

Dr. Oz and  Marjorie Johnson: Apricot Pecan Oatmeal Muffin Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup quick cooking oats

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup all-purpose flour   instead I used:   * 1/2 Cup all-purpose flour & 1/2 Cup Whole Wheat Flour

1 tsp baking power

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup dried apricots,  --instead: 1/4 Cup Chopped Dried Apricots and 1/4 Cup Dried Dates

1/2 cup chopped pecans  —  instead I used  * UNSALTED CASHEW PIECES

1/3 cup canola oil (next time I will try using part apple sauce and part oil) stage #2 of revisions.

1 egg

1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed- instead I used  a little less and topped the muffins before cooking them with Wheat Germ and Brown Sugar

Dr Oz & Marjorie Johnson Muffin Recipe

Directions:

1.  Put the oats and buttermilk in a bowl.  Stir well.  Cover and let the bowl stand for 20-30 minutes to let the buttermilk soak into the oats completely.

2.  In another large bowl, mix together the baking powder, baking soda, salt and flour.

3.  Mix in the apricots and pecans. (any nut or dried fruit that you love)

4.  Next, add the brown sugar, egg and oil into the oatmeal combination.

5.  Add the oatmeal combination into the dry flour mixture.

6.  Stir just to combine – do not over-stir! It is fine if it looks lumpy!

7.  Pour the muffin batter into 12 well-greased muffin tins.

8.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

9.  Remove the muffins from their tray and let them cool on a rack.

Apricot and Date Muffins

Apricot, Dates, Cashews and Whole Wheat Flour - seriously good! Did I mention the buttermilk?

YUMMY and HEALTHY! HAPPY GARDENING AND COOKING!

GROW YOUR OWN SUPERFOODS

14 Aug 2011 1 Comment

by nadiaqh in Garden Fruits, Living Healthy, organic gardening, Vegetable/ Herb Garden Tags: , , , ,

How many super foods can you grow in your own garden? The super food lists usually boast about 20 beneficial foods to incorporate into your diet. Super foods are high in anti-oxidants, high in fiber, low in fat and overall the most nutritional foods ounce per ounce.

According to resveratrol.com: Super Foods, also known as anti aging foods, are foods high in antioxidants as well as high concentrations of crucial nutrients that have been proven to help prevent and in some cases, reverse the effects of aging.

Peppers growing in a Topsy Turvy Planter

The Super Foods:

  • avocado, broccoli, onions, peppers, soy, spinach, and sprouts, hot peppers, leeks, daikon radishes
  • açai, apples, blueberries, pomegranates, pumpkin, kiwi, oranges,and tomatoes
  • wild salmon, turkey, eggs
  • beans, barley, seeds, nuts, lentils, oats, walnuts and buckwheat
  • cinnamon, dark chocolates, garlic, honey, extra virgin olive oil (“cold pressed”), sea salt, yogurt & kefir
  • sea vegetables, irish moss, umeboshi plums, wheat grass, miso
  • red wine, green tea and water were also on this list.

    Blueberries for the Southern California Garden

 The Orange Highlighted items are super foods I grow year round and can be grown in a Southern California garden very easily. Radishes, Spinach, Blueberries and Peppers I find are the easiest to grow. Dwarf Apple and Citrus trees make even the smallest spaces a gardening possibility. I buy my honey locally and according to homeopathic and allergy specialists, eating honey collected from the area in which you live (local honey)“ helps to reduce allergies. (Just what I have heard folks!)

Dwarf Anna Apples

Spinach

Raw and Green: Juicing from the Garden

07 Aug 2011 1 Comment

by nadiaqh in Garden Fruits, Living Healthy, organic gardening, Vegetable/ Herb Garden Tags: , , , , ,

Boost your immune system, help your bodies digestion, increase  your energy, help with weight loss, add more anti-oxidants to your diet… that’s the information I read on what a  juicer can do for us, so why did it take me so long to finally purchase one? Maybe it was the price tag, or another appliance fighting for space on the  counter. More likely it was the thought of having to clean out an appliance on a daily  basis and buy a cart-load of vegetables each week to maintain a new health habit. I have a back yard garden to grow seasonal fruits and vegetables, not a farm that produces high quantities of juicing fruits and greens. It took watching the documentary ” Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead ” to change my mind and give it a chance. I don’t have a weight problem, so the anti-oxidant and increased vitality health claims were the motivation that lead to a purchase.

Two very popular juicers are the Jack LaLanne and the Breville Elite: I chose the Breville.

Breville Die-Cast 800JEXL Fountain Elite Juicer: quoted straight from the website: “ It is called the most powerful centrifugal juicer that is available in the market today. It can juice any produce within seconds with 1000 watts motor and spinning rate 13,000.You can make any combination of juice with it. It has quite a wide chute and spares the need of cutting and dicing fruits. You can pour the juice in the plastic pitcher with skimmer to prevent foams in the citrus juice. The machine has a stainless-steel mesh basket that removes the pulp automatically into a juice container. The juicer has two kinds of speeds to juice soft and hard fruits. It is dishwasher safe.”

Great Recipe Book For Juicing: “The Big Book Of Juices“: more than 400 natural blends for health and vitality every day by Natalie Savona.

Breville Juicer

Juiced Carrots, Apples and Pink Grapefruit

* Organic Fruits and Vegetables are best*

I wanted a juicer that was easy to clean so that I would actually continue to use it. I give it a thumbs up for simple assembly and cleaning. The best part about the pulp leftovers is returning it to my compost bin and worm farm. Both compost bins are benefitting from the scraps. Another use for the pulp can be used for making soups by returning the pulp to the juice and simmering with herbs and spices. Not a bad way to juice up your nutrition and enjoy the benefits of adding more vitamins, minerals and micro nutrients to your day.

Fruit Scraps for the composter

Scraps (Pulp) for the compost bins

Wine Barrel Container Gardening

28 Nov 2010 2 Comments

by nadiaqh in Garden Design, Garden Fruits, Garden Projects, Living Healthy, organic gardening, vegetable garden Tags: , , ,

Early Girl Tomato Plant & Wine Barrel Container

Raised planters provide extra room for gardening and using wine, or whiskey barrels has become very popular. These barrels add a bit more character and rustic charm for tomato vines and rose bushes. Last year I started off with adding barrels for planting blueberries then slowly added on rose bushes, dwarf citrus, a floral container and some for tomatoes. The key to a successful barrel planter is to drill out holes on the bottom for water drainage and supply water lines for easy maintenance. The soil in raised planters need to be fed continuously, so check with your local garden store about organic amendments specific for what is grown. For example, blueberries need acidic soil and using Azalea mix is the perfect soil for this plant, without it the blueberries may never produce.

Create drainage holes at the bottom of the barrel with a large drill bit.

 

Blueberry Plants for Southern California

Mission Fig Tree surrounded by Daffodil bulbs.

 

Eureka Lemon Tree & Plumeria Plant mixed together.

Desert King Fig- Ficus carica

22 Oct 2010 4 Comments

by nadiaqh in Garden Fruits, Living Healthy, organic gardening Tags: , , , ,

We all know about Mission Fig Trees with the dark purple skin and matching pulp, but have you ever tried a Desert King Fig? I have one of each in my yard and the Desert King with its’ green skin and pink/strawberry colored pulp in the middle is my favorite. The photo below is a combination of the two types of figs.

 

Desert King and Mission Figs

Fig trees can be pruned to a size that is manageable and continue to produce year after year. I keep mine at a manageable size so that the fruit does not go to waste.

 

The pink inner pulp of a Desert King fig These figs seem to me to taste sweeter than the mission figs.

A vigorous deciduous tree best describes the Desert King with its heavy bearing fruit and rapid growth. In San Diego near the coast it bears fruit June to August then has a second burst of fruit that produces into November. A great tree for providing a lot of shade during the producing season with leaves that are 4 to 10 inches long. No pollination is needed or any special application of fertilizers or food, it also is tolerant of many soil types. Fig trees also grow well in containers, I have my mission fig in a cut -in-half wine barrel that I drilled holes into for  drainage.

Harvest: Figs should ripen fully on the tree when they are slightly soft and only keep for several days. Dry, preserve or eat figs fresh.

 

Desert King fig gets a visit from some bees

Pruning: Fig trees produce quite well with our without pruning. Avoid heavy pruning once the tree is established and never prune heavily in the winter.  Follow this online site to buying bare root fig trees: FIG LINK.

Thank you for visiting today! Enjoy – Create – Grow!

San Marzano “Fresh Off the Vine” Tomato Sauce

29 Aug 2010 4 Comments

by nadiaqh in Cooking, Garden Fruits, Garden Projects, Living Healthy, Vegetable/ Herb Garden Tags: , , , ,

♥ → ♥ SUMMER GARDEN COOKING ♥ ← ♥

Determinate tomatoes on the vine ripen all at one time which makes them ideal for a big batch harvest and cooking up some pasta sauce. I found several online recipes for San Marzano Pasta Sauce and combined them to create a custom sauce with lots of garlic and fresh basil. A photo journal below on how to make a simple tomato sauce and I admit this is my first time making pasta sauce completely from scratch. :)

Thank you for visiting my garden blog today: http://www.nadiaknows.com

Create – Enjoy – Have Fun!

Fresh off the vine San Marzano Tomatoes

After chopping up the tomatoes I added them to a low heat mixture of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and chopped Garlic.

Medium heat cooking for 10 minutes and then mash the semi- cooked tomatoes with a potato masher.

Adding Fresh Basil to the pot

Sea Salt/Kosher Salt with Herb Blend added with Basil and Crushed Pepper to taste.

Blending with a hand blender right in the pot after 10 minutes of cooking.

All Done... Ready for eating or freezing. The final sauce has a nice bright orange-red color. Home-made sauce has a flavor that just cannot be replicated with store-bought... do you agree? I was amazed at the difference.

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