Gardening Success!

Ok, I admit that my gardening successes have been mixed. But this year the harvest is bountiful!

So, what is the difference? I have a community garden plot, and one of the best things about it - compost and scheduled drip watering. 

The other great thing about a community plot is knowledgeable neighbors. I've learned this year that keeping tomatoes on the vine when you harvest, rather than plucking them, keeps them fresh longer. I also learned that you should harvest green beans at night so they have the cooler overnight weather to recover. Japaese beetles, I discovered, are the bane of the garden and hard to control organically. 

This was my first gardening year in Colorado. I was a little nervous about organic gardening, which I've never done, and being in a new locale. I was worried I'd have the worst plot in the garden.

At the beginning of the season, we had a load of compost we could put on our raised garden beds. My husband and I found some straw on Facebook Marketplace from an owner of an urban chicken coop. We put the straw on heavily to keep weeds at bay.

Here's the result - a  bountiful harvest!

    

Garden Delight - Cucumer Dill Salad

 It's harvest time in the garden and the cucumbers are doing well this year. The dill is also growing like crazy - so that means cucumber dill salad.

This recipe is an adaptation of one from Epicurean magazine. 

Ingredients

1/2 red onion thinly sliced and halved

1 cucumber peeled and sliced

1/8 c. rice vinegar

1 Tbs. honey

1 Tbs. whole grain mustard

1/4 c. mayonnaise

3 Tbs. half & half

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1 Tbs. minced fresh dill

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Prepare onion and cucumber. Mix rice vinegar, honey and mustard along with salt and pepper in a small bowl. Add onion and mix. Let set 30 min. to pickle onion.

In another small bowl, combine mayonnaise, half & half, garlic powder, dill and salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly. 

Toss cucumbers with pickled red onions and pour dill dressing mixture over and mix well. Chill until ready to serve.