Planting Party!

Garden Cat Mango on Patrol

The warm spring temperatures have finally arrived. The wet winter weather is finally behind us. The soil is now prepared is ready. It's time to plant the 2024 Summer Garden!

This is the start of a summer season that means overwhelming abundance in terms of bright and tasy heirloom tomatoes, the crisp crunch of heirloom variety cucumbers, green and yellow squash sliced lengthwise, drowned in olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper and browned on a flaming summer grill.

But that's just the start! Yes, there's more! The summer garden also means a wide variety of bush beans, multiple varieties of basil, gigantic sweet bell peppers, an eye-popping assortment of hot peppers like the time honored jalapeno and a vast number of home-canning projects such as tomato sauces, tomato soups, plus tomato and hot pepper salsas.

2024 Summer Garden (Partial)

That doesn't even count the bags of home grown garden goodies that will be be packed up and delivered to neighbors near and far. A summer vegetable garden can provide that and more. It doesn't feed the needs of just one household. It can provide summer sustenance for many. This includes a never-ending supply of sweet, multi-colored cherry tomatoes. Summer gardens are the bomb. Every last morsel that springs forth from that summer soil is 100-percent good for the body and soul.

That's why I love summer gardens. How about you?

Preparing a backyard soil that consists of sticky, heavy clay was the first step. That preparation, outlined in previous posts called The Method Part I and The Method Part II, has created the perfect area for planting efforts. BUT, the job isn't quite done yet. The job leaves you with a large patch of soil that is perfect for planting. But still need to take steps to ensure that every inch of that soil is put to good use.

First Garden Trail

All gardens need access. Cutting yourself off from one side of a productive tomato plant, for example, is no good. A good garden needs narrow trails and lots of them so that every section can be reached in multiple ways. However, the last thing you want to do is create trails out of that great soil that has been created with amendments, rototilling and other garden preparation efforts.

So, my method of madness works in the following way: I create my first of many rows for the garden by laying out a series of markers, In my case? I use pieces of PVC cage parts that I created years ago and continue to put to work in the garden. These cage parts make for perfectly straight garden rows, and also play a role as a planting guide. But the first step is to cut an access trail right next to that first row.

Cutting a six-inch deep access trail next to that first and second row that will hold dozens of tomato plants creates piles of nicely amended soil. Instead of 18-inches of loose soil, each row set aside for growing efforts will have two feet or more. I'm certainly not going to walk all over that nice garden soil that I've taken multiple steps to create. I'm going to move it to where it's needed.

Garden Layout in Progress

Is this extra work? Extra stress on the legs? A workout for a cranky back? You bet it is. But the payoffs are what I like to call "layer cakes" of amended garden soils that will eventually hold starter plants OR rows of seeds. The mounds of really good soil that I will create with my pathway creation efforts still need to be raked level.

The entire garden resembles high and low sections by the time I'm finished. There are narrow access rows and trails cut into every section of the garden. The planting areas receive several extra inches of great soil, and both the dog and cat have trails to run up and down as they scare away rats and other garden thieves throughout the summer months. There's no place for the garden thieves to hide out. They either stay out of the garden, or risk the consquences.

Once this work is done, it's time to start the planting process. I learned many years ago that using a post-hole digging tool that is normally employed for fence posts is the best tool for planting tomatoes. The PVC pieces that I put into place earlier during the trail creation phase also serve as planting guides. The holes for each tomato starter plant are dug in the center of each PVC frame. A month later I will need to remove that frame to actually build the cage that will support monster plants later that summer. But, that job can wait for a little while.

Digging Plant Holes

There was a day and age when I once utilized fish heads and other parts of fish that had been cleaned and thrown away to place at the bottom of those planting holes. But that practice ended a few years for me due to recycling efforts that made this once easily accessible and desired garden amendment very hard to come by. So, the only thing that goes into that two-foot deep hole that I've created with the post-hole digger is the rootball of the tomato plant that I will place there. Everything is then covered with heavily amended soil, and it's time to move to the next hole.

The same system works just as well with the garden pepper starter plants, but the holes for those are not cut nearly as deep. That process moves quite a bit faster because there's not as much soil to cut through. It can take a day or more to dig the 45-50 planting holes I will need for each starter plant, but it saves a lot of bending and stress on the knees.

Cherry Tomato Plant Row

After planting every transplant that the garden will hold, the next step is cutting long rows in the soil layer cake of amended soil for seeds. Long rows are set aside for an heirloom cucumber called Sumter. Additional rows are created for heirloom bush bean plants that carry the time honored names of Blue Lake, Kentucky Wonder and Pencil Pod.

Bush beans grow well here. The Sumter Cucumber, which I discovered by complete accident a few years ago, also grows extremely well in this climate. What doesn't grow well in California? I've really yet to find any garden vegetable that does not flourish in this climate. I suppose it's the reason why I've stayed, while so many of my counterparts have run off to other areas of the country.

So you have it! I'm still working on other sections of the garden. There's always something to do. The garden effort really doesn't end. Because, by the time planting efforts end, it's nearly time to start enjoying the harvest. Then, the period of over-production starts. That's the signal to start providing to others, or multiple canning projects to save chunks of that summer garden for winter use.

As you might imagine, I enjoy this type of work very much.

The Snail Mail Garden News Release!

Boss Radio-KYNO Number 1

My career in radio news started at a Fresno radio station called KYNO. It was a legendary radio station that sat at the frequency of 1300 on the AM dial and would take on numerous nicknames during a fabulous five decade run. These would include the BIG 13, BOSS Radio and KYNO Number One to name a few.

By the time I finally graduated from CSU Fresno in the late 1980's, the legend and magic of the BIG 13 had largely died out. The BOSS Radio format had run it's course. Most people, including yours truly, listened to music on FM stations, not AM.

However, that would not stop me from becoming the last News Director to serve at the birthplace of Boss Radio.* The ghosts of legendary news men and women who proceeded me permeated that isolated newsroom. So did the nicotine pigment that resulted from decades of smoking inside that tiny closet of a room. By the time I arrived, those acoustic sound panels that lined the ceiling and walls had faded from a bright, shiny white to a stain of yellowish-brown.

KYNO-AM Newsroom**

Most of the snail mail that arrived at the KYNO studios during this period fell into my lap. News releases written by local, state and national organizations arrived every day. But, they were delivered in a state of flux. The world of communication rapidly changed during this period. News releases that once arrived by snail-mail would soon arrive by fax machine. Much later, those very same news releases would start to arrive via a new form of communication called email.***

Today, most news arrives via social media. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages serve this purpose. What will the primary tool of news delivery be in another decade or two? Your guess is as good as mine.

This brief history lesson does not mean that snail-mail news releases died along with my youthful looks or hair color (which is LONG GONE). They still serve a useful purpose and still manage to find a way into my mailbox, even though my days as a radio newsman ended long ago. The snail-mail reminder that most recently arrived was generated by a well known California seed company.

Media Kit: Renee's Garden

That company is called Renee's Garden. This company bills itself as "Your Garden to Table Seed Company." The release sent to me is titled the "2023 Media Kit."

What exactly is a media kit? It is usually more than one sheet or two sheets of paper, which would be the form of a traditional media or news release. The media kits that I prepared during a 20-year career at the California State Capitol usually included a one-page release, fact sheets consisting of two-to-three pages and a graphic creation of photos, print or both.

In this case? Renee's Garden has sent a very nice four-page glossy graphic creation that consists of garden photos and gardens that include numerous vegetables. Those photos include a glossy portrait of Founder Renee Shepherd and Elayne Takemoto, the Product and Marketing Manager at Renee's Garden.

What makes a media release like this stand out above all others? It's a freebie. Back in the days of KYNO Radio, we had a term for this. It was called "scrip." Scrip was kept behind lock and key in a place called the Prize Closet. The only employee who could unlock the coveted Prize Closet was the Promotions Director.**** In this case, Renee's Garden is pushing a new product: Climbing Zucchini. It's called the "Incredible Escalator," and this media release contains a packet of seeds for someone like me to sample and try out.

Seed Packet-Renee's Garden

This packet of seeds, which carries a retail price of $4.39, is described as follows: "Our unique, space-saving, climbing zucchini offers high yields of tender, delicious fruits." Do you know what that means? It means that if I plant these seeds somewhere, which I plan to do, my neighbors are going to receive surprise deliveries of zucchini later this summer.

I can only eat so much zucchini.

I am still intrigued about the idea, however. Vegetable plants that can climb a trellis or a nearby fence saves lots of garden space. The spot that would have been set aside for a zucchini bush can instead be replaced with corn, watermelons, bush beans, or, or, or (you name it). Fences can serve a great and useful purpose in the garden. Last year I used mine to dry a fantastic crop of large, pungent onions. It worked out better than I expected.

Climbing Zuccihini

Photos provided by Renee's Garden website appear to show that this variety of zucchini does appear to grow tendrils similar to other climbing vegetable plants. Those tendrils, in turn, wrap around whatever they can find to give the zucchini plant more room to grow up rather than out.

This seems like a good idea to me. Some gardening efforts are experimental. I love trying new stuff in every summer vegetable garden. I'm looking forward to the results. This also includes the payoff of zucchini sliced lengthwise, covered with olive oil and salt, and grilled during a traditional summer barbecue.

*BOSS Radio was a unique format developed at KYNO-AM Radio. Local legend has it that the format was scratched out on the back of a cocktail napkin at the bar located inside the Cedar Lanes Bowling Alley, near the KYNO studios on Barton Avenue in Fresno. This was a modification of the Top 40 format that relied upon fewer records, shorter jingles, less talk from DJ's and a heavier rotation of the biggest hits. The format was a hit and spread to KFRC in San Francisco, KHJ in Los Angeles, KGB in San Diego, WRKO in Boston, CKLW in Windsor, Ontario and numerous other smaller market stations. The format would make several DJ's famous. The names include Dr. Don Rose, the Real Don Steele, Dave Diamond and Robert W. Morgan (to name a few).

**That is yours truly in the original newsroom of the legendary KYNO-AM. Pictured with me is my cousin: Karen Doran. This picture was taken in 1990 or 1991, after KYNO-FM had switched call signs to KJFX and adopted the Classic Rock format that airs on this station to this very day. Karen would meet the love of her life, Tim, some years later and take the name of Van Overen. She is the mother to three great kids, including my Godson, Jon Paul.

***The former KYNO Radio studios on Barton Ave. in Fresno is now home to Punjabi Radio USA. KYNO would later move to the 940 frequency on the AM Radio dial. Today, the station is owned by John and Katrina Ostlund. KYNO studios are currently located on Fulton Ave. in Fresno.

****I have fond memories of the KYNO Prize Closet, the valuable Scrip it held, and always made sure to treat the Promotions Director with great respect. This treatment resulted in hundreds of free pizza coupons from a variety of restaurants. It also meant free meals at select restaurants. To this day I cannot even touch food products like Pringles Potato Chips and Entenmann's Doughnuts because I subjected my stomach to the abuse of eating a never-ending supply of these products for a number of years. One restaurant that served excellent Mexican fare stands out in my mind, however. Paulita's Cocina (now closed) is where I would meet a young waitress, who was working her way through college. I later had the pleasure of working with this young lady after I moved to another radio station years later. Today this young lady works as a News Producer at a Sacramento TV station.

KOMPOT!

Bandit and Mango

I must admit that it has been a very nice experience to live right next door to a husband and wife who were born in Ukraine. They both arrived in California decades ago as young children. They were immigrants in what must have been a strange new world for them. But, they adapted. They grew up. They met, they fell in love, got married and started a family. This journey came to my attention when they purchased the home next door some years ago.

I couldn't ask for better neighbors. Sometimes I feel like I've won a lottery of life. The children from this marriage have been called upon, or put to work so to say, to name the beasts that are pictured above. Both cat and dog were procured from the Bradshaw Animal Shelter in Sacramento County. The dog, a Border Collie, was christened with the name of Bandit. The kitten received the title of Mango.

Recent Tomato Haul

I've come to learn that this family loves the produce that comes from the over-sized gardens that I plant every spring. I always make the mistake of planting far too much than I could ever consume, which means the multitudes of tomatoes, squash, peppers, onions and other garden goodies are always searching for a home. They have found a home next door (and elsewhere).

They have also been introduced to the tree-ripened delight of Black Mission figs. I first experienced this delight last year when the tree I planted three years ago suddenly delivered a small crop of fruit. Although I've planted and nurtured a multitude of fruit trees, this would be my first experience with tree-ripened figs. Oh my! I can begin to understand now why figs were, at one time, the most widely planted of all fruit trees in California.

Black Mission Fig Tree

The crop that is coming off the tree this summer can be described in many ways. But, the word "small" is not one of them. Dozens of figs are now ripe for the picking every single day. While I always enjoy five or six pieces of daily, tree-ripened fruit, the dozens that are coming off the tree right now are a bit much. They have found a home next door, across the street, down the block and even at a local dog park where Bandit can terrorize other dogs and dog owners.

It is this gift of fruit, plus other summer garden produce, that resulted in the discovery of an old Russian and Ukrainian heirloom recipe. It's called Kompot (Kohm-Poat). It's a simple way of using a lot of tree or bush-ripened fruit to make a fresh and natural fruit juice that is out of this world GOOD.

Black Mission Figs

I suppose you could call this the old-fashioned way of making Kool-Aid. It's just much healthier. It's also much, much better.

The introduction to this crazy-good concoction made a surprise appearance at my front door the other day. It was a gift from my Ukrainian neighbors. This particular Kompot was made with strawberries and blueberries. I instantly fell in love with it. I'd never tasted anything like it. I would come to learn that Kompot can be made with any combination of tree-ripened fruit. Or, it can be made with just one type of tree-ripened fruit.

Like, Black Mission figs, for example.

Making Kompot

The glass jug that my neighbors of Ukrainian descent used to introduce me to the wonders of Kompot would be returned two days later. That's how long it took me to drink a quart of strawberry and blueberry Kompot. It was that good. But, this jar would not be returned empty. It was cleaned and filled again. It would be returned with a Black Mission fig mixture of Kompot.

If one were to cast votes on this matter, I would personally choose the Kompot that came out of the neighbor's kitchen. That combination of strawberries and blueberries was truly something special. I wish I could share that taste with you. It is out of this world good.

Black Mission Fig Kompot

But, other people also get to cast votes in this election. It's a split decision. The neighbors who introduced me to Kompot claim they like my Mission Black fig creation just a tad better.

You can't ask for better neighbors. You really can't.

This is the recipe I used to make my own version of Black Mission fig Kompot. I also modified it a tad, so I've listed it below. Although this is a recipe that I used to create Kompot from Black Mission figs, any fruit can be substituted.

This is the month of August in California. What California fruit ripens during the month of August? EVERYTHING!

Have fun!

Black Mission Fig Kompot

-25 soft to the touch, tree-ripened Black Mission figs

-1.5 gallons water

-1 to 1.5 cups sugar (depending upon how sweet you want it)

Directions:

-Cut figs into quarters and set aside

-Fill a large pot with 1.5 gallons of water and bring to a boil

-Add quartered figs and return to a boil

-Reduce heat to a simmer. Do not cover pot

-Simmer for 30-45 minutes.

-Turn stove off after simmering is complete. Add sugar to water and fruit. Stir to mix. I covered the pot and let this mixture sit overnight.

-Straining the fruit from the liquid is tricky. I just dumped the entire concoction into a plastic one gallon jug. I used a colander to strain the juice into two half gallon jugs. Seeds from the figs do pass through, but I didn't mind. If you want a clearer fruit juice, minus the seeds, you can place cheesecloth into the colander during the straining process.

The left-over fruit used from creating this mixture is also very tasty. It can also be used in another dish called Kissel. This recipe comes courtesy of Natasha's Kitchen. Scroll past the Kompot recipe to access the instructions for Kissel.