Sample Garden: Companion Planting

My source: Carrots Love Tomatoes by Louise Riotte

Bed #1: The Strawberry patch

Onions are compatible with almost all plants (except peas and beans) and work to repel pests. Strawberries are among the plants they especially like, so I planted a bunch of onions throughout my strawberry patch. I also planted some garlic in this bed, as it repels pests much like onion does. I put in a row of spinach here as well, since strawberries do well with them.

 

Next year: I would put some bush beans down the center of this bed, as they do well with strawberries, too. I would then omit the onions and garlic, since they inhibit the growth of beans. I'd add marigold to ward off pests.

 

 

 



Bed #2: Veggies

 In this bed, I put four tomato plants with radishes, carrots, arugula and marigolds planted between them.
The carrots are there because as the book title says, "Carrots LOVE Tomatoes."
The radishes and marigolds act as pest repellants.

The parsley planted in this bed is friendly to both tomatoes and carrots.
The dill and Brussels sprouts here are good companions. I should probably have put the dill farther from the carrots, however.
There's arugula here as well, and as far as I know, it doesn't have any unfriendliness to other plants.
On the end farthest from the tomatoes are bell peppers and hot peppers.

Next year: Members of the cabbage family should not be rotated with each other, so I'll need to avoid planting cabbage family members where the Brussels sprouts and radishes were grown this year. Also, tomatoes enjoy being in the same spot consecutive years, so I'll plan to put them exactly where they were this year.  

 



Bed #3: More Veggies

In this bed I have marigolds for general pest repellant. There are radishes throughout to protect the zucchini squash and cucumbers and pole beans planted here. There are nasturtiums protecting the squash as well. I put cilantro here as well, since I know of no dislikes between it and any other plants. 

 

Do you do any companion planting? What are you favorite plants to pair? 

 

 

Homemade Tabasco

 

This is a straightforward recipe for making any kind of tabasco. If you want to make Louisiana Style red tabasco, use cayenne peppers. If you want to make green tabasco, use jalapenos. In my case, I had a big tub of both green & red scorpion peppers my mom gave me, so I separated green from red and made separate batches: one Red Scorpion and one Green Scorpion.

In this 2016 list of the hottest peppers, two varieties of Scorpion pepper are listed as hotter than ghost pepper. I'm not even sure what variety we have, but it is HOT and makes for SUPER HOT tabasco. However, as I stated before, the following instructions can be used for making any sort of tabasco: jalapeno, cayenne, etc. You can make it as hot or as mild as you choose! 

 

Here's our sink full of red and green scorpion peppers, along with a few jumbo sized cayennes.

 

Instructions

Step 1. In a covered container, combine:
1 pound of peppers, washed and chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 cup white or apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 cup sugar

Step 2. Cover the container and refrigerate for 24-48 hours.

Step 3. Transfer the ingredients to a saucepot over medium-high heat. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes to soften the peppers. Stir occasionally.

(If you plan to can the tabasco, this is when you'll sterilize your jars and bring a filled water bath canner to a boil.)

Step 4. Use a spoon or ladle to transfer ingredients to a blender or food processer and process until smooth. If you do an enormous batch like I did, you will need to do several rounds of this. Don't leave behind any liquids in the saucepan - the vinegar needs to be included, too.

(As I processed mine, I poured the tabasco directly into sterilized jars for canning.)

Step 5. Enjoy!



The original recipe is supposed to make 1 cup of tabasco, but I ended up with ten times that, as you can see here.

Do you make your own tabasco? Please share your tips and thoughts in the comments. =)

Bucket List (as of Sep 2016)

Here's all the stuff I really want to do, as of this month of this year. Goodness knows it could change again any day. My blog seems the best place to store it, as a sheet of paper could be swallowed by the vortex of our house quite easily. =)

Work at the Renaissance Festival
  -as a food vendor
  -as a musical performer (penny whistle)

Camp and/or Hike
  -in Duluth (again)
  -Lake of the Woods
  -all over Minnesota
  -Yellowstone (again)
  -Zion National Park, UT
  -Grand Canyon
  -Black Hills
  -Grand Tetons
  -Canada wild

Travel
  -visit the British Isles
  -visit France (St Michel, Bayeux Tapestry, wine in a little café, local eats, Normandy beaches, Provence, Aquitaine)
  -Italy (pizza and wine on the Med, Venice)
  -Greece (on the Med, Athens)
  -Iceland
  -Norway & Sweden
  -Germany (Hofbrau Haus, racetracks, ...snowboarding?)

Write
  -Sabel (a novel)
  -Prairie Tales (short stories)
  -In the Family (family history)
  -Food: Simple (easy cooking & baking)
  -In My Wildest Dreams (the stories within dreams & nightmares)
  -The Menne Boys (small town fiction)

Episode 16: For Better or Worse

for a preface, see my work stories home page.


There was a resident once, let's call her Jewel. She lived in the memory care unit, where she was continually trying to escape. She'd wait at the door, tap on the glass, her coke bottle glasses magnifying her gray eyes under a cloud of curly gray hair.

Most of the time she babbled incoherently or said nothing at all, floating through the unit like a shadow or a ghost. Once in a while she would suddenly take shape, however, and when this happened, she was one spunky woman. She has been reported saying things like, "You take the damn pills, then."

Then there came a man to visit. She recognized him instantly and stopped wandering. She wrapped her arms around him and held him, forgetting about the open door behind him, not needing to escape anymore.

He told me their story. Jewel had been his neighbor, living up the gravel road from him. He was a farmer, which means manual laborer plus businessperson plus gambler. He needed help with the books, so he asked the lovely, spunky Jewel if she would mind helping him with them, and she agreed. The rest is history.

"She wasn't really all that good of an accountant," he confessed. The sweet shy smile that played on his face told volumes. I instantly imagined him a younger single man, eating alone at the kitchen table, saying no hullos or goodbyes as he goes out to the field. Then along comes Jewel, and he's no longer alone in his big, old farmhouse. Jewel sits across from him at supper. Jewel's laughter fills the empty, echoing space. Jewel stands beside him when the market looks grim and the bills are piling up.

Now its him who fills the echoing spaces, who squeezes her hand and studies her vacant expression with that sweet, shy smile of his. Now he sits next to her though there's not many words and not much laughter.

"For better or worse," says the age-old vow.

This farmer and this accountant,
husband and wife,
are still living that vow.

For better or for worse
shows its best
in the worst.

Episode 15: The Last Text

for a preface, see my work stories home page.



I have only one protected message on my phone.

Dated November 30, 2015, 7:59 pm:
We work it out :-)

A former coworker (let's call her Sunny) and I were working on swapping shifts over the holidays, and that was her last message to me.

Rewind about four months from that message to when I was new at my current job, and you'd see that Sunny was driving me crazy. Sometimes she would instruct me on how to do an elementary task. Sometimes she would display complete disorganization, leaving everything until the last minute when it would magically come together. She'd be standing there, flushed and chipper. I'd be around the corner with all my hair torn out. I couldn't decide which I preferred - the laid back chaos of working with Sunny, or the tense machinery of working with Manager.

She started to grow on me, nonetheless (as did Manager). For one, Sunny had joined our work team a month before I did, and both of us had the common experience of being "hazed" by the fiery rage of our coworker Dragon Lady, who marks her territory on each new employee the way any animal does.

Then Sunny's teenage daughter Tuneful joined the team, and she was like a mini photocopy of her mom. Both were flustered and haphazard in their work-style but also full of ideas, random knowledge, mirth, and music. It was touching to see and hear how Sunny blissfully lavished love on her kids. Once, she came to drop off Tuneful for her shift, and before leaving she pulled her close so they were hugging cheek-to-cheek. "Love you," she smiled, speaking with intense purpose as if it were the last time. I think of that often now that she's gone.

Sunny loved her kids, but talk was her passion. She would talk about her estranged husband, talk about her boyfriend, talk about motor racing, talk about cooking, talk about her summer home in a trailer in the woods. She loved talk. She was an artist, and talk was her medium.

Sunny passed away sometime during the night after she sent me her cheerful text, November 31, 2015. Almost a year ago now. Turns out she had been spending the night in her truck (not at home, because she couldn't stand her husband). Tuneful found her the next day. She had died of a massive heart attack and no one had been there to witness it or call for help.

Her three kids are growing up without her. I can't imagine. Every time I clear the messages from my phone, Sunny's remains. I see her last text and remember her life, her spunk, her easy-going manner, and the way she loved her kids. It's a final message, and I'm still trying to understand why it had to be final.

"We work it out," she wrote to me, followed by a cheesy smiley face, so true to her sunny character.

And we're still here, still trying to work it out.