The New Me

Custom Blog Templates by Madeline

It's the old me, actually. Same bad writing. Same bad advice. Some things never do change.

By now, you may have noticed some changes to the blog that is Sacramento Vegetable Gardening. Yep, Bill and Venus Bird have gone mainstream. They plumb went out and hired a graphic designer to clean up the clutter and make things look neat n' tidy. What's next? Ads promoting Viagra?

I suppose a little explanation is in order. Or, in my case, I blame it all on "Maddy."

"Maddy" is actually a fine and inventive young lady by the name of Madeline Miller. I can't remember exactly how I ran across her -- she may have left a comment on the blog at one point -- I'm not sure. But I was instantly impressed with her blog and her blog designs. Each one was fresh and unique. For me? They jumped right off the page and screamed TALENT!!!

I know about this because I have so precious little of it.

At any rate -- I had been thinking about some design changes to the blog but was also a little hesitant. Let me explain. I'm old. I didn't grow up with computers. The words "Bill Bird" and "computer savvy" would represent a classic oxymoron if used in the same sentence. One minor and wrong keystroke had me pulling out what precious little hair I had left.

I also have very little clue when it comes to basic colors. The wife that is Venus will attest to this. The woman won't let me near a washing machine because that's usually when disaster strikes. No matter how hard I try to do well, left on my own, I usually wind up wearing something that's a rather Christmassy shade of green and red.

Hey, it works for December. But July?

Madeline Miller

At any rate, I picked the wrong time to bother Madeline Miller. Big surprise there. I've been doing that for most of my 48 years on God's Green Earth. As it turns out -- Madeline was dealing with some other issues more important than my blog when I reached out to her. Her family was about to expand with a new addition.

"See you in six months and that's a promise," she wrote.

Fast forward nearly eleven months -- and voilà!!! The new template is now in place. There are some other changes that I've been dragging my feet on, and at the same time, testing Madeline's patience to absolutely no end.

"How about a listing for recipes," she asked. "Uh, sure" was my reply -- usually followed by a "how do I do that?"

"You would need to add labels," she would patiently reply. Which was usually followed by an, "oh, OK. What?"

In the end, I annoyed a resident of Roseville to absolutely no end -- and got a nice blog design out of the deal. Not a bad exchange in my opinion.

The pictures used in the new template are all from the Bird Back 40 -- promise. We didn't buy those melons -- nor the tomatoes -- nor did I steal anything.

This time...

My hope is -- that as time goes by and people visit -- they will see the outdoor adventure that is Northern California. Short and sweet -- it doesn't matter what you put in the ground out this way. We're blessed. We're blessed with some of the greatest soil -- some of the greatest weather -- the most wonderful of growing conditions.

California living at its finest.

If you're impressed by Madeline's work -- you can reach out to her here.

Just don't make the mistake of telling her that you know me.

Tempted by the Fruit of Another...

Tomato Starter Plants-Home Depot North Natomas

What's this? Blogging on the home computer instead of driving up to Peaceful Valley Farm Supply in wonderful Nevada City?

Umm yeah. The wonderful wife that is Venus was making merry last night in a chair dedicated to her father's name, in the Royal Palm Clubhouse Bar at Heritage Park. I can't blame the lady. She has already set sail on a common trip that we all must take following the death of a parent. And although we all take this trip at one point or another in our lives -- we do so very much alone.

So what does Bill Bird do while the wife rests? He blogs of course! There are important gardening matters to bring to your attention. There are prats! There are pitfalls (especially if you follow my advice)! One such pitfall is in that rather tempting photo to the upper right.

Looks nice eh? Tomato starter plants by the dozen! All just begging for you to buy them -- take them home and plant! Those green leaves hold a promise of a luscious fresh tomato harvest later in the year. Wink, wink! Nod, nod! Buy me!

Are you tempted yet? Good! Because that's just the kind of reaction that the Big Box stores were hoping to impale you with. You cannot resist the siren song of home-grown tomatoes. So, buy, buy, buy!!!

Listen to Nancy!

Yet -- I'm here to tell you something else: DON'T. As former First Lady Nancy Reagan once opined: "Just Say No!" Do you remember those words of advice? I certainly do! Did I follow them? HECK NO!

But I do remember them. It's good to know that I didn't completely ravage every last brain cell during the "lost years."

You will discover row after delicious row of tomato starter plants just like this one at my North Natomas Home Depot this weekend. You'll find them at every Home Depot in Northern California -- just about every big box store has them now.

And it's not just tomatoes! Oh heck no! You want pepper plants? They got them! Strawberry starters? Check! Got a hankering to grow asparagas or perhaps artichokes in the backyard? Say Hey! They've got those too!

Celebrity Tomato: A Bill Bird Favorite!

I know how you feel. It's hard to say no. But you're doing yourself a favor if you do nothing more than look and smile at things yet to come in the 2011 gardening season. Just because starter plants are available now, doesn't mean it's time to plant them.

It's too cold outside children. Yes, I know the fruit trees are flowering. I know the nights aren't quite as chilly as they once were. The sunshine we've all felt on our arms and legs the past week feels pretty good, doesn't it? The weather is changing. The long, dreary winter is nearly over. Spring is just around the corner.

But it's not here yet. Keep that in mind as you walk down gorgeous row after gorgeous row of tomato plant starters. Also keep in mind that planting tomatoes is a little like shooting dice at a craps table. Sometimes you get the big payoff. And sometimes you lose the entire bundle.

Tempting, yes?

Setting plants into the ground now could result into a healthy payoff later this spring with fresh-from-the garden tomatoes in May! I know because I've done it. I've been there. I gambled -- and I won. The weather cooperated that year. It warmed up in late March and stayed warm through April and May. Venus and I harvested a boatload that year.

But that was "that year." They're not always like that. In fact, when we gambled again the next year with planting starter plants in early April -- the weather didn't cooperate. It got cold. It rained. Disease took its toll that year -- which will forever be known in the Bird Household as the "Year Without Tomatoes." That's like the "Year Without a Santa Claus," only worse. Santa does eventually make a comeback.

Early Planting Sometimes Results in This!

Our tomato plants didn't. I'll never forget the disease that ravaged the garden that year. The leaves of our plantings turned a leathery shade of copper. Pulling them out and replacing them with new plants made no difference whatsoever. We may have removed the infected plants, but the disease that struck that year remaind behind, and proceeded to strike and infect the new plants that we set out in June.

Venus and I learned a tough lesson that year. We had to beg on streetcorners for our fresh tomato fix. We had rolled the dice and it came up snake eyes. It would be the last time that we would roll that dice or spin that bottle.

So my friends -- I offer this advice: look but don't touch. Dream -- but don't plant. Don't just listen to Nancy, follow her good words of advice. The 2011 gardening season is just around the corner. Don't rush a good thing. It will be here soon enough.

The Sweetest Melon...

Hale's Best Jumbo Cantaloupe

....is the melon that comes straight from the backyard melon patch! Like that cantaloupe to your right? 4.5 lbs. of Hale's Best Jumbo Cantaloupe? It will go down as the sweetest -- juciest bit of melon that has ever come from the Bird Backyard bar none.

In a summer full of gardening missteps and disappointments -- this baby goes down as the "bright spot" in the Bird Back 40. It's the "Grand Slam" in the bottom of the 9th in the 7th Game of the October Classic. I've never grown a cantaloupe this large -- and nothing -- I mean NOTHING -- has ever tasted this good.

Bill Bird is a tad melancholy this Sunday morning. Stick with me for a minute. It's one of those helpless little feelings you get when you open the morning newspaper (yeah -- we're old skool print people, people) and discover that a neighbor has just short-sold a home on your block for $235,000.

That price -- folks -- represents a loss of more than 50% on our housing value. Not 20% -- not 30% -- not 50% either. Make it more like 60% for a neighborhood that was nothing more than a rice field just four years ago. Who needs morning coffee when a former neighbor sticks a pin in your eye?

What does this mean? Well -- it means that Bill and Venus Bird aren't going anywhere soon! We're going to be farming this North Natomas Back 40 from "here until eternity" to borrow a somewhat famous movie line. I might even have to sell off parts of this blog. For three cents.

What to do then?

Kleckley Sweet Watermelon

Grow melons. Lots and lots of melons. Oh -- and perhaps drink fine gin that comes in a plastic bottle.

Melon season has indeed "arrived" in Northern California. Like everything else -- it's late -- but better late than never. And -- I'm also somewhat surprised to discovered that our cooler-than-normal summer hasn't affected the melon sugar content.

Venus and I harvested the first of the Kleckley Sweet melons last weekend. It wasn't huge -- not hardly. In fact -- at 10 lbs. -- that's rather small for Kleckley Sweet size. These babies can top out at 25-30 lbs. But you won't find me complaining here. This is one of the sweetest watermelons to come from the Bird Backyard yet.

There's nothing quite like the satisfaction you get when cutting into a melon and discovering that you have harvested said melon at JUST the right time. Picking melons -- for the most part -- is a crapshoot. Sometimes you get great melon. Sometimes you pick it a tad too early. Sometimes you pick it a tad to late. Picking it at the exact right time? You feel like you've just "doubled down" and life has dealt you a "21."

As for the Kleckley Sweet that we picked last weekend -- I noticed that the green rind had turned a shade or two "whiter" over the course of four or five days (I inspect the garden everyday because I'm quite insane and want to find out where "that damn dog" has been digging) and that proved to be a tell-tale sign that the melon was indeed "ready for harvest."

But you never really know until you slice said melon wide open and taste the gift that is located inside. And home-grown watermelon is quite the gift. It's juicy. It's messy. It's sweet. It's lip smacking good. And -- about those seeds? I'm of the opinion that it ain't melon unless it has SEEDS. Yes -- "seedless melon" or "seedless anything" for that matter is an abomination!

Besides -- the seeds are good for spitting at rogue cats. Or -- rogue neighbors who do you no favors...

Hale's Best

As for the Hale's Best Jumbo Cantaloupe? Figuring out that perfect moment to harvest is a tad easier. The melon color changes from green -- to brown -- to finally a light orange-brown. You know it's ready when the stem snaps off from the vine with ease.

The real trick is getting to said cantaloupe before the voles can "help themselves." So far? They haven't been the problem they were last year. But melon season is now just beginning in North Natomas.

The voles have plenty of time...

Those Reliable Reds...

EDITOR'S NOTE: Bill Bird's crappier than crap digital camera is no longer functioning after swallowing a mouthful of Rogue River water during a rafting trip in Southern Oregon. If you didn't think his photos could get any worse -- you ain't seen nuthin' yet!

Hello friends! How does that garden grow? If it's anything like mine? The word is FINALLY!

Yes -- finally the heirloom tomato plants are springing to life. Finally -- they are growing by leaps and bounds. Some are actually producing fruit! Others are not! And that's LIFE with heirloom tomato plants my friend. Sometimes you get some. Other times -- you get the stick.

Why? Well -- that is certainly the $64 question. Why do some heirloom tomato plants grow and grow and grow -- yet fail to produce a single tomato? How can that possibly happen when the plants located to the immediate right and left are loaded with more green tomatoes than you can possibly count?

How indeed!

The Joys of Growing Heirloom Tomatoes! It should be a book. It certainly is an experience. Heirloom tomatoes can bring the most wonderful of rewards -- and can also usher in the most vexing of problems. Farmer Fred Hoffman writes about one such problem here. There are others.

But I've come to discover -- through experience -- that there are some rather reliable heirloom varieties that not only grow well right here in Northern California -- they're almost guaranteed to produce a boatload of tomatoes.

I call these my "Reliable Reds." They have produced for me year in and year out. They have survived diseases. They have survived infestations (Voles). Although they are not technically "disease resistant," they have shown a remarkable ability to throw off the leaf and stem blight that sometimes strikes the Bird Backyard during these hot July days.

Now -- understand -- these "Reliable Reds" aren't going to knock you flat with that eye-popping heirloom taste like you get with some varieties. They're not going to make your eyeballs roll back into your skull like a Brandywine or Kelloggs Breakfast sometimes can. They don't have that eye-catching bi-colored skin that other heirloom varieties offer.

Nope -- what you get with the Reliable Reds is this: A red, sometimes round, tomato. Not just one of them either -- but a bushel. These may not be the "best-tasting" heirloom tomatoes -- but they're not bad either. These two varieties have produced an extraordinary crop for me during the past three seasons -- so I feel somewhat safe in recommending these to your garden.

The first is DRUZBA. Although we're off to an extraordinarily late start this year -- the reliable Druzba is once again fruiting like nobody's business. It also happens to be one of my favorites because -- as an indeterminate -- it keeps right on producing round, red tomatoes until winter frost sets in. It's not all that unusual to be harvesting fresh Druzba tomatoes for a Thanksgiving feast -- long after other varieties have played out or shut down.

Druzba is a fairly recent introduction to the United States heirloom tomato market. It comes from Bulgaria where its name means "friendship." One of the leading authorities on growing heirloom tomatoes -- Dr. Carolyn Male -- calls Druzba "ideal for nearly every type of gardener.... one of the finest heirlooms available."

Of course -- it didn't hurt that she helped introduce it to American gardeners by donating seed to Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (SESE) in 1995 -- and it also comes highly reccommended in what I like to call the "bible" for heirloom tomato growers: Dr. Male's "100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden."

The second variety that is also going gangbusters in the Bird Family Heirloom Tomato Garden -- for the third straight year I might add -- is Campbell's 1327. I had read about this particular variety for years before I finally got around to trying it. I will continue to grow it for year after year for obvious reasons: you just can't possibly screw up a Campbell's 1327.

The Campbell's 1327 is an open pollenated tomato variety that was originally developed by the Research and Development Division of Campbell's Soup Company over 50 years ago. The variety sets sweet, tart red tomato fruit with ease.

Why the Campbell's Soup Company abandoned this variety for others isn't known -- but I can tell you it's not because of the taste or the output of a single plant. It is simply one of the best-tasting red tomatoes on the market -- and one plant is going to keep you in tomatoes and tomato sauce for quite some time.

The Campbell's 1327 does well in any type of salad and is also good for snacking. It should come as no surprise at all that it's also an outstanding performer in any home soup creation. It also peels easily for home-canning efforts.

So there you have it: our Reliable Reds -- so far. We continue to test other varieties every summer and I nearly added another red variety -- Cosmonaut Volkov -- to this list. But this is just the second year with this variety. Like last year -- the bush is loaded with green tomatoes. If it does well for a third straight year -- I will update and add it to the Reliable Reds list.