Welcome to the introductory issue of our newsletter!

Although ContainerSeeds.com will not be open for business until November or December, I couldn't resist starting the newsletters now so I can tell you about what's happening this summer in my container garden, and in the in-ground garden too, and share a recipe and a tip or two.

The cool summer nights are great for sleeping, but not so good for the heat-loving plants, which I hope to grow in a hoophouse next year ... but that's for next month's newsletter. I'll save the moan about weeds in the in-ground garden and how muddy the paths are until the next issue too! My container garden (as usual) is much better off and much easier to cope with.

Stealth Tomatoes - One of My Better Ideas

This was one of my better ideas: it has actually worked very well. (Not all my gardening ideas work well. I like to be experimental in gardening so naturally I have some failures. I chalk them up to 'learning' and try something else.) Our small front porch is raised about two feet off the ground. It's only a small porch, just an entrance, a place to stand out of the rain if you're knocking on the door.

Last year, I bought two dark blue-green flower boxes in a dollar store, for $5 each. These are rectangular, long and narrow, about the shape of a window box. They are each 2 feet long, 10" wide, and 10" high. They look good on the porch as they go well with our white house with blue-green trim (the trim is just a shade lighter than the flower boxes).

I planted petunias in the flower boxes last spring. Unfortunately, it rained all spring last year and most of the summer too. You probably know how bedraggled petunias look when they are beaten up by rain. The poor petunias never looked good at all, and they cost me $18 too - I'd bought little plants at a local greenhouse. What a disappointment they were.

I wanted something different on the front porch this year. In April, I started seeds (indoors, under lights) for Red Robin and Yellow Canary - two terrific little tomato plants, true miniatures. (Both varieties only get about one foot tall, and have masses of little tomatoes with great flavor.) After all danger of frost, I transplanted three little tomato plants into each flower box. I put them towards the back of the boxes (i.e., towards the house). Then I planted seeds of Empress of India nasturtiums along the length of the flower boxes, putting them towards the front (i.e., towards the road).

The nasturtiums grew rapidly and when they became long enough to start shading the tomatoes, I started "encouraging" them to droop over the front edge of the porch, towards the road. I just pushed them down with my hands each time I went in or out of the house. They're drooping down over the porch's edge now, just as I wanted them to, and they have many dark orange and gold blossoms.

Both the leaves and flowers of nasturtiums are edible and taste (mildly) "peppery" - rather like mustard greens. The flowers are a lovely garnish for a tossed salad or a plate of deviled eggs - or any kind of salad plate, really. If using the flowers whole, you may want to pull out the pistil and stamens first: they are edible, but their texture isn't pleasant. Or you can just pull the petals off the flowers, and scatter petals on your salad. The leaves are very pretty "holders" for a scoop of egg, tuna, or chicken salad on a cold plate. Some of them even turn up at the edges, making a shallow cup. A few leaves, cut in strips, would enhance a tossed salad too.

So now I have two pretty flower boxes of blooming nasturtiums - as seen from the road. Seen from the porch, the flower boxes each have three thriving little tomato plants with lots of little tomatoes. (We've been picking and eating the ripe ones, so the picture only shows green tomatoes.)

The front porch also has two 12" wide, 12" high, dark-green round pots of Lettuce-Leaf basil. This variety of basil is excellent for containers because the leaves are very much larger than other basils. The plants aren't taller: it's just the leaves that are larger, so you get more basil for the space. And it has that wonderful, classic fresh basil taste. The basil is thriving and very large, in spite of some problems with Japanese beetles eating the leaves. I've been knocking the beetles off the leaves and into a coffee can of water in the early mornings, and that's keeping them in check.

Also on the front porch are two 16" square planters, 16" high. Each contains a Patio F Hybrid tomato. These have done very well indeed, and are just crammed with tomatoes. The plants are about two feet tall, and the tomatoes are good-sized (regular large-sized tomatoes) with a very good taste. We've been picking and eating all the ripe tomatoes and that's why the picture only shows unripe ones!

An Almost-Disaster

I was very unhappy this afternoon to discover that the Shoya Long eggplant in a pot on our deck was very badly wilted for lack of water. It had been watered this morning, but it's been hot and sunny most of the day. I watered it right away and it gradually recovered. Shoya Long is a big plant, about three feet tall, and it would have benefitted from a larger pot - I put it in a 12" pot. I'll check it twice a day now to be sure it doesn't happen again.

The other eggplants on the deck are all in 16" pots, and they've not had any problems with drying up and wilting. I don't know what I was thinking of when I put the Shoya Long in the smaller pot! It's the largest eggplant plant, too. Wouldn't you know? "When in doubt, use a larger pot," is a pretty good maxim for outdoor plants in containers.

On the deck, I also have Rosita eggplants (neon-looking purple fruits), Rosa Bianca (lovely roundish-but-squashed shape eggplants, purple with white stripes, and creamy white, delicate-tasting flesh), and a Thai Dark Round Green eggplant growing on the deck. The Thai eggplant will have small fruits, about two inches in diameter, that are said to be great for stir-fries - this is the first time I've grown this one, so I haven't tasted its little eggplants yet. They should be ready by next week. The Rosa Biancas have half-grown eggplants, and the Rositas are flowering, but haven't formed fruit yet.

Eggplants really benefit from being grown in containers, in my experience. We're in a fairly cool-summer area (compared to a lot of the USA), and they like the warmer soil that comes from being in a pot. And all the in-ground eggplants I have ever grown have had a terrible, terrible time with flea beetles: just awful. If you aren't ever-vigilant and either spray them frequently or enclose them very, very carefully in floating row cover, flea beetles will devour most of the leaves. If you use the row cover, you need to scatter diatomaceous earth on the soil before you enclose the plants to take care of any flea beetles already there. With their leaves mainly eaten, the plants do not thrive, of course, and bear little or no fruit. The flea beetles don't come up on the deck, and the eggplants are doing very well indeed there, lush and green and healthy.

Eggplants are a decorative plant and could be placed in a grouping of containers on a front walk or front porch. They have pretty flowers too. Most varieties of eggplant that I have seen have lavender-colored flowers, but the Thai Dark Round Green's flowers are white.

Oh No! Zucchini Time Is Upon Us! - A Tip and a Recipe

Last year, naturally, we had an excess of zucchini. We gave them away until our neighbors starting running away, shrieking in terror, at the mere sight of us.... then I shredded some zucchinis and froze them for later use in Zucchini Bread or in the Vegetable Burger recipe below.

I peeled some of the zucchini, shredded it in the food processor, and blanched the shreds, as instructed by several food-preserving books I read. But I also shredded some unpeeled and unblanched - I just washed it and ran it through the food processor.

One year later, I still had a few packets of each in the freezer (you can only make so much zucchini bread and so many veggie burgers!) and, happily, the unpeeled, unblanched shreds kept their quality even better than the blanched ones. So no more peeling zucchini or blanching the shreds for me!

I'll close this issue of the newsletter with the Veggie Burger recipe I mentioned above. These are good (not fantastic, but good), cheap, easy to make and the cooked veggie burgers freeze very well. When you want to eat them, just let them thaw and reheat them in the microwave or oven. Served on a whole-wheat bun with tomato slices or salsa, they make an excellent lunch or a light dinner.

- Grate the garlic and onion.
- Peel and shred the carrot.
- Shred the zucchini and/or summer squash (no need to peel them).
- Saute garlic and onion in olive oil over low heat for 5 minutes.
- Add squash, zucchini, and carrots and heat for 2 more minutes.
- Remove from heat and add oats, grated cheese, and egg.
- Add soy sauce or tamari.
- Let cool, and when the mixture is cool enough to handle, shape into round burgers, about one inch thick.
- Refrigerate for at least one hour.
- Dredge burgers in flour.
- Saute in a little oil, or broil, or bake on a non-stick cookie sheet at 350 F for about 30 minutes (turning over at 15 minutes), until golden brown and hot all the way through.
- Serve in hamburger buns, if you like, and with all the "fixings".

Our next issue will be in September.

Regards,
Pat Meadows