When I planted this variety of parsley a few months ago, I never imagined the leaves would be as big as the palm of my hand!

If you’re looking for an impressive parsley, try this one!

http://15 Culinary Herb Seeds – Heirloom & Non GMO – High Germination Rate – Seeds for Planting Indoor Hydroponic or Outdoor Herbs Garden | Gardening Gift Men Women Gardeners – https://a.co/d/eTzKSJE

Today we harvested several small corn from our dwarf sweet corn plants. We have also enjoyed a steady stream of radishes since planting, and harvested a few of those.

Since fresh harvests taste best, we used the recipe below to make a delicious corn and radish salad including our very own cilantro and shallots from the garden.

INGREDIENTS

8 medium to large ears of corn

2 teaspoons minced shallot

1/2 cup fresh lime juice (from 4-6 limes)

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1 teaspoon smoked paprika (sweet or hot)

1/2 cup crumbled or shredded cotija cheese or queso blanco

8 medium radishes, halved and thinly sliced

1 1/2 cups fresh cilantro leaves, roughly chopped

kosher salt

INSTRUCTIONS

Light a grill or preheat a grill pan. Pull back the corn husks but leave them attached; remove and discard all of the silks. Fold the husks back up over the corn. Grill the corn over moderately high heat, turning occasionally, until the husks are well browned and black in spots and the corn is very hot, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a platter and let cool.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix the shallot with the lime juice and let stand for 5 minutes. Whisk in the mayonnaise and paprika.

Using a serrated knife, cut the corn from the cobs (you should have about 8 cups of kernels). Add the corn and the cheese to the dressing and toss. Within 1 hour of serving, add the radishes and cilantro, season with salt, and serve.

I can’t take credit for this gem. Recipe taken from: https://asweetspoonful.com/2016/08/kristins-grilled-corn-salad-lime-mayo-cilantro-radishes.html

I halved Kristen’s recipe, and substituted Oaxaca cheese for corona. It was delicious!

Fall has arrived and with it an abundance of peppers. Today we harvested shishitos and jalapeños and made pickled peppers!

In the fall, we struggled with getting our peppers started. We still ended up with a good harvest, but this spring, we wanted something more prolific.

So, we put the peppers in the raised bed…and they’re loving it.

In 5 days, the first day of spring will be here. The garden is in full swing!

Tomatoes are in their prime growing time…with lots of new growth. Roma tomatoes, heirloom rainbow tomatoes, and large cherry tomatoes are all producing. Pineapple tomatoes and Black Krim varieties have been planted and are growing to their producing stage. We’ve focused most of our varieties in the greenhouse as the tomatoes seem to thrive in the environment.

Garlic, onions, and shallots are about two months from the end of the growing season. We are looking forward to harvesting and seeing if the cooler winter weather here in the south paid off.

The potatoes we planted in December spring back after the freeze. I haven’t peeked into the soil to see if there are indeed potatoes growing, but surely with all of these flowers there must be something there!

Kale, mustard greens, and fennel are really enjoying the end of the winter season here in Texas.

And finally, our Persian lime tree is blooming and producing! The snapdragons and bachelors buttons are also loving the beautiful weather.

Always the garden helper, Bo enjoys inspecting the greenery and flowers.

Snapdragons and bachelor buttons are starting their spring appearances adding vivid colors to our garden.

The delicious arugula wasabi has been consistently blooming for a couple of months now. The pollinators enjoy these tiny little white flowers.

And, our cauliflower has been the biggest surprise over this Texas winter. We harvested a head last week, and have two more on the way.

We are getting ready for the spring garden with our seeding and planting. Carrots are being seeded in the raised bed this week.

Ready for spring! #urbangarden #texasgardening #raisedbedgardening #thedailysquash

We have been planning for spring planting for a few weeks now. Our beans and flowers have sprouted and should be ready for transplanting in February. This time we used Epic Gardening’s seed planting trays (thank you BB). #epicgardening

We have a few winter successes. More cauliflower. Kale sprang back from the freeze. Mustard and collard greens. Our potatoes in the raised bed are powering through.

Our elephant garlic and hard and soft neck garlics have been enjoying the cold! Can’t wait to see how they look in March.

And of course the greenhouse is keeping things nice and toasty. We have lettuce and bok choy in the Aerogarden, a few tomatoes in containers.

Looking forward to spring! #texasgardening #raisedbedgardening

A couple of home grown surprises came from the cold Texas weather. We harvested a small head of broccoli and two small heads of cauliflower from the greenhouse.

Both really enjoy the cooler temperatures. We were disappointed they did not get larger, but figure that planting them a little later next time will yield better results. Quite the surprise greenhouse growing! #greenhousegrowers #texasgardening

A couple of home grown surprises came from the cold Texas weather. We harvested a small head of broccoli and two small heads of cauliflower from the greenhouse.

Both really enjoy the cooler temperatures. We were disappointed they did not get larger, but figure that planting them a little later next time will yield better results. Quite the surprise greenhouse growing! #greenhousegrowers #texasgardening

We took stock of the raised beds today and it wasn’t pretty. As most of you know, on Thursday our temperatures here in southeast Texas (and across the US) dropped to the teens. No reprieve until Wednesday of next week.

The plants are not happy. Our raised beds have been decimated, and the greenhouse is warm but struggling (some of the plants aren’t taking too well to a 20 degree drop in temp in the greenhouse), but so far only look a little wilted.

On the upside, the garlic bags are doing very well.

Looking forward to our warmer temperatures and to starting fresh with some new plants after our frost date (February for Zone 9).

In the meantime, Merry Christmas everyone!