A new booth is at the Pt. Defiance Flower and Garden Show this year.

Grow Local Tacoma is a coalition of the City of Tacoma, Tacoma Pierce County Health Department, Tagro, the Pierce Conservation District, and Exit133.

Formed just last year the group is dedicated to building community through community gardening.

At the booth this year you can make an edible plant container to take home. (The plants are edible, not the plastic container.) Volunteers like Will Leslie, left in the picture below, were helping show goers like Dorothea Richard of Tacoma fill pots with a variety of vegetable starts in Tagro potting soil.

Richard said she lives in a high rise condo but that wasn't going to stop her from being a vegetable gardener.

Looks like Grow Local Tacoma is accomplishing its mission.

I've gotten so busy (and my garden's gotten so done growing) that I haven't updated in a bit, but here's the word: I need to gather my tools from the garden plot tonight. Today is the last day that it's mine, all mine.

So much has happened throughout the growing season and I've learned a lot. Mainly, that it takes a lot of work to have a garden! I also just learned what it means to be patient through the growing season, somethng I'm not exactly known for.

Thanks for all of your help this season. I appreciate the recipes, tips and questions so much. Have a Happy Halloween and a wonderful winter!

I wrote a couple weeks ago that my goal for next summer was to be in a house with a yard so that I could have a garden at home.

Well, I'm very happy to report that the goal has been all but accomplished! I'm moving at the beginning of December to an adorable home that has a big front and back yard, including two raised beds and a little greenhouse! We looked at it this weekend and were in love with it.

I'll be sad to leave community gardening behind, but it will be so nice to be able to have my own garden. And having the greenhouse means I can do my own starts ... if I'm so motivated.

I got it in the mail the other day: A notice that my garden space is no longer mine as of Oct. 31.

It was sad, but happy at the same time. In my first year of gardening solo, I've learned quite a bit!

For example, I've learned that I don't have as much time as I thought I did. My day planner for the past five months looks like a tour schedule: Portland, Astoria, Eastern Oregon, Corvallis, more Portland, Waldport... On weekdays, I work and try to make time for running, the boyfriend and friends, sometimes all at the same time.

So I don't always have time for everything, the garden included. But I've enjoyed it there and have some ideas for next year. What about you? What did you do wrong? What were your biggest triumphs? Let's compare!

I saw this story in the New York Times about community gardens for HIV/AIDS patients and wanted to share it.

I love spinach. I buy a bag or two every time I'm at the store, and I've eaten it pretty much every day for the last two or three years, since it was named a Super Food. (I'm a total sucker for health foods.)

Luckily, I didn't get sick with the recent E. Coli outbreak. But it did make me think about how we prize fruits and veggies that look uniform — with no scratches, scars or other "imperfections" — yet we have no way of knowing what they've been through or how they were handled and grown. If it looks pretty, we've been trained to believe, it must be safe.

So I am disappointed in myself. I grew heirloom tomatoes in my garden, but there was one problem: They were hideous. When I took them home, the fruit flies followed, making homes out of their nooks and crannies.

After two days without using the tomatoes, I was so sick of the flies that I threw them out. And I didn't get the other tomatoes off the vine.

I discovered this weekend that they were rotting. And then I felt terrible.

So, it may not be today or tomorrow, but I'm going to work on retraining myself.

This just in, from the people at MetroParks: They're offering three workshops to help your garden make it through the winter.

Learn to prep your beds, put your roses to bed and prune in three workshops offered throughout October. Each workshop is two hours and $9 -- not bad.

Check www.metroparkstacoma.org for more information.

In the meantime, what are you doing in your gardens nowadays?

I got a letter from a reader in Indiana the other day about tomatillos, so I thought I'd share.

Hello Niki,

I ran across your web site while looking for an answer to a gardening question....

I have grown Tomatillos for years. Gave many of them away and have never done anything with them myself. This year I want to be different!
How in the world do you tell if a Tomatillo is ripe? I have a few recipes for Salsa Verde and want to use them and try my luck at using my Tomatillos for that. Can you describe a method of determining the ripeness of the Tomatillo? The one recipe that I have, with a photo, shows the Tomatillos looking pretty green, but my garden variety isn't very well filled while in the green stage. When they are filling out the husks well, they are almost a pale color to a very light yellowish-green color. I don't want to make anyone sick trying my salsa, nor do I want to compromise the flavor by using Tomatillos too old.

Any tricks you can pass along would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you,
Gary

Gary,
I’m so sorry I didn’t get back to you earlier. It’s been a crazy week!
I didn’t get any official instruction on when the tomatillos are ripe, but I have experienced the same problem as you — they’re either light green or they start turning a purple-ish color in spots. I’ve found that mine just don’t get as deep a green color as the ones in the store while they’re on the vine.
It seems like (and this might be my imagination) that when I let them sit for a few days so the husks can dry out, that they look more like the grocery store variety.
Either way, I don’t think you’ll make anyone sick! Well, at least I haven’t ... and I’ve made salsa verde a couple of times.
Good luck and pass along any recipes you’ve got for salsa!
-Niki
PS - Have you ever grown pineapple tomatillos? They’re delicious. With those, I just let them fall off the vine and dry for a few days, then collect them. Yum!

Was I right? Way off base?

It's been drizzling a little bit over the past couple of days, but it's still so beautiful! Enjoy the weekend. I'm going to spend mine working, running, gardening and cleaning. I have a dinner Sunday night with friends and hope to break out some heirloom tomatoes for the event.

When I was a baby, I used to eat dirt. Quite a bit of it, actually. I also ate a magazine subscription card once ... and those Silicon packets that come inside cheapy cartoon-character shoes ... But I'm getting off track.

The point is, after gardening last night I think I understand the appeal. Dirt is one of the best smells I can think of. And, after three consectuive weekends away from my garden, I was really missing the smell and feel (but not the taste) of dirt.

The weekend forecast says it's going to be sunny, so I plan to spend as much time as I can outside, tending to my plants and soaking up the last bit of summer.

I know late August is a good time to plant peas. What else are you planting now? I have some open space, thanks to some basil that failed to thrive.

Last year at this time, I was living in Mexico with my college rommate and going to school. My host mom (who was my age and not a mom at all) always had fresh-squeezed juice and homemade salsa in the fridge. Ahhh, Itzel, I miss you!

Anyway, in addition to several Spanish verb forms, Itzel taught me how to make green salsa, which I plan to make this weekend with my ripe tomatillos (pictured below). The easy and delicious recipe goes as such:

Put 3-4 tomatillos (the green things in husks) and 2 Serrano peppers (small green ones) in a small pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook until veggies are tender but not mushy (maybe 5 minutes?). Drain, take the stems off the peppers and dump in a blender. Add a dash of salt and puree. Eat!

The salsa is runny and medium spicy, but can be made hotter by adding more peppers.

Got any other recipes?

For some reason, I've had a hard time realizing that it's August (and almost mid-August) and that summer is once again slipping through my greedy little fingers.

I think some of my plants are feeling similarly. I was telling them this morning (mentally) that it's really time they get growing -- we're literally running out of daylight.

In other news, I'm using my first ever paid vacation day! Ever. In my life! So I'll have a three-day weekend. When I get back, I expect to see some ripe tomatillos or I'm going to have to rent a grow light.

While my garden was under the care of a capable friend, I went home for my parents' 30th anniversary. The first of my brother-in-law's alfalfa seed fields were ready for harvest, so my sister, niece and I joined my dad for a round in the combine.

Here's a picture of the four of us jammed in a two-person cab. I'm the one trying to drive.

My dad sent us away with some amazing tomatoes, a basket of raspberries and the announcement that he plans to start farming some vegetables organically soon. Exciting!

Back to gardening: Here are some pictures of my tomatoes. Yum!

Yellow pear:

Romas:

Heirloom (can't remember the name, though):