I cannot pick the tomatoes in my garden fast enough! This heat wave that Southern California is having is making my tomato plants go crazy! Not that I'm complaining 
I picked all of these just now and there will be so many more ready within the next couple of days.
What is your favorite thing from your garden right now?
Get your garden featured on this blog! Big or small, I'm looking for readers to send in pictures of themselves and their gardens with descriptions and stories to be published here on the site in a new feature. So if you are interested, please email me at lesliesarna@aol.com 
Can't wait to see how your gardens are growing!
Today we are featuring my friend Jenny's garden. When Jenny aka The Dessert Darling asked me to help her plant a garden I was all to happy to jump at the chance! She decided she wanted some raised boxes so she had her gardener come over and help construct some boxes and I came over to help plant. We planted all of her favorite vegetables and herbs. How cute is Jenny in her new garden?
Here are her own words about her garden as published on her site:
"Ok, I know that you do Not check in to DD to see vegetables of all things, BUT, you do ask me how I stay thin while eating desserts. Quite simply, I eat wholesome, organic, and natural foods when I’m not satisfying my sweet tooth. Even when I am eating desserts, they are freshly baked goods with real ingredients. Indeed, I avoid packaged items with preservatives and chemicals like they’re the plague! (And who knows, they may very well be plaguing our society of all these unwanted allergies, autism, diabetes, etc. etc. etc!).
Look- Charlie totally approves. So in light of eating well and getting married, my amazing friend and vegetarian blogger, Leslie Sarna, started me off by getting me some plants and seeds.
She actually did all the work planting them too while I just looked on and chatted away with her. Yay Leslie! THANK YOU so much for my garden!!! I am BEYOND excited to have fresh veggies at the tip of my fingers. It will be like Christmas everyday that a new tomato or carrot comes in! Didn’t think a DD could get this excited over veggies, did you."
Jenny, Thanks for letting me dig in your backyard! Don't forget if you would like to get featured next, email me soon!
xoxo
Here is a picture of my jalapeno plant:
Anyone have any idea why I have a red one and a purpleish one growing among the "normal" looking jalapenos? Will these be spicier than the green ones? Anyone ever had this happen to them?
Thanks in advance!
For those of you following my adventures in gardening, I thought I'd give you a little update. I'm on round two at this point. So far, I've pulled and eaten 3 heads of cauliflower, countless lettuce plants, hundreds of tomatoes, dozens of carrots, dozens of beets etc.
And yup all those tomatoes came off that one plant that's on the far left! It's gotten gigantic!
So taking all of that out of the garden has left a bunch of holes. Well, they didn't last long, I filled all those spaces with the plants that I had started in pots. So in went bell peppers, eggplant, cucumber and green beans.
So excited about the eggplant!!
And where do I begin with the basil?! I have SO much of it!! Please let me know if you'd like to come over and take some home.
And on a random side note, I got a new tomato plant. I had a pot near the garden that I was starting some new parsley in and up came a tomato plant! So weird! But, I transfered it over to the main garden and little green tomatoes have just appeared. I have 6 varieties planted, so I'm so interested to see what kind of tomato it is! Give it a look, what do you think?
How are your gardens going??
Summer is fast approaching. How are your gardens growing?? I wanted to update you with some pics of mine.
Everything is growing so fast! Check out the cauliflower. I see a cauliflower dish in my near future
There are probably 300 tomatoes growing so far…. let me know if you want some!
And all the lettuce has come up beautifully! I've been eating it almost everyday the past week.
The other items in the garden are pumpkins, zucchini, cucumber, green beans, rainbow swiss chard, red beets, golden beets, heirloom carrots, leeks and eggplant.
For more garden posts, click here and for more on how to build your own box, click here.
Check out how easy this is!
Enjoy! And love to hear about your garden on my facebook page! Check it out with the facebook icon on the right : )
Choosing tomatoes can be a bit overwhelming sometimes. There are a bazillion (official count) varieties that range in looks and price. It's getting to be summertime, which is tomato season, so let's break it down shall we?
Roma
Roma tomatoes are often called Italian plum tomatoes and a fairly common in the grocery stores. They are super easy to grow and produce a lot of tomatoes. Perfect for a beginning gardener.
I love using roma tomatoes for bruschetta. They are firm and tasty making them the perfect candidate. I also love these in a caprese salad.
Photo from wikipedia.com
Campari
The campari tomato is getting more and more popular. It's a great salad tomato. Super juicy, lots of flavor with a very yummy : ) The best thing about them is they don't have much of that mealy texture that I hate! Highly recommend finding them. Try to buy them on the vine.
Photo from wikipedia.com
Heirloom
Heirloom tomatoes may be the the oddest looking tomatoes, but they are some of the tastiest! For ever color there is a new taste. Some of my favorites are the brandywine, big rainbow and cherokee purple.
My favorite way to use these are in a caprese salad or bruschetta. Or sometimes I even eat these in a sandwich with a little olive oil and lettuce.
Photo from wikipedia.com
San Marzano
Another variety of heirloom tomatoes are San Marzano. These tomatoes are longer and skinnier and taste delish! They are my favorite for making tomato sauce. These are harder to find raw, but they are pretty easy to find in a can. Definitely check these out!
Photo from wikipedia.com
For more recipes and ideas see Tomato Recipes
These are my favorites, did I leave out yours? Tell me about it.
Happy Sunday everyone! I just wanted to share some updates from the garden. Things are starting to sprout and that's got me very excited! Here are some sprouts coming up in the garden outside:
Check out what's happening inside where I'm starting tomatoes and pumpkins.
And the most exciting of all is the eggplant plant that my sister in-law gave me has bloomed!! Check out how pretty it is:
Most of all, I can't wait to make fabulous meals from all these plants. It's going to be so fun! Make sure to stay tuned and I'll keep you posted how it's all going : )
A lot of people (including myself till last year) have very limited outdoor space, so gardening can pose a little bit of a challenge, but look what reader Linda emailed me:
How gorgeous are these? Just as pretty if not prettier than flowers in my opinion! And guess what, they are 100% edible. Here she has planted: rosemary, thyme, lavender, chives, parsley, purple basil, sage, oregano and a yellow pear tomato. And all done in pots with very little space, so don't let that be what's standing between you and your garden.
And please continue to share your stories and pictures with me! I love it! You can email me or post them directly on the lesliesarna.com facebook page. Over in that right hand column click "like" and post away.
xoxo
I love the idea of getting dinner from the backyard! No matter if you've got 25 acres of land to work with or a balcony, you can grow yourself a little garden. The next few months I'll be checking in and letting you see the progress of this garden and I'd love to hear about yours!
If you remember, we moved a few months ago to a new house. Ever since, I've been dying to get my hands in the soil! I'm so excited gardening season is just about here!
My parents were up visiting this weekend, so like a typical daughter, I thought I'd take advantage of my Dad's handy skills!
I decided that making my own raised garden bed would be a. much cheaper and b. more fun! They do sell kits online, but they do require some assembly and can be very expensive.
So, here's the space we were working with (that's my awesome Dad!):
We decided on a 8x4x2 size. They were 12 inches high. So first things first, we had to get rid of that yucky bush. Thanks Mom for doing the digging!
Gone!
Next, we made the frame. And when I say we, I mean my Dad did most of it!
 "1111g4")
We used redwood for the frame. It's super strong and won't warp or rot. We bought 3 eight foot long boards and had one cut in half for the sides. Next we (my Dad) pre-drilled the holes and used three 3/8 lag bolts to fasten the corners.
We placed the frame right on top of the grass. (no need to dig it up)
Next, line the bottom with newspaper. One Sunday paper will do the job. I had to place that Tom Ford add on top just for good measure : )
Time to fill with dirt! We used a combo of Kellog's Natural Soil and Miracle Grows Organic Soil. Sorry for the horribly ucky picture of me looking right into the sun!
Level out all the soil and voila! A raised garden bed!
Our dog Pepe seems to be getting used to the new addition in his backyard.
Total cost for everything: $150! A far cry less then buying the kits. I also spent more to get organic soil.
Be sure to come back tomorrow to see what I planted!
 "0garden7")
