It is the week that the Great Pumpkin should arrive!
The Chinese Winter Melon quickly took over the westernmost bed in the “corral” section of the garden.
It’s harvest season at The Raincatcher’s Garden— Charlie Brown isn’t the only one with a great pumpkin!
The veggie team harvested their very own great pumpkin on Monday of last week. It is called Chinese Winter Melon but it is actually a large gourd. One of the neighbors near Raincatcher’s donated seedlings and they have been tended by the veggie team since May. The team got a cross-section of the winter melon in order to save the seeds and make a soup. The vines produced about 12 melons weighing up to 28 pounds each through the summer and early fall.
Their creative juices were flowing as other veggies were harvested and arranged into unique faces before donating to the Now- Forward Food Pantry.
I spied eggplant, jalapenos, loofa, and okra.
Have a safe and fun harvest season from your friends at Raincatchers Garden of Midway Hills!
Starla Willis, Dallas County Master Gardener Class of 2011
Beverly Allen, Dallas County Master Gardener Class of 2018
Pictures courtesy of the veggie team of The Raincatcher’s Garden.
It’s been six years since Dallas County Interim Extension Agent Jeff Raska advised us to let our carrots grow for two seasons. We should have listened more attentively. So, this summer instead of harvesting the carrots first, my little Chantenay plants are going the distance. And now it’s time to share the good news.
While it is true that carrot tops and blossoms are edible, a very strategic decision had to be made. Why? Carrots quickly lose their sweetness and flavor if left in the ground too long. Once they begin to blossom the plant pulls energy from the root to produce flowers. As gardeners, we know this process as “bolting”, which causes the carrots to then become woody, somewhat tough and loose their signature sweet taste. At this point, they can even become bitter.
Chantenay carrots left in ground too long were no longer edible. Straight to the compost bin they went!
My decision to let the bolting stage happen naturally was made one morning earlier this spring when doing garden chores. While observing the carrots lush green foliage, I remembered Jeff telling us that all parts of the carrot were edible. Shortly after that, I discovered a recipe for carrot top pesto and gave it a try. Here is the recipe that called for one cup of carrot tops. It was my first time to use carrot tops as the main ingredient in a recipe but the results were impressive.
From Carrot Greens to Carrot Pesto
Fast forward to June 2026. As you can see from this photo (taken last week) my carrots were clearly in the “bolting” stage and the flowers were putting on a stunning show. Honeybees and other pollinators were enjoying the spectacle as well. It was time for a new culinary moment fresh from the garden.
Honeybees get first “dibs” but the beautiful umbels also make great cut flowers
This slightly adapted recipe for a French-style carrot salad was so simple that I couldn’t resist. My adventure into the world of carrots has now come full circle as each part of this amazing plant has been totally experienced and embraced. Bon Appetit!
Linda Alexander, Dallas County Master Gardener Class of 2008
Watermelon is the most popular holiday fruit with around 700 million pounds consumed during the week of July 4th. From “eating races” and seed-spitting” contests to “grower competitions”, prizes are awarded annually to participants across the United States.
Grammy and Sadie with our Watermelon and Blueberry Sparklers
If you are thinking about growing watermelon in your garden, here are some things to consider:
There are over 1,200 varieties of watermelon globally which are categorized into the following types:
Picnic: Large, oblong or round melons. Typically weigh 15 – 45 pounds. (Charleston Gray)
Icebox (Mini): Round or oval melons. They weigh 5-15 pounds. (Sugar Baby)
Personal: Ultra-compact, single-serving melons, weight 3-7 pounds. (Mini Love or Golden Midget)
Seedless: Most common commercial variety specially bred to contain no mature black seeds.
Yellow/Orange Fleshed: Colorful interiors instead of red. (Orangelo or Yellow Doll)
In our Zone 8 climate, these are a few the varieties you might want to try:
Crimson Sweet: This variety is recognized as the most popular and is prized by home gardeners and commercial growers alike. The average weight is around 25 pounds. It features a light green rind with dark green stripes. The bright red flesh is firm and fine-textured and exceptionally sweet.
This is the variety I chose to plant in my garden about a month ago. It receives about 6+ hours of full sun daily. Just a baby now but with 80 days to maturity, it should be ready to harvest sometime in mid-August.
Other top varieties for Zone 8 include: Sugar Baby, Charleston Gray and Jubilee.
And finally, if you are craving watermelon, here are several reasons why:
*Watermelon is composed of about 92% water, making it one of the most hydrating foods available.
*Watermelon is a natural sugar fix. It provides natural sugars in the form of fructose, offering a subtle yet effective energy surge without the pitfalls of processed sugars.
*Watermelon is a rich source of lycopene, a powerful antioxidant known for its numerous health advantages.
*It is an electrolyte balance. Potassium, an essential electrolyte found in watermelon, helps regulate fluid balance, muscle contractions and nerve signals.
*Watermelon is a good source of Vitamin C, vital for skin health, immune function and the absorption of iron from plant-based foods.
*Dietary Fiber. Though it’s mostly water, watermelon also offers dietary fiber which aids digestion and promotes a feeling of fullness.
Linda Alexander, Dallas County Master Gardener Class of 2008
Read Jon Maxwell’s article on Black Diamond Watermelon here.
The sub title is Curious, but True-Stories of Common Vegetables
It’s not terribly long but its divided into 21 chapters each covering one vegetable that everyone will be familiar with. Honestly its hard to beat for a garden person’s reading list.
How often can you combine some basic botany facts–most of us could use a little review–right?–with amazing historical information on vegetables. This is serious research but presented in such an interesting way. Each chapter stands alone so you can read a little at a time –no need to feel you will forget the plot–since there isn’t one of course!
No way to cover the whole book really there is something new and interesting on every page. But a tiny sample to give you the idea.
We can start with carrots–how many kids have been told to eat their carrots so they can see in the dark? Where did that come from? Well during the Battle of Britian radar was just installed in England a fact that the war department would rat, carrots are not able to give anyone amazing night vision but they are for sure good for you and no harm done! By the way raw carrots only release a tiny amount of beta carotene cooking allows them to release far more–in fact lots of vegetables are more nutritious cooked –should have known this I guess.
On to lettuce. Do you have trouble sleeping now and again? Lettuce to the rescue. Lettuce has been prescribed for sleep problems since ancient times. It turns out there is some truth to this. The white sap released from lettuce leaves was dried and used in sleeping potions in Medieval times. An extract made from wild lettuce leaves was used in hospitals through the second world war.
Now we must completely rethink radishes. No one takes them seriously enough it seems. There is lots to learn about the little radish. In the 9th century they were considered a powerful treatment for coughs. Before that Romans used them to punish those found guilty of adultery–how? Well that you must find out for yourselves!
Book reviews can’t go on too long–its hard to stop because there is so much covered in How Carrots Won the Trojan war. You will be amazed as you read each of the 21 chapters–vegetables are clearly amazing and how we come to have them is something rarely discussed–and it should be–we benefit from so much work and knowledge gained over in some cases thousands of years.
So–why read this book? You will learn alot–and it won’t be hard either. It’s an enjoyable–even fun experience.
But wait–there is more!
We want others to grow their own food–which means of course growing vegetables. So we are involved with formal and informal education.
A few fun facts can bring any interaction to life–throw in a few things you don’t hear everyday. Your audience will wake up enjoy and remember what you said. You need look no further –you will find all you need in this little book.
Susan Thornbury, Dallas County Master Gardener Class of 2008
Here’s something that we hope will make you smile-a yellow cauliflower, named for its resemblance to the yellow-orange color of cheddar cheese. Developed for its appealing color, this cauliflower contains high levels of beta-carotene and is richer in Vitamin A than white varieties. From a flavor perspective, it offers a slightly sweeter, nuttier taste and retains its vibrant color even after cooking.
If you’re ready to elevate the taste of cauliflower and enjoy it as simple side or an elegant main dish, here’s a recipe that will deliver a palate pleasing experience.
The Raincatcher’s Garden vegetable gardening team has enjoyed growing several varieties of eggplant.
They have found them to be easy to grow as long as they remain vigilant about controlling the flea beetles with diatomaceous earth.
These long purple eggplants are called amazingly enough long purple eggplant.
Aswad eggplant pictured above is an Iraqi heirloom variety known for its mild sweet flavor.
Mark your 2026 calendar to start eggplant by seed February – mid-March. Transplants should be set out in mid-May through June.
While eggplant may not be your favorite vegetable, it’s nice to harvest something new after summer crops have withered in the heat. There are many varieties and ways to cook eggplant. Tonight, at our house we’ll have eggplant apple quesadillas; find the recipe here.
Last summer, 2024, I grew Fairytale Eggplant for the first time. It produced adorable little tear-drop shaped eggplants for over three months. During that time, most of the harvest was used for Apple and Eggplant Quesadillas, a simply delicious treat.
For 2025, a new recipe that we’ve enjoyed over the past few months is “Roasted Fairytale Eggplant Salad with Fresh Tomato”. Inchelium Red organic garlic had cured from my late spring/early summer crop, while fairytale eggplants, English cucumber and mint were growing in my garden and ready to use.
It’s now early October and my two Fairytale Eggplants are producing almost double the amount as last year. Here’s an example of what gets harvested every day.
Fairy Tale EggplantEnglish Cucumber Spearmint
Linda Alexander, Dallas County Master Gardener Class of 2008
Carrots are not the easiest thing to grow in our part of the world. Our past efforts resulted in lower yields than we had hoped.
This year we tried something different. We placed burlap over the area we had just planted and sprinkled it once a day to keep it moist until the seeds had germinated.
We usually water other seeds by hand once a day until they germinate but that didn’t satisfy the carrots. Soaking the burlap daily provides the continuous moisture they need for a good germination rate.
There was a hard freeze during the germination period. We left the burlap in place and covered the area with frost cloth.
We were concerned that the seedlings would stick to the burlap when we removed it but that was not a problem.
The germination rate was excellent and after a few weeks we had many delicious carrots to share with the NDSM food pantry and visiting preschoolers. Next year we will confidently devote more space to carrots using this technique.
Harvesting, photo by Ruth Klein
Prepping for NDSM food pantry, photo by Beverly
Beverly Allen, Dallas County Master Gardener Class of 2018
We are enjoying the mild weather and it appears the vegetables are too. Last year was productive both in vegetables donated and new lessons learned. We came pretty close to doubling our yield from the previous year (from 966 to 1833).
The tatume squash was the star producer with 727 pounds donated to North Dallas Shared Ministries. We would have had more but the stink bugs cut the harvest short by a few weeks.
We left a large volunteer hybrid squash in place as a trap crop for squash vine borers. An infestation of stink bugs quickly followed the borers on this weakened plant and spread to the tatume despite our best efforts to control them. This led to the early demise of our tatume plants and many long sessions of spraying soapy water to rid the garden of stink bugs. We are grateful to the Master Gardener interns and new volunteers who kept working with us despite this challenging (and frankly, gross, infestation).
The best advice for controlling stink bugs in small gardens is to remove the eggs and nymphs as soon as they can be found. They can be brushed off into soapy water or vacuumed. We missed some early opportunities but ultimately were able to get it under control in time for fall vegetables.
Image of brown marmorated stink bug eggs and nymphs from stopbmsb.org
Learning to identify stink bug eggs and nymphsTatume squash harvest in JuneCrop loss in July
Beverly Allen, Dallas County Master Gardener class of 2018
Winter may be coming on but gardeners never give up—opportunities are out there iif we look. After all this is an important time to protect against the horrible germs and viruses that WE don’t spread around—-but “the others” do.
We need healthy food—vitamins and antioxidants to protect against dangers lurking everywhere.
Gardening opportunities—need for healthy food. Its perfectly clear how these things go together —grow arugula—in your own yard where you can eat it every day. It is loaded with the vitamins and minerals and antioxidants we want and need and—it honestly wants to grow here—and this is the time it grows best. We are talking now about salad arugula or garden arugula.
This is regular arugula, a familiar salad green.
Its Latin name is Eruca Sativa. This is important to know when you are buying seeds or plants and this is the plant you want to grow—keep it in mind for later. This is the peppery green most often found in spring mixes available at the store. Just as the mixes contain lots of different greens you need to plan on mixing your arugula with hopefully—homegrown lettuce for salad. Pick your plants early and often using the outer leaves—the plant will just keep growing.
Salad arugula is very heat sensitive and will bolt but don’t worry the unusual and pretty flowers are great in salad and let some go to seed you will have new plants to use.. When it does get hot the seeds just stay in the ground and come up when conditions suit them you can have arugula for years.
Of course winter isn’t the only season for healthy eating. Once you realize how useful your salad arugula is—you want more you want some in summer too.
There is a plant for that! Amazingly it is called Wild or Rustic or Italian Arugula. However it isn’t arugula really it actually isn’t closely related to salad arugula although the taste is similar.
It’s Latin name is Diplotaxix Tenuifolia it is a brassica but it is a perennial native to the Mediterranean. It is far more heat tolerant and uses lots less water. So although it is a very different plant it is a very good thing.
A little in salad—especially the very young leaves will be fine. It’s flavor can be fairly intense so use carefully. Its wonderful for sandwiches no mustard needed!
For a real treat pick a nice bunch chop and dress lightly with olive oil and vinegar—pile on to a nice cheese pizza just out of the oven—you won’t be sorry.
So two different plants both called arugula and both so welcome in the kitchen garden.
Italian Rustic or Wild Arugula
Salad arugula flowerWild arugula flower with seeds forming
Both arugula flowers pictured above are beautiful and edible and great for bees and small butterflies, however they are very different. Both plants are called arugula and we are going to acecept that and grow them both!
Susan Thornbury, Dallas County Master Gardener Class of 2008
