I’m visiting my mother today and its quite snowy! I’m feeling like this is finally winter. She has about 4-5 inches of snow on her garden. It’s heavy wet snow and is stuck to all the tree branches and the garden fence and is looking very pretty. I have a small winter tunnel in Mom’s garden. I hastily made it with a couple layers of row cover on low hoops, greenhouse plastic on top using a cucumber trellis as a support, and all the layers are held down around…
My honey bees are out and about today. Its a crazy odd February. Down to -15F once, and then so many balmy 60F days. Bees like to get out and poop in warm winter weather but there isn’t much food for them. This winter hazel in bloom in my backyard is one of few pollen and nectar sources. I planted it last fall and I’m so happy to see it in bloom!
My honeybee hives are heavily insulated for winter. On the choice of ventilation versus insulation for bee hives, I have been going with heavy insulation. I have one larger old hive that is going through its third winter now, with its second queen. And I have a smaller hive on its first winter. A friend and I opened both today to inspect. Both were fed 4 lbs sugar brick and 2 lbs fondant in November. In the smaller hive, the colony is right up at the top next to the…
I shouldn’t show this photo! I didn’t clean up my vegetable garden last fall. The bean poles and netting are still up. Dead pepper, tomato, basil and flower plants are still standing. Tree leaves that fell into the garden and piled up are still there. In some cases, there is a benefit to leaving plant matter where it is in the fall. Insects and small animals overwinter there. We have a serious decline in many native insects, including important pollinators like small bumble bees. If you have native gardens its…
It’s been a really weird winter. Hardly a winter at all. I’m hoping the wild flower seeds I winter sowed will get enough cold time to germinate. January 2023 was the the fifth warmest on record in Boston, Massachusetts and we have had almost no snow. Today we are making a run at 50 degrees F and Friday 60! Oh my. The good news for plants is that we have had plenty of rain (bad news for me is way too many cloudy days.) I like to keep an eye…
I grew a couple little pots of microgreens on my windowsill. I started the seeds on January 22. (17 days ago.) I used Botanical Interests Mellow Blend, which is an assortment of Brassica species (radish, broccoli, kale, and the like). They are perfect to cut and put on sandwiches today. Yummy! My sister and mother visited me today and we made a luncheon out of them. This is about as easy as vegetable gardening gets! And really satisfying for a gardener who can’t wait for spring to plant seeds.
My husband makes the best popcorn! Tonight I was treated to fantastic tray of it. I have a serious popcorn problem. I like to eat it by the handful. Scoop it up, stuff it in. OMG. But what is better than one piece of yummy popcorn – 10 pieces! My husband is the opposite. He puts his popcorn on a plate, adds hot sauce (my habanero sauce tonight), and eats it one kernel at a time. However you like to eat it, here is the best popcorn recipe. Growing and…
My husband rearranged my plant room with new seedling shelves and new LED plant lights. I have a small closet in the garage with it’s own thermostat that I use for seed starting. Shelves: This year, my husband set it up with two large Home Depot metal shelf units. They are on wheels so I can move the front one to access the one in the back. I raise so many seedlings between my home gardens and my Pantry Garden/Farm that I have been filling my shelves to capacity the…
My app is back at the Apple Store! This app is what I use to figure out when to plant my seeds. It tells you when to plant vegetable seeds based on your last frost date. Its $3.99 – about the price of a packet of seeds. If you try it out and you like it, please leave me a review at the Apple store. It there is anything you don’t like about it, please leave a comment here on my blog and I will get it fixed. I can…
Every winter, the first thing I do to get ready for planting seeds is to wash out my planting trays. I have a collection of at least a hundred and I reuse them as long as I can – until they fall apart. I have 10×20 inch support trays, both mesh and solid versions. And I have different types of planting pots, 6-packs, 4×4 inch pots, and 10×20 cell trays ranging from 50 to 200 cells per tray. My first step of cleaning is to rinse the 10×20 support trays. In…
This is a journal of my vegetable gardens. Skippy thinks the garden is his, even though I do all the work. We're located near Boston, in USDA zone 6. I have bees, chickens, fruit trees and berry bushes, too. I use all sustainable organic methods and strive to grow all of my family's vegetables myself. -Kathy
weeks and counting until my last spring frost
What I planted recently
Feb 20 celery, celeriac, parsley
What I'm planting soon
Feb 25 onions, leeks, petunias
March 2 peppers
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Apple/iOS
