January 5, 2021

2021 plan for my community garden plot

I’ve had this little community garden plot in Belmont MA for 12 or so years now. Forever, it seems. I got it back when I lived in an urban area with a small yard that had very little sunlight. I was so happy the day I was assigned to the plot – a new found joy. I ended up being the garden manager for six years. I tended the paths. And I knew everyone. Memories… Now the years have passed. I still have this beautiful plot. I have two espaliered…

June 17, 2020

mulching my community garden

It’s been so hot and dry! It early in the year to have this heat here. I don’t make to to my community garden more than once a week or so and the soil is just dust now. To conserve water I used black plastic and chopped hay today. I laid down the black plastic and planted 18 tomatoes in it. Then I spread chopped hay around all the other plants. Finally I gave everything a good watering. I used non-permeable plastic, which I don’t like as much as the…

September 2, 2017

pictures of my community garden plot

I’ve been working in my plot a few hours today. It’s very hot, but tomorrow nice rains are predicted so I’m planting fall seedlings and seeding a winter cover crop. I also dug my second of three rows of potatoes – the seedlings went in on top of this freshly dug soil. Escarole, radicchio, lettuce, arugula, broccoli, kailan (Chinese kale), and spinach. I pulled spent cucumber vines from my three tepees and planted pea seedlings around them. Oregon giant – a snow pea I love. I try planting fall peas…

December 22, 2016

my community garden plot today

Charley and I took a quick walk to see how my community garden plot was doing this afternoon. The winter rye cover crop looks good. The salt marsh hay covers my garlic beds. I like the thick branches of my pear trees in the foreground, espaliered along the fence. I’m working on planning what will go into these beds next year.

February 8, 2016

view of the Belmont Victory Gardens from the air

These are clips of my community garden, the Belmont Victory Gardens, that I took from a vimeo by David Sprogis: Rock Meadow. Rock Meadow is a 70 acre piece of conservation land in Belmont that includes the Victory Gardens. It’s a really beautiful vimeo of the area taken from the air. My garden plot is right in the center of the lower photo.

January 6, 2015

January community garden plot

The low sun is making a prism of light across my camera lens. In the foreground my pear tree branches are budded and braving the cold. Winter rye is growing in a few beds, green manure to turn under in the spring. The garlic bed is covered with salt march hay and I’m imagining healthy garlic root systems. I see some arugula that is still green. My compost bin was full to the brim in the fall. I ended up with a big pile of debris that wouldn’t fit in.…

July 8, 2013

garden after vacation

I returned to a bone dry community garden that I hardly recognized as it had grown so much! And so many weeds. I had weeded before I left and did not expect to see so many pigweed, lambsquarters, crabgrass, chickweed, plantain, etc, etc. My escarole frisee was so pretty when I left and I thought a week would make it perfect. Here’s the pretty photo: When I got back – one week later – it had bolted to 4 feet high! If I had the space to spare, I would…

July 4, 2013

Skippy is getting a buddy

We will be getting a new puppy soon! Suzie. She will be from the same breeder as Skippy. She is a cousin about 3 generations removed and is 3 weeks old now. We will bring her home at 8 weeks – sometime mid August. I have been telling Skippy that it will be his job to help train her.

May 26, 2013

gardening with my sister on a rainy May day

Its been a very cool spring. And now, very wet. Don’t remember when I’ve waited so long to set out tomatoes. Anyway, yesterday my sister and I planted tomato seedlings in my community plot. These are a set of six different varieties of late blight resistant tomatoes: Defiant, Ferline, Mountain Magic, Old Brookes, Prudens Purple and Plum Regal. We had 500 of these seedlings, that are reported to have different degrees of late blight resistance, grown for our community garden by a local grower. We are looking forward to seeing…

January 29, 2013

frozen garden plot

I haven’t even opened the gate in a couple months now. Everything is frozen and drab. I’m glad I was able to put a good layer of hay down as this winter has been brutal for the overwintering plants. We’ve had wide swing in temperatures and very little snow cover. Somewhere under the hay is 100 garlic shoots, a 4 year old bed of asparagus, a clump of Egyptian walking onions, a big crown of rhubarb, a few strawberry and raspberry plants, roots from my two espaliered pear trees, and…

weeks and counting until my last spring frost