May 29, 2013

rainy May garden

This is my shady garden. I know it will have even less sun this year as those trees keep on growing. The open cold frame gets the best light (5 hours of sun: 10am – 3pm). I’ll plant tomatoes, peppers and eggplants in it soon. I have a pile of compost inside ready to spread and dig under. Yesterday I cleared the last of the winter broccoli and lettuce out of the frame, so its ready to go when the rain clears. The seedlings are soaking up the rain and…

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…

April 30, 2013

getting ready to plant!

Isn’t spring wonderful! I just now clicked on my label link below for “sideyard aerial photos” and was reminded what a tough winter it was. Only one month ago we had a foot of snow, Feb we were covered with nearly 3 feet, Jan and Dec were cold and dark, and October we had Hurricane Sandy…. All I can say is: Isn’t spring wonderful!

March 10, 2013

garden aerial view

I was talking with my brother yesterday. He’s looking forward to planting his garden. We were noticing that St Patrick’s Day is only ONE week away now! That’s when I planted my first pea seeds outside in the garden last year. We are wondering if there’s any chance we can plant that soon this year. I remember last year on a 70*F day in mid March I turned in a load of compost into my parents garden (mostly my son did the spreading and turning) and we planted seeds for…

February 9, 2013

… and then another 30 or so

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…

January 1, 2013

my garden plot in the snow

On this last day of the year, Skippy, Steve and I walked though our community garden plots and the adjacent fields and woods. We got about 7 inches of snow yesterday – our first real snow of the season. Everything was beautiful. Bright blankets of white, song sparrows and chickadees out and about, and lots of dogs and their people out enjoying it all.

December 2, 2012

snow

We had a powder sugar coating of snow on the garden on this first day of December. It accumulated to about 1.5 inches. It stayed around a day or two, and then melted back to bare ground. I’m reminded of my fig tree as I look at this picture. It’s still sitting in the garden in a pot, unprotected. I have read that its hardy down to about 10*F. We’re not close to that yet, but we’ll likely get down there in a few weeks. I’m thinking that once the…

October 30, 2012

weathering hurricane Sandy

We were fortunate with almost no storm damage, though it was WINDY!! The garden is wet and leaf-strewn. Many houses nearby fared worse, though nothing like NJ. Here’s a slideshow of my neighborhood after Sandy.

October 27, 2012

fall vegetable garden

These are photos of my vegetable garden plot today. “Before” the storm. I am hearing reports that we may have a “super storm” coming our way in a couple of days. Wind and rain. I think most of my vegetables will be OK with this. There’s really not much left to blow around. The tall sunflowers and trellised squashes are gone. Today I cut down my asparagus ferns and laid them flat on the bed to protect the roots during the winter. Tomorrow I will dig the dahlia tubers, harvest…

weeks and counting until my last spring frost

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