January 20, 2009

new gardens – new beginnings

I always love to hear from people starting a new vegetable garden. What a wonderful thing. And on this Inauguration Day, a day of such hopeful new beginnings, it seems a particularly appropriate topic. I was asked to post information on starting a garden. How-to information. But it also gives me a chance to reminisce. And to follow my newly expanded community garden space this season. I’ll put a new link on my sidebar “For New Vegetable Gardeners”. To reminisce a bit, I started helping my Dad in his gardens…

January 4, 2009

spring planting time line for 2009

Here’s a start on my planting schedule. I linked to it on my sidebar. I’ll add to and revise this as I get time. Order seeds. Set up plant table and lights. Collect seed trays and potting soil.March 5-10: Sow kale, broccoli and lettuce seed indoors.March 15: Sow pepper seed indoors.March 20: Sow seed in home garden for peas.March 28: Sow half of tomato seed indoors.April 1: Sow fava beans in community plot.April 20-30: Transplant pepper and tomato seedlings to larger pots indoors. Sow seed in home garden for more…

December 29, 2008

my best and worst crops of 2008

Best:radishbeetssummer squashpotatoesfava beans Worst:parsnipssoybeanstomatoespeaswatermelon Watermelon: I planted seeds I saved from a beautiful CSA melon. It looked like a nice Sugar Baby. My plants were wimpy scrawny vines and two melons were pretty but only grew to about 2 inches diameter. I posted some embarrassing watermelon photos. Maybe I shouldn’t have saved the seeds, maybe my soil wasn’t rich enough, maybe I transplanted out to early …. Peas: I planted my peas nice and early (March 18th). The early spring weather was perfect for them. They sprouted well and looked…

December 16, 2008

crop list for 2009

Here’s my list of vegetables and varieties for my next year’s garden. I’m still editing this list. Asparagus (crowns): Jersey Supreme F1(J)Basil: Nufar(J)Beans, green: Provider bush(J), Fortex pole(l/o), Chinese pole(s), Royal Burgundy(J)Beans, shell: Flagrano (l/o), Black Turtle Soup (l/o), Tongue of Fire (l/o)Beets: Lutz (l/o), Chiogga (l/o), White Detroit (SH)Broccoli: Green Sprouting Calabrese (l/o), Blue Wind (J), Marathon (J)Cabbage: Alcosa (J), Super Red 80 (J)Carrots: Mokum(J), Oxheart(SH), Carnival Blend(BI), Saint Valery(SH), Bolero(J)Celeriac: Brilliant (J)Collard greens: Top Bunch (J)Corn: Faribo White Hulless Popcorn (SH)Cilantro: Santo (J)Cucumbers: Tokiwa(SH), Straight Eight(l/o), Sumter pickling(l/o),…

October 13, 2008

plot plan to scale

A revised plan for next year with the scale corrected. Nice to have more space than I realized. I added in an asparagus patch and moved my garlic from home to plot. My home garden exposure is part sun at the west side (sun from 11-3 pm) and part shade (sun from 1-4 at the east side. My community plot gets full sun. garden planning (drawings and diagrams)

October 1, 2008

list

I’ve gone through my 2008 crop list and added comments about how well the crop did. The list is here and there’s a link in the sidebar. My favorites so far this year are Easter Egg mix radish, Prizehead lettuce, Zephyr and Sunburst summer squash, Big Rock pumpkin, Lutz and Chiogga beets, all 3 varieties of kale, Russet potatoes, Windsor fava beans, hybrid broccoli, Mokum and Oxheart carrots, Brandywine and Giant Belgium tomatoes, Fortex pole beans, birdhouse gourds, Nufar basil, and Butterbeans edamame. For flowers, nice varieties were Zebrina hollyhocks,…

September 29, 2008

ideas for next year’s garden

I’m starting a list of ideas for next year’s vegetable gardens. I’ll book mark this list on the sidebar and continue to add to it. Tomatoes:Use rail and string supportsSpace plants more than this yearPlant as far from the old patch as possibleUse salt marsh hay instead of plastic mulchStart plants in two batches, one 1 week earlier than this year. the other several weeks laterFind a plant light set-up Other plantsAsparagus patchLeave an area where Skippy can digGarden benchA shade arbor over the benchMove my two pear trees to…

September 25, 2008

rough draft for next year

This is a quick early plan for next year’s garden – to give us an idea of where to put the rocks for the bench. The new space we are adding is to the east of my gate in the community plot. garden planning (drawings and diagrams)garden planning (drawings and diagrams)

September 18, 2008

thinking about next year already

As Skippy and I walked through the community gardens today, I was thinking about what I’ll do with my garden next year. What a great place to do that – 120+ plots to look at. Lots of great ideas. 1. I LOVE this variety of marigolds. I will watch to find seeds for it. 2. I’d like to find a nice garden bench for my plot. A worn and comfortable one. Maybe Skippy could dig a spot underneath in the cool soil…. 3. I’d like to build a shade structure.…

July 15, 2008

fall planting schedule

I’m starting to think about planting fall crops. I’d like to try fall broccoli again (I planted too late last year.) Also lettuce, beets, spinach and radish. I like this fall planting chart at Heirloom Seeds. It lists fall planting dates for vegetables according to your average last frost date. For the past two years, my first frost has been mid November for my home garden. I’m sure the community plot will frost earlier. Probably mid October. I’m thinking of the following schedule for fall planting: Carrots and beets (community…

weeks and counting until my last spring frost