February 3, 2016

mid-winter garlic

I checked the garlic growing in my garden today. “Music” (pictured) is up an inch or so above the salt march hay mulch. The tops of the plants look weather burnt, but underneath they’re green. “Late Italian” is up about 2 inches above the mulch. “Duganski” isn’t up yet. Our forecast is now saying maybe we’ll get some snow next Tuesday. The garlic would prefer that. Gardeners at my community garden have been concerned and have been adding more salt hay to cover their garlic. I’m now eating supermarket garlic.…

January 17, 2016

potato order

I’ve decided on my potato selection for this year. 4 types, all from Fedco Moose Tubers: Natascha, v. early, yellow skin/yellow flesh, waxy, high yield, high scab res AmaRosa, mid-late, red skin/red flesh, waxy, high yield, high scab res German Butterball, late, yellow-russet skin/yellow flesh, med/dry texture, med/high yieid, exel storage Russet Burbank, late, russet skin/white flesh, dry texture, high yield, high scab res., exel storage Last year I restrained my self to one variety, spaced the eyes out nicely, and ended up with a very poor harvest. I’m looking…

December 20, 2015

potting up a sprouted sweet potato

My mom gave me this nice sweet potato. From the super market. I find it really hard to get these to sprout. I love to grab one that is sprouted. I put it in a pot. It’ll go on the kitchen window sill. They grow slow, then fast. I’ve heard of gardeners who start their own sweets having the kitchen window covered with vines by planting season. Well, that would be fun. Last year I bought 12 slips and they weren’t cheap (though I forget how much they were –…

November 25, 2015

today’s harvest

That’s my sister, helping me carry everything.

October 29, 2015

looks like a good day for planting garlic

We had a torrential rain storm last night. My fall greens must have loved it. Now it’s drying up and the sun is out. I brought a dozen bags of compost, manure and topsoil down to my garden yesterday. Also, a bale of salt marsh hay. I’m just waiting now for a new version of Photoshop to download (my old one didn’t seem to work with my new Windows 10 OS). Separating the cloves as I wait. Once it’s done, me and the dogs are going to go do some…

October 22, 2015

my fall harvest

These are vegetables I picked last Saturday, the day before our first frost. I’ll have to post a photo of our watermelon martinis. Carrot or radish martinis are good too. I made a nice chili out of those Black Turtle beans last night. I’ll post that photo soon too.

October 11, 2015

ordering garlic – where do you buy garlic?

I FINALLY remembered to order my garlic. I hope it gets here soon. I’d like to plant it at the end of this month – in 2 or 3 weeks. My garlic crop had problems this year. More than half of it rotted in the ground. I only harvested 40 heads so I decided to eat them all and buy new (clean) stock. I usually like to save 75-100 cloves (about 15-20 of the biggest heads) for planting. I checked a couple local sources first (Johnny’s and Fedco) but seems…

October 11, 2015

what caused my garlic to rot? rotation, rotation, rotation

I’ve been thinking about why half of my garlic crop rotted this year. In early spring, my garlic plants yellowed and curled and then died. This started mostly in one area of the bed and then gradually other plants curled and died more slowly. Some just stopped growing looking like a small plant, but when pulled, the bulb was rotten. Once I saw the plants rotting, I worried that I planted where onions had been last year and maybe garlic the prior. This is my list for crops the bed…

October 2, 2015

potatoes – a tiny harvest

Some things grew great this year and others, well, 🙁 didn’t. On my “didn’t” list, potatoes. I thought they were doing well until last week when I dug them. An underground crop is a mystery until you go to harvest! This spring I planted only one type of potato because in the past I’ve had so many seed tubers left over that I can’t find space for. Usually I crowd the seed, spacing them maybe 6 inches apart when 12 would be better. So I only planted my favorite, russets.…

September 12, 2015

turnip seeds

The turnip seeds arrived a day later than the rest of my Johnny’s shipment. They’re planted now too. September 11, 2015 Turnip, Scarlet Queen Red Stems

weeks and counting until my last spring frost

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