April 9, 2020

Aurelia’s Garden – our new donation garden

Our new donation garden has a name! Aurelia’s Garden. You can follow us on Instagram – @Aurelias.garden. And you can get to our website here: Aureliasgarden.org. We are a charitable farm, growing food for those with limited access to fresh, locally grown produce. We will be gardening on a half acre of land that was previously farmed. A nice big space. We’re working on getting grants to fund supplies like equipment and compost. Also working on getting some good buys on equipment like wheel barrows, shovels, etc. It sounds…

March 27, 2020

my new project – helping to start up a Donation Garden

I’ve gotten together with a group of gardener friends who have free time since we can’t do much of anything now. There likely won’t be any food shortages due to the corona virus, but there is always a need for fresh vegetables. We have found a nice piece of land that will be loaned to us. We’ll grow food crops and donate our produce to local food pantries. We plan to donate mostly to the Natick and Framingham pantries. I don’t know how we’ll get everything done yet. We’re working…

March 15, 2020

water droplets in mid air

March 15, 2020

seedlings in my hoop house

I planted lots of Brassicaceae (cabbage-family) seeds a week ago. They are all cute little sprouts now. They are down in my hoop house with onion, beet, parsley, spinach, and lettuce seedlings. It’s cool, in the 40’s (F), outside today but bright sunshine. The hoop house is at 80F. My husband ran power down there the other day, so my fan is kicking in when the temperature gets to 80. I love to be able to tend seedlings in on the hoop house benches rather than inside on my shelve…

March 14, 2020

vegetables that grow fast

It’s a tough time. I’m in eastern Massachusetts, where we have many cases of new coronovirus and we know it’s going to get much worse. My husband and I are staying at home. There are empty store shelves here. Most people are staying at home. I looked up what I can grow at home the fastest. It’s just the start of the spring growing season in New England. It’s a very mild spring and many cold hardy crops can go in now, but it will take a couple months to…

March 13, 2020

sowing peppers, eggplants, and marigolds

I am up late tonight planting. I put in three trays of seeds. 20 6-pks, 30 varieties. It feels so nice to put tiny seeds in a cushion of moist soil and nutrients and think about how they will look mid summer. The peppers need 80F warmth to germinate so two of my three trays will get special attention on a heat mat. Soon I’ll get the varieties that I planted listed on the page “Skippy’s Garden Info” at the top of this blog. I will add this new…

March 11, 2020

the first seedlings in my hoop house

I moved several trays of seedlings to my hoop house on Monday. This morning they are looking really happy. Having plants in there has made the air nice and humid. I can feel it when I walk in. It’s wonderful. No need to have my heat mats on yet as the nights have been staying around 40F. This weekend will get close to freezing and I’ll get the power on and the mats going then. The plants I put on the hoop house are very cold hardy: lots of onions,…

March 8, 2020

sowing cabbage-family plants

I sowed a couple trays of Brassicaceae (cabbage-family plants) today. My list of what I planted is at this link. You can also access my planting schedule from the header under “Skippy’s Garden Info”.

February 24, 2020

onion, herb, and lavender seedlings

I brought all my little seedlings out onto a table for a picture. They are now back under the lights on their shelves. I particularly like the tiny oregano seedlings. I think they are the smallest. They germinated very well and I will have to thin them soon. With seedlings this tiny and close together, I’ll just snip off the seedling at the soil level with some fine scissors.

February 24, 2020

my seed planting list for 2020

It’s always so exciting to start planting seeds! One month left to winter (which is a really mild on for us here in southern New England), and my little seedlings are popping up. I’ll continue to add to this post as I plant seeds this season. For some flowers and herbs, I’m listing botanical names. For a few plants, like lavenders and oregano’s, I’m growing several types to compare them and learn about them. Oregano names seem particularly complicated, so I hope I’ve listed them correctly. February 5 English…

weeks and counting until my last spring frost

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30	31