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…
 
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turning Mom’s garden

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On Monday I prepared my mother’s vegetable garden. Last year I set it up as six or eight raised square areas. This year, it’s five raised rows. I like to raise the soil where I’m going to plant so the paths are defined and soil in the beds doesn’t get compressed. Also, so I can conserve on compost by just putting it where I’ll be planting. It took me a couple hours to set up the rows and work in the compost. I first weeded the area, then used a…
 
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today’s garden work

 
 
It was a beautiful, bright and warm HALLOWEEN day! I was lucky to do garden work all day. There are not so many of these good outdoor days any more as the season moves on toward winter. Here’s what I did: – Finished up my seed list. (Last year I started a list of all the seed packets I have that includes the folder they are stored in and when I planted them. By going through my seeds again now I put misplaced ones back in correct folders and identified…
 
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favorite week – planting corn and beans and transplanting tomatoes

 
 
This is one of my favorite weeks in the vegetable garden. Highlights are transplanting tomato seedlings outside and sowing bean and corn seeds. I transplant my hardened off tomato seedlings to the garden when night time low temperatures are routinely above 45F and mostly above 50F. I transplanted my mom’s tomatoes today (Mother’s Day). In the next 10 days, no local temps below 45F are predicted, and over 50% of nights are above 50F. Another good measure is soil temperature, which should be above 55F for planting our tomatoes. I’m…
 
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a gardener’s lament

 
 
My muscles are sore. My hands from holding the snow shovel. My shoulders and arms from lifting the sticky snow and throwing it off to the side. In better weather, I park my car out by my mom’s garden to unload seedlings and compost. This time, I parked my car out near the garden to avoid trees falling on it. I shoveled off the 2 feet of snow piled on top. Shoveled the 20 or so feet around it where the plow couldn’t reach. Shoveled my mom’s walkway and the…
 
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today’s indoor garden work

 
 
Today I planted seeds for 3 types of lettuce and a cabbage. Just a few of each. Seedlings will go into my winter tunnel in 4 weeks.  By then we’ll be getting on to the end of February. If temperatures aren’t warm by then, at least there’ll be enough light to warm the tunnel and for plant growth. Right now the seed pots are sitting on the side of my bath tub. It’s too cold for germination in the room with my plant lights. The bathroom is warm, but there…
 
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winter tunnel clean up

 
 
I opened up my winter greens tunnel this afternoon, but it wasn’t a pretty sight. All the romaine lettuce was wilted and rotting. I guess the week of sub-zero temperatures was too cold for it. Plus it looks like a mouse had gotten in. There was a mouse nest and the iceberg lettuce and spinach were eaten and torn up. There were a number of holes chewed in the row cover and pieces of it were in the mouse nest. Arugula, mustard greens, and a rosemary plant looked OK. The…
 
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winter “gardening”

 
 
Well we got just over a foot of snow last Thursday, bitter cold temperature, and then I got a winter cold (achoo). Tis the season. Over half of my winter tunnel is crushed from the snow load since I never got that top support put in. Other than these sad things, there are fun gardening things going on too. My Belgian endive is doing great. I dug several roots last fall, stored them in the fridge ’til mid December, then planted them in a pot with a paper bag over…
 
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today’s garden work

 
 
We are expecting a good freeze tonight – our first – so I spent some time getting ready. – Picked the rest of the pole beans, 3 lbs (!), and took down the vines and poles (and later made 5 jars of dilly bean pickles) – Harvested the last of my peppers and pulled the plants – Picked a couple small winter squash and a big bunch of lettuce – Set up my winter tunnel over a bed full of greens by covering low hoops with garden fabric and higher…
 
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growing Belgian endive

 
 
I’m trying something new this year. Belgian endive! I grew it from seed starting mid summer. Last Friday I harvested the roots and now they are curing in the garden under leaves. They’ll stay out there a few days or so, then the leaves get chopped off and the roots are stored like carrots – in plastic in the refrigerator. In a few weeks I’ll take out one root and plant it. It should take 3 weeks for it to start producing chicons. What an odd thing to do. I…
 
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Kathy Martin
This is a journal of my vegetable gardens. Skippy thinks the garden is his, even though I do all the work. We're located near Boston, in USDA zone 6. I have bees, chickens, fruit trees and berry bushes, too. I use all sustainable organic methods and strive to grow all of my family's vegetables myself. -Kathy


weeks and counting until my last spring frost

What I planted recently

Feb 20
celery, celeriac, parsley



What I'm planting soon

Feb 25
onions, leeks, petunias

March 2
peppers

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My mom’s garden this week

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Aurelia's Garden

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Skippy’s vegetable of the month – Spinach!

"It seems like the garden is fast asleep under its cover of snow. But hidden from view a secret world is busy preparing to grow."

"What can happen to a seed is a miracle."

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