potato order
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I just ordered my seed potatoes. Fedco/Moose Tubers has a nice selection of “Keepers” that includes: German Butterball, Katahdin, Elba, Red Pontiac, and Russet Burbank. 2 1/2 lbs of each for only $19. Can’t beat it. I’ll pick of a few blues at the supermarket to add to my planting.
seedlings
Had my lights off the seedlings today to move things around and so I took some photos. They are growing fast! I’m thinking by March 1 they will need to go out to the cold frame.
catalogs
I’m trying to limit myself to just a few more packets of seeds. I placed an order from Johnny’s yesterday. Carrots, squash, parsnips, etc. And I’ve circled a bunch of things from the Kitazawa catalog. So many seeds, so little space…. My son has been asking me several times now to please grow popcorn again this year. How can I refuse? He says it tastes much better than anything we’ve been able to buy. He’s a real connoisseur! I don’t know where I will find space – popcorn needs at…
Valentine’s Day rose
I have a hard tome photographing red and magenta with my camera. These Valentines roses were a real challenge. The petals are marbled, reminding me of old tulip varieties. I can’t say the photo does the rose justice, but its my best attempt. Happy Valentine’s Day!
sprouting sweets and saving squash seeds
Today, I finally remembered to bring my small (finger-sized) sweet potatoes upstairs to see if the warmer temperature will get them to sprout. (I left the big ones downstairs to keep for eating.) I’d like to get the sweet potatoes to sprout soon. They start off slow. Also, I roasted a nice buttercup squash from my local CSA and couldn’t resist saving a few of the fat seeds. It is a nice variety with thick orange flesh that tasted great and kept very well until now. Even though squashes do…
a nice gardening book
Timberpress sent me a copy of a new book that I really enjoyed reading. “Sugar snaps and Strawberries” by Andrea Bellamy. Its about small-space edible gardening and has really nice photos of container gardens. Great photo (page 46) of a garden planted in an old canoe! Nice section (page 58) on building raised beds. And (page 67) a chart of “the dirty dozen”: 10 fruits and vegetables that consistently test highest for pesticide residues. They include kale, potatoes and spinach. Makes me glad to know I grow these at home.…
PBS video clips
I thought I’d share an email I got yesterday. The videos are very nice. I like the ones about composting with worms. This year, I will be trying harder to make really good compost. Skippy, My name is Daniel Buckley and I work for WGBH Boston… I .. wanted to reach out to you as an advocate for gardening, because of a project that we at PBS worked on this summer. So as part of a new project called Design Squad Nation, we traveled to London to team up with…
a balmy day in the cold frame
Today at 1:45 pm the temperature inside my cold frame hit a high of 44.1*F (6.7*C)!!! Outside high was only 26*F (-3.3*C). Grow spinach, grow. Yesterday, I wrote myself a note on my kitchen black board to remember to pull the tarp off my frame in the morning and replace it in the evening. I followed the note today. The sun is still having trouble emerging from behind the neighboring house much of the day. But at 12:00 it hits the cold frame, and from then on the frame gets…
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
My garden this week
Skippy’s vegetable of the month – Egyptian walking onions!
