February 10, 2011

sunlight for the cold frame

I pulled off the tarp covering my cold frame today and let the plants get a couple hours of sun. We are now getting 10 hours and 19 minutes of sunlight per day here in the Boston area. Theoretically enough for plants to grow. Only its too cold. Tonight’s predicted low is 5*F (-15*C). Brr. The cold frame never goes much below 25*F. Its my first year with a cold frame and I think the plants look surprisingly good. Especially the spinach. I will try to give it a few…

February 6, 2011

seedlings

February 5, 2011

snow scenes

We have 3 feet of packed powder on our trails. I am going to see if I can buy a pair of snow shoes so I can go on some of the unpacked trails. I wonder if they make any in Skippy’s size.

February 4, 2011

snow covered community garden plots

February 3, 2011

garden aerial

Here’s a photo taken before the cold frame was cleared off.

February 3, 2011

cleared off cold frame

My son went out this evening and cleared the heavy snow and ice layer off of my cold frame (for a small fee…). It was a good foot of heavy ice and slush and I was afraid it would crush the panels. We have not had a winter like this that I can remember and the panels were not designed to hold hundreds of pounds of weight. The panels still look fine. Now they are ready to get covered with another snow layer again – I hear another storm is…

February 2, 2011

snow

That’s a 5 foot fence and a totally covered bench. I’ve stopped saving my kitchen scraps because there’s no way to get to my compost bin. And 5 inches of snow/ice are predicted to fall on top of all this tomorrow. Arrgh!!!

February 2, 2011

first sprout

My first sprout is a cute little endive from a seed mix I made. The lights are on and more are popping up fast, oblivious to the outside weather.

January 29, 2011

first seeds of the season are planted!

I planted 6 6-packs of seeds today!!! My planting 2011 garden season has officially begun! 1 6-pk leeks 1 6-pk onions (Ailsa Craig)1 6-pk onions (Frontier)1 6-pk lettuce mix1 6-pk endive mixhalf 6-pk perennial purple broccolihalf 6-pk celeriac I had written my plant labels a couple days ago, but didn’t end up planting, so I changed all the 1-25’s to 1-28. Nice to know they are now starting to come to life.

January 26, 2011

clean trays ready for planting

I don’t think plant trays are in the stores yet so I washed a few of the trays I used last year. I scrubbed them briefly, then rinsed them in dilute bleach (about 1:9). I am making some seed mixes now. Since I have picked out about 20 varieties of lettuce and endive that I want to plant soon, but its still early too plant too much, I think a mix will work well. I’ll plant: 1 6-pack mixed endive1 6-pack mixed lettuce 1/2 6-pack purple sprouting perennial broccoli1/2 6-pack…

weeks and counting until my last spring frost

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