garden update

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– Late Blight hit my home tomatoes yesterday. The New Girl and Orange Blossom plant are heavily infected. Others OK so far. I’m picking the fruits now as soon as they show any red to ripen inside.– Funny how some of my eggplants and peppers are rotting. The plants look OK. I’m wondering if its late blight. I’m thinking it probably is, but I read that this is unusual. Hmmm.– I picked all my popcorn – about 50 ears! (I’ll get a good count soon.) Its waiting to be shucked…
 
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garden update

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Good – I picked 4 ears of BEAUTIFUL popcorn. I am so happy with these!!!– I have harvested 2 little pumpkins and 3 big butternut squash so far. – My two giant pumpkins both look bigger than the 11 pounder I grew last year. They are just starting to show a little orange.– My flowers are brightening up the garden very nicely now: big purple zinnias, an ornamental bean (I have forgotten the name) and bright marigolds.– Lots of eggplant!– Time to make pesto ASAP.– And time to make tomato…
 
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extra vegetables

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I wish I could keep up with eating everything the garden is producing. But composting is good too. And I enjoy how full the gardens look. This time of year is truly amazing. I am considering putting a table outside my plot for extra vegetables. I just worry that I’ll come back the next day and find rotten, wilted and ugly vegetables that no one noticed. Then again, what’s the difference if I was going to compost anyway? I also just got an email the the local Food Pantry will…
 
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getting ready to plant garlic

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I’ve been getting advertisements that its time to order garlic now. Here are some mail order sources: Seeds of Change The Garlic Store Sand Hill Preservation Center Johnny’s Selected Seeds I ordered top sets a couple years ago and they haven’t done very well for me. They take several years to size up and I’m afraid I’ve lost them all in the process. Three or four years ago I grew supermarket garlic (softneck) and its done pretty good. I still get a few medium sized ones from this. My most…
 
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tickle with a hoe

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Earth is here so kind, that just tickle her with a hoe and she laughs with a harvest.-Douglas William Jerrold, A Land of Plenty I love coming across a great garden quote!
 
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garden aerial

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I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of creation. It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil, or a rose of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green.-Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mosses from an Old Manse, 1854 My home vegetable garden…
 
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tomato taste test results

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And the winners were …. Cherokee Purple and Sungold! I have eight varieties of tomatoes along the south side of my house. Seven were perfectly ripe and we tasted them side-by-side. 1. Orange Blossom2. Mortgage Lifter3. Big Beef4. New Girl5. Cherokee Purple6. Brandywine Sudduth’s Strain7. Sungold I think the way we did the test had an affect on the results. We tested the tomatoes plain, no food, no salt, one after the other. We were surprised that none tasted as good as we expected. The big heirlooms, Brandywine and Mortgage…
 
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fall planting

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Here’s what I planted yesterday. My garden has little patches of free soil here and there. A spot where fava beans were. One where blighted tomatoes were. The empty garlic patch. I got rained on while planting, so the packs look ragged. Its late for fall planting. My calendar says I should have planted a few weeks ago. Last year I did my last planting on August 27 and only some of the greens matured by the first frost. The peas and spinach didn’t. (I’ve never gotten fall peas to…
 
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Mexican cole slaw

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I got the idea for this Mexican cole slaw recipe from a TV show on fish tacos. Its great with any kind of tacos – and maybe even any meal. Perfect with fresh homegrown cabbage. The unexpected combination of cabbage, lime juice and cilantro is just fantastic. RECIPE1 cup cabbage, sliced1 scallion, chopped1 tsp lime juice2 tsp sour cream1/4 cup chopped cilantro2 slices pickled jalapenos Mix all ingredients. Use more or less of everything to your taste, but don’t use too much sour cream (or jalapenos!). Makes 2 servings.
 
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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

Jan 21
thyme, lettuce, escarole

Feb 21
celery, celeriac, parsley, leeks

March 11
cabbage, kale, arugula



What I'm planting soon

April 1
peppers, eggplants, marigolds, beets

April 12
tomatoes, basil, sunflowers

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My garden this week

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17 years of archives!

Check out the food pantry farm I helped to start up:

Aurelia's Garden

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Skippy’s vegetable of the month – Egyptian walking onions!

“I envision a day when every city and town has front and back yards, community gardens and growing spaces, nurtured into life by neighbors who are no longer strangers, but friends who delight in the edible rewards offered from a garden they discovered together.” – Greg Peterson

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

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