garden progress

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I was comparing this year’s garden with my records from last year. It seems many plants are growing slower this year. Lettuce: Last year I was harvesting lots of lettuce by now early June – this year I’m hoping to start picking lettuce this week. It looks beautiful and lots of it, but ts still a bit small. I planted the same varieties on the same dates both year’s so I think the weather is the difference. Peas: My peas are doing miserably this year. Very poor sprouting, (I think…
 
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potato blossoms

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I find potato flowers very interesting and pretty. My Russets have a pinkish color and the Red Norlands are white. They seem to be blooming early this year. I don’t think mine bloomed until late June last year. Potatoes are in the family Solanaceae and their flowers resemble tomato, eggplant, pepper, chili and Petunia flowers. Flowers are funnel shaped, with five fused petals. The stamens are present in multiples of four. The ovaries are superior. The hypogynus gynoecium is a syncarp located obliquely in relation to the median! What do…
 
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tomato supports

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This year I’m trying to replicate the tomato supports I see many gardeners using. Two side poles and a crossbeam, with ropes supporting the vines. I think you just wrap the vines in the rope. Several gardeners at our Community Gardens use this method and I’ll watch how they do it. Lynda suggests to try Johnny’s tomato clips. They seem nice. But I think if I need ties, I’ll use strips of my old plastic shopping bags. They’re free. In previous years I have always used tepees for my tomatoes.…
 
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edible boston

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I had a very nice conversation (i.e. interview) with a writer at Edible Boston (a quarterly magazine) recently about storing vegetables from the garden. She’s putting together an article for their summer issue on this topic. I keep watching the magazine stands so I can see what she wrote about me and Skippy and storing vegetables.
 
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bean sprouts

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These are sprouts of Chinese pole beans. A fantastic variety given to me by a friend of my husband. Such brave little sprouts poking up through the soil.
 
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dinner for the chickadee babies

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The chickadees in the yellow bird house on my back patio are frantically feeding their young now. Back and forth every two minutes. Where do they find all these worms? (My garden!!! – can’t beat the free labor!) By my guess, the chicks are 15 days old today and will fledge tomorrow. I’m hoping for photos.
 
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freshly mowed community garden entrance

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We’ve been working on improving the entrance area to the Victory Gardens. I think its getting there. Our vision is to create a nice flat grassy area so we can have gatherings for the gardeners now and then. Also an area that looks tended and inviting as people enter the community garden plots. The challenge is that the area has had 10 foot weeds and lots of branches, bushes and debris in past years. Also many undesirable invasives, like bittersweet, Japanese hops, burdock and Black Swallow-wort (also called Dog-strangling Vine).…
 
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perennial onion

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A friend of mine grows perennial onions and I asked for one. I planted it in the corner of a bed at my community plot. But I’m still confused about what on earth this is…. I’ll have to ask more questions next time I see her. I have read about perennial onions at Bifurcated Carrots. OK. I guess they are like chives, but they make bulbs as well as greens. Sounds reasonable. And they also make top sets that are like little onion bulbs that can be planted for more…
 
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SURPRISE! a very beautiful old rose

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I have been watching this rose bloom and it becomes more beautiful by the day! When I got my new community plot last year, I noticed tiny sprouts of a rose in the corner. Not knowing what kind of rose it was, I tended it and hoped it would be pretty someday. But it had no blossoms last year and I had decided to remove it this year and replace it with a nice new variety. Then, this spring I noticed a few small buds…. First they were green, then…
 
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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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