fall seedlings

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I’m getting afraid these seedlings are too late. I went by and looked at Gretta’s (Belmont CSA farm) fall crops and they are so big! My count down meter on my side bar says only 39 days left until frost! Oh my goodness. Grow plants, GROW! These are lettuce, mixed fall greens, string beans and dill seedlings planted outside at my community plot on August 21. Maybe a mistake to sow so late. We’ll see.
 
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community plot expansion project

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I was given permission to expand my plot about 15 feet to the east. This area is overgrown now with 10 foot weeds and a couple small buck thorn trees. There are also several good sized stumps and rocks to deal with. I’m looking forward to a couple hours of working on this today, before the rains of Hurricane Hanna come through over the weekend. I’ll work at this project step-by-step, and hopefully get to Step 2 today. Step 1: Pull up all the weeds, remove rocks. I’d like to…
 
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winter squash harvest

 
 
This is my winter squash harvest this year. Two pretty little Delicata squash. I look forward to trying these. harvests from my vegetable gardens
 
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farms around the corner

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Skippy and I walked by our local farms, Belmont CSA and Sergi Farms, today. Here are some photos I took. I just love being able to walk to real farms from my suburban house. Belmont is very close to the big city (5 miles from Boston), yet these farms are a short walk from my house. Skippy and I walked through the fields and checked out the produce. In Gretta’s CSA fields, we saw lots of butternut squash, beautiful greens and rows of ripe beans, tomatoes and peppers. In the…
 
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wild turkey in the suburbs

 
 
I got a kick out of this wild turkey scratching for dinner under the sculptured shrubbery today. He hardly even looked up at Skippy and me!
 
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the sunflower project

 
 
I have been reading about the Sunflower Project. Since I found that so many of my sunflower seeds were empty, I was very interested when earlysnowdrop left me a comment saying that empty seeds means they have not been pollinated and are an indicator of the health of bee populations in the garden. The Sunflower Project looks at sunflower seed samples to follow bee health. I made some more seed counts on the same sunflower below. Four sets of counts, n=30 for each, 120 total seeds. Percentages were 67%, 53%,…
 
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sunflower seeds

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I picked the giant sunflower head from my community plot yesterday. The birds had started helping themselves to the seeds. The head measured 15 inches across! Enourmous! To make salted roasted seeds, I followed the recipe here. Clean 1 cup of seeds, boil 1 hour in salt water, the oven roast at 325 F for 45 minutes. The seeds were yummy. Great big striped shells. We were surprised, though, at how many were empty. Out of 30 seeds I counted, only 13 had a kernel inside. The rest of the…
 
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mini watermelon

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Wouldn’t it be nice to grow a real watermelon! This is my prize – not. Oh well…. Only 2 3/4 inches in diameter and 6.5 oz in weight. I was hoping it would get bigger, but this week I noticed it made a hollow sounding “thump” when I thumbed it. Ripe! Sure enough, its was nice and red inside. Sweet and cute as could be. Just way way too small. I guess it didn’t get enough of some important nutrient to grow large. Probably not enough sun. I have another…
 
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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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