fall planting with my calendar app

 
 
Please go to Apple Store for the current update on Skippy’s Calendar app. It corrects the bug on the fall date changer. Yes, it’s time to start thinking about fall planting. I planted my Brussels sprouts a couple days ago. I’m hoping to have some for Thanksgiving this year. It seems pretty far ahead to plan for that!
 
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tomato seedlings are in

 
 
My tomato seedlings are all transplanted out into my garden now. Yeah!! Finally. It’s turning point for me. For many things, gardens included, preparation is most of the effort. By the time my tomato seedlings go in, my soil has been amended, the seedlings raised and hardened off, and my tomato supports are up. But more than that, tomatoes are my big summer crop, and once they go in, all my spring beds have been prepared and planted, and my garden design changes have been done. This year I laid…
 
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my garden in the rain – peas, asparagus, and lettuce

 
 
The rain is cold and dreary for me, but my plants are enjoying it, it seems. Peas and asparagus are sprouting.   Earlier in the week, I planted a bed with spring greens. I have several colors of lettuce, so I tried to mix it up and make a pretty bed. I hope the pattern will be nice when it grows up. The bed has lettuce, spinach, arugula, kale, escarole, bunching onions, and a few marigolds.       Other things going on in my garden are some nice big…
 
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sunning seedlings

 
 
I’m so busy with my gardens, new bees, my dogs, and updating our vegetable calendar app that I’m having no time to post! It’s been a week. I have some great photos from the past week that I’ll try to add this week. Today these little seedlings are out getting some sun on the patio. The sun is so bright that I’ll give them a couple hours of it and then move them to an area with less sun.
 
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my potato shipment is here

 
 
I mail ordered a box of seed potatoes (Green Mountain) from Moose Tubers and they arrived today. I was surprised it’s already time for planting potatoes! Earlier, I had purchased a small box of red fingerling seed potatoes at a local garden center. They have been “chitting” on my windowsill next to the seedlings that don’t fit on my plant shelves. I’ll set up the new potatoes to chit too until I get time to plant, which will probably be a week or two yet. The weather is slowly warming…
 
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me and my new bees

 
 
Actually, it’s not so easy to get a selfie with a new bee package. iPhone’s don’t work so well wearing leather bee gloves. But the bees did pose well I thought. They are very sweet bees. Once they take up residence and start protecting their hive, I won’t do selfies with them.
 
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getting ready for bees

 
 
I’ll pick up two packages of bees tomorrow. They’ll replace the two hives I lost this past winter. The boxes are now set up and waiting now. I filled both boxes with nine draw-out frames each with a good amount of honey in them. I’ll also feed the bees sugar water in a frame feeder since I don’t know what’s blooming near me now. I think the maples and willows may be, but not sure.
 
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our last snow storm – hopefully….

 
 
My garden got a couple inches of slush from the storm yesterday. But my Mom’s garden is seriously buried. Probably eight inches of really heavy snow. I tried to shovel her driveway – usually no problem for me, but only did about two car lengths before I burnt out. Fortunately a plow cleared it a few hours later. The next weather we have is a big rain storm that supposed to come through here on Tuesday. Rain sounds good. Melt that snow! Fill up our reservoirs!
 
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planting peas and spreading compost

 
 
Another snow storm is heading for us. We’re supposed to get 8 inches of heavy snow tonight. Who knows how long this will prevent me from gardening. So, my solution, get as much gardening done before the storm. Yesterday I planted peas in my back yard garden. Two rows: Oregon Giant snow peas and Sugar Snap snap peas. This morning I covered up my winter bed with row cover and plastic. Then I drove up to Mom’s house and spread a beautiful 2 inch layer of compost (2 c. yards)…
 
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sunning seedlings

 
 
The first of my seedlings are out sunning now. Onions, shallots, leeks mostly. Also spinach, beets, cabbage, and endive. We have a beautiful sunny day today. It’s 43F now and going up to 50. Tomorrow, the last day of March, we are bracing for a winter storm. It doesn’t seem right. But it’s not the first time we’ve had crazy weather. I’ll be out with my seedlings, pruning, raking, and maybe even planting my peas. I’ve been doing a lot of planting recently. It’s all listed on my 2017 planting…
 
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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

Make your own customized planting calendar. Try out my app!
Apple/iOS

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

Flickr

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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