crazy pepper seedlings

 
 
Two days ago, I decided my peppers seeds weren’t sprouting because the temperature was too low. It had been ten days with no sign of seedlings. So I rushed out right to buy a heat mat. So – only two days later – guess what’s in the tray. Lot’s of pepper sprouts!! I can’t believe it. I wonder if they would have come up without the mat or if the mat was a miracle worker? In addition to getting the new heat mat,  also replanted by adding an extra seed…
 
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lost chicken

 
 
I was very sad to loose one of my laying hens yesterday. I suspect it was a hawk the got her. We have a giant pair of red-tails often nearby. The chicken was my best layer, Roxy, a barred rock – the black and white one up front in the picture above. Her carcass was at the edge of the woods, half eaten. I buried it. Now I have three hens. The others are very somber. I imagine it was terrifying for them to see. Roxy laid big brown eggs.…
 
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ready for planting seeds tomorrow

 
 
These pots and seeds are waiting on my kitchen counter for me to plant tomorrow. Five or six types of broccoli, raab, broccolini, etc – we love broccoli. Also flowers: cosmos, cleome, tithonia (Mexican sunflower), nigella, and bells of Ireland.
 
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I replanted my pepper seeds today. None sprouted after 10 days. I checked their temperature and it was only 74F in a spot that was 80F last year. We have lower heat in the house this year. I bought a seed heat mat this afternoon and I hope that will help the replanted seeds to sprout.
 
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another amazing greenhouse

 
 
I walked through the heated greenhouse at Mass Hort, Elm Bank, in Wellesley MA. They’re getting ready for spring. Trays and trays of plugs are growing. Onions, broccoli, and lots of flowers. They have two greenhouses. The small heated one and a large unheated one. Later they will transplant the plugs into larger pots, raise them to transplant size in the large greenhouse, then plant out to their garden. They also have some full size tomato, watermelon, and marigold seedlings ready. I don’t know what they will do with those.…
 
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update of planting calendar apps

 
 
I’m so excited about our new updates of our planting calendar apps! I think they are great. We put a lot of work into both our Vegetable and our Flower & Herb app. – We added many, many more plants. Now more than 100 vegetables and 100 flowers & herbs. – We added an “info page” for all of the plants that describes how to plant and grow it. – We added many photos of plants we have grown. – And … we added several photos of Skippy, helping out…
 
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overwintered vegetables

 
 
Charley and I peeked inside my winter tunnel today. I keep thinking I can take of the covers, but night temps will be down in the teens again this week. Maybe next week.
 
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spring is here!

 
 
It’s spring! Astronomically – if not our temperatures, which will go down to the teens and low 20’s, much of this week. But my garden soil is WORKABLE! Yeah. Charley and I checked it out this afternoon. Nothing is frozen and it’s not muddy. Just nice planting soil. We even saw a nice little earthworm in the soil. Time to get out my pea seeds.
 
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a beautiful day

 
 
The sun was warm and I was working with my dogs right next to my garden today. Pretty good. I’m not quite working inside the garden yet – but seems like that may be soon. I cleared overgrown briars just behind my garden fence. Huge prickly multiflora rose and wild raspberry canes. The area is about a 15 foot piece of land between my fence and a little brook. Long ago, I can see a gardener planted ornamental plants there, but the yard has had 10 years or so of…
 
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sowing onions at drumlin farm

 
 
Last week I volunteered to help at Drumlin Farm, Lincoln MA. They were sowing onion seed. Everything’s done by hand at the farm, with lots of help from volunteers. I was really impressed with the way they did things. – The greenhouse was filled with trays of beautiful arugula and peas tendrils in all stages of growth for selling to local restaurants. – They simply lay newspaper in a doubled up 10-20 tray, fill it with dirt, and use that for planting. No pots. – Before planting, they water the…
 
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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

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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