this week’s garden chores

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I end up doing most of my garden work on the weekend. This weekend I will pull up the shriveled pea vines (Capucijner and sugar snap peas) and remove the trellises. My lettuce (romaine and a mix with oakleaf and simpson lettuces) is looking very sad (spindly, semi-bolted and buggy) so these will come out too. I’ll prepare the soil by digging in a bit of fertilizer. I’ll put in a row of green bush beans and save the rest of the space for planting later on this summer. Last…
 
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fresh tomatoes and garlic

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I picked two New Girl tomatoes today. I just made it under the wire as it was the last chance for me to pick a full-sized ripe tomato in the month of July. Its a very late year for tomatoes for me. My parents are having the same problem. The newspaper reports that the mean Boston temperature has been 2 degrees below normal for the month of July. Also we’ve had 5.3 inches of rain compared with a normal of 3.0 inches for July. Eighteen of 31 days have had…
 
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soybeans

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I don’t know why more people don’t grow soybeans. It looks like I have a real nice crop coming soon. They were easy to grow and there are many soybeans on each plant. The season seems only a couple weeks longer than green beans. Maybe its not such a popular vegetable to eat, but I love edamame with salt as an appetizer. I’m curious to see if homegrown tastes better than the frozen soybeans I usually eat. Fabaceae
 
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drying coriander

 
 
I grew a nice row of cilantro this year, but didn’t end up using much of it. It bloomed and the tiny white flowers did a great job of attracting small bees to the garden. I harvested it this weekend and now have a nice bunch drying in the garage. It smells wonderful every time I open the door. I’ll collect and save the dried coriander seeds. They are delicious on grilled meats. culinary herbs
 
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sunflower autumn gold

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This sunflower is growing in a pot on my patio. Its 6 or 7 feet tall. I had to get a ladder out to get this photo. I have several different varieties of sunflowers planted around my yard this year. This is the first to bloom. I wonder who will find it first – the squirrels or birds?
 
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summer garden

 
 
An aerial view of my vegetable garden. I took this picture at 10:45 am. The sun has reached the beds at the right, and will gradually move leftward. The far left beds get full sun at 12:30. Every year, the big old maple tree in my backyard gets a little bigger and my garden gets a little more shade. aerial views of my home vegetable garden
 
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a first – finally

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I suppose this counts as my first garden tomato. A tiny, split Chadwick’s cherry tomato. The big guys are out there. But none are showing any color (but green) yet. Solanum lycopersicum
 
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gnome working in the summer garden

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He’s almost lost under all the foliage now. It’s a big job for the little guy – but it looks like fun to me! (remember when he was buried with snow last winter?)
 
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hurray for honeybees

 
 
I’m not seeing many honeybees this year. Noticeably less than last year. But I can usually spot one or two in my garden in the heat of midday. This is one I found today gathering nectar in the platycodon flowers. I planted a lot of extra flowers earlier this summer to try to attract more honeybees to my garden and it does seem to help. I have many other types of bees this year (metallic green bees, bumblebees, and lots of small black bees), but still its nice to see…
 
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baby carrots

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I pulled a plateful of baby carrots yesterday. These are a mix of Red Core Chantenay, Oxheart (the fat ones) and Cosmic Purple that I planted on April 25. Tiny but tasty! The farmers at my local Farmers Market are already pulling their second crop of big carrots now. I asked a farmer about them and she said they planted a couple of weeks earlier than me, they have full sun in their fields, and they plant very early varieties. The first variety she says most farmers in New England…
 
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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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