soy beans

 
 
I am trying to grow soy beans this year for the first time. I planted an early dwarf variety called Early Hakucho. It grows one foot tall. I’ve experimented with planting it in garden rows and in pots. My first sprouts are just appearing now. I’m afraid that I do not have the right inoculant for soybeans. I went ahead and used my bean/pea inoculant, but I think soybeans use a different one. If they don’t do well, I can blame it on that. Fabaceae
 
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planting more lettuce

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I found a few bare spots of dirt by my patio and so I decided to plant lettuce there. Why not?! Its an interesting and edible ground cover. We have several in ground planters alongside our patio/driveway where a couple of large deep-rooted plants are growing (climbing rose, honeysuckle and an espaliered pear tree). I added potting soil to the top few inches and planted hot weather varieties of lettuce: a mix called heatwave blend that contains black seeded simpson, oak leaf and other types of lettuce. I’m on the…
 
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pea blossom

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This is a sugar snap pea. Both my Pisello nano peas and sugar snaps have many flowers all of a sudden today. Though the Capucijner peas are 4 feet tall now, they aren’t blooming yet. The peas that are blooming are only 1-2 feet tall. Pisum sativum
 
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tomato blossoms

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Yippee! The tomatoes are blooming already! My challenge this year is to get a ripe tomato 2 weeks earlier than last year year. Last year’s first was July 31, so this year I’m shooting for July 17. Marc at the Garden Desk is working on a red one by his birthday on June 24. Wow! And it looks like he’s going to achieve this. Unlike Marc, who raised his plants from seed, I bought my plants from a local nursery this year. Nevertheless, I am surprised to see them blooming…
 
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bean sprouts

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Amazing how fast beans grow! Yesterday there were no signs of sprouts and today lots of 1 or 2 inch plants. These are Italian Pole Beans and Haricots Verts bush beans that I planted two weeks ago. Fabaceae
 
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basil plants

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I just finished planting 18 basil plants. I hope they grow up to be good pesto! I find that basil is prone to root rot in our damp spring weather. Often, later in the season, I need to fill in a few holes where I’ve lost plants. But, for now, the young plants look good. Ocimum basilicum
 
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cucumber plants

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I planted cucumber seeds on May 9th, but none sprouted. I couldn’t even find any of the seeds in the soil. So I bought two 6-packs of plants – Slicemaster and pickling cukes. I planted these today under the trellis. I also put some seeds of striped Armenian cucumbers into a little 6-pack with potting soil. This is one of the varieties that didn’t sprout. I’ll keep this in a nice warm location and see if I can get a few seedlings. I planted two types of cucumber seeds in…
 
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ferocious house wrens

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Perhaps putting up a wren house was a bad move. An article on the aggressive and destructive nature of house wrens is here, at an Audubon Blue Bird site. I have an enormous racket in my backyard often times now: the battle of the house wrens and the house sparrows. Last week I posted photos of baby house sparrows ready to fledge. I never saw them after that day. But rather than attending to their family, after that day the sparrow parents have been battling the house wrens. I perhaps…
 
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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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