December 18, 2006

lettuce and endives

I was surprised to find my little lettuce patch still growing. I don’t go out to the garden very often these days. I had stopped covering the patch in early December because everything was freezing pretty solid, even with the covering. I didn’t realize that these plants would survive. Not really very many plants – probably not enough for a single salad serving – but I think they are photogenic and a good crop to consider expanding for next year. Still growing are (clockwise from top left): purple-spotted escarole, curly…

December 18, 2006

green parsley

My parsley is another plant that is doing just fine at the end of December. I have given up on covering it.

December 4, 2006

first snow on the garden

Just a dusting in our area. My dad says it looks more like powdered sugar than snow. It lasted about an hour.

November 27, 2006

a toast to the end of gardening season

I think this is about it for my vegetable garden this year. I have one tomato left from the big box of green tomatoes that I picked last month. Pretty much all of the green tomatoes ripened. Outside, I just have carrots, garlic sprouts and parsley left in the garden along with my cover crop of winter rye. We’ve had a couple of hard frosts and the garden soil is nearly frozen. I’ll take a few pictures of the garden plot during the winter – and I am looking forward…

November 21, 2006

first frost

We had a real frost last night. I’m hoping my covered parsley and chard survived it.

November 20, 2006

field of cow corn

I think this is a field of cow corn. The farmer is finally bringing it in this weekend. Its been raining for the last 2 or 3 weeks which I think may have slowed him down. Even now his tractor is running in deep mud. It looks like about half of the fields have been cut.

November 16, 2006

Thanksgiving menu

I have been planning my Thanksgiving menu. I will have 10 people to serve: my parents, my brother and his family, my mother-in-law and us. I am hoping to serve fresh vegetables from my garden: Sauteed Swiss Chard, Glazed Carrots and a dish of roasted winter vegetables that will include beets. I have lots of carrots, so that one should work out. I’m hoping to have enough chard and beets. One week of growing time left. Temperatures were up close to 70 degrees F today, so things are growing. beets…

November 14, 2006

late parsley

I’ve set up hoops and gardening fabric to cover my parsley on cold nights. I wonder how long I can keep using it this winter?

November 12, 2006

seed sites

I am collecting a list of US web sites (in my sidebar) for ordering seeds for next year. Time to start the planning. I’d like to expand my vegetable space a little and try some heirloom varieties. S&P

November 10, 2006

when will we frost?

I think it is very late in the season for us to still be waiting for our first frost. One record I found says the average first frost date for Boston MA is November 10, another says October 30, another says October 10. October 10 is the date I remember from previous years. I think one thing going on is that maps and average dates are being adjusted to reflect recent years. For example, I read this in a Boston Globe archive: Since 1990, the United States has had its…

weeks and counting until my last spring frost

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30