October 24, 2006

Belmont Victory Gardens

I was surprised to find this community garden today. Some still growing their last crops of the year. Some with dried old tomato stalks and rotted fruit on the ground. Some with freshly tilled soil ready for next year. Some with weeds and debris. Many birds were gathering seeds: chickadees, bluejays, blackbirds, a phoebe. It’s amazing what people use for edging and plant supports. Skippy and I enjoyed wandering through the maze of paths. communitygardeningBelmont Victory Garden

October 21, 2006

October lettuce

My lettuce is happy. I have little patches of it here and there in the garden. We had some rain yesterday and the droplets looked pretty on the leaves. I have been planting lettuce seeds every few weeks all summer. The mid-summer seedings did nothing – not even any sprouts. Now it is growing. I guess it likes the cool weather. So far we haven’t even had a frost in my yard. When we do, I’ll do my best to cover the lettuce and see if it will last a…

October 20, 2006

the green tomatoes are ripening

It seems like the tomatoes are ripening really fast. I brought them upstairs today to take out the red ones. Lots of them. The green ones are going back to the basement.

October 14, 2006

tucked in for a frost

I found some gardening fabric in my garage from some previous project, so I went ahead and covered all of my plants last night. I pulled apart some thin wire edging fences and used them as hoops. Scattered frost was predicted for the Boston area, but as it turned out, my garden did not frost. The lowest I saw on my thermometer (7 am) was 37 degrees F.

October 13, 2006

the end of tomato season

We have a frost warning in our area for tonight, so I harvested all of the tomatoes and pulled up the vines. I picked all of the tomatoes: green, pinkish and red. There were quite a lot of them hidden under the leaves out there. Its a chilly day here, in the 50s, with no breeze. The cold air that left the midwest under a lot of snow is moving our way. No snow for us, thank goodness! The Boston area may or may not frost tonight, but the tomatoes…

October 13, 2006

happy squirrel

This squirrel thought it was really nice of me to scatter winter rye seed for him. He digs little holes all through the garden to get at the big juicy seeds. He doesn’t seem to mind that big metal thing there either. “Scarecrow? I’m not a crow!” When he’s done the sparrows take over the feast. This happens every year. Usually I get a good winter rye cover crop to come up even with all the critters.

October 12, 2006

pumpkins in the field

(picture not available) This picture is from the website of the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources. It was taken at Malinowski Farm in Hatfield, Massachusetts. A great picture. Yesterday I bought a few pumpkins for my front steps. Wish I had grown them myself, but I didn’t get any pumpkins this year from the little plant I put in a pot on my driveway.

October 11, 2006

eggplant parmasan

I finally made eggplant parmigiana tonight. It was fantastic! I like a recipe from “The Romagnoli’s Table”, with my modifications. Fried Eggplant: 3 medium eggplant, salt, flour, olive oil Sauce: 4 halved garlic cloves, 1 small chopped onion, 1 24 oz can chopped tomatoes, 6-8 big basil leaves, some salt, 1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese, 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese Topping: 1/2 cup unseasoned bread crumbs, 1 sliced fresh tomato Preheat oven to 350. Slice eggplant into long 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices. Salt liberally. Let stand 20 minutes. Meanwhile,…

October 9, 2006

big orange dahlia

My dad gave me the tubers for this dahlia. It is at least 12 feet tall this year. And the brownish-orange flowers are about 8 inches across. This year I planted them in the perennial border next to my vegetable garden. They are blooming beautifully now. Probably 10 flowers on the plants blossoms today and many buds yet to open. Dahlias are great for the final garden show of the year.

October 7, 2006

planting lettuce

I can’t believe I planted a bed of lettuce today. Very foolish. I am ignoring the rapidly approaching end of the gardening season. Well, maybe we’ll have a very late frost this year. After all, we made it past the October full moon. And I did have a couple packages of seeds left. (How long do they last anyway?) I may try to cover the bed with hoops and cloth later on if I am ambitious. Its always nice to have fresh lettuce. I’m not sure how much cold lettuce…

weeks and counting until my last spring frost

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