December 29, 2015

our Christmas tree

There wasn’t room for our tree inside this year, because of renovations we are doing, … so… the tree is out on the patio decorated with lights and bird food. Who came to the tree? First a couple of noisy red squirrels! Then, Suzie (my little Portuguese water dog who loves birds food), my chickens, and then lots of birds. A Carolina wren, junco’s, ground sparrows, chickadees, and cardinals. Oh, and Santa came by too. On Christmas morning there was a big pile of new garden tools!! I can’t wait…

December 29, 2015

biochar? carbon gardening?

Daphne brought up biochar as the most stable way to sequester unwanted atmospheric carbon. As a nice side effect, it also improves the soil. And Tony explained that my tasty lettuce gardens don’t hold onto much carbon very long, but if I added more wetlands, that would. Hmm, carbon gardening – that’s new to me. I had to do more research. The main focus of recent Climate Change Conferences is to reduce emissions, but then, there’s a secondary discussion: what to do with the carbon that’s already in the air?…

December 28, 2015

Since I’m a new NOFA member I was reading through their literature. I like this one about Soil Carbon Restoration. “Much discussion has focused on how to deal with greenhouse gas emissions and resulting weather extremes. Most analysts believe we must stop burning fossil fuels to prevent further increases in atmospheric carbon. [But we} must also find ways to remove carbon already in the air…. “…where can we put carbon once it is removed from the air? There is only one practical approach — to put it back where it…

December 26, 2015

Christmas Day – honey bees on hellebores

Last week the hellebore has been blooming gloriously in the misty unusually warm New England weather. Today the sun broke out. I saw my bees were out foraging. Hard to believe on the last week of the year! I found some, collecting hellebore nectar. The hive entrance was pretty active with three or 4 bees passing in and out at any one time. I didn’t see any bees foraging around the pond on our afternoon boat ride. Of course – there are no flowers there. The only flowers around now…

December 25, 2015

a very warm Christmas!

My bees are out and about at the end of December! 61F now, and yesterday was a high of 68F. I don’t know if this is good for them. There are no flowers. I suppose they can get a drink and stretch their wings then go back to their honey stores.

December 24, 2015

on the Eve

The perfect year for a Christmas rose (Hellebores Niger).

December 22, 2015

gifts under the tree

I was hoping it would look like I painted this picture. It’s a few jars of garden pickles and some honey decked out with fabric caps. We don’t have room for a tree in the house this year, just this little USB one. A very cheery little plastic fir.

December 20, 2015

potting up a sprouted sweet potato

My mom gave me this nice sweet potato. From the super market. I find it really hard to get these to sprout. I love to grab one that is sprouted. I put it in a pot. It’ll go on the kitchen window sill. They grow slow, then fast. I’ve heard of gardeners who start their own sweets having the kitchen window covered with vines by planting season. Well, that would be fun. Last year I bought 12 slips and they weren’t cheap (though I forget how much they were –…

December 14, 2015

inside my winter tunnel

My winter tunnel is full of greens. Spinach, several types of lettuce, arugula, radicchio, kale, chard, collards, salad turnips, daikon and salad radish, cilantro, some frilly red mustard, escarole, bok choi. Can’t beat this balmy December weather for cool weather crops! I have parsley, escarole, broccoli, beets and kale outside with no protection. Plants in my tunnel are from my winter seed sowing calendar, which is part of Skippy’s full-season planting calendar app. I planted everything to test the planting dates in the app. The app is $1.99 (iOS or…

November 29, 2015

the plastic is on my winter tunnel

I put greenhouse plastic over my garden hoops today. The hoops have two layers now: fabric row cover close to the plants and the plastic outside. The weather is slowly cooling off. Looks like I’ll be taking these covers off and on for the rest of the month. I’ll take it off when the plants can catch rain and sun on warmer days. Our weather seems about 10 degrees F above normal this year.

weeks and counting until my last spring frost