November 29, 2015

post Thanksgiving

I’m finally able to think about something other than making food and entertaining guests! Thanksgiving is past. We enjoyed having many family members at my house: my husband, son and myself, my parents, my sister and her two daughters, and my brother, his wife, two sons and their dog. A dozen in all. 15 with the dogs! Our preparations started the weekend before when my son and I turned our dining room into a giant table (6×8 ft!) that held us all. It was feat for me to locate seasonal…

November 25, 2015

today’s harvest

That’s my sister, helping me carry everything.

November 24, 2015

my Thanksgiving lettuce (variety Sandy) survived the cold

Yes! It still looks great. This is a little area that’s not under my plastic tunnel, so I want to pick it all for Thanksgiving. Its a great variety. Sandy. A 2015 AAAS Winner that I love. Sweet frilly green leaves. And – very cold tolerant!! I have some escaroles, Frissee and Natacha, to mix with it. Also curly kale and baby beet greens. Maybe some mustard, Purple Streaks, and some tiny radicchio, Perseo, too. I see what kind of mix I end up with. The rest of the nights…

November 24, 2015

a cold night – did lettuce survive?

The temperature dipped to 19F in some areas of my yard last night. I have a bunch of salad greens out there marked for the Thanksgiving Day salad bowl. They’re under a double layer of row cover. I’m worried about what I’ll find when I check them. I may be buying lettuce …

November 17, 2015

new old garden shed

My husband moved this old shed for me. It was up in the front of our new house. He disassembled it, made it a couple feet smaller, and reassembled it next to my garden.

November 15, 2015

plastic tunnel is getting ready to assemble

Right now, the skeleton of a tunnel is standing. Bare white PVC arches over thin metal hoops. When night time temperatures dip to freezing (32F), I pull cloth over the metal hoops and then remove it in the morning. I’m hoping to get some use out of the tunnel this year. Last year, voles or chipmunks ate everything inside once I closed the plastic up. This year’s attempt to keep critters out: – 6 inches of hardware cloth dug in around the edges of bed – castor oil/soap mix soaked…

November 14, 2015

plants in my garden now

November 13, 2015

early seed catalog

I just got my first seed catalog! I thought they came out at the end of December.

November 10, 2015

Persephone period begins

It’s November 10. Daylight hours have fallen below 10 hours a day at my latitude. Sunrise 6:28 am, sunset 4:27 pm. Aargh – not my favorite time of year… (Plants don’t grow with less than 10 hours of light a day.) I had my countdown timer set to watch for this date. I’ve set it for February 2nd now – the date the Persephone ends.

November 9, 2015

new garden fence

weeks and counting until my last spring frost