October 2, 2015

potatoes – a tiny harvest

Some things grew great this year and others, well, 🙁 didn’t. On my “didn’t” list, potatoes. I thought they were doing well until last week when I dug them. An underground crop is a mystery until you go to harvest! This spring I planted only one type of potato because in the past I’ve had so many seed tubers left over that I can’t find space for. Usually I crowd the seed, spacing them maybe 6 inches apart when 12 would be better. So I only planted my favorite, russets.…

October 1, 2015

budded fall peas

I’ve tried for the past 10 years to get a fall crop of peas and haven’t been successful. Our weather goes from hot to frost too fast. But I’ve got my fingers crossed this year. Maybe…. My pea plants are budded and our weather is pretty nice, with nights not going much below 50 F yet. Our season generally seems about 2 weeks late this year. So maybe 2 or 3 weeks until frost. Maybe enough time for these peas. I started spouting these peas (Burpeeana Early, 63 days to…

October 1, 2015

mystery tree – any guesses?

This tree is behind my garden. It’s full of beautiful white flowers in the spring. Now it has tiny fruits that are shiny red. I wish I knew what is was.

September 15, 2015

honey!

I can’t quite believe it. I collected honey from my own hives! It’s a cool feeling. Yesterday I opened my white hive, the healthier of my two. it has two deep boxes and one super. I checked the deeps and they are full, with the exception of the far half of one outside frame. I didn’t pull out frames, just checked from the top. They are also full of lots of bees. It seems the bees have settled down – much less aggressive than they were in the heat of…

September 14, 2015

photos from the Belmont Victory Gardens

It’s a drizzly cool day. Finally. It’s been so hot and dry. I took my camera and walked through the paths of my community garden. The star of the day are the sunflowers: bright and tall. The squashes are ripe, tomatoes fading, kale’s and Brussels sprouts are looking good.

September 12, 2015

turnip seeds

The turnip seeds arrived a day later than the rest of my Johnny’s shipment. They’re planted now too. September 11, 2015 Turnip, Scarlet Queen Red Stems

September 11, 2015

sowing for winter garden – 9 weeks before Persephone

I just got a package from Johnny’s. More seeds to sow for my winter garden. Here’s what I have going so far: September 6, 2015 (10 weeks before Persephone) Kale, Red Russian Kale, Vates Blanching Onions, Nabechan Radicchio, Perseo September 10, 2015 (9 weeks before Persephone) Collards, Flash Swiss chard, Peppermint Cilantro, Calypso Lettuce, Bibb, Winter Density Lettuce, Romaine, Truchas Lettuce, Butterhead, Skyphos Escarole, Natacha Endive, Tres Fine Mustard Greens, Ruby Streaks Daikon Radish, Miyashige Looks like I forgot to order the turnip seeds. Maybe I’ll find some in a…

September 10, 2015

pickled peppers

I started with about 4 lbs of mixed hot peppers: Jalepeno pepper, Emerald Fire (a new AAS winner) TexMex pepper, Joseph E Parker Poblano, Ancho 211 I cut these in rings and canned them according to directions in the Ball Home Preserving book. They are delicious. Nice and hot! I only wish they didn’t loose so much of their bright green color. I wonder if they retain it more with a pressure canner.

September 9, 2015

comparing slicing tomatoes

From left: Sun Gold, Cherokee Purple, Huge Lemon Oxheart, Brandywine, Pink Beauty and Giant Belgium Not shown: Beefsteak, Mortgage Lifter, Carbone, Iron Lady and Mountain Merit. The last two are late blight resistant varieties that I’m growing at my community garden plot. And here are some sliced tomatoes. From top left going clockwise the varieties are: Cherokee Purple, Orange Blossom, Carbone, Mountain Merit, Iron Lady and, in the center is Stump of the World. (I bought the Orange Blossom tomato as I miss growing this one – I ran out…

September 9, 2015

comparing paste tomatoes

From left: Tiren, Stump of the World, Cordova, Opalka, Heinz 2653, San Marzano, Nova Not shown: San Marzano G3, Polish Linguisa I’d like to eliminate 2 or 3 varieties. And grow less variety for my paste tomatoes. I really prefer the big meaty tomatoes, but they produce fewer tomatoes than the smaller ones. Of course one big Opalka is the size and meatiness of 5 or 6 tiny Novas. My Notes: Tiren: Very early, heavy producer, seems hollow, not so meaty Stump of the World: I think not a paste…

weeks and counting until my last spring frost

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