February 16, 2015

snow, snow, snow

I’m watching to see if my garden hoops get covered with snow this year. The fence is 5 feet high. I certainly hope it doesn’t get covered! I’m also wondering if I’ll be able to find places to put my raw compost if we get any more snow. After each storm, I dig out a couple of the bins up near my kitchen. (The garden bin is covered with deep snow with no path to get there – I certainly can’t use that one.) The snow mixes with raw compost…

February 13, 2015

planning my parents’ garden

My dad has kidney disease and has just started on dialysis. He has a pretty restricted diet as he can’t eat foods that are high in phosphorus or potassium. His doctor has given him a list of all of his dos and don’ts. No tomatoes, no beets, no peas, etc. We looked at this list while planning what to plant in his vegetable garden this year. (I don’t know if these vegetables are OK for all kidney patients, so please check with your own doctor if you have kidney disease.)…

February 11, 2015

winter birds in Florida

I went to visit my parents in southern Florida (Naples area) last week. Talk about a great time to get a break from New England! It was sunny the whole time, 70’s, and no snow! Fortunately I was able to get into and out of Logan between storms with out delays. I was lucky. Anyway, here are the birds I saw down there.

February 6, 2015

winter birds in my backyard

The big bluejays get first dibs at my feeder, while little birds wait in the trees for them to have their fill and move on. I love the little catkin-like buds on my star magnolia where the little birds wait. With all this snow I am trying to keep the feeders full. I should get a bigger feeder because the birds empty it in a couple hours. The big guys in the sky are the red tailed hawks. A pair hangs out in our back yard. I took these photos…

February 4, 2015

snow covered garden

I’m wondering if these hoops will get covered with snow this year….

January 31, 2015

2015 planting list

This is a mostly filled in list. But in mid-summer, I forgot to write down a lot of seeds that I direct sowed in the garden. Things like the lettuce, bean and carrot succession planting dates. It gets so busy then… Winter sowing Feb 21 – in plastic milk bottles outside in the snow Save the Bees Mix, Botanical Interests Bring Home the Butterflies Mix, Botanical Interests Spring planting Feb 21 – Indoors under lights Celeriac, Brilliant Onion, Pontiac Onion, Ailsa Craig Onion, White Wing Onion, Red Wing Shallot, Prisma…

January 31, 2015

I’m hoping to keep bees this year

I’m hoping to keep bees! Tomorrow my bee keeping class begins. It will be six 2 hour classes. I have a bee keeping text book that I have been reading and am half way through. I am looking forward to the class. Last fall, a friend gave me two stacks of beehives. They’re out in my backyard. I’ve been working on putting them in a good position. Where they are now is out of the way of the sprinklers. I was pleased to see yesterday that it’s a warm spot…

January 28, 2015

five mistakes that new gardeners make

A couple weeks ago I asked “What do you think is the #1 mistake that new gardeners make?” Robert Leavitt, a gardener and blogger who originally asked me that the question, has now posted the answers that he has complied. In short, he found the mistakes are: #5 Starting Too Big #4 Not Choosing the Appropriate Soil #3 Not Providing Regular Irrigation #2 Planting Something Where it Doesn’t Belong #1 Not Having Started Gardening Earlier Because of the Fear of Making a Mistake!

January 28, 2015

two and a half feet of snow!

The official snowfall measurement for our area is 30-32 inches. I haven’t made the trek down to my garden yet. I’m not sure if I can. I think snow shoes or even skis will just sink into this fluffy snow.

January 27, 2015

we have 28 inches of snow so far and it’s still falling

I cleared a path to the chicken coop. The hens are fine. A bit of snow blew into their run, so when it finishes coming down and blowing around I’ll lay down fresh straw. The hens are mostly staying put inside the coop today. I can watch them with a remote camera in the run. Only Bertha, my big, heavily feathered Brahma, is spending any time in the run. I’m hearing some news about the storm being stalled over our area and that its not doing any weakening yet. So…

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	31