today’s garden work

 
 
Today I spent about 3 hours at my community plot and was happy to get to ALL SET (! YEAH!!) for the impending season – not to be named… Accomplished: – Planted 76 cloves of garlic, then mulched it with old salt marsh hay that was on my garden paths for the summer – Cut down asparagus ferns and laid them on the patch for mulch, weeded the patch and added salt hay mulch – Piled trash (3 old chairs, rotted edging wood from my 6 yr old raised beds…
 
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today’s garden work

 
 
Not only are the days short now, but dusk seems to last for hours. The sun hovers, lingering at the horizon, then slowly sinks for the night. Today in the long twilight I got some garden work done. – I hosed clean my sweet potatoes then transferred them to a smaller storage bucket. – I looked up how to decontaminate my late blight infested tomato vine debris. Then I tarped it over for the winter. – I brought 6 or 7 giant hosta clumps that a friend gave me down…
 
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varieties I wish I had in my winter bed

 
 
– More spinach! Next year I’d like to use this spinach variety chart from High Mowing Seeds to pick a variety for my winter tunnel. – Some nice curly kale, like Winterbor and Redbor. I don’t like the wild kale I have this year, which is like Red Russian without the red. – Bok choi, at least a couple varieties. – Bunching onions to mix in with all those greens. If this year’s bed works out, I’ll add a second bed next year to hold some of these extra varieties.
 
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varieties in my winter greens bed

 
 
I’ll see if I can remember all the varieties of greens I planted in my winter bed. (This is a panorama photograph shot with my I-phone.) From left to right: Lettuce, Looseleaf Green, Green Oak leaf Lettuce, Butterhead Green, Victoria Spinach, Spargo Lettuce, Looseleaf Red, Prizehead Lettuce, Romaine Green, Winter Density Broccoli, Diplomat Kale, Wild Kale, Tuscan Asian Green, Mizuna Lettuce, Looseleaf Red, Skyphos Endive, Olesh Tres Fine Escarole, Broadleaf Batavian Escarole, Natacha
 
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cold!!

 
 
37* F outside this morning. A light snow is falling but not accumulating. I wish I had covered my winter bed last night, but did not. So this morning I went down to the garden and pulled the plastic cover over the hoops. I also covered my fall lettuce bed with Agribon light weight row cover. It was a painful task. I was reminded the hard way that I need to wear mittens at that temperature. (Especially if I am taking pictures.) My hands were so cold. They stung for…
 
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adjusting my chicken’s lighting

 
 
My chickens still aren’t laying any eggs. I came across this article: Why Aren’t My Chickens Laying, from McMurray Hatcheries. I will follow their advice and set my light timer to come on early in the morning, before dawn, to give the chickens 14 hours of sunlight. Near Boston, we’re getting 10.5 hours of sunlight now (and decreasing fast!). Sunrise today was 7:15 MA, so I should the light to come on at 3:45 AM!! That’s early! I had my light coming on at 6:15 AM and after dusk until…
 
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cutting greenhouse plastic to cover hoops

 
 
I got my roll of plastic out and brought it down to the garden today. Its standard clear 6 mil greenhouse film from Greenhouse Megastore. Its the first time I’ve used this. Its 12 feet wide, so seems perfect for covering my 1/2 in PVC pipes, which are 10 feet long. There will be 1 ft at each side for anchoring. I suppose I could have measured the tunnels, figured out the length of plastic I needed to cover the 12 foot bed plus the two edges and then added…
 
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hoops ready for covering

 
 
My winter bed is ready to be covered. The weather has been beautiful so far this month. Perfect for growing a bed full of greens. Today, we are expecting more warm sunny weather, but Thursday, temperatures are going down. I’ll get out the plastic and cover the bed today. Not sure if I should put the gnomes in the winter tunnel. They’ve worked so hard all summer – may be ready for a rest from gardening.
 
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Kathy Martin
This is a journal of my vegetable gardens. Skippy thinks the garden is his, even though I do all the work. We're located near Boston, in USDA zone 6. I have bees, chickens, fruit trees and berry bushes, too. I use all sustainable organic methods and strive to grow all of my family's vegetables myself. -Kathy


weeks and counting until my last spring frost

What I planted recently

Jan 21
thyme, lettuce, escarole

Feb 21
celery, celeriac, parsley, leeks

March 11
cabbage, kale, arugula



What I'm planting soon

April 1
peppers, eggplants, marigolds, beets

April 12
tomatoes, basil, sunflowers

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My garden this week

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17 years of archives!

Check out the food pantry farm I helped to start up:

Aurelia's Garden

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Skippy’s vegetable of the month – Egyptian walking onions!

“I envision a day when every city and town has front and back yards, community gardens and growing spaces, nurtured into life by neighbors who are no longer strangers, but friends who delight in the edible rewards offered from a garden they discovered together.” – Greg Peterson

"What can happen to a seed is a miracle."

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