first one inch …
My husband put a yardstick up in the garden. The garden gnomes took the storm head on.
snow coming
Looks like my gardens will be buried under 2 feet of snow soon!! We have a Nor’easter coming at us.
first seeds planted
I planted 5 six-packs of seeds yesterday. Three varieties of onions (Pontiac, Ruby Ring and Frontier), plus leeks and celeriac. Yippee, the season has begun!!!
indoor gardening
I brought 3 orchids back with me from Florida earlier this month. I packed them in a travel tube and carried them on the airplane. They made it home fine, only a little crushed. A magenta dendrobium, an orange and red cattleya and a small unnamed pink dendrobium. The red cattleya, burana beauty, is amazing. I have never had an orchid with such a beautiful scent. These new plants have joined my old orchids and a couple amaryllis on the window sill. Below are some old photos of orchids on…
January snow drop
I found a little snow drop blooming in my garden today. We are having a January thaw with temps up to 60*F (!!!) today. I opened my cold frame all day to give the plants some air. Our temperatures are like a roller coaster.
planning early for late blight
We had such a bad time with late blight at our community garden last year. This year we will be distributing late blight resistant tomatoes to any of our gardeners who want to give them a try. We have contracted to have 500 seedlings grown for us. They will be grown locally by Sandra at Underwood Greenhouses, a old greenhouse (circa 1905) in Belmont. Sandra has purchased all of the seeds and is planning to begin planting in March (I think). I am looking forward to photographing the process. I…
frozen garden plot
I haven’t even opened the gate in a couple months now. Everything is frozen and drab. I’m glad I was able to put a good layer of hay down as this winter has been brutal for the overwintering plants. We’ve had wide swing in temperatures and very little snow cover. Somewhere under the hay is 100 garlic shoots, a 4 year old bed of asparagus, a clump of Egyptian walking onions, a big crown of rhubarb, a few strawberry and raspberry plants, roots from my two espaliered pear trees, and…
seed catalogs
I have a stack of catalogs and have been reading through them all. They’re as good as a nice novel! Its exciting that there is so much to plan. I’ve been reading the pages on organic pest control in Johnny’s catalog. I’ve circled a bunch of onion and leek varieties the Fedco catalog. And I’ve circled eggplants, peppers and a lovely pink sweet pea in the Cook’s catalog. The first seeds I plant are always onions, leeks and celeries. I used my planting calendar tool to print out a list…
cold cold frame
My cold frame temperature is getting up to 27*F (-3*C) or so with the midday sun on it, but it goes back down to bitter cold at night. It hasn’t gotten above freezing in several days now. The greens are wilted. I have broccoli, escarole, bok choi spinach, lettuce, parsley and rosemary growing inside it. I don’t know if anything will survive. It hasn’t gotten this cold since we built the cold frame.
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
My garden this week
Skippy’s vegetable of the month – Egyptian walking onions!
