my on-line planting calendar is fixed now

 
 
Stan and Jan reminded me that my On-line Planting Calendar link was broken. So I have just now fixed it. It is exciting that it is time to start thinking about planting!!! If you haven’t tried this calendar before, its a piece of code I wrote that lets you calculate when to plants all sorts of vegetable seeds based on your last frost date. Here’s the link: Calendar link. The link is also near the top of my sidebar.
 
MORE

advancing cold front

 
 
We’ve had a nice couple days of 60*F weather. Skippy and I have enjoyed walking our usual trails in the balmy warmth. But a cold front is moving in. That’s December….
 
MORE

more 2012 crop reviews

 
 
Carrots. I didn’t do a good job with carrots this year. Lots of room for improvement here next year. I’ve grown great carrots in the past, but for some reason, decided to experiment this year. I learned what not to do. Carrots sprout slowly and they need to stay moist. This is hard for me since I grow them at my community plot and don’t have time to go water every day. So I sowed my carrots in pots and and transplanted the seedlings, like I do for nearly every…
 
MORE

December cold frame

 
 
My cold frame is full of greens. The baby bok choy is a good size for eating now, and I love the thought that it should hold at this size for months in the cold. The other plants are a bit small for harvesting. They’ll grow more in March, when the sunlight increases. There are a couple of pots of greens that I didn’t have room to plant. I am reminded now that I juts left them in the center of the frame. They don’t enough soil and are dying.…
 
MORE

snow

 
 
We had a powder sugar coating of snow on the garden on this first day of December. It accumulated to about 1.5 inches. It stayed around a day or two, and then melted back to bare ground. I’m reminded of my fig tree as I look at this picture. It’s still sitting in the garden in a pot, unprotected. I have read that its hardy down to about 10*F. We’re not close to that yet, but we’ll likely get down there in a few weeks. I’m thinking that once the…
 
MORE

my how-to videos are ready

 
 
How to Harvest Perennial Bunching Onions — powered by ehow A couple weeks ago, Skippy and I shot some garden “how-to” videos. Well, it was certainly mostly the work of our video producer to put these together. Skippy and I just goofed off and had fun in the garden and Alan Mack (Spinning Horse Productions) did an amazing job to make it all come together. I was pretty nervous to do this project, as I’ve never done video before (neither has Skip, though I don’t think he was all that…
 
MORE

2012 crop review

 
 
Beets. I grew a lot of different varieties this year. Bulls Blood, Detroit Red and White, Chiogga, Lutz, Cylindra, Early Wonder, Red Ace, Round Red Merlin, Blankoma. I like them all! But it was not a great year for my beets. I just never had enough of them. I planted a great crop for my parents. In March, I direct seeded a good thick row of Detroit Red in their garden. They came up well and produced all season and my parents were really happy with them. They gave me…
 
MORE

starting to sprout sweet potatoes

 
 
To get a head start, I put my sweets for sprouting in small bowls with half filled with water. I lined them up under the radiator for extra warmth. I will be collecting some pint jars (and toothpicks) for setting them up correctly soon. Here is a great link for reading about how to sprout sweets: Starting Sweet Slips. I have three varieties starting. Two from my harvest from this year (Jewel’s and Hannah’s – these are dry textured, orange and white flesh) and a new one I picked up…
 
MORE

2012 crop review

 
 
At the end of the year, I like to go through my crops from last year, one-by-one, and write down the successes, failures and what I’d like to do different next year. Going alphabetical the first is: Apples. Well I’m starting the list off with a failure. No apples this year from my dwarf Fuji tree 🙁 I forgot to spray it with dormant oil before the buds broke this spring. The tree got badly infected with something. No flowers and no fruit. Also, growth of a maple to the…
 
MORE

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

Make your own customized planting calendar. Try out my app!
Apple/iOS

My garden this week

Browse by topic

17 years of archives!

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

Aurelia's Garden

Flickr

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."

Posts by the month

August 2026
S M T W T F S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  

 

 

 

Website by:
Verve Marketing Group

Menu