a balmy November day
It was 70*F today. Balmy! The whole weekend was warm and melted all our snow. My Brussels sprouts should be growing fast. Only just over a week til I am hoping to harvest them for Thansginving Day dinner.
snow …..
The wind is coming out of the northeast again and this time we have fluffy white snow coming down. Snow is gathering on my unraked yard and on trees still holding their leaves. Snow on pumpkins with the squirrels tunneling in to eat the seeds. Snow on fall roses and yellow marigolds, kale and Brussels sprouts. Yesterday was the first hard frost in the Boston suburbs. My dahlia turned black and marigolds wilted back. My sheltered geranium and rose are still blooming. I brought my Meyers lemon inside to overwinter…
election day question
Will the White House Kitchen Garden will get four more years? – photo by katieb82981
to the start of another week – cheers!
Today I pulled the carrots I sowed in August. Pretty baby carrots. Somehow a rabbit seems to have found his way into the garden and ate off most of the carrot greens. I am fascinated that he only ate the carrots. Next year I am planning a chicken wire tunnel over the carrots. I ended up harvesting about a dozen heads of lettuce today as there may be a hard frost tonight. Some lettuce plants I dug and moved into my cold frame to see how they do there over…
garden work
This weekend, I am preparing my home gardens for winter. First thing, I took down the six tomato plants growing there. As I did this, I realized I’ve never taken down tomatoes here before a frost. The plants had stopped growing from low light so I removed them. Always a first for everything. The forecast seems to maybe have a frost here in the Boston suburbs soon. I’m getting more experience with my cold frame each year. I suspect everyone’s cold frame is different, with their own temperature and light…
late blight resistant tomato seed
Does anyone have experience with late blight resistant tomatoes? After all the problems we have had the past few years, we would like to provide our community gardeners with late blight resistant tomato seedlings next spring. I am looking into the best varieties. I am thinking of trying these: Defiant PhR (Johnny’s Seed) Mountain Magic (Johnny’s Seed) Plum Regal (Johnny’s Seed) Ferline (Thompson and Morgan) Legend (Reimer Seeds)
garden work
Today Skippy and I finished digging my sweet potatoes. I am glad to have lots of orange and white sweets in my larder for winter storage. I also dug my dahlia tubers. They will go in plastic bags and hang from rafters in my basement. Yesterday I visited a wonderful new small farm a mile from house. I talked with the farmer about tomatoes and late blight. I bought a bunch of his big fat carrots and a bag full of French horticultural beans. Someday soon I am hoping I…
wooley bear caterpillars predict a mild winter
My dad and I have been watching for wooly bear caterpillars this fall. We’ve seen several and they’ve been nearly all orange, with only small tips of black at the ends. The addage is that the smaller the orange stripe, the worse the winter will be. Sure looks like it will be a very mild winter.
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!
