another toad!
I came across another toad in my garden today. A very small one. Big Oracle Toad has company!
planting seeds for winter my cold frame
Today I planted a full tray of seeds. Several varieties of lettuce, as well as escarole, spinach, arugula and broccoli. These are plants that will fill my cold frame during the winter. Since the light level gets too low for plants to grow by about November 10 here, I would like to have these plants pretty much full grown by then. That is about 8 weeks or 50 days from now. I planted the seeds in seed cells and will grow them indoors under lights for a few weeks. My…
Labor Day red sauce
A fitting tribute to a super summer growing season, I made a big pot of red sauce today from my tomatoes! It’s the first time in years that I’ve had enough tomatoes to do this. It included a mix of San Marzano Gigante, New Girl, Brandywine and Purple Calabash tomatoes. I added some of my onions and peppers. Also oregano, thyme and chives. We had some of the fresh sauce on pasta tonight and it is fantastic!!! I will freeze the rest. I have been picking my tomatoes as soon…
freshly dug potatoes
My husband and I dug potatoes today. 20 lbs – a good haul. Mostly Burbank Russets. A few Green Mountains and Adirondack Reds. I start digging potatoes, as we need them, a couple weeks after they flower (mid July). I plant the early Reds, Fingerlings, and Butterballs at the front of the bed. I start digging here and then gradually move to the back of the bed to where I planted the keeper potatoes, the Russets and Green Mountains. My Russet tubers are small – as usual. I plant them…
tomato box
I love a full tomato box! I find that almost all of the green ones will ripen eventually. I keep the reddest ones at the top, greener ones at the bottom. I think I will make a red sauce soon with the ripening Roma tomatoes. I brought my Mom a few slicers today. She wanted a couple that would be ripe in a few days.
garden work
Today I spent several hours at my community plot. It was such a nice morning to work in the garden. I trimmed the weeds in the path outside and all around my plot. A garden next to me (to the north) is untended, so I cut back their weeds and cleared out the overgrown path between us. Sigh, the weeds are quite abrasive and spiny (Japanese hops, raspberries, horse nettles). My arms are all scratched up. I’m hoping for a more active garden neighbor next year. I watered well, as…
fish fertilizer on fall seedlings
I got some free samples of a liquid fish fertilizer in the mail to try. Two bottles. One is all organic from fish. The other has a bit of nitrogen added. I tried it on my fall seedlings. They’ve been growing really fast and I’m sure they’ll need some extra umpf to keep going at this rate. I like the convenience of a liquid fertilizer. Just add a few tbs to a watering can and sprinkle. I have seedlings tucked in all over the place now. Under the squash trellis,…
garden birds – can you ID?
This beautiful little bird just flitted through my garden. Any idea what it is? This one was in my pond last week. I suppose its a yellow warbler. This one may be too far away to identify. It was sitting on a tall tree next to a pond by my parents house.
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!
