July 18, 2012

cucumbers!!

Today’s harvest included about 15 cucumbers, 5 varieties: Diva, North Carolina Pickling, Boston Pickling, Tokiwa and Sooyow Nishiki. We did a taste test and the conclusion was: we couldn’t really tell any difference, they all taste like cucumbers! Also in today’s harvest is my first full size tomato. A New Girl. It needs to ripen inside a few days. In this dry weather, I was afraid the squirrels would eat it if I let it ripen on the vine.

July 16, 2012

mystery squash

A big volunteer pumpkin/squash plant appeared early this season in the middle of my onion bed. I was thinking it was likely a pumpkin, and since I had brought all my pumpkin seedlings to my parents garden, I thought I’d let it grow. Its always fun to have a mystery plant. The vine has now overtaken the onion bed (I’m cutting off a few leaves here and there to give the onions sunlight), and is running into the sweet potatoes on one side and potatoes on the other. It has…

July 15, 2012

today’s harvest

July 10, 2012

the garden after vacation

Its been a busy week in the garden. Good and bad. Many firsts to harvest, but also the concern that late blight may be just round the corner again this year. Here’s a rundown of my garden after returning from a week of vacation. My broccoli is heading up and looking super. Don’t know if I’ve ever had such big pretty plants. I’m expecting some great big heads starting in a week or so. And its the first time I’ve grown cauliflower and the plants look really nice. Great big…

July 10, 2012

planting calendars

I have updated the links for my on-line planting calendars. Hopefully just in time for planning fall planting schedules. Spring calendar: https://www.skippysgarden.com/planting calendar.html Fall calendar: https://www.skippysgarden.com/planting calendar fall.html Both can be accessed from the link near the top of my sidebar.

July 6, 2012

summer on the water

Fireworks, thunderstorms and shark warnings… Its summer. I’ve been on vacation this week. Today, we were fishing on Cape Cod Bay on “the Roxy” from Rock Harbor, Orleans MA. It was a wonderful day with awesome fishing. Beautiful sun and water. The catch for the boat was 11 bluefish (8 kept) and 2 striped bass. We grilled a super fresh filet of bass this evening with new summer garden produce: the first cucumbers and zucchini squashes, fresh grated horseradish, ripe Meyer lemon, new garlic. My mom and I made roast…

June 30, 2012

sideyard garden

It was evening when I took this photo from the upstairs window. Earlier in the day I caught the thermometer at 106*F! The sensor is located in full sun in the middle of my open cold frame. With the adjacent house walls and the stone path, it gets really warm. If I move the sensor a few feet to the shade, its a good 10* cooler. As I am posting this photo I notice a squirrel in the far left bed. What is he doing!!? I spent the day working…

June 27, 2012

truth or myth? you can’t transplant carrots

I heard you can’t transplant carrots because the roots end up crooked. I thought I’d just be very careful to dig a deep hole and straighten the root as I transplanted. Hmmm. No such luck. I had to learn the hard way. I threw out my second batch of seedlings without transplanting them. I will go back to direct sowing. I think carrots (and parsnips) are the only crop I don’t transplant.

June 26, 2012

more rain

We’re alternating between hot humid days and rainy days. The thermometer in my side yard garden registered up to 110* F in the sun this weekend. Today, temperature is down but we have had rain all morning and evening. The slugs and snails are very happy about this. I bought some Sluggo yesterday. It says it is “organic”. In the past I’ve used a more aggressive slug poison, but will try this. I spread it around my zinnias, marigolds, cabbages and eggplants. I did not like hand picking an squishing…

June 22, 2012

grape flowers

As I was photographing flowers today, I started wondering about the grapes. I’ve never seen a grape flower. I looked close and one of my vines was in bloom! This is a Cabernet vine. Very small flowers with little fruits forming in the center. My Catawba vine has well formed fruit clusters. I’ll add a photo here tomorrow.

weeks and counting until my last spring frost