my dad's garden

After giving my gardens some water early this morning, I went up to visit my Dad's garden. It looks awesome. Beautiful vegetables in nice straight rows. I gave my Dad several types of seedlings this spring and its fun to see how they have done under his care.

And I would say he has done better than me with them. Without a doubt his broccoli is better. His kale is nice too and his tomatoes are big and healthy looking. His lettuce is great. But them who's comparing anyway. (I think I'll add some fertilizer to my gardens tomorrow.)

This year I gave away maybe a hundred total seedlings to several gardeners: Dad, Elaine, Dave, Amelia and Chris. Giving away seedlings is another way of increasing the number of gardeners out there growing their own food. Whether you garden to save the earth, to save money, for super fresh food, or just for the fun of it, its nice to share some plants.

my dad's garden

my parents garden

On Father's Day, I visited my parents and helped a bit in their garden. My dad hoed the tomatoes and planted beans, I pulled some garlic and labeled plants I gave them earlier in the spring. I also planted nasturtiums and giant sunflower seeds here and there. They have been picking lettuce, spinach, and arugula all spring. They have nice fennel, peas, red cabbage, napa cabbage, beets, and celery coming along. Also tomatoes, peppers, basil, and cucumbers. Arugula and bok choy have gone to seed, with flowers adding color and attracting beneficial insects.




My dad planted a couple of my giant pumpkin plants in the middle of his front yard. They will cover a newly installed meter and have LOTS of room to sprawl over the grass. This variety is reputed to produce several 100 pound pumpkins per plant. Cool!

preparing Mom and Dad's garden

Yesterday I went up to my parents house and enjoyed a day in the dirt. I had ordered a truckload of compost to be delivered. I was expecting a morning delivery, but as my luck had it, it was a 5:30 pm delivery. So I had time to do a lot of raking and prep work, but had to scramble to get the dirt spread and turned before dark.

My parent's garden plot is about 15 by 50 feet, by my guess. It is against the woods with a westerly exposure, so it gets lots of midday and afternoon sun. As the trees to the east grow, my parents have been gradually inching the garden out into the yard to get more sun.

The plot has a few things growing in it now. Perennial rhubarb, and herbs oregano and sage. Also three nice rows of garlic.

I had meant to order enough compost for a 2-3 inch layer, but looks like I was off by a factor of 2. It was pretty intimidating after the truck left to be standing there by an enormous pile - just me and my shovel and the setting sun. I surprised myself and did get it spread. Then I limed (10 lbs) and added a little organic fertilizer (Garden Tone, 5 lbs). And I was able to turn about half of the plot before Skippy insisted it was time to go home.

I ended up with 4-6 inches of compost. This is almost too much, but from what I've read, it should be OK. I will try to go back and double dig the whole plot down to 12 inches. (My Dad may get a friend in with a big rototiller before I get back to it, but I just hate to think what that does to all the worms he has.)

The compost is dark and even and looks great. No mixed in trash, no sticks or rocks. Just very nice and good smelling stuff. I hope it will produce a bumper crop!

Note added: Here's the link for the compost that I added: Agresource Compost. Looks like its already pH adjusted - so I didn't need to add lime. I'm also noticing that the weeds prior to prep seem to be "sweet" soil weeds: dandelions and chickweed. Well, at least tomatoes like the soil sweet, as do peppers and zucchini. The carrots and beets may not appreciate it. We'll see.

father's day and first day of summer

Summer is here!

But who would know?! A Nor'easter in New England is bringing us heavy overcast, winds, and more rain....

Summer began 1:45 A.M. EDT on Sunday, June 21, 2009. This day had the longest daylight of the year - and we couldn't see any of it. Also Father's Day.

I gave my dad a couple of gardening gifts: I cleaned up his old red garden trowel that I had "borrowed" accidentally for the past few weeks (as he's been asking for it back) and I put a nice bow on it. He gradually recognized it and was quite amused. Also, another brand new cultivator and a big red begonia in a hanging pot. And we went up to his house, made him dinner, and drank his martinis. A nice visit.

Outside was 60*F, dark and WET. I took bunch of garden photos and got soaking wet. Dad's garden looks beautiful in the rain.

my dad's garden is ready to go

My dad moved his garden a little this year, 3 feet away from the trees that are growing taller at the right. In the foreground he has already planted a few rows - peas and lettuce.

The deer fence isn't up yet, though I suppose that will come soon. The deer have been eating lots of tulips and iris around their yard. Its hard to defend the sprouts again these big hungry animals.

I'm planing to plant some popcorn and maybe potatoes and broccoli at the far side of the garden. My dad thinks he'll have some extra space.

my dad's garden

dad's garden

My dad's garden is flooded. I'm glad I'm up on a hill and don't have water problems like him. We've gotten about 5 inches of rain this week from a big Nor'easter that came up the coast. My dad planted his peas and some lettuce a couple weeks ago, but, like me, no sprouts yet.

my dad's garden

spring planting in Mom and Dad's garden

Today, my parents and I did the first work of the season on their vegetable garden. Here are before and after photos.

BEFORE

AFTER

Only a couple hours work. We raked, then weeded and marked out paths. My Mom had her pad and pen and wrote down what we planted where. Dad and I planted seeds and seedlings. We did our best to leave enough room for the warmer weather crops, like beans and tomatoes, and to plan for crop rotation. Dad put row cover over the newly transplanted lettuce seedlings to protect them a bit from drying out. Last, we watered all the new transplants from a gallon jug - rain is expected in a couple days.

Now we will wait and see what grows.

Dad's garden

I've been spending some time with my parents. Today I planted:

Potatoes, Red Gold, 5 ft row
Potatoes, Fingerling, 5 ft row
Potatoes, Russet, 5 ft row
Dill, 5 ft row
garlic transplants, 8 ft row

Dad's peas are up 2 inches now. Lots of them. Lettuce and beets from direct seedings too. My dad likes rows really straight. I planted 2 rows for him and did my best. The kids from next door ran over and helped lay out the spuds. They gave them names and said they will watch for sprouts. I only make it up there once a week or so.

my dad's garden

My dad's garden

I photographed my dad's garden in the heat of the day yesterday. Even so, it looks great. Lots of lettuce in straight rows. He'll be harvesting the beans soon. And there's a great squash (8-ball zucchini) ready for harvest. He also has rhubarb, basil, tomatoes and beets. (Did I forget anything, Dad?). He's in northeastern Massachusetts - zone 5b.

my dad's garden

mom and dad's garden

On Monday, my parents and I worked a full day in their vegetable garden. We planted tomato, pepper, lettuce, sunflower, basil, cilantro, squashes, marigold, cosmos, daisy and cucumber seedlings. Dad staked his recently planted snow peas.

Some type of bug was eating the broccoli, cauliflower and bok choy that we planted a couple weeks ago. My guess it was the green caterpillar of the white cabbage butterfly. I replaced some of the seedlings, searched for green caterpillars (I found one) and then covered the patch with hoops and row cover.

We planted 4 types of pumpkins and winter squashes: Butternut, Buttercup, New England Pie pumpkin, Cinderella pumpkin (Rouge Vif d’Etampes) and a couple giant pumpkin seedlings. The giant pumpkins are at the edge of the compost pile and the other pumpkins an squashes just outside the garden fence. Last year, the squash vines took over the garden and even pulled down parts of the fence. This year they will have room to roam.

Last year I planted much too many cucumbers in Mom and Dad's garden. I thought they wouldn't want ANY this year, but, no, they want tons again. I planted 8 varieties: Diva, North Carolina pickling, Sumter pickling, Boston pickling, Straight Eight, Sweet Success, Tokiwa and Sooyow Nishiki. About 20 seedlings - and then Mom added a few more seeds for good measure. They grow up the 5 ft deer fence around the edge of garden, so they don't really take up any space. When my nephew comes to visit, he runs to the garden to pick cukes and eat them immediately. Then he gets a big grin on his face.

Dad wrote down all the varieties and where they were planted for his records and then we called it a day. As we were marveling about the full garden, Mom remembered the beans - we forgot to leave room to plant beans! Arrgh. Well, as Mom emailed to me later in the week, they found a place to squeeze in 2 rows.

two types of broccoli

This year I grew two varieties of broccoli: Green Goliath and Green Sprouting Calabrese. Unfortunately, I don't know which plants are which. But I do notice that some of my plants make compact heads and some make taller sprouts with very small heads. I suppose the compact heads are Green Goliath and the taller sprouts are Green Sprouting Calabrese. I planted seeds on March 22 and am harvesting now.

Green Sprouting Calabrese is an Italian heirloom that was brought to America in the 1880s. It is supposed to have 5"-8" heads and many side shoots.

Green Goliath is a large headed, tight budded, blue-green variety bred especially for the home gardener, to give an early and extended harvest. Center heads mature over a three-week period, not all at once. Good side shoots follow after center head is harvested.

Gardeners around here have mentioned small broccoli heads. My heads are about 2-3 inches (above). I think the weather warmed up too fast for the plants to form large heads. Maybe my fall harvest will be better though the small heads taste great too.

My dad got much bigger heads from seedlings I gave him (below). A good 4 inches! He's located a bit north of me and his garden is almost a full zone cooler.


harvests from my vegetable gardens

my dad's garden

Brassicaceae

mom and dad's garden

I've been helping my parents with their garden. Early this spring, on a March day that broke records (temperature in the 80's!), my son and I spread and dug in 3 cubic yards of compost. We also planted peas, lettuce and root vegetables. Last Friday, I brought them more seedlings and seeds. The garden is looking great. Mom is already picking a little new lettuce and using up the kale that overwintered. I got my potatoes and some extra asparagus roots planted at my community plot today, but still no seedlings (other than a few very early tomatoes). I hope I will get to do some transplanting in my garden soon.