garden vegetables on the cutting board

These are peppers from the Iddy Betty Bossy seeds I brought home from Switzerland. Just peppers from the supermarket, but son thought they were especially tasty and asked me to grow them. They did well and I will have more seeds to save and grow again next year.

happy thanksgiving!!

harvest

Another good week in the garden. I didn't know there was anything left to harvest. Thought small carrot and beet tops meant no roots. But when I pulled them I found lots of nice baby roots for both. Delicious!

And I hadn't looked close at my patch of fall greens to see the baby bok choy. These were excellent sauteed with garlic and ginger.

I was able to pick a full bowl of salad greens - some curly red lettuce, mizuna, cilantro, and other greens/purples whose names I don't know. (The arugula left from spring was too sharp too eat.)

flowers in my garden

These are the last flowers of the year. In the corners and at the edges of my gardens. OK, one is actually blueberry leaves that look bright as flowers. I think they will all be covered with snow soon.

birds at the gardens today

Just the common birds today. Sparrows, robins, cardinals. I saw but couldn't get photos of chickadees and juncos.

I like to check my IDs of the birds: from top song sparrow, chipping sparrow pair, white throated sparrow, American robin, and northern cardinal. Bird experts - is this right?

in my garden today

My late fall garden is nearly empty, but a few plants are left. I have a tiny late crop of red curly lettuce and other salad greens. Some nice braising greens (bok choy) too.

I thought the parsnips were too small but dug down a bit in the soil and found some nice roots. (I planted the seeds August 1.) I will leave them a bit longer - maybe until spring.

The last of my nice leek crop is still in the ground, though its time to harvest them. I've been pulling the biggest as the season progresses. Lots of leeks this year - nice as my onions didn't do well.

garden November aerial

giving thanks

This is a collection of photos of my harvests this year.

How do you measure the success of a garden? The weight of your produce? The number of meals? A new variety discovered? The hours of pleasure? The number of broken fingernails and splinters? Good sleep after hard work... relaxation after a job all week... fresh garden martinis...

I'm trying to think of a way to rate my garden this year. It has brought piles of potatoes, days of digging, dreams of dirt, melon martinis, and filled the grill with vegetables all season.

This year I saw my first hummingbird moth, jumped with surprise then came to expect the fat toad in my garden. I had some success with organic parasitic wasps for control of corn ear worms. I picked and ate my first homegrown pear. I had lots of splinters and cuts and bruises. My son and husband constructed a new fence to keep out the burgeoning (and very cute) bunny population. And the dirt in my garden is looking exceptionally rich and dark.

While I've missed sweet potatoes, celeriac, and popcorn this year, I've had great crops of summer squash, fava beans, potatoes, cucumbers and eggplants. My parents had a good year with celery, tomatoes and beets - and way-over-the-top abundance of cucumbers and pumpkins. At the close of the season, it is a time for giving thanks for all the gifts our gardens give.

And I think our gardens give us much more than we can eat.

vote for my company

Hi Gardeners,
Please help vote for my company!!! We are trying to win a start up business contest at MIT business school. We have 30 minutes to get as many votes as we can. Please text “BIOARRAY” to 22333. You can read about BIOARRAY at our website and I’ll let you all know how the contest goes. Thanks for your help!
Kathy

This is the quick message I posted this morning. The contest is over now and we got a lot of votes !! Thanks!! Not quite enough to win the silver bowl :( but we did meet and "win" the interest of several potential investors :)

When I'm not in the garden or playing with Skippy, I'm at my start up biotech company trying to reduce the impact of breast cancer by developing a personalized molecular test to predict the most effective chemotherapy for patients. Our website is here, BIOARRAY. Drop me note if you want to know more about it.

fall sky

my buddy....

Skippy didn't really want to pose for this photos, but he did. Such a good pup...



Skippy is 6 years old now. 42 in dog years. He's still running in the fall leaves like a puppy. I think he's looking forward to winter chill. He likes the cold and rolling in the snow. He'll sleep out on the snow when he can.... At least one of us is looking forward.

sweet potato sprouts

Since last fall (Oct 2010 - over a year ago!) I have held a basket of small sweet potatoes to see if they would sprout. Finally it seems they are sprouting. I am thinking about howI can set them up so they will grow inside over this winter. Looks like sweet potatoes may be a biennial crop for me.

fall leaves

my community plot

Photos of my community garden plot this weekend. I finished planting my garlic this weekend. Another balmy warm day. I got just over 100 cloves in the ground. The leeks, cilantro and beets are still growing. I'll check again next weekend.