skippy and suzie break a trail to my garden

Yesterday I made it all the way down to my garden and took this picture. What a day! No garden visible, but still magical.

Someone suggested I use a dog sled to get down there. Huh!! If only I had one. But second best, my dogs did an awesome job breaking a trail for me. Suzie went in the lead, ears flapping and barely taller than the snow cover. Skippy went next and I took up the rear with my snow shoes. By the time the 3 of us passed, we had made a nice trail. Coming back was easy. Except that the trail wasn't very straight. Suzie did a bit of zig-zagging. Who am I to complain, I was so pleased to see the dogs make a trail.

2015 planting list

This is a mostly filled in list. But in mid-summer, I forgot to write down a lot of seeds that I direct sowed in the garden. Things like the lettuce, bean and carrot succession planting dates. It gets so busy then...

Winter sowing
Feb 21 - in plastic milk bottles outside in the snow
Save the Bees Mix, Botanical Interests
Bring Home the Butterflies Mix, Botanical Interests

Spring planting
Feb 21 - Indoors under lights
Celeriac, Brilliant
Onion, Pontiac
Onion, Ailsa Craig
Onion, White Wing
Onion, Red Wing
Shallot, Prisma Red
Bunching onions, Nabechan
Leeks, Bandit (late)
Leeks, King Richard (early)

Feb 27 - Indoors under lights
Broccoli, Diplomat
Broccoli, Bay Meadows
Broccoli, Mini
Cabbage, Mini Kisaku (napa type)
Cabbage, Savoy Alcosa
Radicchio, Indigo
Radicchio, Perseo
Eggplant, Prosperosa
Eggplant, Calliope

March 7 - Indoors under lights
Endive, Tres Fine
Escarole, Galia
Kale, Winterbor

March 12 - Indoors under lights
Parsley, flat leaved Italian
Greens, Sandhill's Mix
Kale, Tuscan
Kale, Red Russian

March 22 - Indoors under lights
Basil, Eleonora (Downy Mildew resistant)
Basil, Superbo
Basil, Dolce Fresca
Broccoli, Diplomat (a few plants, a second planting)
Chives, New Bolt
Chives, Garlic Geisha
Oregano, Cleopatra
Pepper, (jalepeno) Emerald Fire
Pepper,Flaming Flare
Pepper, Pretty N Sweet
Pepper, Ancho 211
Pepper, Bell ACE
Pepper, Thai Hot
Tomato, Mountain Merit, for our community garden (LB resistant)
Tomato, Polish Linguisa
Tomato, Carbone
Dianthus, Jolt Pink
Marigold, Durango
Marigold, Boy-O-Boy
Salvia, Summer Jewel White
Beets, Lutz
Beets, Merlin
Beets, Chioggia
Beets, Blankoma
Tomato (paste), Cordova
Tomato (paste), San Marzano
Tomato (paste), San Marzano Gigante 3
Tomato (paste), Stump of the World
Tomato (paste), Opalka
Tomato (paste), Nova
Tomato (paste), Polish Linguisa
Tomato (paste), Heinz 2653

March 24 - Indoors under lights
Lettuce, Leaf, Italienischer
Lettuce, Leaf, Sandy
Lettuce, Romaine, Winter Density
Lettuce, Romaine, Truchas

March 27 - Indoors under lights (all my favorite tomatoes)
Broccoli, Artwork
Tomato, Cherokee Purple
Tomato, Beefsteak
Tomato, Sungold
Tomato, Pink Beauty
Tomato, Giant Belgium
Tomato, Mortgage Lifter
Tomato, Brandywine
Tomato, Huge Lemon Oxheart
Tomato, 1884

March 29 - Indoors under lights, in paper bags
Peas (shelling), Strike
Peas (snap), Sugar Snap

April 3 - Indoors under lights
Sweet peas, Cherub dwarf white (after soaking 24 hrs in water)
Sweet pea, Royal family (soak tonight)

May 1 (about) - Direct sow in garden
Carrots, Mokum
Carrots, Bolero
Carrots, Oxheart
Radish, Roxanne
Nasturtiums, mixed

May 8 - Indoors under lights (I'm 2-3 weeks late planting these seeds)
Winter squash, Waltham Butternut
Winter squash, Butterscotch
Winter squash, Blue Ballet
Winter squash, Jarrahdale pumpkin
Cucumbers, Diva
Cucumbers, Salt and Pepper
Cucumbers, Parisian Gherkin
Cucumbers, Corinto
Cucumbers, Tokiwa
Cucumbers, Sooyow Nish
Cucumbers, Straight 8
Summer squash, yellow, Slick Pick
Summer squash, yellow, Yellow Crook
Summer squash, scallop, Early white bush
Summer squash, scallop, Starship
Summer squash, zucchini, Bosso Nova
Summer squash, zucchini, Costata Romanescu
Zinnia, California Giant
Zinnia, Cook's blend
Zinnia, Giant Fantasy

May 18 (about) - Direct sow in garden
Potatoes, Russett Cannela

June 7 - Direct sow in garden
Green beans, Maxibel
Edamame soybeans, Butterbeans
Edamame soybeans, (forgot the name)

June 25 (about) - Direct sow in garden
Green beans, Fortex
Pole beans, Wax
Shell beans, Black Turtle

July, 25 (about) - Direct sow in garden
Green beans, Jumbo

For my fall harvest or winter garden under plastic protection
August 1 - In pots outside
Happy Rich (55 days)
Bok Choi, BoPak, 2015 AAS winner (60 days)
Bok Choi, Mei Qing (45 days)
Bok Choi, Win Win (52 days)
Bok Choi, Pechay (60 days)
Escarole, Natacha (50 days)
Lettuce, Skyphos (47 days)
Lettuce, Oakleaf (47 days)
Lettuce, Sylvestra (52 days)

August 5 - In pots outside
Broccoli, Bay Meadows (60 days)
Broccoli, Artwork, 2015 AAS winner (85 days)
Broccoli, Arcadia (63 days)
Cucumber, Miniature White (50 days)*
Cucumber, North Carolina Pickling (60-65 days)*
Cucumber, Salt and Pepper (49 days)*
(*note: cucumbers did not produce - planted too late)
Endive, Tres Fine (45-70 days)
Endive, Dubuisson (50 days)
Radicchio, Indigo (65 days)
Napa Cabbage, Mini Kisaku (50-55 days)

For my winter garden that will be under plastic protection
September 6 - In pots outside (10 weeks before Persephone)
Kale, Red Russian
Kale, Vates
Blanching Onions, Nabechan
Radicchio, Perseo

September 10 - In pots outside (9 weeks before Persephone)
Collards, Flash
Swiss chard, Peppermint
Cilantro, Calypso
Lettuce, Bibb, Winter Density
Lettuce, Romaine, Truchas
Lettuce, Butterhead, Skyphos
Escarole, Natacha
Endive, Tres Fine
Mustard Greens, Ruby Streaks
Daikon Radish, Miyashige

September 11 - In pots outside
Turnip, Scarlet Queen Red Stems

i'm hoping to keep bees this year

I'm hoping to keep bees! Tomorrow my bee keeping class begins. It will be six 2 hour classes. I have a bee keeping text book that I have been reading and am half way through. I am looking forward to the class.

Last fall, a friend gave me two stacks of beehives. They're out in my backyard. I've been working on putting them in a good position. Where they are now is out of the way of the sprinklers. I was pleased to see yesterday that it's a warm spot as the snow around them is melting. I think this is good, but will ask in my class.

I'd like to keep bees both as pollinators, for my vegetables and fruit trees, and for honey. I suppose there are enough native bees for pollination, but it will be interesting to keep bees and to have honey from my yard.

The hives I have are only the outer wood boxes, so I will be purchasing new inner parts. In the spring I will purchase the bees - if I pass my bee class.

five mistakes that new gardeners make

A couple weeks ago I asked "What do you think is the #1 mistake that new gardeners make?" Robert Leavitt, a gardener and blogger who originally asked me that the question, has now posted the answers that he has complied.

In short, he found the mistakes are:
#5 Starting Too Big
#4 Not Choosing the Appropriate Soil
#3 Not Providing Regular Irrigation
#2 Planting Something Where it Doesn’t Belong
#1 Not Having Started Gardening Earlier Because of the Fear of Making a Mistake!

two and a half feet of snow!

The official snowfall measurement for our area is 30-32 inches. I haven't made the trek down to my garden yet. I'm not sure if I can. I think snow shoes or even skis will just sink into this fluffy snow.

we have 28 inches of snow so far and its still falling

I cleared a path to the chicken coop. The hens are fine. A bit of snow blew into their run, so when it finishes coming down and blowing around I'll lay down fresh straw. The hens are mostly staying put inside the coop today. I can watch them with a remote camera in the run. Only Bertha, my big, heavily feathered Brahma, is spending any time in the run.

I'm hearing some news about the storm being stalled over our area and that its not doing any weakening yet. So we have more to come.

Here's a selfie. Me and my husband. I was snow blowing the driveway but I'm not so good at aiming the blower and I think most of it blew onto my head. Fun!

I want to go down and check on my garden soon. Maybe I'll be able to get a few more pictures today. But probably not much to see. From the house, I can only see the tops of the hoops.

the eve of the big snow storm?...

All day today I've been hearing the words "historic", "epic", "snow-mageddon", "a top 5 storm". We are predicted to get 2-3 feet of snow with 50 mph winds all night and all day tomorrow. Other words I hear are "hunker down", "school closures", "state-of-emergency", "power outages expected". Wow.

Well, I think we're prepared. We have a generator and plenty of food (and beverages) in the house. The gardens will be happy with the snow cover. The chickens are snug. Their small coop is solid wood, their big run has a new glass roof and we lowered the tarps that protect the sides. I filled their food and water and I plugged in their ceramic heat bulb. I think they'll be good.

new seed trays to try out

Here are the new seed cells I'm going to try this year. I'm still deciding what to plant in which. 'Til now, I've only used the bottom right trays, which have 48 cells per 10-20 tray.


The new trays I'll try have 24, 128 and 200 cells per 10-20 tray.

I got my seedlings shelves out and stacked the trays on them. They're ready and waiting. I'll look for some soil mix. I think I have some out in the shed leftover from last year. I'm working on setting up a convenient watering method as Pam commented these smaller cells will dry out fast.

Below are some old photos I took at a nearby greenhouse a few years back. The farmer, Gretta, had a beautiful set up in her hoop house as she was getting ready for a CSA season. I was amazed at array of beautiful seedlings. I'll look the photos over and take some pointers from them. Of course, I can't plant as many as plants Gretta.... I think she is using all 128 cell trays.

my last clove of garlic

I planted 75 cloves of garlic last fall. It gave me a pretty good harvest. There were a few more rotted coves than usual, but my main wish is that I had more heads. I've had years when my harvest lasts til April. I was jealous to read a blog where the gardener planted 500 cloves of garlic!! Wow. This fall again I planted 75 cloves. I'll have to think about a way to plant more next fall. I would need to use a second bed. Just over 100 cloves would be nice.

I used to plant 100 cloves, but they were smaller and I planted them closer together. I have a real nice seed stock from Territorial now, mostly Music, and it is big and takes up more space.

new computer - new seed cells

I have a new computer. I'm inside on a snowy day, working on setting it up. Its a fantastic touch screen, high-res Dell running Windows 8.1. (I had a hard time deciding Mac vs PC, but have run PC's for the past 20 years and didn't want to make the switch - learning windows 8 was enough - a one day effort with on-line videos. So I will have the "worker drone" image and not the "creative" image computer. Oh well.)

The challenge for me now is to get the new computer running - so I'm not always relying on the old one and playing with the cool new features of the new one. So, I'm going to try to do all blog posts after this one on my new computer. Most of my files are already transferred. I need to transfer Photoshop and Dreamweaver. Since we have a branch down on a wire outside and are getting intermittent internet service, not sure if it will happen today.

As soon as I do get another post up, I have photos of the seed trays I received this week. I am going to be trying four different sizes of seed cells. Can't wait. They look fun. I need to decide what seeds to plant in which size seed cells.

chicken coop with a glass covered run

I think this is the reason my chickens are laying nearly an egg a day in the coldest and darkest days of winter. Its my husband's invention and creation.

During our house renovation, we needed up with two unneeded large panes of glass. A wood frame was designed to fit these panes. The panes and heavy and weren't easy to hoist up onto the frame. I love the result! Can't say I'm hearing any complains from the hens.

In this last picture, snow has covered the roof. We clear this with a big ice scraper and the hens get their sunlight back. And we get out eggs. If need be, we'd lower the blue tarp sides in a blizzard. No need to yet, but I'm sure there will be.

dreaming.....

In the middle of winter, its a perfect time for a gardener to dream. (On MLK day: I have a dream.) I dreamt a lot last night. Dreamt my piano teacher kicked me out of class, dreamt I forgot to feed my chickens for a week. My night time dreams tend to be my little worries. I thought today was a good time to think about bigger dreams. Maybe not anything I can do anything about, but if they're written down, maybe it means something.

I have a dream...

- That someday everyone will have access to garden space and knowledge on how to grow their own food

- That everyone would have enough food, eat food that tastes good, food they know the source of, that they know has no pesticides in it, that farm workers hadn't been exposed to toxins to grow it, and that the land it grew on was still healthy

- That everyone could have the opportunity to be involved with growing their food and taste how good tastes when you dig the dirt, you plant the seeds and you tend the plants

- That everyone would have the opportunity to be part of a community where people from different backgrounds grow together according to their heritage or preference and share their knowledge and maybe part of their harvest with everyone

This last dream is from my experience at the community garden I manage. I think it does work this way. Maybe you could take out the garden references and make it a generic wish... that all could live harmoniously according to their heritage or preference and be able to share with their community.

That's it. Some big wishes but I don't often think about them outright. I go about planning and planting, sharing my garden journal and helping to manage our community garden. Hopefully this contributes something positive.

I've had some great discussions with my college-aged son. Maybe my dreams aren't realistic. If all people grew their own food then everyone wouldn't have enough to eat, he tells me. If we forgo pesticides and protect our soils then we can't grow enough. Also, there's no way everyone can plant seeds or would even want to. OK. I can't argue. I'm just doing my little thing and dreaming....

its a 4 egg day!

All four of my hens laid an egg today. Omelets!

2014 harvests

What a year. Now I remember why I was busy! I love to look back and remember the harvests.

It was my first year to harvest a full meal of asparagus. My best year for bok choi, beans, eggplants and cucumbers. And a fantastic year for popcorn and pears. The potatoes, peppers, squash and raspberries were good. I wonder what 2015 will bring.

how to grow "comically huge" onions

I was so thrilled with Sara's comment on how to grow "comically huge" onions that I have spent some time reading up on onion culture.

Sara wrote: Onions: plant very shallowly, feed, feed, feed and water to put on as much leaf mass as possible before your daylength reaches the # of hours that your variety requires to bulb. Used organic fertilizer and compost last year and grew HUGE onions. Comically huge.

These are my tiny onions:


Here's a really great link I found: Growing Onions, TexasA&M

The size of the onion bulb is dependent upon the number and size of the green leaves or tops at the time of bulb maturity. For each leaf there will be a ring of onion; the larger the leaf, the larger the ring will be.

My onion varieties are all "long-day" onion varieties. They will quit forming tops and begin to form bulbs when the day length reaches 14 to 16 hours. In the Boston area, that happens (15 hours) on May 29. (I used this daylight calculator.)

Sooo.... My plan is: plant shallow, then baby my onions until the end of May. Lots of food and water and sun.

Onion varieties I'm growing this year: Pontiac, White wing, Red wing, and Ailsa Craig.

new year's vegetable garden resolutions

1. More lettuce. I say this every year. I get a good spring crop then get distracted with all the other plants and forget the succession planting. Lettuce and other salad greens are something we eat a lot of.

2. Also more beets, carrot, garlic, onions. And less winter squash.

3. Grow beautiful tomatoes, which means solving the problem I had with bad compost. I'll move them to a bed that didn't get the bad stuff. I hope some of my home compost is ready this spring.

4. Grow bigger onions. I gave some of my seedlings to a friend who is a fantastic gardener and she grew onions 3 times as big as mine - from the same seedlings. OK she's not all organic. But I can do better by giving them more space and not letting other plants shade them. I wonder how much inconsistent irrigation affects onions.

5. Consistent crops of bok choi and broccoli. I did all-or-nothing, feast-or-famine, with these last year. There must be a way to have a few ready all the time.

6. Try again for a good crop of winter greens in a plastic tunnel, i.e. get rid of the voles.

7. I want to find a good vantage point to photograph my garden more and keep up with monthly photos. Sometimes I forget just how beautiful a garden is and how wonderful the summer season was. I just love to look back at the photos in the middle of winter. And I love to share the pictures.

8. Enjoy my garden more this year. I've certainly enjoyed it every year in the past, but I would look forward to the challenge of enjoying it even more!

I'd love to hear other gardeners' New Year's resolutions!

the first year in skippy's new vegetable garden

These photos are from August 21 2013, March 11 2014, April 6 2014, April 26 2014, May 26 2014, June 12, 2014, August 31 2014 before fall clean-up, and August 31 2014 after fall clean-up.

herb salts

Back in early November, I made several herb salts. I looked up several recipes and found that these mixes can be either mostly herb with a bit of salt for flavoring or mostly salt with a bit of herb flavoring. At first I used a recipe for the former: mostly herb. That didn't seem the most useful for me, so I added salt.

My mixes ended up with about equal amounts of salt and herbs. I use them whenever I would be normally be adding plain salt to a recipe - and I get some extra flavor. I sprinkle the sage salt on cooked carrots, the thyme salt on broccoli, rosemary salts on scrambled eggs. Very nice.

To make the salts, I combined all ingredients listed below, processed in food processor til smooth, then spread on a sheet of the plastic mesh that came with my dehydrator with a sheet of parchment below and anther plastic mesh below those. I dried at low heat (110*F) in dehydrator for a few hours. When dry, I pushed the mix through the mesh onto the parchment and stored in plastic bags.

As I mentioned above, I added salt to get the flavor I preferred. I ended up with equal amounts of salt and herbs, 1:1 ratio. Many recipes call for a 1:4 ratio of salt to herbs.

Rosemary salt
Fresh rosemary
Lemon zest
Garlic cloves, crushed

Sage salt
Fresh sage leaves
Shallots, chopped
Dried chiles

Thyme salt
Fresh thyme, stems removed
Fresh oregano, stems removed
Lemon zest
Garlic cloves, crushed


I gave several of the salts away as Christmas gifts to my siblings. Now that I've posted this I can send a link and show them how I made them.

updated planting calendars

I've just finished updated the planting calendars on my side bar. Its taken me a few weeks as I'm better with plants than HTML. I think the result is good, considering. The updated calendars have more vegetables and updated explanations. Also I've added dates for succession planting and dates for transplanting. I am looking forward to using them this year.

Tonight I printed out spring, fall and winter planting calendars for myself. My first planting date is Feb 22, the date to plant onions and celeriac. I don't know how I can wait that long. I usually can't and I end up planting these crops at the end of January. Once my first seeds are sown, I do better at waiting.

Yesterday I placed my seed orders. One at Johnny's and one at Territorial. After the seeds arrive, I'll organize the seed packets by planting date using my calendars.

eggs!

Today, for the first time, all four of my hens laid an egg! Yeah!!!

I haven't had any eggs for almost 4 months! After loosing a hen to a local hawk or coyote last summer, I purchased two young hens (pullets) in late August. The new chickens apparently disrupted things so much that my two one year old hens stopped laying. It took a couple months for things to settled down. Once everyone started getting along, I think it was too dark for them to lay. My run is covered with tarps to keep it dry, and I suppose it was pretty dark underneath.

My husband figured out how to solve the darkness problem. He built a glass roof for the run! About a month ago my two youngest chickens started laying. They've each been laying an egg about every other day since then. Last week, my one year old Brahma, Bertha, started laying. And today I finally have a blue egg from Ginger, my Auracana.

I will post photos soon of the fancy new coop with a glass covered run.

january community garden plot

The low sun is making a prism of light across my camera lens. In the foreground my pear tree branches are budded and braving the cold. Winter rye is growing in a few beds, green manure to turn under in the spring. The garlic bed is covered with salt march hay and I'm imagining healthy garlic root systems. I see some arugula that is still green. My compost bin was full to the brim in the fall. I ended up with a big pile of debris that wouldn't fit in. I see the lid is now sinking as contents mature. The rest seems pretty quiet and cold. No snow. That's nice for me, but my garden soil and garlic roots would prefer to be covered.

plans for another year

I drew up a couple diagrams for this year's gardens.
In planning for a new year, I always move everything so nothing grows in the same location as last last year (crop rotation).

Along with rotation, I want to do a few things different this year. For my home garden:

- I've moved the tomatoes to a bed that didn't have the store bought compost that made them sick last year. Last year, all my tomatoes had spindly growth, curled leaves, and very few tomatoes. I hope the move will help.

- I'll add some flowers along the front fence. I thought I'd be adding a raised bed there eventually, but not enough room. I think flowers right in the soil will look nice.

- This year, I'd like to have more broccoli, carrots, beets and shell beans. I don't think I had too much of anything last year. Maybe a few too many eggplants, snow peas and snap beans. I made more space for this year by removing the zinnias patch from the garden.

Again this year, my community plot will grow crops that need less regular care. I was able to tend this plot once a week last year and it worked out well. Changes for my community plot include:

- Growing flowers up the arbor rather than winter squash. Last year, I ended up with too much squash.

- Moving the dill out of the onion beds and into its own bed. The dill self sows and its easy to leave it where it comes up. But I think my onions will do better with more sun.

- I'm growing a lot less sweet potatoes this year. I didn't get a very good harvest last year. I had lots of very small tubers. I'll allocate a small space to the sweets for a while and see if I can get them to grow better. Maybe its just a matter of spacing the plants further apart, maybe I need new varieties.