tomatoes on the counter

tomato sauce

I made a great big batch of red sauce this week. It simmered all afternoon. Mostly tomatoes from my parents garden. Also a few from my garden and some from my Piccadilly Farm CSA distribution. I added to the sauce a couple grated summer squash, carrots, garlic and onions. It smells fantastic!

Tomato varieties are: Mortgage Lifter, Box Car Willy, Pink Beauty, New Girl, Big Beef, Oxheart Red, Giant Belgium, Cherokee Purple, and Brandywine. Also two fantastic varieties of plum tomatoes: San Marzano Gigante 3 and Opalka.

I'd like to get a photo of each variety separately. Maybe next week.

fall seedlings

These are my little plants growing inside under the lights. With the hot dry summer weather and then pelting rain, its nice to baby them. I have several types of lettuce here, and some spinach. They're ready to go outside soon.

I checked my community plot today. I've been sowing seeds there regularly. Not much sprouted during hot dry weather in July and early August. Today I see several patches coming up. Nice pea sprouts, and a little bed of tiny lettuces. Also a row that looks like broccoli, but I can't remember what I planted there (oops!). Carrots and radicchio have not done well.

Today I planted cilantro and dill in the garden and last night I planted about 5 types of butterhead lettuces in flats under lights.

a new mulch for my vegetable beds

One of my projects this weekend was to weed and mulch my side yard vegetable beds.

Weeding the beds was a big job as I've neglected them recently. I removed two wheel barrows full to my compost bins. Most weeds had grown up in the paths between the beds.

After weeding, I spread mulch. A new product for me: Coast of Maine hay and straw mulch. Its finely chopped and sterilized and they say it doesn't have weed seeds. Its spreads very nicely and one bag covers lots of ground. I used it to suppress weed growth in my paths and to make a nice surface for walking on. I'm looking forward to using the rest of the bag for moisture retention in the vegetable beds at my community plot.

new flower bed

I've been fixing up a little flower garden next to my cold frame. I had a few perennials here that had grown together and gotten weeds and then they got trampled when my husband painted the house this summer. Now that the painting is done, I replanted the bed.

I dug out everything, separated all the perennials, removed the weeds and replanted. I added some compost and a few new plants, including a red bee balm (monarda), orange butterfly milkweed, a purple New England aster, a classic Autumn Joy sedum, a deep red rose (Mr Lincoln), and some annuals. Plants I have include a purple iris, several peonies (which I planted all together) and digitalis.

I also bought a bunch of slate pieces, odds-and-ends at a local garden center and made a U-shaped path of stepping stones. I'm hoping to have lots of flowers in this bed next year and walk along the stones to pick bouquets.

I splurged and used the dark black Coast of Maine composting mulch on this small bed. I'm looking forward to next year as it matures and fills in.

end of August garden aerial

I've worked on several projects in my side yard the past two weekends. I have been fixing up a little flower garden next to my cold frame (bottom center of this photo), I've mulched and weeded the vegetable beds, and I've set up a new grape arbor just to the left of this photo. I'll post separately on each of these projects.

If you want to, you can click on this photo and mouse over to what's planted where.

mesh-covered green beans

I came across the beautiful beans last week in a plot at the Belmont Victory Gardens. Why are they covered with mesh? Does this keep the bean beetles off? They sure look great with no signs of beetle damage, unlike most plots around here. But then the adjacent and uncovered pole beans look good too.

Very nicely mulched with salt hay, too. I bought some stray/hay mulch that I will be spreading today in my gardens. I hope it looks as nice as this.

water drops

reflecting on my community plot

It seems that gardens are a reflection of a person and what's going on. This year my garden is fending for itself a fair amount of time. The soil is good and the weather has been nice, so my plants have done well. But I have big areas of unplanted space. Some fall greens are coming along under lights at home and will fill these in soon.

My mom is pretty sick right now. I've been visiting the hospital and keeping her company. She had some bad luck it will probably take quite some time to recuperate.

I'm also putting more time into my role as coordinator at the Belmont Community Gardens. Communication and planning. And my new company is growing. Good news, but it keeps me away from my garden on those beautiful rainy days when the flowers colors look so bright and the droplets allow you to reflect.

wet dog

a wet week at the gardens

Wow! 4 days of non stop rain and drizzle after 3 months of dry weather. We sure needed it. And it was very pretty. The newly seeded fall crops are enjoying it. Skippy and I walked through the Belmont Community Garden paths on Wednesday in the drizzle and checked out the gardens.

garden bulletin boards

A local boy scout is making a bulletin board for our community garden. I've been looking into the types of boards that other gardens and parks have. We'd like to have one side covered with plexi and locked for "official" notices and the other open cork board for general use. It will be located along our main path entering the gardens. It seems it would be good to have more communication.

garden notes

We had a very successful garden event today. We requested volunteers come to help dig a trench (about 125 feet long x 1 ft deep) to run an extra water line to the new plots. About 25 people came and it was short work to dig, lay line, and back fill. Thanks to all who came!

I checked on my beans at my plot today. I had a terrible problem with Mexican bean beetle. On Thursday, I sprayed with Captain Jack's Dead Bug Spray. I am pleased with the results. Very few larvae/beetles left today. I was able to squish these (yuck... I HATE to do this...). I will try to keep up with squishing them so I don't need to use spray again. Maybe I will bring an old glove to the garden and use this. I notice that many plots have skeleton bean leaves this year with bad bean beetle infestations.

I picked a handful of Chinese pole beans pods that I let ripen fully on the vines. I save these every year for replanting next year.

I continue to plant seeds for fall crops. I put in three rows of peas today. A bit late, but so hot I couldn't see planting sooner. I planted Caselode and Oregon Giant. Also a couple rows of carrots and lettuce seeds. I've been planting carrots every week for the past month. They don't do well with such dry weather, but I keep at it. I've covered the beds with row fabric and this seems to help keep in moisture and shade small seedlings.

I have some nice lettuce ans spinach seedlings under lights at home now. Its fun to watch them grow. They a coddled to be watered and under lights.

today's harvest

My first cayenne peppers are ripening. I am growing a variety Amelia gave me 4 or 5 years ago. I save seeds every year. They seem to get better every year.

I also have some shell beans Dan gave me. Vermont Cranberry beans. They are mixed with French flagolet shell beans.

And, of course, the main summer crop - my Sunburst yellow patty pans. Always delicious.

Sunshine yellow watermelon seeds

I got a fantastic yellow fleshed watermelon from Piccadilly Farm. They told me the variety is Sunshine (Johnny's Seeds). I collected seeds from my watermelon, but now that I see its an F1 hybrid, I will throw out the seeds :( and put them on my list to order next year. I hope I can grow this great variety myself.