Fenway community gardens

I wandered through the Fenway Victory gardens in Boston during their Open Gardens Day last weekend. Beautiful! They have wonderful spring bulbs, rock pathways, birds, and roses on arched gates. I now have many new ideas for my garden.

They have a several community designated plots. One is full of wheelbarrows of different sorts for gardeners to use. Another has several large planting beds for seedlings and divisions gardeners want to share. They also are beginning a demonstration garden to show ow to build raised beds and grow vegetables. All of the vegetables they grow in this plot will go to a local food bank.

Too many photos. Here's a link to my photo show: Boston Fenway Garden's.

new seeds

I got a few new seeds on vacation in Europe. The little nasturtiums look very sweet on the package photo. The pumpkins look nice too - Bright orange with nice ribs. I was reading through the German on the back of the pumpkin package and mentioned to my son - gee, they get to be 70 kg. How big is that? He paused and looked at me, then to make sure he heard right, he asked again. Yes, 70 kg I said. Well, Mom, that's more than 150 lbs. Hmm. That's pretty big.

We'll, I didn't realize I was buying a giant. I'll plant a few seeds and see what comes of it. Maybe they'll take over my garden. I don't think so - I'll put them on the edge. The nasturtiums should be nice.

The little pepper is called Iddy Betty Bossy. These are peppers we bought at the supermarket and my son loves super hot peppers. He asked that I grow them. Peppers are particularly good for saving seed as they generally breed true (if they aren't hybrid). So I planted one of them.

April 31 and April 9, 2011

March 20 and February 1, 2011

Jan 12, 2011 and December 24, 2010

November 21 and October 6, 2010

August 28 and August 5, 2010

May 30 and April 22, 2010

As my garden starts to take shape for another season, I looked back on last year's photos. The garden was very shady last year (that backyard tree just keeps growing!) and I had all my tomatoes, potatoes and peppers at home following the late blight the previous summer. Not good crops for partial sunlight.

This year, the tomatoes, potatoes and peppers will all rotate back to my community plot where they can have SUN. AND, we had a giant branch removed from the backyard shade tree and I'm hoping the garden gets more sun this year.

I just went back to look at my garden plans that I drew up in the middle of the winter. My side yard garden will be planted with dill, cucumbers, peas and beans this year. Not on the plan, but I'll put some kale and cilantro here too. The peas are up an inch or two already.

my side yard vegetable garden

I continued today with working on cleaning up my side yard garden. The rose on the fence always need a lot of trimming in the spring. I'm gradually clearing old leaves and last year's vegetable debris from the beds. Also removing weeds. The dandelions are especially vigorous this year.

open garden at fenway

A late posting, but this sounds fun. There will be an Open Garden today at the Fenway Victory Gardens. Brochure is here. I'm on my way over there!

There are also Emerald Necklace Conservancy Ribbon cutting events at the Fenway today (link for info).

my community garden plot after vacation

my cold frame after vacation

Everything is growing fast now. The lettuce, spinach and escarole are filling our salad bowl. These are plants from last fall, that overwintered in the cold frame. My overwintered beets are also doing well with nice greens now and just starting to form roots.

The overwintered broccoli did not do well. It grew nicely, but then "buttoned", that is, it formed tiny little broccoli heads. I picked them a couple days ago and they made a single small serving. I'm told that broccoli will button when its stressed. I'll pull these plants and make room for something else.

PS. Actually the beets are not doing good. They are bolting with no roots. I suppose they too were stressed by over wintering. I'll pull them soon for the nice greens.

today's garden work

It was a sunny warm day, in the upper 70's, perfect for gardening. Its nice to be back to work in my own garden after being away for a week.

- Some marigolds and cosmos transplanted to pots.
- Sow 2 flats of seeds for cucumbers, zinnias, pumpkins, winter squash, summer squash, melons and broccoli.
- Prepare one garden bed and plant fava beans.
- Weed the garlic and asparagus beds.
- Weed the main path in my community garden plot.

vegetable gardens in switzerland

I was so impressed by the Swiss garden plots. Such a nice mix of flowers, grass and productive space. Most of the plots I photographed are 'community gardens'. They have small huts, eating space, and grassy areas so the plots can be enjoyed as a vacation or weekend getaway.

I was impressed by the nice pruning of espaliered fruit trees. I will try do prune back my pears and apple tree this year.

Also different from US is that most gardens seem to use a cover for tomatoes. These are just being set up now and some have been planted with small tomato plants already. I think this keeps the rain off the leaves and the plants are watered by hand directly at the soil level. A good idea to reduce fungal diseases. I think here this may not be as effective since our climate is more damp and the covered will also reduce moisture evaporation. Does anyone in the US cover their tomatoes?

photos of switzerland

I'm just back from a vacation in Switzerland and have photos of vegetable gardens and the Saturday morning Farmer's Market. Photos of the Farmer's Market in Basel Switzerland are here. Basel is located in the northwest corner of Switzerland, along the French and German borders. There was an amazing variety of local produce. Truly amazing. We filled our bags with food to make a delicious Easter dinner.

Though Basel is at a more Northern latitude than us here in Boston, the weather is much warmer. The lilacs were in full bloom there, and these have not even leafed out here in Belmont yet. Our Belmont Farmer's market won't open until June 9! But in Basel, the market had lots of new potatoes, new garlic, fava beans, white and green asparagus, broccoli, lots of greens and herbs, etc, etc.

I haven't ever seen baby garlic at a market. We bought some and it was great. The wrappers hadn't begun to dry at all and the cloves were quite small still. We could just slice and eat the whole head without peeling the cloves.

The potatoes on the stands were mostly a little white variety with buttery flesh. Very good!

happy easter !!!

Boston Globe article: a sense of community

Erica from the Globe wrote a very nice article about our community gardens. Its in today's paper: here's the link. I love the way she wrote little bits about lots of different gardeners. That the way our garden is: a patchwork mix of different garden styles and gardeners.

seed potatoes arrived

My seed potatoes arrived in the mail today. I have to get their bed ready and get them planted - next weekend.

first harvest of the season

I picked a nice bunch of spinach from my cold frame. These are plants I started late last fall. They grew very slowly over the winter and have now taken off in the warming spring sun. I sauteed it and it was delicious!

side yard aerial

I planted the bed at the far left with 3 rows of peas a few days ago. I'm watching for sprouts. The cold frame is filling up fast and perennials in the bed next to it are sprouting.