master gardener class with Roger Swain

I keep writing about this. What a treat the class was!! It was so great to hear Mr Swain talk from 9 am to 3 pm all about vegetables. I have 12 pages of notes. I wish I had a tenth of his knowledge. And a tenth of his ability to entertain a class. Super.

Anyway, here is a list of some of the highlights in his presentation:
- Local food production: 20% local food production is a good goal for New England. Currently it's about 5-7%. NE has the land resources for higher local production. It would not impact large areas of forest, would not leave the land bare like the 1800's. We have a untended, overgrown land and using it would be better.
- Home vegetable gardens: The more the better. It's better for land to be gardened than to let it go to weeds and invasive plants - open land needs to be tended to maintain health.
- Seasonal food: is one of the reasons for increasing home and local gardening. People have forgotten what it's like to eat seasonal food. Seasonal local food is much better for us than cheap supermarket food.
- Mr Swain grows about 30% of his food, which is way above average. (I think he meant 30% of ALL of his food. Not just 30% of his vegetables. Impressive.)
- Giving food: is an important part of vegetable gardening. If you get to the end of the season and haven't given food away it's a real shame.
- Organic gardening: Instead of "organic", he likes an approach he calls "PMO" pretty much organic.
- Raised beds: Make raised beds simply by digging sunken paths and piling the soil up to make a raised bed. This it easy to do, makes it easy to change the bed configuration next year, there's no pressure treated wood, and no rotting untreated wood to worry about replacing. They still provide the benefits of raised beds with warmer soil and paths to walk on avoiding bed compaction.
- Soil preparation: A rototiller is the worst invention ever! It puts oxygen into the soil, which removes nutrients, it destroys soil structure, and it raises buried weed seeds to the surface. Instead, use a broadfork to loosen and aerate the soil a little. - Weeding: Use a Dutch hand hoe and slice under weeds with the blade. (I've found that there are lots of different hoes called a Dutch hand hoe. He had one with a straight 12 inch wood handle and a triangular metal blade. They come in right- and left-handed versions. There are beautiful one at sneeboerusa.com, but probably nice ones at many on-line sources and local garden shops.)
- Mulch: Use thin (1 ml) black plastic on the beds. It lasts one year, then you can throw it out and not worry about storage. You could get the thicker 6 mil stuff, but it cost 5 times as much and doesn't last 5 years.
- Planting: In home gardens, grow plants close together giving every plant only the space it needs. Plant in patches rather than rows.
- Chipmunks and voles: Use have-a-heart traps. But don't release the animal somewhere else like in your neighbors yard (in MA it's illegal to move any wild animal from one place to another). Kill the animal. Killing pests comes with the territory of gardening.
- Bug control in general: "The bug on the rose is evil, but so is the person who sees only the bug."
- Zucchini: Use black plastic mulch, cut holes in it and plant, and then cover the plants with Remay fabric over low hoops. This keeps the plants about 10 degrees warmer and also keeps the vine borer wasps out. Remove the fabric when the first female squash flowers appear.
- Potato beetles: At the 1st/2nd instar, spray with BtSD. (I am thinking this approach may also be appropriate for bean beetles, though I didn't ask him.)
- Corn ear worms: Just lop the top of the corn off before you eat it.
- Blueberry maggots: They are not toxic to people...
- Potatoes: Save your small potatoes and regrow them for about 4-5 years. That's how long it takes for pathogens to become a problem. Every 4-5 years, get a new stock of certified disease free ones and start again.
- Winter: Use winter rye ground cover. In the spring, use a weed whacker to turn it into coleslaw. (I didn't get the full story here. I don't know if you need to turn this into the soil to disrupt the roots, or if you can leave the "coleslaw" on the top of the soil while the roots compost? The question is whether the roots will regrow.)

He also talked about storing vegetables and listed many of his favorite varieties. I'll post about each of these separately.

today's harvest

the basics of growing a vegetable garden

I have a giant notebook compiled from my Master Gardener class. Of course, the vegetable section was one of my favorites.

I was interested to see how our manual breaks down the major components of growing a vegetable garden. 1) Planning and 2) Maintaining growth momentum.

Planning includes site selection, soil, type of garden (raised beds, etc), how you will irrigate. It also includes planning what to grow, how much, and what to plant where. It includes deciding whether to grow from seed or use transplants, where to obtain these, and generating a planting schedule.

Maintaining growth momentum includes what you need to do after the garden is planted (or after seeds are in pots under lights). I'm thinking that this component includes both maintaining good momentum of plant growth, as well as - maybe more important - maintaining momentum of the gardener. For the vegetable plants, maintaining momentum requires using proper practices for individual plants such as fertilization, irrigation and mulching, weed control, pest control, succession planting, cold protection, harvesting, winter clean up and cover crops. (For the gardener, maintaining momentum for an entire season requires ...?)

So, I'm now moving into the planning season. I've already received a couple seed catalogs. At our community garden, we're planning programs we'll run next year. I'm looking forward to trying some changes in my garden including improving my soil, installing drip irrigation, interplanting, and trying some new varieties. I'm even planning for the weather; The Old Farmer's Almanac says that after a mild, snowy winter, our area will have a cool and wet summer. Ha! That's hard to believe! We're still in a severe drought here. I think I'll take that forecast with a grain of salt.

my larder

It's the end of another gardening season. My larder is as full as it's going to get this year. I have vegetables stored in different locations: my freezer, refrigerator, and new food storage pantry.

My new food pantry is separate small room just off our garage. Similar to a root cellar, we built it here since we have no basement. My husband build pine shelving to line the walls. With a cement floor it stays about 50 degree F like a root cellar, though we put a temp regulator in just in case. This room has squashes, potatoes, canned tomatoes, pickles, jams, and jellies. I have several batches of pickled beans, dill beans and three bean salad. I have pickled zucchini squash and pickled garlic scapes. Lot's of canned tomatoes. My garlic (I ended up with very tiny garlic heads this year) popcorn, and a few last onions hang in bunches behind the door. (Sadly, no fruits from this year ... pears or apples ... because of a late hard frost.) Oh, and there's also about 100 ponds of honey on the shelves.

In the refrigerator I have several jars of sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil. Also carrots, beets, and celeriac in plastic bags.

My frozen garden produce includes lots of pesto. We put away a quart this year. It's stored a ground basil and pine nuts in olive oil. We add cheese and dilute it a bit with pasta water to serve it. I have baggies of frozen pizza sauce and roasted chile peppers. I also still have raspberries and dried pears from last year's bumper crops.

I'm a certified master gardener!

I'm certified!!

I've passed the 50 hours of classwork and 60 hours of supervised gardening, help line, etc, and two exams to earn certification as a Master Gardener. It was a challenging course given by the Massachusetts Master Gardener Association (MMGA). I recommend it highly to anyone in central Mass. Also, most states offer their own MG courses.

Every week we had full day lectures given by top experts in the field. They really did bring in the best. Topics included soils, composting, botany, insects, garden design, perennials, berry plants, pruning, vegetable gardening, and others. Every day I would go to class with such anticipation and leave feeling like I wanted to get right out in the garden and practice what I learned. It was fantastic.

today's harvest

today's garden work

It seems I should be finishing up with my garden for the season, but I'm hurrying to get my winter crops set. This is what I did in the garden today.

- Clean out tomato debris from my winter bed (this bed has hardware cloth dug in 8 inches around the base to deter voles and also has brackets to support the PVC hoops)

- Spread compost and manure on winter bed (3 bags Black Earth compost and 2 bags composted manure) and dig it in (I dig it in only turning a shovelful here and there, trying to both distribute the amendments and preserve some of the soil structure)

- Plant seedlings in the winter bed, including chard, broccoli, bok choi, lettuce, and spinach - leaving room to seed more spinach

- Mulch the winter bed seedlings with salt marsh hay (I have no water at the garden, so I hope they take root OK)

- Put in place low metal hoops and tall PVC hoops for my double layer winter tunnel

- Clear out my watermelon bed for planting a few cloves of extra giant garlic given to me by a friend (most of my garlic - 70 cloves - was planted several weeks ago in my community garden plot)

- Amend the garlic bed with compost and manure, dig it in, and then plant the garlic (I need to mulch this bed later)

- Cover my lettuce bed with row cover since it might go below 30 tonight

I'm glad my new pup Charley and big sister Suzie are so good. They ran and played nearby while I worked. The leaves and cool weather are great fun for them.

Veteran's Day 2016: To all veterans, I respect your service. It is meaningful to me that you worked and sacrificed in the name of our country and for of all American people.

the last of my garden tomatoes

All my green tomatoes have now ripened in their baskets in my kitchen. They are sadly :-( the last garden tomatoes and green peppers for our salads. Tomato season has come to an end.

I have to say, however, that it's been a really super tomato year. I made sauce, sun-dried tomatoes, salsa, etc. I froze and canned about 100 pounds of tomatoes, producing 50 pounds now in my pantry and freezer. And, who knows how many tomatoes we ate fresh ... sliced on salad with mozzarella and basil ... yumm

I think this year should be crowned the "Year of the Tomato" (as well as the "Year of the Big Drought") for my gardens. I think I'll make some buttons for my sidebar.

today's harvest

Varieties: Cherokee and Monte Carlo lettuce, Peppermint chard.

will President Trump keep the White House vegetable garden?

Michelle Obama is hoping that the White House vegetable garden will be preserved and used by all future presidents. She's added a stone plaque with the inscription, “WHITE HOUSE KITCHEN GARDEN established in 2009 by First Lady Michelle Obama with the hope of growing a healthier nation for our children.”

Also, she's "pressing the president to pass an executive order to maintain the garden after they leave the White House,” a source told The Post. The garden has grown from 1,100 square feet to 2,800 square feet under her leadership.

I think Mr Trump and Melania aren't vegetable gardeners. The rumor is they may be more interested in using the South Lawn for golf. Time will tell. Surely everyone doesn't need to have the same interests.

the Persephone begins

Today marks the beginning of the Persephone in my area. This is the date when Persephone, the vegetation goddess, returns to Hades and causes the earth to become barren and wintry. I guess she stays toasty, but not us. While she's gone, our plants don't have enough sunlight to grow. With some cold protection, our plants will hang out and wait for her return when they can grow again.

So the Persephone is the time when there's less than 10 hours of sunlight each day. Most plants need more than 10 hours to grow. Their growth is slowed or stopped, even if winter temperatures are mild.

Persephone dates vary according to your latitude. In my area near Boston MA, it starts today, Nov 10, and ends Feb 10. In Kentucky, it starts Nov 22. To figure out when the Persephone starts in your area, you can keep an eye on the vegetation goddess. There are also tables on line where you can look it up. The Univ of Nebraska Day Light Explorer is a really cool interactive graph to explore different daylight hours at different latitudes.

source: Mother Hubbard "Calculating Your Persephone Days"

I voted! soon it will be over ...

today's harvest

Another 2 lbs of produce from the garden. But my % homegrown is falling since we are buying more and more from the store. This week 7 lbs.

pictures of Charley - a budding gardener

Though I can definitely see he has a lot of potential for excellent gardening skills, he still spends a lot of time goofing off with "big sister". Running, rolling around. Charley likes to grab her tail and not let go. Also he's good at biting her ears. I sort of remember this is what Suzie used to do with Skippy.