garden aerial

Click on the photo and mouse over for plant IDs.

aerial views of my home vegetable garden

mystery garden rose

This is another thing I found in my plot.

This rose was a tiny plant last spring when I got my new community plot. The leaves were so pretty, I let it grow. But sadly it had no flowers last year.

So this spring I decided to remove it. As I picked up my shovel I noticed - buds! Now I'm curious to see the flowers.

Maybe a beautiful old fashioned heirloom? Double blossoms and heavy scent? Light shell pink or deep magenta? Its probably an just an overgrown root stock.... We'll see...
mystery garden rose: Falstaff maybe?

garden updates and to do list

Updates:
- Fava beans have sprouted
- All 10 recently planted asparagus have sprouted
- Carrots are sprouting well
- Sunday I planted parsnips in spaces between garlic, also radish and carrots
- I removed flower stalks from the rhubarb
- I'm starting to hill Norland, Green Mtn and Red Gold potatoes - Russets are growing slower
- Sparrow chicks are peeping in bird house, no peeps from chickadee house yet
- Squirrels ate a lot of my peas, but half of what I planted are 3-5 inches tall
- Also I forgot to use inoculant and this may have lowered pea germination

To do list:
Once it gets warm in a couple of days, I'll have a lot to do.
- Plant green beans, pole beans and soy beans
- Weed whack paths at the community gardens
- Transplant cucumbers, squashes, and peppers
- I'll wait a while yet to transplant chilis, melons and eggplant
- Plant sunflower and nasturtium seeds
- Plant more pea seeds in the spaces, use inoculant
- Fertilize all vegetables
- Find a pollinator pear for my Bartlett since my second tree is not leafing out
- Plant dahlia tubers

cold spring weather

Brrr! We're having a run of cool days. At midday, its 54*F in my yard and will go to low 40's tonight. Frost warnings are up for the north and western part of the state. Bbrrrr.

But then things are supposed to warm up nicely. Highs in 80's - lows in upper 50's for remainder of the week.

I've been keeping my warm weather plants inside under lights for the past couple weeks. I had them outside but the chilis didn't seem happy. So now my melons, cucumbers, squashes, chilis and eggplant are inside.

I planted all my basil outside a week ago and I hope it does OK. May have been a bit early.

I transplanted 8 tomato seedlings into a row by the south wall of my house several weeks ago. They're doing great (photo below right). I planted 8 more out into my community plot two weeks ago. These are not doing good. They aren't dead, but they aren't growing. I have room for a second row of 8, but will wait to transplant.

Since my tomato seedlings were ready for transplanting out of their tiny pots, I went ahead and transplanted to bigger pots last night. I think I remember counting 57 plants - 3 or 4 each of 16 varieties. After its nice and warm out, maybe even June, these will go to my parents and several friends' gardens. Until them I'll baby them in my sheltered location. Tonight I'll cover them all up.

Of course the peas love the coolness! Peas, and all the cool crops: lettuce, broccoli, beets, onions, cabbage and potatoes are very happy.

rusty garden finds

I have been finding all sorts of things buried in my garden. In addition to happiness and potatoes, these are photos of long ago tools. Some are abandoned tools from fairly recent gardeners, I think others are old items from the farm here 100 years ago. The space our Victory Garden plots are on was used for livestock and crops prior to 1950.

I have hung these items on my fence or displayed them on rocks. Kind of like garden art or old family photos. My favorite is the enormous and very rusted horse shoe. Maybe worn by an old draft horse? I feel its bringing my garden good luck this year!

baby red romaine lettuce

Its definitely lettuce weather! I'm enjoying watching the plants grow. They love the cool spring rains.

I have about 10 lettuce varieties. This is red romaine. One of the types in my Valentine mix of red lettuces. Other varieties I have growing are Prizehead (my favorite), red oak leaf (another favorite), broad leaf escarole, Bibb, Boston, Merveille, and a couple other frilly red leaved types.

lettuce (Lactuca sativa)

alpine strawberry

I dug up my 5 year old alpine strawberry plant and split it into 5 plants. I now have a whole row! They make sweet tiny strawberries all season. The first berries are forming now.

alpine strawberries (Fraises des bois)

Happy Thursday!

This photo of our back patio is from last Friday evening. We are having many nice days for enjoying the outside. The bleeding hearts (dicentra), viburnums, violets and lamium are in full bloom.

No fresh veggies from my garden on the grill yet, but that will come.

I checked the chickadee box just to the upper left of this photo and she is in there and doing a good job of tending eggs, I assume. Since I haven't seen any birds near the box in a week, I knocked on it. No response. So I started to open the latch in the back and she flew out. They have built a beautiful deep nest inside, layered with all different materials and lots of soft fuzz on top. Too much fluff to see what was inside. (There are great photos of chickadee nests here.)

On April 27 I noticed that the chickadee pair were building their nest, bringing moss and grasses. A few days later they brought fluff and fuzz. Maybe around May 1 she probably started laying eggs. The female lays one egg a day for about a week. On May 8, I noticed she was staying in the box and the male was bringing her food. Chickadees incubate their eggs for 12-13 days once all the eggs are laid. If she started incubating around May 7, then the eggs should hatch around May 19-20. Then the parents will feed them for 16 days and the chicks will fledge on Friday June 5.

It seems like a long process!

I am thinking maybe I should put a wren guard on the box. I will listen for the wrens, which often come to our yard and are very aggressive. I have become quite fond of the quiet little chickadees.

my back patio
more backyard patio photos

potato sprouts

Lots of spuds coming up! Exciting. As they grow up, I fill in the trenches with dirt until the trenches are filled in, always leaving the top leaves of the plants uncovered and in the sun.
potatoes (Solanum tuberosum)

green rhubarb

I will add photos here soon. I had planned to photograph the stalks I brought home, but my mother-in-law loves it so much she ate it all before I got a shot.

I've never seen green rhubarb before and had to look it up. Yes, its "ripe". Its just a green variety. Rhubarb comes in red, green and all shades in between. And color doesn't relate to sweetness.

These green rhubarbs are all over our community garden. They must be the most prolific variety for us. Everyone shares the plants which are very vigorous. Mine are a division from another plot.

I still like the looks of a red rhubarb and will be on the lookout for another plant to add to my garden.

planting corn

Today I planted 2 rows of popcorn. I thought I had 3 varieties, but one was actually a sunflower I found when I opened the package and looked at the seeds. I'm thinking of getting some sweet corn for the third row I had planned.

I ended up planting the corn at my community plot even though a fellow gardener said his got eaten last year. I'll try it myself and see what happens.
Popcorn (Zea mays averta)

garden photos

The beds look empty, but actually all are full to the brim. Seedlings are in some, seeds are sprouting in others and some are reserved for planting in a couple weeks. I plant everything as close as possible, so there will be lots of green here soon.

In June, the peas will ripen. The peas are all planted now. Half are one inch tall, half are still germinating. I have snap peas and green shell peas this year. In June too, lettuce will be ready for harvest. My lettuce seeds were started indoors in March and are about 2 inches tall now. Also in June, bok choy will be ready for the grill. I planted a big patch of basil for late summer harvest, but in June I can pick early leaves to add to early summer salads.

In July, my tomatoes will be ripening. That will bring celebrations! There's nothing as good as a garden fresh heirloom tomato. Even better is running out and picking one as I make dinner. I have eight tomato plants growing in the side yard. All my favorites: Brandywine, Sungold cherry, Giant Belgium, etc.

Also in July, the cucumbers and beans will ripen. Neither of these are planted yet, but spaces are reserved. I have four varieties of cucumbers growing inside. And seeds for several varieties of beans including Chinese pole beans, Provider bush beans, and soy beans for edamame. And in July, the broccoli will be ready. This is the only vegetable my teenage son will eat. He loves piles of broccoli fresh off the grill. Ahh, July!

Looking at a new garden brings such joy!

surprise vegetable

My little surprise seedlings are doing well - growing into cute little plants. Maybe a Chinese green or a special broccoli? Dan said to plant them 5 inches apart, so I planted them about 3 inches apart. Since he said to treat then like broccoli, I planted them next to my broccoli seedlings and covered them both to protect from cabbage worms.

Brassicaceae

By the way, we grilled some young bok choy this weekend and it was delicious. My husband sliced it in half, brushed with olive oil and then roasted it over the fire. A wonderful flavor.

surprise seeds from Dan
Cabbage worms

happy mothers day

I ended up picking butterflies as a theme this year for Mother's Day. I hope my mom likes this. I planted seeds for Butterfly flower (Asclepia tuberosa) (also Butterfly weed) back in March and they're nice little plants now. I potted a few up in a small clay pot and made a nice color copy of the seed packet. Then I walked through the local mall and found lots of butterfly themed things to go along: a metal butterfly that hangs on the pot, two embroidered butterfly napkins, a small butterfly tray, and a fancy butterfly pin is in the butterfly bag.

Happy Mom's Day to all you MOM's!

I came across wild Butterfly flower last summer and was so impressed with the beautiful vibrant orange color. I was very pleased to find seeds this winter. Asclepia is native to the eastern United States. Its flowers attract Monarchs and other butterflies. It is also a host plant, providing a place eggs and food for caterpillars.

Here's a couple photos of Butterfly weed that I took last summer.

butterflies (Lepidoptera)

plot photos