Playing catch up...

It has been a while since my last post so I thought I would create a photo collage to catch up what has been happening! To see more detail, click on the photo and move your mouse over the photos. Enjoy!

Overwhelmed by Choices

I just decided to order my first seed catalog (from Johnny's Selected Seeds). Flipping through seed catalogs may commonly be a winter task, but I have never seen a seed catalog and felt the need to be inspired. And am I ever inspired...and overwhelmed! I now realize how hard it is going to be to limit myself! There are so many varieties that I would love to try! I am now really glad to have a few more square feet of dirt. However, I need to plan carefully so I can maximize my new space!! Let the fun begin...

Harvest Updates & Big News!

I had two great harvests this week...

8.19 Big cucumbers and lots of Sugar Snap Peas & Sweet 100 tomatoes!

8.16 First Jet Star tomatoes & Mandarin Hybrid pepper*
unfortunately, the pepper looked perfect, but had lots of worms inside-i was very sad!!

Other news...

My Sugar Snap Peas growing sky high!


Cabbage heads are forming!

The Big News....
My garden is growing in a different way!! The small, vacant and overgrown plot next to me is now mine! It was offered to me over the weekend! The FVG can not find someone to take the 'plot.' I gladly accepted it but am still trying to figure out what to do with the space. My initial thoughts...adding another SFG box or creating a shaded area with a chair/table. Here is what the space looks like now...I see lots of weeding in my future...again!!

More about the FVG

I just finished reading the Fenway Victory Garden's summer newsletter and thought I would post a little more information about the community garden I am so happy to be a part of!

The Fenway Victory Gardens represent the nation’s last remaining of the original victory gardens created nationwide during World War II. At that time, demands for food exports to the nation’s armed forces in Europe and the Pacific caused rationing and shortages for those back home in the States. In response, President Roosevelt called for Americans to grow more vegetables. The City of Boston established 49 areas (including the Boston Common and the Public Gardens!) as “victory gardens” for citizens to grow vegetables and herbs.

The FVG is located on 7 acres in the part of the Emerald Necklace Known as the Fens. There are approximately 425 members gardening 500 garden plots.

"It is as famous to gardeners as a certain neighboring park is to baseball fans–and just as historic."

Source: www.fenwayvictorygardens.com

Harvest Report & Garden Update

I harvested my first "Early Girl" tomatoes today...finally...along with Sugar Snap Peas, Sweet 100s and my first Diva cucumber!!!

The Mandarin Pepper is almost ready...it is turning orange; Jet Star tomatoes almost ready!

Here is an updated view of my garden plot! I still need more flowers, but the SFG boxes are doing well!

Nation-wide Tomato problems

Here is a very interesting NY Times article about the variety of gardening obstacles people have faced this year. The latest issue is late blight. The article also mentions how many more people have taken up gardening in one way or another...

"According to the National Gardening Association, 43 million households planned a backyard garden or put a stake in a share of a community garden in 2009, up from 36 million in 2008."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/opinion/09barber.html?_r=1&em=&pagewanted=all

Quick Harvest = Quick Report

Paul McCartney played at Fenway Park tonight. I forgot this until I hit a surprising amount of traffic coming home tonight. Unfortunately, he had not started playing yet when I went to the garden tonight for a quick 15 minute trip. I was hoping that a few veggies would be ready so I could use them for dinner. I was right! I picked a few sugar snap peas, beans, Sweet 100s, some rosemary...and my first two cucumbers! I was not sure when to pick them, but since they were about 5-6 inches, I thought I would try them out. I also wanted to continue to encourage new growth, as I confirmed that my cucumber plants are still growing, even though they look horrible! The two cucumbers were Burpless and they were so yummy!! The rest of dinner included rosemary chicken & potatoes, beans, peas and mojitos!

First Big Harvest!

I'm back! Sorry, I have been away from my garden for almost two weeks as I was enjoying another vacation! I heard that we had some pretty bad weather in Boston with at least one bad storm! However, the garden appeared to be in good condition. The sugar snap peas have climbed up the trellis, tomatoes were turning red and there were a lot of green beans to pick! I am finally able to update my harvest report! Unfortunately, the cucumbers have taken a turn for the worse. They appear to still be growing cucumbers, but the leaves have almost all died. I am hoping that the cucs continue to grow.

The biggest consequence of being away for so long are the weeds - around the fence and in the flower perimeter beds. I was not able to tend to the weeds tonight, but it will be a big project for another day...and it is going to be a lot harder to keep up with them than I thought!

Here are some snapshots from tonight:

Cucumbers & Mandarin Hybrid Peppers

Tomatoes & Sugar Snap Pea flowers

Multipik Squash & Super Sweet 100s

A harvest of flowers and veggies!