Free Press

Even though things are slowing down, I am way behind in posting about my garden. Unfortunately, this is not that kind of post. Before I forgot, I wanted to blog about an article from Boston University's student newspaper, The Daily Free Press. One of their reporters gave the Fenway Victory Gardens some publicity and wrote an article about the garden and the recent FensFest event. To make it even more blog-worthy, I was quoted in the article as he happened to catch me in my garden!

Read the article, "Avant Gardening" here: http://www.dailyfreepress.com/avant-gardening-1.1880212

Thinking about potatoes

Like many, I am starting to think about what veggies I will grow next year. Potatoes are definitely on my list. I have heard that they are pretty easy to grow and can even be planted in buckets and trash cans!

While I still have to decide what variety or varieties I will grow along with my method of choice, I came across a post, "How to grow 100 pounds of potatoes in 4 square feet." Again I have never grown potatoes, but this seems like a great way to go!

Side note: for those not familiar with apartmenttherapy.com they have a great family of websites/blogs. The one I visit [every few hours] is thekitchn.com

Success at FensFest!

The Fenway Garden Society made the right call when deciding to postpone the FensFest until Sunday. We received 3 inches of rain between Friday afternoon and Saturday evening! Thanks to my new rain gauge I will now know how much rain we get!

We had a gorgeous day to celebrate FensFest! With steel drums playing in the background, the grill was hot, the 'white elephant' table was stocked with used treasures, and everyone had the chance to win fabulous raffle prizes! Gardeners, families, friends and passers-by stopped by to wander through the gardens and enjoy the festivities.

I entered one of my Savoy Ace green cabbages in the produce contest! It won "Best Vegetable"!

Success! I was thrilled to win "Best New Gardener" for my section.

Thanks to everyone that came out! I loved showing you around!

Come to FensFest 2009!

To anyone in the Boston area, the Fenway Victory Garden Society invites you to the FensFest on Sunday, September 13th* from 11:00am-3:00pm.

Activities:
~ Listen to live music
~ Enjoy the free cookout
~ Get a bargain at our White Elephant Sale
~ Buy chances for great raffle prizes
~ Bring your children to get their faces painted
~ Watch the Garden Awards
~ Have a fun day in the Park!

Map

FensFest is open to the public and is hosted by the Fenway Garden Society in cooperation with the Boston Parks Department, and funded through a generous grant from the National Land Trust Foundation.

Plot Expansion

My garden has another new fence!! After a full day in the garden on Sunday the area I recently acquired has a new fence (on one side).

After the fence was rebuilt an opening was created to join the two spaces together!

My plan for the new space is:

• Make a covered structure to provide much needed shade
• Add a table and chairs
  
• Have a variety of potted plants, shrubs and vegetables (maybe potatoes next year!)
  
• Have one small raised bed area for vegetables

I am hoping to start with some of these things this fall, but may wait until spring to really start the transformation!

Late Forming Melons

I have been waiting to see if my Hale's Best Melon plant was going to make it. It has struggled since I planted it in June (purchased from a nursery). As Skippy's Vegetable Garden mentioned a few weeds ago, it has not been great melon weather. She posted about how she was not sure if her melons would have time to ripen. Unfortunately for me, her plants/fruit were farther along in August than mine are in September! And, with the cool weather we are now having I am doubtful that I will see a ripe cantaloupe this year. In an attempt to help things along I pinched off all the other flowers so that the two that are the furthest along can get all the attention!

Cute Carrots

I finally got some decent size carrots! I have been waiting patiently to pull out my Short 'n Sweet carrots, as the stalks on most of them are over two feet tall. However, the few that I have pulled recently were less than 1 inch in diameter. Last night I decided to try again and low and behold, I pulled out a winner! It was about 1 and 1/2 inches in diameter and close to the 5-6 inch mark in length. I then pulled out two more that were not quite as big, but still tasty!

I sadly pulled out my cucumbers and am seeing the last of the sugar snap peas. I still have a large amount of sweet 100s that are forming, but something keeps taking huge bites out of my larger (Jet Star & Early Girl) tomatoes. I was able to grab only one yesterday. The romaine lettuce is starting to bolt, so I may not be able to harvest any more.

White House Garden Video & Victory Garden Shout Out!

White House garden update! A 7 minute video documenting the creation of the historical "kitchen garden" was recently posted on the White House blog. First Lady Michelle Obama and Chef Sam Kass tell the story of the garden, as it the first garden on White House grounds since Eleanor Roosevelt's Victory Garden during World War II. There is a neat time lapse video of the garden's growth and historical footage from a 1944 "Victory Gardens" film.