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.

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!