Before the Rain

Rain, rain, and more rain.  This past weekend, the weather turned cold and damp...not a great start to June.

Friday night, before the rain started I went out to do some weeding and harvested what I could.  I picked 8 strawberries, 1 pea, and 1 head of lettuce. I also picked some thyme and rosemary (to make flatbread - a great rainy day snack).

I just can't get enough of these cute, perfect strawberries!

and look...my first tomato (on my sunsugar plant).

Harvest Monday - All About Tomatoes

Tomato production is coming to a sad end.  The plants are very brown and skimpy.  They no longer provide a barrier to the busy street traffic, as I can see right through them when I pull into my driveway.  However, harvests are not finished yet! I picked 20 Grafted  Heirloom San Marzano tomatoes tonight!  They are not perfect or all completely ripe, but they will still be great for salsa or sauces.  With close to 80 tomatoes between the two plants, they provided about 80% of my total tomato harvest this season. 

The three days of drenching rain we had last week did not help conditions either, having barely recovered from Irene.

I still expect to harvest some tomatillos (if I can find/get to them) and have some great looking eggplants growing.

Thanks Hurricane Irene

There is nothing like a hurricane (or tropical storm for MA) to force a person to finally update a neglected blog!  It has been almost three months since my last post - just plain embarrassing.  Three months without a post is not too bad in the winter (which, regretably I am also guilty of) but these past three months have been prime growing/harvesting time - providing no shortage of updates and news.  Travels to Colorado and Maine combined with training for a sprint triathlon and having a busier summer at work has made it difficult to write and keep up with my growing veggies.  Fortunately, I was made sure to at least maintain the garden's progress though photos and harvest totals.

With my garden secure as much as possible, I now wait for the storm to pass.  Here is a quick summary of what the past few months have involved, hoping to make up [a little bit] for lost time. 

Heirloom/Grafted tomato experiment update:
The three plants I ordered from Burpee have been doing pretty well, and I would say that all three experiments (mail order, heirloom varieties, and grafted plants) have been successful and worth it.  The seedings transplanted without problems a few days after receiving them in the mail.  I planted the Big Rainbow in a container and the two San Marzano plants in with the other tomato plants in a SFG box. I don't have anything to compare the grafted San Marzanos to, but I feel that there production is very high (having harvested 47 tomatoes between the two plants as of today).
 

 

Three seedlings recovering from shipping.

Close up of grafted stem.

     

Planted experimental tomatoes! 

A cluster of San Marzano tomatoes.

The flowers of the Big Rainbow were really interesting - very different than most tomato flowers!

A beautiful, Big Rainbow tomato.

Harvests:
Overall, I have been getting some great harvests and made a lot of farm-fresh food.  Tomatoes, eggplants and tomatillos have ruled.

Tomatillo craze:
My two tomatillo plants have taken over their SFG box.  Even having trimmed them back numerous times, they keep growing out of control. New to me this year, I have made a lot of salsa and have really loved growing them but I am not sure if I will grow them again in my current garden since they require so much space.  They have affected the success of almost everything else in the box (peppers, cucumbers, beans).

Tomatillos look like little lanterns.

Tomatillo takeover!

Failed/Poor Producing Crops:
My Sugar Snap Pea plants did not do very well this year.  The plants grew pretty well, but did not produce as many pods as last year, and then died off pretty early.  I used the same seeds as last year, so I am not sure if that was the problem.

As I mentioned above, my tomatillos have prevented my two pepper plants (Golden Summer, Red Beauty) from producing any peppers.

My Black-Seeded Blue Lake Pole beans also did not fair very well.  I used seeds from the very successful crop last year.   Again, not sure if it was the tomatillos, soil or using the harvested seeds that affected their growth.

Tomato results have been  mixed this year.  My regular San Marzano plant never produced a single tomato and was pulled out in July.  Out of the four volunteer tomato plants that appeared on their own, I gave two away and planted two in my garden.  One of them turned out to be Sunsugar or Sungold (noted by the ? in the harvest report) which produced almost as much as my Sunsugar I have this year; One turned out to be Yellow Pear, which failed after providing about two tomatoes.

Disease and pests
I feel that there comes a point were all tomato plants start to get discolored leaves, a fungus or a disease.  I am not sure if others in the area experienced the same thing.  It didn't seem to affect tomato production, but just looks awful.

  

I was curious to see if I would have any problems with pests in my new backyard location.  Until a few weeks ago, I had no problems.  Then I noticed multiple ripe tomatoes gone without a trace from my San Marzano plants.  I had been waiting to pick them until I had enough for a canning session.  Since only the ripe ones had been taken I thought that a person had jumped my fence and grabbed them.  However, a week later, after another round of missing tomatoes I saw evidence that it may have been an animal (raccoon, squirrel?) I am now trying to grab tomatoes as soon as I can before someone or something else does!

   

A similar experience to last year in my community plot, I have had baby bunny visiting my backyard.  All of my plants were full-size, so I was not worried about damage it would do.  He seemed to have no desire to eat anything but grass and enjoyed being able to sit in the shade the tomatillo plants.  It has now grown up a bit, but still visits from time to time.

No Joke

It was not fun waking up to this garden scene.

Fortunately, I do not have much to be worried about, but I rescued the pansies just in case. I am still not sure if the strawberry & lavender plants survived the winter; hopefully this storm won't kill them. It is supposed to "warm up" this weekend, so I plan to get my peas in the ground.

All in a day's work

On a beautiful, but chilly Sunday morning I set out to attend to my garden for the first time since my move in November. Here is where I started:

Taken from my 2nd floor

Everything looked pretty dreary but, I set off to buy some compost and start on my tasks.

I decided to try a new method of sectioning off each square foot. Instead of the lath boards (which I used for my first two seasons, and is suggested in the SFG book) I wanted to try string for the following reasons:

1. The condition of my two-season boards was pretty poor, so I didn't think they were worth moving (I gave them to a fellow gardener to use).
2. Each lath boards was an inch wide, so they made the planting area within each square foot smaller (every inch counts!)
3. When moving/adding soil it was sometimes challenging to spread it out between the squares.
   

There honestly are probably many easier ways of going about laying out the grid. However, I decided to use 1/2" screw eyes & polypropylene string.

It was pretty time consuming and I had a minor setback when I broke my itsy-bitsy drill bit that I was using to start the 12 holes for the screw eyes, but...

Ta da! My backyard garden set up is complete and ready to go.

warm weather...I am waiting!

Harvest Monday: Slowing Down

Sunday was my first visit to the garden in almost two weeks, and after we had 4.5 days of horrible rain. My rain gauge was almost overflowing! I felt bad for neglecting my plot and was not sure what condition the plants would be in. I had to pull out my popping corn that had gotten totally devastated by...squirrels? Otherwise, left growing are: tomatoes, basil, peppers, watermelon, eggplant, butternut squash, carrots & potatoes. The butternut squash look great! I have about 5 that are almost ready! Yumm, I can just taste the soups!!

I harvested a few cherry tomatoes, one Roma, lots of short n' sweet carrots and two Italian Pepperocini peppers. In addition, I pulled some of the seeds out of the dried pole beans, hoping to save them for next year!

a small harvest 8/29/30

Black-seeded Blue Lake Snap Pole Bean seeds

Trying to Beat the Heat!

We finally had relief on Saturday after about two weeks of hot, sunny, dry weather. However, mother nature decided to give us the rain to us all at once! It poured for at least an hour, causing some major flooding that made nationwide news. The water had nowhere to go since the ground was so dry. People were stuck under overpasses, cars started floating away, even the Fenway dugouts needed to be pumped out. Unfortunately, it appears that we are now back where we started, with the extended forecast back to hot, sunny, and dry.

Garden Updates

I spent a few hours this morning tending to my back perimeter flower bed. My experiment of trying to grow a few flowers from seed failed miserably. There were just too many weeds, and I didn't want to pull anything, in hopes that the flowers would appear. So, today I pulled everything up. I am still undecided about what I should do here, since weeds tend to come in through the back fence as well.

I am anxiously waiting for a ripe, yellow pear tomato! Overall, my tomatoes are sprawling everywhere and producing nicely. I am still waiting for a ripe "large" tomato. None appear to be turning red yet.

Unfortunately, I discovered about 8 Roma II tomatoes with blossom-end rot. I did some research, and I narrowed it down to two potential causes...calcium deficiency, or drought stress. I sprinkle egg shells around my tomato and pepper plants, so I am not sure if the calcium deficiency fits. However, the we have had drought conditions!

The Black-seeded Blue Lake Snap Pole beans are starting to form as they compete for space with my cucumbers! I was not expecting pink flowers!

7/11/10

Gardening with Winter Gloves in April

This weekend's weather has been horrible - cold and wet. Temps got down into the 30's and some areas of New England saw snow! I stopped quickly at the garden today to throw a cover over my growing seedlings (peas, lettuce & carrots) and deliver some of my potato box materials. Hopefully the weather will cooperate tomorrow as I have a lot to do!

My Easter Celebration

...was in the garden of course! Today was about as perfect you could get for Easter Sunday-temps reached almost 80 degrees! To make the most of it I logged about 5 hours - the the most time I have spent in the garden in many months; and to top it all off it was the Red Sox home opener! People were everywhere!

I was anxious to check on the peas that I planted on 3/20 as I was afraid that the incredible rains we had drowned them or washed them away. I only saw signs of one plant breaking the surface, so I will have to keep an eye to see if the rest follow. When I planted last year in mid June they seemed to come up quickly. Maybe when planted earlier when the temps are cooler, they are slower to grow..? However, I am so happy to already be able to plant, remembering that this time last year I was 'plot-less!'

Today's garden chores consisted of:

• stabilizing the fence between my plot and my neighbor
  
• weeding the perimeter flower bed and three square foot boxes
• raking leaves
• trimming back wild rose bushes along the back fence
  
• planting lettuce (Mesclun salad mix,Buttercrunch & Salad Bowl ) & carrots (Short n' Sweet & Baby)
• drafting possible layouts for the 'addition' area which include a space for my potato box, corn and a shaded area
• adding one wheelbarrow of compost (I forgot my shovel today which made it very difficult; I will need to add more when I return with my shovel!)
  

What do March showers bring?

As the saying goes...April showers bring May flowers. But, what do March showers bring? For the third Monday in a row, New England is under major flood warnings. March 2010 is 1" short of being the wettest month in Boston's history (and we are due for 3-7" by Wednesday!) Roads have been closed, and basements, backyards and gardens flooded. I am thankful not to have a basement or backyard to worry about, and my garden appears to be fairing well. I was surprised as my plot is along the backside of the FVG close to the Muddy River. However, upon my visit last Thursday, I saw that many other plots in the are under water. Is there anything to do but wait?

The silver lining is that it is expected to get up to 80 degrees this weekend! I hope to spend most of it in the garden. I will also be able to welcome in the 2010 Red Sox season as the home opener is Sunday!

Spring Renewal

I am back from a blogging hiatus. The hiatus was not something I planned, but the short, cold, dark days seemed to decrease my motivation to blog [or at least publish, as I started about a dozen posts.] However, spring is officially here and I welcomed it with open arms. Being that it was sunny and 70 degrees in Boston on Saturday, it would have been hard to ignore it! Birds were singing, EVERYONE was outside and new growth has popped up around the city!

On Saturday I attended the 35th Annual Gardeners Gathering. This is a spectacular, free event open to all local gardeners. Gardeners ranged from community to container, young to old, and new to master. It was great to meet other local gardeners and share tips.

Before it started I visited my plot to check in on any spring growth. This was the first visit in well over a month. Growing were...

(Yarrow, Garlic, Crocus)

Although I missed planting peas on St. Patrick's Day, I got them planted Saturday. I planted the same variety as last year - Sugar Snap. They were just so tasty and easy - with no preparation needed to eat them! With the days getting longer I look forward to visiting more often. I still have a lot of work to do to finalize my 2010 garden plan. However, two definite new additions (and experiments) this year will be potatoes and corn!!