Saturday, March 28, 2009

Spring Vegetable Garden

What a busy, busy day! After 6 hours outside I accomplished planting 25 of the 50 strawberry plants, set up the spring garden to hold three types of peas (sugar snaps and snows), and some spinach (the carrots and radishes will go out next weekend) removed all the thatch from the front yard, set up and loaded my compost bin, and cleaned up some of the worst areas of the yard. Not to mention refilling the hole my dog keeps digging under an evergreen bush. That was done three times. Drives me crazy no matter what I do he will not stay out of there - but I guess it is better unseen under the bush than some place else. I was hoping to get more done but that thatching took longer than I expected and worked more muscles than I thought. What a workout! It is supposed to rain all day tomorrow so all indoor work I guess....

Thursday, March 26, 2009

More blooms and a bin!

I finally got around to getting a compost bin (I know, I know, as an organic gardener I should have had one years ago but just never got around to it). Thanks to New England Plastics and a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection the city of Medford is offering discounted bins to residents. So who am I to turn down a deal?!? The bin isn't exactly what I expected but it does hold/produce 24 cubic feet of compost so I guess all works out in the end. It was a DIY situation to get it together and the directions were pretty clear but they really should have stated right at the beginning that you need four hands or two people to assemble the sucker. Tom (you know my neighbor) helped me out putting it together and now I just need to stake it into the ground and load 'er up! And now since the city is cracking down on only taking yard waste on designated yard waste days (they used to take leaves and such in open barrels all the time) I have tons of brown matter to add and the way I go through fruits and veggies I produce enough green matter to make the perfect mix. And of course a picture will soon follow : )


As for the bloomers going on now in the yard this is a picture of my mini iris - Katherine Hodgkins. They are only 2" high but boy does the leftover greens grow high! These too have multiplied but only by two or three at each planting site. I am not a huge iris fan but I really like these ones. Unfortunately the blooms only last a week or so and then - poof - gone. But the early spring bloomers a quick to follow so all is not lost.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Asparagus has arrived!

And here is the first photo of my ten lovely Jersey Supremes:

Hard to believe that these suckers are going to become 20 year+ vegetable plants! My 50 strawberry plants showed up today too. I thought I ordered plants, but alas they are bare root too. Not even sure where I will put them all, but I am a sucker for a BOGO (buy one get one free) deal so fifty it is!
I did build the raised bed over the weekend and I thought it came out great, however the screws were not so happy in their new found home and promptly popped out of one side when all the compost and manure were added : ( Did I ever mention I suck at wood working?!?!
I just checked on the lettuce seeds that I planted indoors over the weekend to make sure they hadn't dried out and shockingly enough I already have one itsy bitsy seedling poking out! Of course like the overzealous gardner that I am I forgot to mark which peat pots are what so I have no idea if it is the Valamian (romaine) or Salad Bowl (loose leaf) - a surprise later on I guess.
Tomorrow is supposed to be a good 50+ degree day here so I am going to tackle that community garden.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

So much work to be done!


These two pictures show you what type of work I have in store for me. This is the yard of the abandoned house across the street that my neighbor and I have decided to make into a semi-community garden.
Most of the knee-high weeds were taken out prior to this picture and a very small amount of the leaves. There is so much more to do! We need to clear the whole area, till the soil, order compost (no one can make THATmuch, section it off, find and place walking paths - ugh - so much to do and so little time! The last frost will be here before I know it (typically May 5th around these parts). Oh and the size of the grubs I found in what little area I was in was amazing! Curled up they were the size of quarters - the local wild bird population will love me one I set those suckers loose!
On a separate note I built my raised bed for my asparagus yesterday. I realized that I am not the best with screws, drivers, drills and L-brackets. It looked ok to me but that friggin' thing fell apart today when I was adding in my compost and manure! Forget the screws - I am going straight to the old fashioned hammer and nail.
I also planted some spinach seeds in my window boxes as well as two different types of lettuce seeds indoors. It is only March and this New England weather can turn in a second. I thought about putting my boots away, or at least away from the back door, but figured I will wait till the last frost just to be safe : )

Saturday, March 14, 2009

The first 'official' sign of Spring


And there it is - my first crocus for 2009! Apparently the squirrels didn't get as many as I thought - though they did snack on quite a bit! I am hoping that some of the ones that survived are purple. Those are my favorite!

Sunday, March 8, 2009

How do geraniums bloom in the dark?

Now that is the question!?! Every year I dig out the geraniums, shake out the excess dirt and hang them upside down in my basement. For the past 5 years all has seemed normal. In the spring I take them outside and cut the dead branches until I reach live, green growth, put them back in their pots and watch them bloom all summer. What is going on with these geraniums?

You can see the new green shoots, some new leaves and of course blooms! They have not seen more than 1 hour of daylight since October, have had no water and they aren't growing in anything. Crazy I say!
Oh and speaking of crazy yesterday while out walking Max I saw a forsythia bush already in bloom! We had a foot of snow on Monday, yesterday it was 60 degrees - it's no wonder the plant world is in a state of confusion. Typically I put down my corn glutton when the forsythias bloom but that is hard to do when you still have several inches of melting snow covering the lawn.
I did notice this morning that the tulips are now coming up along with the daffodils/jonquils. There are a few crocuses peeping up too. I planted over 40 bulbs last fall but forgot to squirrel proof them with chicken wire so I lost the majority of them but thankfully the naturalize pretty quickly so all is not lost.
It is expected to be another 50+ degree day so hopefully the rest of the snow will melt and I can get back to the butterfly bush and hack it to the ground!

Monday, March 2, 2009

In Like a Lion!


So much for Spring coming! I bid a heartfelt RIP to my daffodils (or jonquils). We got pummeled overnight with over a foot of snow. The picture shows the view into my backyard from the porch. This is the lull in the storm. It is expected to snow again around 3pm. The snow had just melted out of my yard too! I was able to get to my garden yesterday to get exact measurements for the raised bed but I guess that won't be going in anytime soon!
Not sure what is going to happen to the sedum, dragon flowers and columbine that were experiencing new growth too. All because of this crazy weather! This photo was taken a few weeks ago at 7:30pm! Unheard of conditions in February in New England!