thesalemgarden

It All Began With Children…

…reads the sign describing the creation of this beautiful new carousel on the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston. I love the Greenway. It’s green space full of fountains and sculpture that recently took the place of a very ugly highway that cut right through the city.
This carousel is a wonderful addition to the park.

Where else can you ride on a lobster
or on Peter Rabbit

or sit next to a harbor seal?

We loved it!

Dad still rides the carousel wherever we go. He’s been riding for many, many years!

The artistic work is amazing..

and fun

and whimsical.

We have whales here…

falcons

and sea turtles…

I had a funny flash forward as I watched my family enjoy this and imagined that some day we would be watching our grandchildren ride…I think I need help, lol.

You’ll find the carousel just around the corner from the New England Aquarium… Salem Residents, don’t forget that the aquarium is free to us this month. If the aquarium is too crowded (as it was for us last Sunday) the carousel is a great substitute, or you can easily make it to both.

Enjoy everything!

Michele

Carousel Opens In Downtown Boston’s Rose Kennedy Greenway (boston.cbslocal.com)

A Cauliflower Question

WARNING… this is not a pretty post!

If you can’t handle some serious ugliness run while you can!

Don’t look any further!

Just move on to the next blog (but please come back here tomorrow)…

I’m sorry, but I can’t help it.

I have to share the good, the bad and the ugly.

Here we go….

not so great cauliflower…

cauliflower in total ruin
Yikes!

Yuck!

And my one relatively happy plant, which I just harvested. It smells great, looks great… this will be dinner.

What happened to the rest of them?

A few weeks ago they seemed to be coming along nicely.

What do you cauliflower growers think?

Recommendations, comments, ideas, thoughts, anything…

Help me become a better cauliflower grower!

Thanks for hanging in here with me and Happy Labor Day!

Love, Michele

The Quickest Peek Ever at the Culinary Institute of America

We were driving through New York state a few weeks ago and decided to stop and check out the CIA. In my mind we were going to quickly view the campus and maybe get something to eat in one of their famous restaurants. We stopped in the admissions office to find out that we had hit the jackpot. It was an information session day for prospective students. Before we knew it we had watched the video, listened to the admissions officer describe all of the features of the school and we were on a guided tour. Some of us were still technically wearing pajamas (not me or the prospective student, thank goodness) but we just went with it. I did manage to take a few quick photos as we looked around.
This fountain is in the center of the campus and looks down over the Hudson river. I think that’s the shadow of a chef on the left? I didn’t really see it until I was looking at this photo at home.

Here I’m looking up at Roth Hall which seems to be the main building on the campus. Several of the restaurants are located here, along with the majority of the classrooms. Needless to say, I loved the planters that held mixtures of vegetables and flowers.There were strawberries..and tomatoes

and eggplants mixed in.
This is their Italian restaurant where reservations are required two months in advance. I would have loved to have seen the interior but it wasn’t part of the tour and I’ve learned to keep a low profile when school shopping with high school students.

Here’s the herb garden behind Caterina de Medici. We didn’t have time to walk down there. If we had, I would have spent an hour taking pictures and my family knew it so they dragged me back to the car ;).

I did catch a glimpse of a student/chef harvesting herbs for dinner.

This fountain/garden area is near the student rec center. The campus is beautiful!

They hid parking garages so creatively. This is tucked under the fountain and conveniently close to all of the restaurants.

Of course we saw a sample dorm room and I had to take a photo in case we need it for future reference. This is my only interior shot as the school asked us not to take photos of the students. I was quite careful but next time we visit I’ll be in blogger mode and there will be photos of restaurants, hallways and bookstores for sure!

In the meantime we’ll just enjoy the view.

It was a fun, impromptu stop that certainly shortened our trip from the Poconos to Salem.

Enjoy your weekend! Hope your in the garden!

Michele

Transplanting in Progress

From here

to here

I hope that all of the lessons that you learned in The Salem Garden will help you in your new garden.

We love you sweetie! Fly like an eagle!

Love, Mom

Sunday Morning In Cape May

Here’s old Cape May on a beautiful Sunday Morning. At this time two weeks ago, after a very decadent breakfast that included things like Red Velvet Pancakes with Cream Cheese topping, I wandered in the streets with my dear friends, taking pictures and enjoying beautiful views everywhere. I thought about dividing the photos and sharing by categories but there were so many crossovers that I decided to just put them into a quick and easy slideshow for you to enjoy with your coffee or tea. Cape May is always one of my favorite places to visit. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! Happy Sunday! xoxo Michele

ps/ as always, click on any image to view them as a slideshow (my favorite way of looking at photos).

Cruising with the Sun and the Moon

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset cruise in Salem Harbor a few nights ago on the Hannah Glover. I remember putting my older kids on this boat one morning in the middle of a thunderstorm because they were going out to the Y camp on Children’s Island. It sure looks different when your cruising along enjoying great food and cocktails while watching the sun set and the moon rise. Thanks Salem Trolley, for a very enjoyable evening!

The Changing Face of Salem! (5 new building projects and more) (saturdaysocks.com)

What’s Happening in the Garden-August 18

Well, what’s happening is that there are highs and lows out there. I love coming home from vacation at this point in the season because I never know what I’ll find. That first or second look around the garden is really fun and interesting, and sometimes a little bit upsetting, but thats okay.

The echinacea and rudbeckia are at their height. I really need to thin them out this fall to make room for other plants. I’m pretty sure that if you look back a year you heard me saying this. Local friends, please comment if you want some!

We have a nice little harvest of shallots to enjoy considering that I planted just two tiny rows of bulbs.
I love the purple coneflower…

and the rudbeckia/black-eyed susan.

Michael spent some time clearing out the butterfly garden weeds yesterday and discovered this clump of foxglove trying to bloom.

Swiss chard isn’t looking so good. Could be bunnies or deer?

My daughter took this photo last week on her phone. It’s right at the bottom of the hill. He’s a beautiful guy but I’m living in the the “deer are eating the swiss chard” camp at the moment.
The volunteer tomato plants in the asparagus bed are in better shape than the planned plants… sigh.

My camera strap and I are waiting for the broccoli to form florets.
The brussel sprouts are sprouting.

The asian cucumber plants look happy.

I think it’s beautiful.
Here’s what remains of my poor little zucchini plant. I really need to give up my dream and let this go.

Lettuce is coming along again, ready for the cool days.

This is broom corn. The seeds were sent by my blogging friend Brenda, The Blonde Gardener when she gave some away to readers in the spring.

It’s what brooms are made from. I think it’s really cool!

We may have a few beets coming along. They are hanging in there!

The romano beans are taking off but something is eating those leaves. What do you all think? Help me figure this out garden bloggers!
Cosmos

Cosmos

and more cosmos. I’ve enjoyed these this year. Every year I’m surprised by something that I didn’t really plan. I love that part of the garden!

Tomatoes and blight, and blight and tomatoes. Come on and turn red guys!

Notice the cucumber beetles? They always love this plant. I’m considering this to be organic pest control at it’s best. The asian cucs are already resistant to the beetles but I haven’t seen a single one over there.
This guy hangs on the fence and keeps and eye on everything. I should put the lights on for him.

How’s your garden growing?

Enjoy everything!

Michele

In Praise of Swiss Chard (jklauck.org)

My Beach, Gingerbread, Philly, Bear, Pretzels, Chicks and CIA Vacation

Okay, so here’s the thing; I have a really hard time blogging about gardening when I have other things on my mind, things like my vacation. So I have to write this post and fill you in so I can move on with my life sometime tomorrow, maybe after the ten loads of laundry are folded and this post is published. If your bored please feel free to stop now, click off, come back next week, whatever works for you. I completely understand. If you can just bear with me we’ll be all set and back to the tomatoes before you know it.

It started with a quick plane ride (all by myself), then real Philly cheesesteaks with some of my bffs and my college roomies’ beautiful new yard..This is peace and tranquility. There are no children living in this house or in this yard. They are all grown up and it was very, very quiet here. I took a nice walk in the garden, out past the Willow tree. A little while later Room’s (do you call your college roommate Room? Room and I do) husband showed us a photo of a five foot long black snake that he had removed from their deck a few minutes earlier. I took a few photos from the deck. Mr Snake was probably watching me do that. You know how I love snakes. I was watching for them too. Sorry, I can’t help it, moving back to the vacation…

We completely surprised another roommate for her birthday (a gift from her amazing husband) and enjoyed a Cape May weekend full of relaxing beach time and the kind of conversation that you only have with your college roommates who have known you forever and beyond. It was a really, really, really (really) … fun weekend. I love those ladies, there’s no one else like them!
Cape May is known worldwide for it’s awesome gingerbread trim. I absolutely love awesome gingerbread trim.
Then I went back to Philadelphia where I had even more fun, this time with my wonderful sister and my niece.
She very kindly took me all the way up to the Pocono Mountains to meet up with my family and this big bear that traipsed through my mom’s yard. I looked out the kitchen window and he looked back at me. The photo credit goes to my quick thinking littlest girl who grabbed her Dad’s phone and took this picture.

This one was taken by my little guy with his ipod.
He hopped up on the big rock to the left then walked through the spot where I grew my very first garden, right where that white grass grows now. This happened on my little guy’s eleventh birthday. Needless to say it made his day!
We all enjoyed a visit with the Callie’s Pretzel Factory guy…
and a mother hen and her chicks, and some school shopping. No photo needed for that, you all know what school shopping looks like.
We made a quick stop at the the Culinary Institute on our way home to Salem. This just might be my oldest daughter’s next educational environment.
The view from this school is spectacular and the gardens are beautiful too. Stay tuned for more about that next week.

We came home last night to lots of tomatoes (I told you we’d get back to the tomatoes)

and a very happy Winnie!

More Cape May and CIA coming soon! Gardens, more gardens, porches and gingerbread!

Whew, I think I’m back! Can’t wait to read my favorite blogs and catch up!

Thank you all! Enjoy Everything!

Michele

Here’s My View This Morning

Just a quick, tiny postcard from Cape May, New Jersey! I’m at the beach with my college roommates! Enjoying everything! Love to you all! Michele

What’s Happening In the Garden- August 7

Let’s see, where to start…After lots of rain early on the weather has been beautiful for the past couple of days. We’ve had a few perfect garden days. I love, love, love those days!

Here’s one of our very recent freecycle finds! I’m pretty excited about this. We’re hoping to collect rain from the roof of the chicken coop to water with. That should save some time and money!

The tomatoes are coming along slowly. I’m hearing a lot about “lots of foliage but no tomatoes” from friends and family. I think the heavy rain we had early in the summer is to blame. In spite of my efforts I have a good amount of blight out there and I think it’s largely caused by the rain bouncing the fungus right up on to the plants from the ground. Does that make sense?

Tomatillos… they are just so darned cute! Now I have figure out how to eat them.

Cosmos above the Brussel sprouts…a nice pop of color but their out of control!

A few peppers… we’ll see. Their kind of a late August crop.

The cabbage is coming along too. It’s slightly shaded by the cosmos so I keep moving them (the cosmos) to other areas. This cabbage has been munched on a little bit. I probably need to put some slug traps out there.

I planted a little bit of swiss chard over the weekend. It’s so pretty! I hope it settles in and takes off.

Here we have asian cucumber, with chard to the right, a sad little zucchini plant tucked in and cauliflower right behind it.I haven’t had luck with zucchini here or at work this year. The squash borers were hard at work everywhere.

Dill in the foreground (the dill volunteers all over the yard) with relocated cosmos and some romano beans coming up in front of the fence. The beets in the bacdground may become beets after all. I wasn’t sure a few weeks ago but their looking okay.

Shallots are curing… I need to store them in a cool dry place. Their a bit smaller than I expected but after researching it I think that may just be the variety.

Eggplant… well… I don’t know… I think it needed more sun. To be honest we don’t really like it so it’s not a huge loss. I think the garden knoll is enjoying it though.

I’ve been pretty distracted this summer so I feel some loss about the garden. Part of the problem is my tendency to sit on this deck and enjoy the view 😉

I’m okay with that.

Enjoy everything!

Michele

This Week In My Garden : : August 1 (beautythatmoves.typepad.com)
swiss Chard benefits – 6 healthy benefits (amiretkhadra.wordpress.com)

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