Author Archives: thesalemgarden

I love to garden, and blog about gardening, horticultural therapy and gardening adaptations and Salem Massachusetts!

What’s Happening in the Garden– Early Spring Sunday

We’re having a beautiful day here so I spent some time looking around in the garden. Of course, I can’t just look, nor should I. There’s stuff  to do!

The pea and bean trellis is just about ready, but the snow still lurks. Maybe I’ll shovel it away so that the ground can unfreeze and we can get some peas started. While I’m at it I might want to clean the old vines off of the trellis.

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I don’t think the Rosemary made it. I should have covered it, my fault. I’ll have to plant a new one soon.IMG_0377

The girls look happy. They don’t love snow and cold weather. It feels like they’ve finally relaxed and smiled. We even got six or seven eggs yesterday. IMG_0349 It’s still really muddy out there!IMG_0353What’s this? a big, beautiful sign that spring is really here! IMG_0362Maybe it’s time to plant some lettuce? You just need a trowel and some seeds (and the soil of course)…IMG_0363It’s in! First lettuce of the season! You can see the leftover salt marsh hay from last year. Pretty soon we’ll add compost and turn it all in thoroughly. In the meantime, it will be fine.
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Lettuce is very hearty and can be planted as soon as the ground can be worked, just like sweet peas, carrots, spinach and radishes.

Hope your able to get out there and plant  something! It just takes a little bit of seed and it’s a great activity to do with kids, although I must admit that my kids were scootering and I treated myself to a few minutes alone with the soil.

Happy Spring!

Enjoy Everything!

Michele

Re-blog– Salem Maritime’s 75th Anniversary Celebration and the Custom House, by Donna Segar at Streetsofsalem

I’m re-blogging this great post by Donna Seger about the 75th anniversary celebration (and the Custom house) that was held at Michael’s work on Sunday. It was a great day. There were quite a few staff alumni in attendance from as far away as northern Maine and Washington DC. We enjoyed seeing old friends and sharing cake and stories about this very special place. Thank you for the wonderful post Donna. The only downside is that I didn’t get to meet you. Maybe next time!

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This weekend marked the 75th anniversary of the Salem Maritime National Historic Site, the first federal heritage site (as opposed to national park) in the nation. On Sunday, a spectacularly clear and cold day, the staff of Salem Maritime presented a program of commemoration and appreciation which included lovely succinct speeches, cake, and the opportunity to wander around all of the site’s buildings at leisure. As usual, I was short on time (with a stack of midterms waiting at home), so I went straight for the Custom House (after my cake, of course), which I had not been inside for quite a while. In retrospect I wish I had had time for the Derby House as well, as it has recently been restored. But that’s alright, I can easily go back at another time–I live here.

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Salem has been a port of entry since 1649, so there…

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Potting Benches, Daffodils and Crocus…

The other day  my husband saw that I had posted this photo here.
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A few hours later I looked out there and saw this…
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LOL, he’s a really good guy. That’s all I can say.

In other news~

My favorite daffodils are about to bloom down on Palfrey Court. I’ve been following this patch for the last twenty four years. I know from experience that even if it snows tomorrow they will be just fine.IMG_0268

And we officially have crocus here at The Salem Garden!  Photo by my little guy!
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Happy Monday!

Enjoy Everything!

Michele

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Potting Bench Heaven

Do you have a potting bench or potting area? For many years I made due with whatever space I had. I remember keeping all of my potting equipment on the bulkhead steps of our old house and working on the sidewalk. Before that we lived above the West India Goods Store on Derby Street and my potting bench was a bucket with a few tools in it.  In this house I have a designated area. Unfortunately the winter has been rough and it now looks like this:

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Poor thing, I think it’s  time to clear away the wood and sleds.

I spent some time in potting bench heaven (also known as Pinterest and Houzze) to help inspire me to freshen it up.

You all know how much I love Houzze.

Check these out:

What a great sink and pretty shade of blue…

Between Naps on the Porch traditional-landscape

These watering cans look familiar and using the plate racks to store the saucers is really creative. The baskets and stool are functional and beautiful.

Gardens and Terrace shabby-chic-style-deck

Pinterest has some great ideas as well:

Here’s a very cute and functional use of a garden gate

 

This one reminds me a little bit of my bench. I like the pegboard and the green stain on the doors. I think a little green stain would really dress mine up.

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The chalkboards are an excellent idea! I’m a list person, so having a list of the day’s or week’s tasks and events would be wonderful.

I think the white wicker shelf might have been a headboard. Awesome!

Source: hometalk.com via Michele on Pinterest

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Great use of a hoosier cabinet!  I have one of these tucked away in our basement. We use it for seasonal storage, winter hats and stuff, then summer toys when it’s warmer. It’s almost time to change it over.

Source: bhg.com via Michele on Pinterest

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And finally, carved from stone? Wow…

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Check out my pinterest garden ideas board for a few more great benches. I’m sure that I’ll continue to add there!

My work is never done 😉

Enjoy everything!

Michele

Here’s a post from my dear friend Joy. She’s trying to identify the plant with the pretty red leaves. Can any of my southern gardening friends tell us what that is? I don’t think I’ve see it here in the northeast.

The Ducks Are Here!

I thought that I heard them early yesterday morning when I was finishing my post about the garden plan.  This morning I snuck bravely down there into snake territory to check for sure. The ground is still frozen so I knew that I wouldn’t be too likely to step on anything :). Mr and Mrs Mallard seemed happy to be home.  They were looking around and talking about finding the perfect spot for their nest. We’ll enjoy them and their new babies from now until July, at least. We love our beautiful mallard family.IMG_0226

As far as I’m concerned spring is here!  This seals the deal~

Enjoy Everything!

Michele

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Here Comes the Garden Plan!

One of my very favorite things about winter is thinking about the garden plan.  Yesterday I spent some time poking around the internet looking at planning websites and found this great service at Motherearthnews.com. For a thirty day free trial ($25/year after the thirty days),  you can design your space using lots of cool features.  The site uploads a plant list for your climate, then you can determine your square footage and add all of the beds, structures and plants that you’d like. Whenever your ready you can share it, publish it, view it on your phone and/or print it.  The tutorials that are available helped me to get started and before I knew it I had created this complete map of my kitchen garden.

Here is the link to the vegetable garden planner which I happened upon by simply googling “garden plan.”  Somehow it’s a little tricky to get there from the main Mother Earth News website.  Just a side note about the Mother Earth News web site;  that’s a wonderful resource too! There’s lots of great information about gardening, sustainable living and health. I could spend days just reading and gathering ideas there.   Here’s the link  to the plan above that Mother Earth News publishes on-line. You’ll see the plant list that comes with it just below the plan. I believe that Mother Earth even sends you e-mails telling when to plant things.

As I finish typing I can hear the ducks down in the pond for the first time this year.  Spring really is right around the corner!

If you create a garden plan, let me know, and I’ll share here on The Salem Garden!

Enjoy everything!

Michele

***Just so you know, this is not a paid endorsement, I have no connection to Mother Earth News, I just liked it  😉  ***

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Who’d Have Thought I’d Become An Adaptive Gardening Specialist?

I’m sorry that I’ve been absent from The Salem Garden all week. Sometimes life gets in the way and I have to step back and take care of things. We are in a pretty big adjustment period here because last week I began a part-time paid position as an adaptive gardening specialist! Yes, I can now combine my passion for gardening and my love of and past experience in working with adults with developmental disabilities. The agency that I work for provides opportunities for the men and women whom we serve to work and to broaden their life experience in a huge variety of ways.  We have an amazing garden on the rooftop of our building (hmm, did I talk about rooftop gardens recently?  😉  ) and we will have lots of things growing at ground level for those who can’t get up to the roof. I believe that gardening is therapeutic and educational on every level. I’m looking forward to using that approach to help others develop an appreciation for nature and their food supply, along with self-esteem, patience, hope, the list goes on and on. Needless to say I’m really excited to be there!  I have so much to learn and I hope to share a few parts of my journey here. A special note from a blogger’s perspective is that my blog served as a sort of resume for my new employer. Reading it gave my supervisor a way to look at my work and see how I might fit in to the program. When I started The Salem Garden last May I never dreamed that it would help me in this way. You never know where your blog may lead you. Keep blogging! Good things will happen!

With lots of love from very snowy Salem,

Michele