gardening and enjoying life in Salem, Massachusetts
Hi everyone! We are in the middle of a beautiful spring here in Salem and I thought I’d share a few photos of our garden. I hope to blog more consistently this year. Please leave a comment and say hi if you’re here. I’d love to know who’s stopping by, and your energy will inspire me to post more often.
Wishing all of you peace, love and a moment of reflection and gratitude this Memorial Day, as we remember those who have sacrificed so much.
Love, Michele
Hey everyone! It looks like I’m a one post a week blogger at the moment. It’s fall and I’m all over the place…I know I keep saying that life is busy, but, really, it is. To add to it Halloween in Salem starts on Thursday night with our Halloween parade. I love the localness of that event. It’s really “our” Halloween as a city. From that point on we give the rest of the celebration over to the visitors. That’s fine with me, it makes money and people have a blast! Let me know if your going to be in town in October, I’d love to meet you!
Okay, so, here’s the Salem Garden this morning. 
It’s beautiful out there today. The summer garden is winding down but the fall garden has it’s own special character and charm.
I think I said this a few weeks ago— I love these Romano beans.
The swiss chard is doing okay. I should spend some time weeding and trimming so the center leaves can produce. See my little asian cucumber hiding in the back?
Here it is up close, we’ve eaten some and there are several growing. Not bad for an early August afterthought. I think there will be more of these next year.
Broccoli and lettuce are perking along too. I really believe that the broccoli is all about the chicken manure… that’s it. If you don’t have some available it’s very easy to purchase. Just read the labels at your favorite garden supply store and you’ll find it easily.
A broccoli flower that actually looks like broccoli! Will there be more? Time will tell…
These need to be picked and cooked or frozen today. I wish I was a canner…
We have five or six happy Brussel sprout plants. My Uncle Ossie says that they sweeten up when the frost hits them.
What do you think about this bit of browning on the bottom of the stalk? Anyone? Miss Betsey, you may have a thought here. I’m hoping it’s okay.
Tomatillos… hundreds of them… salsa verde here we come!
And the leaves on the trees are just starting to turn. It’s going to be a pretty few weeks here in Salem. I hope I can share some of that with you.
So there we are. Thanks for hanging in with me and for stopping by. Let me know how your garden is growing, I love, love, love your comments!
Enjoy everything!
Michele
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
Good Morning! Happy Sunday! The sun is out and I’m ready to rock and roll out in the garden this morning! We’ve had pretty crazy weather here in Salem, Massachusetts. It’s often been sunny out, but then it rains. Then it rains torrentially, then the sun comes out. Then we have a thunderstorm. Then it’s sunny. It’s been pretty weird.
Since we’ve had so much rain we have lots of fungi scattered everywhere. This grass was freshly cut yesterday afternoon and by this morning this guy (and several of his friends) had appeared.
Down in the garden, the staked tomatoes are staked. I’m going to do a bit more pruning today. I’m taking away the bottom branches in hopes of keeping the diseases off of the plants. I wish I’d done a ground cover. If I find salt marsh hay in my travels today I may still add some in around these plants.
Good morning girls! 
Tomatillo, that I started from seed. They were spindly, sad seedlings and I thought that they were a lost cause but I plunked them in anyway and here we are. I think I’ll spread them out a bit and see what we get. 
We have tomatoes! This is “mortgage lifter.” Their said to reach three pounds and taste wonderful. I’m very excited about these! Notice the little velcro ties? I’ve never seen these before so I thought I’d give them a try. So far so good. 
The brussel sprouts look happy…
as do the shallots.
And another sweetie tomato seedling that I’d given up for lost. Plants are more resilient than we think sometimes!
Cabbage, with cosmos for color…. Someone thought the cosmos were a weed yesterday, lol. He put them back. 
More fungi… at first glance I thought that this was one of my long, skinny friends with a stripe on it’s back. I was pretty happy when I realized that it wasn’t.
Cauliflower is flowering. I’ve never grown cauliflower before and we love to eat it!
Bush beans are coming along nicely.
The snapdragons self seeded to help light up the chicken coop steps. 
The peas did their thing… they climbed in spite of the wind and rain!
Horseradish…
Banana Pepper..
Bee Balm ready to flower…
and a greeting by the shyest cat in the world when I came back inside. See, family and friends, Mittens does exist… just a few of us ever see her.
Time to get out there! There’s weeding to do!
Enjoy everything!
Love, Michele
We’re rolling right along out there! The impending heat today was a great incentive to get things deeply planted and watered yesterday. It finally feels like summer is here in Salem!
The potatoes are coming right along. I’ve been adding soil to these as they grow. This pot is full (I hope) of early red potatoes. I’m a little worried about that Japanese Maple. There are tiny buds but no leaves at all yet. It seems a little late?
These are newly planted (last week) Adirondack Blue potatoes.
I’ve been working on pots and containers in preparation for our high school graduation visitors next weekend. Hopefully this will fill in in the next few days.
Tomatoes are in! We went for a large variety this year. I’ll have to do a separate post on that sometime soon.
Peppers, cabbage, brussel sprouts and shallots. Please notice the complete lack of perfection here. I just don’t allow myself to get bogged down by that. I would never get anything done.
Lettuce, cauliflower and bush beans planted at the end.
One lonely zucchini plant can grow into the space currently used by the lettuce. I had such horrible squash bugs last year that I swore “no zucchini”. Of course there is a tiny bit of zucchini.
The chicken coop window box is in!
Sweet peas are creeping up beautifully.
And we have iris!!
This is a German iris. 
And of course, siberian.
Maybe there is just a little bit of perfection out there, but not because of me!
Enjoy everything!
Love, Michele
The Salem Garden 