gardening and enjoying life in Salem, Massachusetts
Happy Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day! Here’s a quick peek at a few things that are blooming around here.
Happy Father’s Day Mr Mallard!
And Happy Father’s Day to our great Dad too!
Check out blooms all over the world on May Dreams Gardens by clicking right here!
Heading off for a hike with Dad, and maybe some lobster for lunch!
Michele
So, there’s good news and bad news around here. I’ll start with the bad news first and get it over with.
It’s actually really bad, as in, “a coyote killed four of our baby chicks in a few minutes” kind of bad. Michael and I miscommunicated about the meaning of “the chickens are all set” last Sunday night. He left for a work trip right after dark and when he said that they were all set I thought that meant locked up for the night so I never checked them. At 5:00 Monday morning I heard lots of chicken noise so I ran down there to see what was up. I found my neighbor out behind the coop having just scared the coyote away a few seconds before I arrived. It was horrible. The coyote killed three of our chicks instantly and a fourth disappeared. Two survived, both wyandottes. I can’t help but think that it might say something about the hardiness of the breed. One walked out of the woods shortly after the attack and we found the other sheltering in place up the street behind the stop sign. Anyway, I’m now calling these two Silver and Gold because they truly are precious.
The good news in our pet population is that this little sweetie pie is staying. We’ve named her Tucker, and she is the cutest, friendliest bunny ever! Tucker really helped to ease our pain last week after the chicken disaster.
Other good news is that I finally planted out this herb garden this morning. I know it doesn’t look like much now but just you wait! There’s a lot of plant material just below the surface burrowing in and getting ready to grow. This was a very economical project as the only money that we spent was for compost and a few annuals that I had around and added to brighten things up.
Here’s the same space a few months ago.
The borders are coming in to bloom. They need to be weeded again.
The peas are starting to flower a little and there’s watermelon, cantaloupe and pumpkin seedlings in front of them.
We have some happy cucumber seedlings and some that need to be replaced. I think the cold weather got to them last week. It’s been unbelievably cold. I have new seedlings cooking in the basement that I’ll plant in those hills.
I also started fall crops inside over the past few days… broccoli, swiss chard and brussel sprouts. Just ten plants of each, that’s enough for us.
In spite of the cold, the tomatoes have settled in quite well. I think that their about to take off.
As has the zucchini. The kale loves the cold, along with the mesclun, and the peppers and onions don’t mind too much. It looks like it’s time to weed and pull out rocks again.
The window box still needs to be planted.
And the butterfly garden could use some attention.
It won’t look like this for long… just a few weeks and these beds will be full!
So we’ve had our ups and downs around here. Between the chicken loss and the crazy weather it’s been kind of sad. I’m in the habit of going out to the garden very early in the morning so that we have family time in the middle of the day. The kids enjoy the garden and they help a lot but we don’t want them growing up to resent the time we spend out there.
We’re always adjusting, trying new things, making it work…
And sometimes I can sleep on the beach!
How’s your garden growing? Let me know!
Love, Michele
Good Morning! Happy Saturday and Happy Planting Day! Yes, I’m using upper case letters because in my world Planting Day is an official holiday. It’s really Planting Weekend around here.
We have some pots to deal with. Winnie and I can’t wait!
The marigold seedlings can’t wait either. Their ready to move in to their new homes.
I have to give us a little pat on the back because we made headway on borders like this over the past week. There’s still a lot to do but it’s getting there.
Talk to me about the blueberry bushes. We planted two of these last fall and I dare say their looking good. For relatively new, small bushes they have lots of flowers that appear to be turning into berries. Should we cover them? Will the birds eat them? Anyone?
We’re eating plenty of asparagus now. My whole family enjoys asparagus. I think that’s because the kids grew up as it was becoming established and Michael and I were so thrilled with every stalk we served when they were younger.
This black australorp is sitting because her leg hurts and she’s not using it. We’ve treated her in every way possible and she’s still hopping on one leg, but she’s laying eggs, eating and seems quite happy. It’s a watch and wait situation.
Michael found a bag of yellow onion sets blowing around in the street downtown and brought them home, so now we’ll have yellow onions this year.
The red onions are cooking right along.
As is the lettuce which could be thinned out. The one advantage of a very cool spring is a nice crop of lettuce.
Kale… I bought these seedlings at the Salem High School plant sale a few weeks ago, which was a fun event!
The sweet peas are going to start climbing the fence any second now.
It’s almost time for iris!!!
And check out this awesome gardening basket that I won at the Salem Beautification Committee’s plant sale last Sunday. I never win anything. It was a great sale and a nice surprise!
The official out in the garden season is off to a pretty good start!
Plant, plant, plant!
Hope your in the garden today!
Love, Michele
I really am! This appears to be my breakthrough year in the seed starting world. I think I got it and I love it! The time that I spent this winter reading and researching really seems to be paying off. I have quite a few plants ready for the garden now and there are more coming. Next year, look out, those seed companies won’t know what hit them! Did I mention that I finally got it and that it’s fun?
Okay, enough… here’s what I have at the moment:
This is my seed starting set-up. It’s simple; two shop lights with one fluorescent and one plant bulb in each. Next year I’m hoping to add a third light in the middle so that the entire table is covered. I used the plant bulbs here at home, but at Bass River (work) I used one cool white and one warm white bulb. The seeds did very well there but I do see a faster growth rate and a sturdier plant with the plant bulb. The idea is to create light that mimics the light outdoors and the plant bulb is much brighter which is ideal for seedlings that would thrive in full sun.
These cantaloupe and watermelon seeds emerged from their bags (you can read about my handy dandy bag system here) the other day. They’ve been living in soil for two days and their well on their way.
This is cumin and purple alyssum. I have a love/hate relationship with these jiffy pots. They dry out quickly and I need to keep a very close eye on them. Actually, keeping a close eye is very helpful to new seedlings, peat pot or not.
The cilantro on the left is organic slow bolt, and the pots on the right are coriandrum sativum… there’s kind of a big difference in success rate so far.
We’ll have three varieties of basil this year; Genovese in the back, Red Rubin in the middle and Siam Queen in the foreground.
I started a little bit of summer squash in a jar a few days ago, planted it in the soil last night and I think they’ll be ready for the garden by the end of this coming week. I have some new ideas to help deal with the squash bugs this year so I caved and planted zucchini, even though I swore I’d take the year off after last year’s difficulties.
Up in my office the marigolds are showing their second set of leaves. I’m probably moving them outside later today to maximize the light and good air circulation.
These pumpkins and cucumbers from a few weeks ago need to be planted out asap. The weather looks pretty good so they should be in by Monday.
If I could go back several weeks, I would have transplanted these tomatoes into larger containers. I think/hope the yellow at the bottom is because they need more root space. Looks like it’s time for these to hit the garden too.
As you can see I have a lot more to do. The carrots need to be direct seeded, the beans will follow the peas that are growing, and the squash will probably be quick started then planted outside in the next week or two. I think I missed the window for growing peppers. What should we do? Start them indoors now anyway, direct sow or buy some plants?
My little girl started these seeds all by herself.
This is the best motivation in the world to share the garden with my kids, and with all of you. 🙂
Hope you plant something today!
Love, Michele
Last night after our lovely Mother’s Day dinner in the garden, our first this year, we played a little bit of soccer. I’m an absolutely wonderful player and I really think that the reason my team won was because of the way I screamed and covered my head every time the ball came toward me. I’m a little sore today because I played so hard and so well!
While we were out there I was struck by the amount of white in the garden. Usually by Mother’s Day the crabapple trees are blooming but this year we’re several weeks behind so I spent a good part of the day missing the beautiful shades of pink that I typically enjoy while I work outside on Mother’s Day. As it got a little darker last night the white started to glow and I was completely caught up in how special it was.
I tried to take photos last night but it got dark very quickly so my photos had kind of an evil look like this
and this.
I tend to live in the light so this morning I went back out hoping to capture some of the glow.
The white garden of this week really is beautiful in it’s own way.
I hope that you won your game too and had a great Mother’s Day!
Love, Michele
Mother’s Day is tomorrow and the scramble is on! What to get, what to give, what to do with Mom for Mother’s Day?
Around here Mother’s Day has been about the garden since my kids were tiny. I love getting a few plants and then having a few hours to myself to plant them on Mother’s Day.
Here’s some of my favorite garden related Mother’s Day gifts:
A special shrub or tree… this black pussy willow was a gift from Michael and the kids on our first Mother’s Day in this house. I love it more every year.
Some lovely gloves, boots and tools. If your Mom isn’t a hardcore gardener a pretty fork and spade may be just enough to keep the garden looking great and for her to enjoy it in style.
A nice collection of herbs. Herbs are generally very easy to grow. Their also appealing to the senses and come in handy to add to favorite dishes, scent a room or drawer, or to cut and enjoy in a vase. You can’t go wrong with a collection of herbs.
A hanging basket for a doorway. There are so many beautiful choices available this weekend and Mom will smile every time she walks by it. If you want to make some “I will water your hanging plant on a day of your choice” coupons to include with the basket, your Mom will be even happier.
Okay, you knew it was coming… my very favorite compost maker! If your Mom keeps talking about wanting to make compost, this compost tumbler may be the perfect gift for her. You may remember that we use it at work and I love this compost maker. I blogged about it here at Christmas time too! I don’t have one at home and I’d be very pleased to see one all set up and ready to go tomorrow morning… hint, hint… (don’t worry they don’t read my blog)
If your Mom is into Pandora bracelets and gardening she’ll love these pretty Pandora charms. What mom who collects Pandora doesn’t enjoy a new charm?
These botanical prints from Ikea are just a few dollars and really brighten up a room. I bought them a few weeks ago and in my state of Ikea bliss I forgot to get the frames that I intended to put them in. Their actually quite pretty propped on the windowsill and now I have a reason for yet another road trip to Ikea to pick up the frames.
Here’s my Mother’s Day gift to myself this year. This is a corkscrew rush, also known as the beginning of the pond that I’m going to create for our deck this year. There will definitely be more to come on that soon 😉
These material gifts may make your mother smile and feel loved, but I think that the best gifts of all are time with family and some time in the garden. I hope that all of my blogging friends get a little bit of those things tomorrow.
Wishing all of you a very Happy Mother’s Day!
Michele
The other day I blogged about the fun I’ve had this year with growing tomatoes. I’ve been in kind of the same mode with cucumbers (and pumpkins, and squash, and peppers, and several varieties of flowers). There’s a background story to my seed starting obsession that I have to share. In February one of the women who I work with in my job as an adaptive gardening specialist at Bass River approached me with a package of cucumber seeds that were dated 2011 and asked if we could grow them. I thought that starting them successfully was a long shot but I also saw the challenge as a chance for a fun learning opportunity. We decided to plant some of the seeds in pots of seed starting mix, and to try to germinate another group on a damp paper towel in a jar. Within a few days we had a jar full of cucumber sprouts that were flourishing. The seeds planted in the soil never did germinate, not one. We transplanted the sprouts to a container of soil and now we have little cucumbers growing on a trellis in a sunny window. So, we concluded that a little bit of humidity goes a long way in sprouting seeds and even older seeds might respond to this special treatment. I’ve been reading a lot about adding humidity to help the germination process and I brought the idea here to my home garden. I’m growing all kinds of things in plastic bags and jars!
Here’s a step by step description of my easy foolproof way to grow cucumber seedlings:
I start with a paper towel, a clean jar with a lid, a water spray bottle, some tape and a package of seeds.
I dampen the paper towel and spread the seeds evenly over it.
Roll it up gently…
and place it in the jar and close the lid.
Then I mark it with a sharpie or as in this case I tape the seed package to the jar. I did this on April 25th, remember that date!
Here’s what I found when I took them out on April 29th. These are a little bit overgrown, they could have come out of the jar on the 28th or even the 27th.
I gently placed well moistened seed starting mix in cups with a hole punched on the bottom… I don’t usually use paper cups but I had these on hand and the seeds needed to be transplanted right away.
I dug a little hole and placed a seedling in each container with the root facing down,
and just barely covered it with soil.
I put the cups under the grow light,
and here they are on May 3rd. The first leaves are sprouting and the second set is close behind!
They would be ready to go out in a few days if our last frost date were closer. Unfortunately it’s not quite time for tender plants to be planted outside here on the New England coast. I’ll move them out from under the light when they get a little bigger and keep them in a sunny window for a few weeks. When transplant time is close I’ll put them outside in a protected spot for the daytime hours for several days to harden them off (help them get used to outside temps) before I plant them in the garden.
Just to summarize the dates; I started them on April 25th and eight days later their well on their way. That makes the turnaround time from putting them in the jar to being garden ready about 12-14 days.
Guess what that means? You have plenty of time to do this! And it’s easy, and I dare say it’s fun!
I hope that you get some seeds started soon!
Remember, you can grow that!
Michele
“You Can Grow That” is a website hosted by garden blogger and author C.L Fornari which was created to widely share the message that plants and gardening enhance our quality of life. On the fourth of each month garden bloggers participate by publishing a “You Can Grow That” post. The hope is to create a national conversation about the benefits of gardening and to encourage people everywhere to participate in and experience all of the joy that the garden brings. Be sure to visit the “You Can Grow That” website to learn more about this wonderful effort and to find links to other bloggers’ posts.
It’s truly a miracle!
Happy Friday!
Michele
I’ve really gotten in to starting seeds this year. I have three varieties of tomatoes growing (Rutgers, Matina and Supersweet 100) and I think it’s safe to say that their doing quite well. I spent a lot of time reading about seeds over the winter so I’ve approached the project from a different knowledge base this year.
I’ve made a few simple adjustments:
–I started the seeds on damp towels in sealed plastic bags and planted them in seed starting mix as soon as they germinated. This is one of my new favorite approaches with seeds of all kinds. When I visited my friend Betsey (the onion lady) in January she showed me that her husband often starts “harder to germinate” seeds in plastic bags. I’ve also experimented with forcing germination at work lately with great success. Betsey recommended a blog called Tomato Dirt and as I read over their many tips for growing tomatoes from seed, I’ll be darned, this method was mentioned again. I tried it and the extra humidity got things going and before I knew it I had beautiful seedlings that had been transplanted into potting soil.
–I’ve kept the lights very close to the plants, about two inches above the tops of the seedlings. This keeps them from getting leggy and encourages them to grow stronger and sideways, rather than upward and spindly.
–I’ve brushed them gently with my hand once a day which also encourages a stronger, stockier plant.
–The lights are on a timer, twelve hours on, twelve hours off.
–I used one florescent bulb and one plant bulb in a regular shop light.
–I water from below encouraging strong root formation.
–I used seed starter containing vermiculite to encourage root formation.
–I talk to them, love them and spend time with them as I work on other projects.
I’d be growing well too if I were these tomatoes!
Here they are today. I’m thinking about moving them away from the lights and up to my sunny office, maybe even into larger pots.
Are you growing tomatoes this year? How’s it going? Share your tips in the comments!
and of course, enjoy everything!
Michele
The Salem Garden 