gardening – Page 10 – The Salem Garden

Before We Know It…

This…

will become this.

And this…

will become this.

It will only take seven months and one day to happen.

But who’s counting?

Enjoy Everything!

Michele

What’s Happening In the Garden– September 30

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

Process or Product?— I’m a Process Gardener

I’m sorry, I’ve been away, lost in the realm of back to school routines and commitments that make me run (sometimes literally) from 6 am to 9pm most days. I need to get back to my blog so I’m going to jump right in and just talk about what I’m thinking about today. I’ve been tossing around the idea that I am a “process” gardener. In other words I love the process of planning the garden, planting and growing things. The end product is not that important to me. I enjoy the fruit of my labor but producing a zillion tomatoes is not my goal. The enjoyment for me comes from the act of gardening. I think that this is very different from gardeners who have their eye on the prize at the end and consider the work it takes to get there to be hard labor. It isn’t ever hard for me. I can weed, water and prune all day and love every second of it. If I loose to the conditions, so be it, I’m okay with that. I have to stock my freezer with dinners in the spring because I know I won’t want to come inside and cook. I just love being out there.

What I’m not too okay with is the idea that it’s almost over. Fall in New England is really beautiful but I get hit with a little case of the blues at this time of the year. I just can’t believe that summer is ending. Where did it go? Do I really have to wait through three long seasons for it to return? That seems like forever right now.

Okay, enough wining… there’s still a ton of work to do. We have broccoli, lettuce, Brussel sprouts and herbs growing . I’m planning some winter gardening activities to keep things busy. I have lots of window space here in my new office that my rosemary plant, geraniums and other herbs will love. Maybe I’ll finally get a cold frame going and stay in the game for a longer season. At the very least I could add some new houseplants and spend some more time reading garden blogs from the southern hemisphere.

It may be fall but spring will be here before we know it, right?

What kind of gardener are you?

Be well and enjoy everything.

Michele

What’s Happening In the Garden– September 10

I am hanging on to summer, that’s what’s happening here. With fall on our doorstep people keep saying that fall is their favorite season. I’m sorry, I just can’t join them, I’m a summer girl, that’s all there is to it. That said, the mums are getting ready to pop, which does help a little with the transition.
The oregano is still beautiful. I gave this a good cut back a couple of weeks ago. I’d like to dry some to enjoy this winter.
We still have plenty of green tomatoes. I’m hoping that the sun that’s forecast for today and the heat of tomorrow will help these along.
The romano beans took off and are climbing. Next year I think I may start some of these earlier in the season. This cute little gourd just peeked out and surprised me. I need to scrounge around and see if there are more hiding along the fences. We still have zinnias! And here’s the asian cucumber that I planted from seed in late July. It kind of took off. I don’t see much fruit but there were several bees flying around it pollinating the other day. It may still happen. The morning glories reseeded from last year and are happy in the herb garden. We have several banana peppers to enjoy. I may try drying a few of them. Broom corn, so pretty! Next year we’ll plant a nice strong row of it and make some serious brooms. Lettuce, with broccoli next to it. I’m kind of surprised by this broccoli. I wonder if it’s one of the few plants that likes being close to the chicken coop. I’ve been reading about broccoli and learning that it responds well to the high nitrogen content of chicken compost. The trick seems to be growing nice leafy plants before the flowers form. I think we may be on our way here. I’m growing these at work too but I believe that the heat on the rooftop caused flowers to form before the plants really matured. We deadheaded those, then composted and fertilized them heavily with poultry manure a week or so ago, so I’m watching and hoping that they’ll take off.We have lots of tomatillos, another nice surprise. I froze several over the weekend. It’s as easy as taking off the outer skin and putting them into a freezer bag. This week I’m planning to make some salsa verde, and I’ll likely freeze a nice gallon bag or two of them for the winter.
The foxglove is back in all it’s glory! I love this plant. It will probably reseed all over the place!
This is tucked into the front border on the outside of garden… is it ragweed or goldenrod? Pat at Commonweeder (one of my favorite garden blogs), just talked about this yesterday. I’m not sure, but I think it’s goldenrod.
And I’m already missing the black eyed-susan. It’s hard to see them go.

How’s your late summer garden doing? What were your biggest surprises this year?

Tell me about your garden, I love to hear from you!

Happy still summer! Enjoy Everything!

Michele

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

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)

My Favorite Gardening Books, and Yours?

Yesterday one of my co-workers asked me what gardening book I would recommend for beginners and I had to stop and really think about it. I love so many gardening books that it’s hard to choose, and I tend to rely on the internet these days as my first go to when I have a question. I started looking through my books today and thinking about all of the joy that they’ve given me as I’ve studied and learned. There’s nothing as wonderful as a good book!

I can quickly identify my favorite gardening book as ” The Moosewood Kitchen Garden Book” by David Hirsch. Mine is a first edition and as I think back I’m sure that I purchased it in 1992, before I had children. It includes all of the basics for anyone who wants to grow edible flowers, herbs, veggies and fruit and it’s readily available on Amazon in original and revised formats. I have happy memories of rocking my babies and planning gardens with this book in hand.

Another of my favorites is the classic herb guide, “Herb Gardening in Five Seasons” by Adelma Simmons. Adelma’s unique and wonderful take on herbs and herb gardening throughout the year comes to life in this book. I tend to pull it out at the beginning of each season to help me think about what’s coming next.

I have certainly enjoyed all garden joys and herbal magic in the years since 1994!

When I was talking with Andrew yesterday the first resource that came to mind was Rodale. Anything published by the Rodale Press seems to work for me and the guide just above is perfect for answering basic gardening questions. I also use their website, organicgardening.com on a daily basis.

While looking around for one of my current favorites, “The Garden Primer” by Barbara Damrosch, I realized that my nightstand is full of gardening books too. As you can see I love to read about adaptive gardening and container gardening and I always have a few Organic Gardening magazines in the queue and free books on my kindle.

Here’s my current favorite “The Garden Primer” by Barbara Damrosch. This is an original edition that I found at the used book store recently. It’s a great resource for the more experienced gardener who’s looking for details, but it’s also simple enough to work for someone who needs a basic understanding. Like the Moosewood book, it’s easy to read and digest and has beautiful hand drawn illustrations. When I googled Barbara Damrosch I learned that she’s published several books, speaks extensively, writes for the Washington Post and owns an experimental farm in Maine.

So, there you go Andrew… my favorite garden books! Let’s put this out to the blogosphere: What book would you gardeners recommend for a new gardener?

Let us know in the comments section… just a quick note for my facebook friends, comment here rather than on facebook so everyone can see what you have to share!

Michele

I Should–

Michael and I spent a few precious hours in the garden late in the day today and I just felt like I “had” to take some photos and get this post done because I was writing in my head. Does this happen to you other bloggers? Sometimes I can’t move on to the next thing until I get that post drafted, or those photos taken. It’s an addiction, this blogging thing. Part of what was on my mind was the fact that our garden has so many “shoulds” in it that I have to get busy with, or address or do something about, or not do because I should know better.

These blueberry bushes are a good example. Michael and I bought them a few weeks ago because we had been in New Hampshire and encountered some beautiful bushes in a city park that were loaded with berries. This led to a new discussion about how much we’d like to plant some of our own, then we saw them for sale and had to have them. One really shouldn’t plant blueberry bushes in July. Spring and fall are the times for planting blueberry bushes so here we are keeping them well hydrated and waiting until fall to plant them. I should have known better. On the positive side I did cut back most, if not all, of my chrysanthemum (the hardy bush kind) today. They’ll fill in and be beautiful in the fall. If yours are getting ready to bloom you should cut them back now and watch how nice they look in your fall borders after they fill in and make new blossoms. You’ll be glad you did!

Here’s another, I “should” deal with this asparagus fern that’s taking over this little corner. That’s a rose-bush tucked in under it. Jeeshh

I should also figure out what to do with these beets. Beets have been less than well this year both here and at work. I think it was because of all the rain we had but I worry that it’s because I don’t really love them so I don’t spend the time to figure out what they need.

Here’s a small victory… I planted some fall beans where the sweet peas had been. A “should” that was dealt with, lets hope they grow right up that trellis!

Everyone “should” enjoy lemon balm scattered throughout the garden. It’s one of the simple pleasures out there.

I trimmed the bottom branches off of all of the romas today. Their a bit sparse but coming along…a should checked off that list!

This is an asian cucumber that I started recently for the fall… looking forward to seeing how it does… I should find a trellis for it soon.
Another should addressed… I learned about how to tie up the leaves over the cauliflower head to give it shade. This is also called “blanching” it… interesting, we’ll see how it goes. We have bush beans, with beans on the bushes, but their kind of scrawny and there’s yellow damage on the leaves. These plants are about two feet away from the chicken run and I suspect the ammonia may be drifting over and damaging the plants. I should figure out what to do to prevent this.

The Brussel sprouts are sprouting… we should let these ripen past the first frost because the cold air sweetens them up.

Hmmm… shallots, I should figure out exactly when to harvest these. What do you shallot growers think?

I should jump for joy over my garden surprise this year. The tomatillo plant is loaded with blossoms… their adorable!

I should put more eggshells around the bottom of these tomato plants and make some pesto from the basil as soon as possible. There’s going to be a nice crop of basil this year.

I most definitely should deal with this butterfly garden. The last time I walked toward it one of my slithery friends disappeared right into it in front of me. I’ve been a little nervous about stepping in there ever since. I know I’ll be happy when it’s done. So will the butterflies!

Clearly this was a busy day and there’s more to come tomorrow. I should go to bed! So should you if your staying up reading this on Saturday night!

Enjoy everything! xoxo

Michele

Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day- July 2013

I have exactly five seconds to photograph, write and publish this post because I’m heading in to Boston for day two of Boston College new parent orientation this morning. So busy and so much fun! Here’s what I’ve got at 6:08 am in Salem, Massachusetts on the fifteenth of July. Have a great day garden bloggers and Salem Garden readers! I’ll be checking out all of your gardens later!

Love, Michele

ps/ Be sure to visit Maydreamsgardens to see the other bloom day posts! Off I go!

Strolling in Salem Gardens, A Garden Tour!

This weekend is the Salem Garden Club’s Garden Stroll and I had a wonderful time “strolling” and taking in gardens all around the Common yesterday. The gardens were beautiful and the members and volunteers so welcoming along the way. Every stop was inspiring and interesting and fun! There was even an adaptive garden! I took lots of photos so here’s a gallery for you to enjoy. Click on any one to enlarge them and view as a slideshow. If you live locally you can still enjoy the tour this afternoon. Tickets are available at the Salem Common. It looks like it’s going to be a great day to get out there! Michele