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
There’s lots of potential for the garden season to start much earlier than Memorial Day!
Everyone is used to planting vegetables in late May, but you can direct sow many seeds right now if you’d like to!
You only have a dollar or two to loose, and so much to gain! All it takes is a packet of seeds, some well nourished soil (add organic compost), sunlight and water.
It isn’t too early for lettuce, and with the warm weather forecast for New England over the next few weeks, I believe that we’re going to see a nice early lettuce harvest this year.
Peas are another early favorite. They can be sown directly in an area where a fence or trellis is ready to support them as they grow.
Here’s the peas a few years ago just starting their climb.
Radishes will germinate now, and they grow so quickly. You could be eating home grown radishes in just three weeks if you plunk a short row of seeds into some well nourished soil!
As I looked at this photo from a few years ago I noticed the rocks… I’m always removing rocks.. but small rocks are okay, as long as you add lots of compost. It’s really all about the compost.
Kale and Swiss Chard are also very hardy. When we say that a plant is “hardy”, we usually mean that it will withstand cold well.
This is swiss chard from last summer. Some of it actually wintered over a little bit (photos of that are here ). I added more seed over the weekend to fluff it up and fill in the spaces between plants.
Spinach is another good early spring choice. It loves cool weather and will bolt as soon as it gets hot, so plant it now!
Here’s a quick list of spring vegetables that you can plant outside from seed right now:
-Lettuce
-Peas
-Radishes
-Kale
-Swiss Chard
-Spinach
-Scallions
Most of these will be ready by Memorial Day, or the 4th of July!
Our weather changes so quickly at this time of year, but don’t be afraid, give it a go!
Have you planted anything yet?
Leave me your questions, concerns, successes, anything that’s on your mind…
Happy Planting! Happy Spring!
Love, Michele
I’ll start with the garden.
That’s a good lead in to the “and with me” part. To be honest I don’t know what’s happening with me. Maybe some of you can help with that. The garden is okay in a kind of mediocre way. I’m accepting of my limitations and abilities but I have to admit that I expected more from the garden this year. Maybe it was the relatively dry weather, or my organizational skills, or all of the fun vacations.
When your a gardener you have to spend time in the garden!
That said we still have kale. Is it me or is this photo a bit out of focus? Sometimes I can’t tell.
The tomatoes were actually pretty good. A little wilt but not too much and it came very late in the season. I think I want to grow more romas again next year, or maybe a variety called opalka that my friend Betsey shared with me yesterday. Their larger than roma and make a sweet, meaty sauce… I brought some home from a visit with Betsey yesterday and popped just one of them into a little pot of fresh sauce that I made for dinner from some of my tomatoes that needed to be eaten. I think there was a very big difference!
I planted quite a bit of cauliflower but it looks like the bunnies, or maybe even deer enjoyed the flowers for us.
The marketmore cucs are done and I have to say that this variety was a success. We enjoyed lots of pickles and salads and cucumbery things… 
Here’s some later planted swiss chard that just isn’t taking off…
A few candycane zinnias came up near the chicken coop door. Their cute and happy but not too prolific. 
I have one, yes one, watermelon still growing. I’m fertilizing it weekly as my neighbor suggested and hoping it makes it through the next few weeks. It’s about the size of a large honeydew melon right now.
We had a few cantaloupes almost grow into edible fruit. This one is imploded and slightly rotted. It will be food for another project that I have going so it’s not a total loss.
One pumpkin, yes one. This is the year of one, two or three of anything that I worked on over time.
Of course the horseradish is happy. I don’t like horseradish but several of our friends and family members do so it will be fun to harvest it in a few weeks.
The new little herb garden got off to a decent start. Next year we’ll hit the ground running in this area of the garden.
I’ve got pots of potatoes growing. They haven’t flowered and have lots of foliage so I’m kind of unsure about where we’re going here. Generally they flower and then die back and you can dig out the potatoes. So I’m waiting to see what happens. I dug around a little bit the other day and I really think there are some good sized tubers in there.
Parsley and basils need to be frozen in ice cube trays for the winter. 
The onions kind of worked out! Remember when I was inspired by Betsey and Ed and planted them back in the spring? No need to buy onions around here this winter!
Oh, and then there’s this little project. Guess what’s in the box? Here’s a hint: It thrives on the cantaloupe.
Okay… about me.
I’m tired and busy and tired and worn out. I want to do right by my family so I took a major blogging break. I don’t think I’ve ever gone so long in between posts. It really has me wondering about what motivates me and what’s that best use of my time. Should I keep blogging? I like to blog because I love connecting with people all over the world. I like to think that I might encourage or entertain someone somewhere. I definitely feel accountable about what I say here so it keeps me on a good path in the gardening sense and beyond.
Have any of you fellow bloggers gone through this? It’s kind of writer’s block, but almost more like a writer’s resistance. I know what I want to say. I have a long list of posts to write but I wonder about the value of it. Does it matter? Should I just garden for myself and call it a day? No one who I know personally has said a word about my absence. Maybe I shouldn’t expect that, but maybe I should use my energy for other things.
That was a pretty stream of conscious paragraph or two. Thank you, I feel better,
Pioneer Woman used to say “tap, tap… is anyone out there?” She doesn’t need to do that anymore but I guess I could…
Tap, tap… hello?
Leave me a comment or send me an e-mail. I’d entertain any constructive feedback you have to share.
Enjoy everything!
Love, Michele
The Salem Garden 