Salem Massachusetts – The Salem Garden

What’s Happening in the Garden – July 18, 2021

Hello there!

Mid July is a time of great growth and anticipation and there’s a lot going on in the garden this week, It’s fun to see things starting to come together, or not, in some cases. It’s been very very rainy here, almost tropical at times. The break from daily watering is nice, but we need sun, especially for the tomatoes!

Michael has been working all spring and summer on replacing fences… this is in the list of things that are coming together.

The bee balm has been full of perfect little pollinators and I’ve been watching a monarch butterfly visiting the milkweed plants. I would love to see our butterfly population increase.

I found a little Anise Hyssop seedling at Maitland Farm on Mother’s Day and I’m so pleased with the plant that it’s growing into. I need to learn more about how to propagate this to spread it around the garden for next year.

Here’s something that’s NOT coming together. I grew cucumber seedlings and they looked great.. we put together this cool trellis, I planted the cucumber plants and they’ve almost stopped growing. Today I added good compost to fertilize them and new seeds to the soil in between the plants. Most years I have lots of cucs and no trellis…

The kale is happy and so are we. We’ve grown to love kale around here! I put it in salad and soups.. I even add it to Mac and Cheese!

For some reason I called this Russian Kale a few weeks ago.. I was wrong, it’s actually called Black Magic. It’s a little tough and not especially tasty, but it looks nice. Behind it we have lots and lots of tomato plants.. These are Big Rainbow and the plants in the next photo are Bumblebee Cherry. There’s also Green Zebra Stripe, Beefsteak and lots of volunteer Cherry tomatoes scattered here, there and everywhere.

Have I mentioned that they would like some sun?

We just added the top layer of trellis to the yard long beans and they instantly reached up for it like magic.

My cilantro didn’t reseed well this year, so I bought some plants and just planted them today (bottom left). I’ll cut them back in a few days after they settle. Hopefully the new leaves will fill in and be ready for salsa when the tomatoes are ripe. 😉

The Rose of Sharon that my sister sent years ago are sorting to bloom already.

There are so many seedlings.. please let me know if you’d like some. This has me wondering if they’re considered invasive, but I’ve never heard that they are.

This little nook below our sunroom/office is a new addition..

It’s a nice spot to sit and take a rest, think about things or have a quiet talk.

I’m especially fond of my lobster trap table, it’s a little shaky, but it’s fun!

I’m also fond of the view from the settee… it’s all about the view!

Wishing you all peace, love and time in a garden!

Love, Michele

What’s Happening in the Garden- January 18, 2021

Winter Walk

January 1, 2021- Thank You, Ocean

Hellebore

What’s Happening in the Garden- August 12, 2017

Hi everyone!

Here’s a few quick pics just to stay in the game. This has been the year of the bunny. We’ve been inundated with rabbits who have eaten everything! We do have decent rows of kale, swiss chard and Brussel sprouts but our harvest of beans, lettuces, tomatoes, cucumber and zucchini are very low. Michael’s been working hard to secure the fence and we’ve finally got a handle on them inside the fenced area, but the wider yard is their’s to roam! There’s also a lack of black-eyed Susan and many of the other perennials that we enjoy every year. I keep telling myself that the roots haven’t been eaten, so maybe these plants will come back stronger than ever next year.

Thanks for stopping by! Feel free to leave me a comment or question. I love to hear from you!

Lots of garden love,

Michele

The Salem Garden Club’s 2017 Garden Stroll

Every other year the Salem Garden Club holds a garden tour, officially called the “stroll”. This year’s tour highlighted gardens on Hamilton, Chestnut, Federal, Lynn and River Streets and I truly believe that it was the best ever! Michael and I enjoyed the tour before and after my volunteer time in one of the gardens on River Street and I quickly took photos as I went along. This slideshow is a simple collection of my favorites… They’re not too fancy, but I did manage to capture many of the little details that caught my eye in each wonderful space.

Enjoy!

Love, Michele

ps/ 5pm on Friday– This post began as a slideshow and had big technical problems, so I just changed the pictures to individual images. Hope that improves your viewing experience! xoxo

What’s Happening in the Garden- May 13, 2017

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the moms who may be reading! One of the many luxuries I allowed myself this weekend was taking the time to snap some quick photos for a blog post. These were taken yesterday before the inch or so of rain that we were hit with today.

Spring has finally sprung here in Salem, Massachusetts!

Since we’ve had a lot of rain everything is lush and green… a very different scenario from last year when we were in a severe drought all. season. long.

Michael welcomed spring last weekend by replacing four of our five raised beds. They’re sturdy and should serve us well for five years or so.

I haven’t had time to do much seed starting this spring so I’ll direct sow some things and I purchased spring seedlings a few weeks ago. I saw these celery plants and decided to give them a try. We had a cold snap about ten (?) days ago and they suffered a little but they seem to be greening up again.

I also purchased Brussel sprouts which were quickly chomped on by someone, a bunny or deer? Yes, we have deer in our yard here in the city of Salem. They’re beautiful creatures but not so good for the garden.

The sweet peas grew quickly from seed and the spinach is quite happy. They all just push those rocks to the side, don’t they?

My little row of Swiss chard is also being “tasted.” I think those are bunny tooth prints.

The lettuce is starting to sprout. It needs some vermi-compost and rock removal, stat.

And then there’s the kale, always easy, always happy… you can’t go wrong with kale.

I did go wrong with this passion flower that I plunked in late last fall. I bought it on sale and I can’t find the receipt or container or I’d take it back.

On the brighter side, the liatris that I planted last fall are starting to bloom.

I scattered them in front of the garden fence. I may move more mid spring blooms into that bed to keep them company next year.

Our apple trees are full of blooms too. We may have a real apple crop this year! We bought some organic horticultural oil to spray on the trees to keep the pests away and it helped them get off to a good start. We’ll repeat it after the flowers start to turn to fruit.

I believe that this is the first time I’ve photographed an apple blossom. 🙂

Our horseradish is prolific and about to bloom. I think it’s funny that these flowers will surely smell like horseradish.

In the beds closer to the house the bleeding heart are beautiful.

The lovage came back beautifully and I replaced some thyme with fresh new plants.

Soloman’s seal, iris and lamium are thriving in a part sun/ shade area.

And I’ve got a few tomato plants that are ready to go out in a week or two. I started these sweetie tomato plants at work with the participants in my program and brought some extras home when we thinned them out. They’re a bit crowded in their pots, but I think they’ll be okay for a little while longer. I’ve been watering them from the bottom in hopes of forming strong roots systems. I’ll keep you posted…

We got new chicks this year so I made my first video! You’ll hear me taking about them toward the end. I’d like to do more of this and work on making it a little zippier, but it’s a start!

I hope that all is well in your garden, wherever you are. Thanks for stopping by and don’t be afraid to leave me a comment and say hi if you’d like to!

Love to you all,

Michele

It’s Time to Plant the Pansies!

I know, I know, it’s still cold out, but, it really is time to plant the pansies!

I was buying them yesterday and several other customers in the store asked me if they could go outside yet.

Yes they can!

Pansies will do just fine in early spring weather. I’ve even had them winter over in some of our milder years.

I planted in three different locations today.

My first stop was my own porch:

I’m in love with these tiny little blooms.

Here they are in the bigger pot. I combined tulips, pansies and hyacinth with the hope that the tulips and hyacinth will be perfect for Easter next Sunday. My backup plan is to add blooming forsythia if the tulips are fading.

My next planting stop was our church. I added pansies to the pots of artificial forsythia and daffodils that my friend Betsey had started.

The front doors of Tabernacle Church look welcoming and ready for Palm Sunday!

After hitting the church, I crossed the street and met the Salem Garden Club to help plant seven urns that are located in the center of our downtown. I joined the garden club in September and was thrilled to be part of the action out there today! It’s fun to spend time with people who love the garden as much as I do!

I love, love, love the creativity that went into the design this season. Spring cleaning… Salem witch… spring.. you can interpret this in many different ways. The colors and whimsey shout out that spring has arrived! And it has, tomorrow’s weather forecast is for 60 degrees, with several warm days as the week goes on.

So, it’s really time to plant the pansies! Don’t be afraid, they’re ready and I’ll bet you are too.

I’m largely away from the Salem Garden, but I’m hoping to pick up now that the season is here. We’ll see.. I’m trying to commit to writing a weekly post at a minimum. This full time work away from home gig is tricky. It’s great to be engaged at work and to be making some money, but it’s hard on my family. I think things are getting better as we set up systems as a family to get things done and in some cases “adjust our expectations” about what’s realistic and important, but it’s still a work in progress. Anyway, thanks for visiting and catching up with me. I’m hoping to offer some good posts in the coming months!

Be sure to check in and let me know how your garden is growing!

Love, Michele

Reflections of a (Former) Garden Center Merchandiser

Yesterday was my last day of employment as a rep/merchandiser for a company that provides huge volumes of plant material to a major (think orange) big box store here in New England. I started the position last April and had no idea of what I was getting into. I’m pretty sure that I’ve never loved and hated a paid job as much as I did this one.

Here’s the upside:

I learned a lot about retail. I’d never worked in a retail environment before, so I found it to be eye-opening. The systems and procedures that are used to market to the masses fascinated me. Now, when I walk through Macy’s perfume department all I see are neatly merchandised displays and what went into putting them there.
I learned a lot about gardening! Between the people who worked in the garden center and the company that I worked for, there was new information about plants coming my way every day. I have some new favorite plants and my knowledge base has expanded more than I could have imagined!
I enjoyed the customers. It’s fun to help people with their plants. I could probably start a whole blog just about that. The questions are always interesting and sharing my passion comes naturally to me. This was definitely a plus!
The exercise is great! I walked between four and seven miles almost every work day, usually pushing and pulling large carts of plants. The physical challenge of walking and lifting pushed me to be stronger physically and mentally. I lost almost twenty pounds and I feel better than I have in a very long time.
The plant products are so much fun.. every day saw something new and interesting rolling in (literally).
The merchandising aspect brought me joy. It was challenging and very satisfying to receive shipments of plants and then transform them into displays or arrangements that looked great and made people want to buy them.
I got to do a lot of deadheading, some weeding and some watering. You know how I feel about those tasks. 🙂
The hours were extremely flexible.
I worked with a lot of very nice people, both in the store and remotely. Merchandisers work independently, but I was in contact with people from my company every day. It was a good balance of human contact and independence.

The downside:

Sometimes the retail aspect got me down. I was a little worn out watching what I consider to be an art form marketed on a big scale to make huge amounts of money.
It’s really really hard, hot, cold work.
A big part of my job was working with the store and my company to make sure that the vendors who we serviced (there were many) received the product that they paid for (merchandising of their plant material in the store). Sometimes it was very difficult to bring everyone together in that large space to get the job done and keep everyone happy.
I had to throw a lot of things away. Cardboard is recycled but there could be improvement in this area. It hurt my heart to discard plants and plastic. That’s all I can say about that.
The rate of pay for my work was very low considering the amount of hard labor and technical skill required to do it correctly. If I were paid more, the nine advantages above would have easily trumped the five disadvantages and I might have stayed longer. It’s humbling to think about the people who don’t have other options for work. Be kind, because you don’t really know the story behind the person who’s trying to help you.

The bottom line is that I have kids in college and just above minimum wage doesn’t have much impact on our family budget. I’m moving back to the human services world to a full time (shaking in my gardening boots about the schedule) position with a company that I worked for over twenty years ago. I’m very excited about my new job, the people who I’ll enjoy meeting and working with and the challenges that it will bring. There’s even a big fenced in yard there that will be perfect for some gardening! I’m kind of leaving the paid gardening field but hoping to spend more time in my own garden again and maybe even more time on my blog.

I hope that this finds you, my blogging friends and readers, doing well. I’m about to plant a few bags of tulips (yes, there’s still time). I may even move more perennials around. Leave me a comment and let me know how you’re doing. I’m sorry I’ve been out of touch!

Enjoy everything!

Love, Michele