A Straw Mulched Garden

I realized the other week that the garden was looking rather untidy (to put it mildly) even for this time of year. We had a lot of rain during the past couple of months, which left the garden paths awfully muddy. The beds were covered in brown pine needles from our neighbor's trees and the weeds were a bit out of control as well.

This past weekend, I finally got my butt off the couch and did something it. Boy, what a difference a little straw makes to the overall look of a garden. A stirrup hoe (fast becoming one of my favorite gardening tools) also made weeding the entire garden a breeze, especially now that there aren't many veggie plants to maneuver around.


This is also the first time I laid down some straw in the back garden. All in all, I think it looks good.

Winter Has Come Early

It took me all day but I was able to get done the bulk of my fall garden cleanup today. I harvested as much as I could and covered most of my remaining tender greens with row cover. Our fridge is packed with veggies right now, which is a good thing since it'll be slim pickings from the garden for at least the next five months.

I was surprised by how cold it felt outside today. By 3 PM it began to drizzle and my hands were numb. Gardening under these conditions is neither fun nor easy.


The rain slowly turned to snow and and by 5 PM, it began to accumulate.


I took this picture earlier tonight. Right now, we have about 6 inches of snow on the ground. Interestingly the worst of the storm hasn't even reached us yet. When it's over, we're expected to get between 10 inches to a foot.

I don't think we've ever had anywhere close to this amount of snow in October before. It's hard to imagine the local kids having to trick or treat in their snow boots. If winter is arriving early this year, does this mean that spring will as well? For all of our sake, let's hope so.

Fall Garden Tour

Now that summer is coming to an end, here's a preview of this year's fall garden. All in all, I was good about getting our fall crops started on time. In a few weeks we'll have to break out the row cover at night, but nonetheless, I'm hoping that we'll be able to harvest continually from the garden until at least early December.

In no particular order, here is what we'll be eating (hopefully) during the next few months:


The fall beets (lower right) are slowly sizing up while the fast growing Tokyo Market turnips should be ready in a couple of weeks.


The spinach is practically ready for us to harvest. The winter carrots (right) on the other hand will be pulled in December and January, that is if the voles don't get to them first.

Red russian kale in the background and gai lan (Chinese broccoli) in the foreground. I have another bed of gai lan that should be ready in a week or two.


Here's a bed of Asian greens.


I am growing a ton of leeks this year and they are looking really good. They are much fatter than last year's crop.

I have two Jade Cross Brussel sprout plants that survived the groundhog attacks earlier this year. Can we defeat the cabbage worms and actually get a harvest this year?


My fall carrots should be ready in another month or so.


The Bonanza broccoli is doing well and should be ready soon. On the other hand, I'm worried that our cauliflower won't head up in time.


This will most likely be my last year of growing Napa cabbage. It's impossible to keep the slugs away from this plant. Also, our fall crop has bolted prematurely due to the sudden change in temperatures. I think I'll stick to other Asian greens that are easier and faster to grow.


I don't expect much from our fall snow peas but that won't stop me from trying to grow them.


Finally, I have several varieties of winter lettuce this year. These will have to be harvested by early December their quality quickly diminishes after that point.

In addition to this, I sowed some mache, claytonia and French Breakfast radishes the other day. What's growing in your fall garden?

Artichoke Blossom

It's amazing how suddenly the weather changes here in New England. Last week's heat and humidity has given way to constant rain and much cooler temperatures. The tomato and melon vines are fading quickly while the broccoli and spinach have taken off. All in all, I've been really good about getting most of my fall crops planted on time this year. However, I've neglected to sow my radishes and winter wild greens (mache and claytonia). Hopefully I'll get around to it this weekend.

Among the plants that faded quickly in August were my Imperial Star Artichokes. They had produced abundantly in late June and July, but now the few buds that do appear are just too small to be worth picking. I've never been kind enough to allow any of them to fully mature and open. The the other day, I spotted this one. Hopefully, there's enough heat left in the year to coax this bud into revealing its violet beard.

Seeing Green

This weekend, I went out and picked most of the green tomatoes that were still hanging on the vine. The weather is much colder now and I don't suspect that they would have lasted much longer unprotected. These will be left to ripen inside. I've started the slow process of ripping down my tomato plants but still have a ways to go. Anybody wanna come over and help? :)

On a side note, the winter carrots are coming along nicely. We decided to pick a few baby ones this morning to sample. They will steadily grow sweeter as the temperature drops.

Finally, I decided to opt out of this week's Harvest Monday, but will tally the numbers next week. I will, however, be admiring everyone else's.

First Frost Warning

There's a frost advisory for our area tonight - the first of the season. (Yikes!) I'm a bit caught off guard by it to be honest. I had it in my head for some reason that we wouldn't get one for a least another couple of weeks. Like last year, I had to work under the glow of our spotlight in order to cover several of my beds with fabric row cover. Part of me thinks that I'm overreacting as most of my fall crops are frost-resistant to a certain degree. However, I decided to play it safe anyway. (Mental note: I should probably harvest the bulk of my basil tomorrow to make pesto.)

I also moved all of my citrus trees to our covered porch. They generally do not require added protection unless the temperature drops below 32 degrees F.

To all of my Eastern Massachusetts gardeners - Slept tight! Hopefully all will be well in the morning!

Aerial View of the Fall Garden

Taken from our 2nd floor bedroom window, I would call this a semi-aerial view of my garden. It's not that impressive is it? Nonetheless, I like to offer it as proof that you don't need that much space to grow a decent amount of food. All in all, I think I have about 1000 square feet of growing space, though I've never officially measured it. As you can see, the dogs have done quite a number on our grass. We desperately need to train them to do their business in the back end of the yard. I'm getting quite sick of looking at the dead patches.

Our next home would ideally be situated on 3 to 5 acres of land, with pretty of open space and a reasonable amount of woodlands. Most of my garden lies in part shade and I'm looking forward to the day when I grow all of my veggies in full sun. I'd like to plant a small orchard and have access to enough freshly-cut logs to grow my own shitake mushrooms. Hopefully, this will become a reality in 3 to 5 years. For the time being, I'll be focusing on whipping this space into shape.


In other news, the Heavenly Blue morning glories are finally starting to flower. It hadn't been doing much of anything all summer long. I'm guessing that the lack of rain had something to do with that.


I love these blooms. They only last a day or two but are magnificent to look at.

Wwwwwindy....

Boy is it windy today! This is what happens when you don't properly stake your kale plants. This morning, it feels more like August than October. I think Indian summer arrived early this year.

In case any of you are wondering, I had to return early from my Vermont trip. Driving to and fro (a total of 7 hours) in non-stop torrential rain was enough to convince me that I had picked a bad day to go on a road trip. Hopefully, we'll see some sunshine soon.

Rain, Grasshoppers and Vermont

I can't decide whether it feels more like summer or fall. One thing's for sure, we've had a lot more rain recently. The cherry tomatoes are splitting like crazy and attracting all sorts of insects. I should probably rip them out this weekend.

This might sound strange but this is the first time I've ever seen a grasshopper in my garden. Raised Roman Catholic and having seen the movie "The Ten Commandments" a dozen times, I can't help but wonder if this is somehow an ominous sign of things to come. (Will next year be the summer of hungry grasshoppers?) But this is probably just the paranoid gardener inside of me talking.


In unrelated news, the fall turnips are starting to fatten up. I think some of these will be ready in a week or so. Or maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised when I return from Vermont. I'm traveling up to Burlington this morning for work. This will be the first time I'm visiting northern Vermont. Hopefully, I'll get to see plenty of farmland, fall foliage and some of the things "the healthiest city" in America has to offer. If you has any suggestions on where I should go, let me know!

First Fall Harvest

I love this time of year. Yes, the days are shorter, but the leaves are brighter, the air is crisp and I get to write this post seated next to the warmth of a glowing fire. It's a time to savor the remains of summer and get reacquainted with the tender greens of fall.

The jewel of this week's harvest happens to be this crown of broccoli. The variety is called 'Bonanza'. I picked it this afternoon and we had it for dinner. It was absolutely delicious - mild, sweet and much tastier than the 'Piracicaba' I grew this spring.


One of my favorite things to do this time of year is to go out into the garden with a pair of scissors and cut a mix of greens to stir-fry. We're talking about farm to fork in a matter of minutes. Here, I have a bowl of baby bok choy, choy sum and white stem chard. My favorite way to prepare them is as follows: I get a pan VERY hot, then add about a tablespoon of butter. When the butter is melted, I add the greens followed by a splash of soy sauce and smooth chili paste. With the burner on medium-high and after a few tosses, the greens are done - the process taking about a minute. Simple and delicious.


I usually don't like to post the same picture twice, but in this case, it was unavoidable. My ancient laptop crashed the other day and I ended up losing all of my unpublished photos. I'm just glad that I have all of my favorite photos stored on Flickr (though I should probably find a way to export them all onto a backup drive).

I hope everyone is enjoying the cooler weather as much as I am!

This week's numbers:

Asian greens - 0.48 lb
Tomatoes - 14.41 lb
Eggplant - 0.56 lb
Snow peas - 0.13 lb
Broccoli - 0.43 lb

Total harvest this week - 16.01 lb
Total so far this year - 621.90 lb

The Freshly Mulched Garden

I always like adding a fresh layer of straw mulch to my garden paths this time of the year. As the weather cools down and with more precipitation in the forecast, the weeds tend to creep back onto the garden paths.


I love the look of straw mulch but you do end up with a few stray seeds. Most get consumed by the birds but a few do go on to germinate into weeds. However, they are easy enough to pull up. Hopefully the garden will stay this neat and tidy for a while. Happy fall clean up!

Fall Garden Update

I thought I'd do a post on how my fall garden is coming along. There's still quite a bit of work to do but I'm hoping to get all of my seeds planted within the next week or two. In no particular order:

The 8 broccoli plants I started back in July are doing rather well despite being assaulted by little green worms. Regular applications of Dipel Dust seem to help. I'm hoping they will begin to form heads within the next couple of weeks. To the left of them are my mini Napa cabbages.


The Tuscan kale desperately needs to be picked. The tops are getting a bit heavy at this point. I'm sure all of them will need proper staking in the near future.


My fall beets are growing rather slowly. Germination was good but then I lost quite a few at the seedling stage. Many of them damped off seemingly overnight. I really should check the PH of my soil.


The winter carrots are growing steadily. I only have one bed of carrots this year but had planted the seeds closer together. I'm also experimenting with growing my half-long Nantes carrots in buckets that had been used for growing potatoes. My spring carrots were a dismal failure, partly because our soil is so heavy. I'm interested to see how carrots fair when grown in containers. Hopefully the roots grow long and straight.


It's nice to have some lettuce to harvest again. These will have to hold us over until the Mesclun mix I just planted is ready.


The spinach is growing comfortably under row cover. Without it, the plants would have been toast by now.


I'm really surprised by how quickly the Red Russian kale has grown. These were started at the beginning of August. I should be able to harvest a few leaves in a week or two. In the same bed is some white stem chard. Hopefully, these will fair as well this winter as they did last year. To the left of this bed, I have some Watermelon and Daikon radish growing alongside the leeks.


Finally, not only are the snow peas up but some of the plants are already staring to flower. Boy that was quick. Despite the high temperatures of late August, they seem to be comfortable in the shadier part of the garden. To the right of the snow peas are Asian greens, including Tokyo Market turnips. Thanks again Winnie for the seeds!

SSSSSSSTRESSED

You would think that I wouldn't be since the summer growing season is drawing to a close, but ironically, the opposite is true. I'm a bit behind schedule on starting some of my fall and winter veggies and will have to play catch-up all this weekend. Also, the ultra-hot temps of this week (in the 90's) have been stressing a few of my fall seedlings, namely the spinach. So a word of advice to all of my local fall gardeners - water everyday and shade your seedlings with some row cover (properly vented of course)!

In addition to sowing seeds, here are some other items on my to-do list:

- Pull out all cucumber and melon vines (Curse the cucumber beetles!)
- Build a decent composting area
- Clear more bed space for winter veggies
- Clear and add more mulch to the garden paths
- Repair last year's mini hoop houses

Also, I'm considering building what I'm calling a PVC 'low tunnel' (not to be confused with traditional low tunnels). It's a space that will (hopefully) cover six of my growing beds. The tunnel itself will only be about 5 feet tall - high enough to duck into and low enough to withstand our winter winds (again, hopefully). I haven't finalized the design yet in my head but it's getting there. I'm aiming for a late-October installation date.

Winter Alliums

I'm sure most of you would agree with me that gardening is a hobby that requires a lot of patience and planning. There's also the anticipation that comes naturally with the change in seasons, which is why I usually find myself focused on what the garden would look like 3 to 5 months from now. At the moment, I'm focused on November, December and January. During the past 12 months, I've been able to pick something from the garden each month, even when temperatures failed to get above freezing. Granted, some of those harvests were rather meager. I'm hoping that with a bit more planning this year, I can get some of those cold weather harvests to be more substantial.

Above are some of the leeks I planted in the Spring. They are definitely slow growing. I think I'll top-dress them with a bit of compost and fertilizer to get them growing again.


Last week, I decide to transplant my winter alliums. These scallions were started a few weeks ago. If all goes well, they should be ready by late November or December.


Last spring, I also planted a clump of leeks for transplanting later in the summer. These are my experimental winter leeks. I'm hoping that, if all goes well, they will mature sometime during mid to late winter.


The entire clump lifted easily with a simple turn of the garden fork...

Then I went about sorting through the bunch, trying to pick out only the largest leeks for replanting. (I'm learning to be more cut-throat this time of year.) After a quick trim of the leaves and roots, they were ready for transplanting.


At this point, I'm watering all of my fall/winter seedlings almost every day to protect them from the summer heat and they seem to be responding well to it.

If you're growing a fall/winter garden this year as well, I'd love to hear about it!

On a random note, how creepy is this!!! Makes you think twice about inhaling your food (literally).

The Summer Garden Clean-Up

Not too long ago, my garden looked like this...


...and this...


I can't believe that I had let things get so bad. Raised beds plagued with weeds, coffee can pots rusting away, garden paths littered with dead leaves and pulled spring crops - I must have been preoccupied with other things.

Last week was the first time in almost a year that I had taken a solid week off from work. It was much needed to say the least. Instead of going away on some sort of vacation, I really just wanted to be home. It was also an opportune time to get some work done in the garden in preparation for the fall growing season. Before you know it, we'll be getting our first frost warming.


So what was once rather messy is now relatively neat and tidy. Fall broccoli has been planted in the foreground, along with Brussel sprouts (rather late) and lettuce in the left side bed. Carrots, beets, Swiss Chard, snow peas, watermelon radish and Daikon radish have also been sown. And many other fall and winter crops will be planted this week.

Let's all hope for a long and warm fall growing season like the one we had last year!