gardening

gardening in winter

Artichoke seedlings!Just as important as growing vegetables to me is the planning. Winter is the perfect time for: evaluating what went well (starting seedlings early in the hothouse, planting in straw bales) and not so well (planting all at once) last season considering what I want to try for the upcoming season checking out seed catalogs and websites (ones I like so far are Baker Heirloom, FedCo, Johnny’s, and High Mowing), purchasing seeds, and ordering trees for spring delivery putting hothouse seed starts on the calendar figuring out staggered planting times and length of time to maturity so plants and trees ripen throughout the growing season instead of maturing all

February 2, 2016

january tomatoes

Tomatoes in the hothouse looking good!  

orchard and berries

This year’s orchard plan includes: Apples (Honeycrisp, September Fuji, Granny Smith, Red Rome Beauty) Peaches (Contender, Burbank July, Reliance, Delicious) Cherries (Northstar Pie, Starkcrimson, Hansen’s Bush) Blueberries (Elliot, Chandler, Herbert) Additional blueberries (Northcountry, Northblue) are going into containers on the deck, along with more herbs and flowers. Now to figure out fencing to keep out the local deer.

center garden plan

Center garden area planned, seeds I either have or are on the way. In the center garden this coming spring I’m trying: Tomatoes (Solar Flair, Cherokee Purple, Black Beauty, Black Cherry, Purple Bumble Bee) Artichokes (Imperial Star — seedlings already started!) Crookneck Squash (Early Golden Summer) Cauliflower (Purple of Sicily) Cabbage (Mammoth Red Rock) Broccoli (Waltham 29) Beets (Chiogga, Crosby Egyptian) Leeks (Megaton, Lexton) Swiss Chard (Five Color Silver Beet) Carrots (Atomic Red, Purple Dragon, Pusa Asita Black, Yellow Bunch) Lettuce (Flash Butter Gem, Flame, Garnet Rose) Orach (Magenta Magic) Chilies (Purple Jalapeno, Green Jalapeno, Goat’s Horn, Chocolate Habanero, Cayenne) Flowers (Nasturtium, Poppies, Sunflowers, others TBD) Red Currants (Rovada) Gooseberries

January 30, 2016

lawn to garden

This year I wasn’t able to create a full-size garden due to the poor quality of the soil, but next year I’ll be ready. There is a sunny, level section of lawn between the cabin and the shop that is perfect for expanding to a larger garden. To get the plot ready for next spring, I started by mowing the grass short. Then we spread a couple of inches of composted manure on top. Over the compost we placed a layer of cardboard and wet it down. Once the cardboard was saturated, we added more compost, soil, and dried, shredded leaves, straw, pine needles, and mulch on top. I’ll continue adding kitchen

October 6, 2015

unboxing the brushmaster

Last fall I hauled three truckloads of maple prunings to the dump. They would have made excellent mulch. I see no such waste in the future with the arrival of the Brushmaster. With 10 acres of trees that need tending, and lots of twigs, branches, leaves, pine needles, and woody vegetable stems from the garden, a chipper/shredder is likely a wise investment. It was difficult to find enough info online to decide which would be the best chipper/shredder for what I need. All had major pros and cons. In the end, I decided to go with a light commercial grade so I’d have enough power to take care of most

October 4, 2015

ripe, delicious fall apples

Friends Sheryl & Dan’s apple orchard is ripe with what seems like an infinity of apples right now. I dropped by yesterday to gather apples for eating, making apple hand pies for freezing and apple butter for canning. The trees were so laden with ripe apples, many were dropping to the ground as we walked the orchard. We picked those up to add to the already full box. Dan had the excellent suggestion of adding apple cider to my list to make use of the surplus. I have no doubt that Dan’s joy and enthusiasm for farming is a key ingredient for making his orchards a success!  

fires out, cayennes in

Thankfully the wildfires in the area are out, and we’ve had a little rain over the last month to clear the air. During the height of the smoke we escaped to Colorado for 10 days for an impromptu visit with friends. After that I had to go to San Francisco on business for another 10 days, so most of September was spent traveling. I hated to leave the garden knowing it wouldn’t survive without daily watering, but with the smoke and lack of sunshine it wasn’t clear how well September would have produced anyway. I was able to harvest some ripe cayenne peppers and a couple of quarts of tomatoes

October 4, 2015

vine-smoked chipotles

Wildfires continue to burn throughout the area, making it dark in the middle of the day. This picture was taken at noon. Most of the garden leaves are starting to curl, yellow, and drop off after more than two weeks of nearly constant smoke. The tomatoes have pretty much stopped ripening — except for a few determined black cherry tomatoes. Cayenne and jalapenos are the exception. They continue to ripen slowly and the plants still look relatively healthy. Can chipotles be smoked on the vine?

pickled tomatoes experiment

Smoke from the wildfires made for a change in plans from outdoor to indoor work today. The only place to be is indoors with windows closed and air filters running on high. Outside looks (and smells) like nuclear winter at the moment. Makes it hard to catch your breath. I had a couple of pints of fresh-picked cherry tomatoes, a few jalapeno and cayenne peppers, and a sweet onion that needed to be eaten or preserved, so decided to try pickling them. I’ve done pickled peppers before, but not sure how the fresh taste of tomatoes will hold up after time in the jar. Tomatoes tend to ripen a few

August 24, 2015

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