The child is sick now with a cold – it seems to be going around in the schools. And it’s raining – a soft, welcome rain. But yesterday we were outside most of the day planting more seeds: She wrote the ASTER labels. We sowed Asters, more Calendula, Monarda, and two more kinds of Sunflowers: …
Category Archives: food (growing, cooking, preserving)
Kale Going to Seed and Amie in the Garden
The four vigorous kale plants that survived the winter in the hoop house are bolting. I am daily harvesting three of them, letting the biggest one going to seed for saving. Since all four plants are of the same kind, and there are no other brassicas going to seed within a mile, there is no …
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Goings On In The Garden
DH and I have been hard at work on our compost bin, based in part on the one from Drumlin Farm, which you see below: More on that soon, once it’s finished (tomorrow?). In the garden I sowed fava (broad) beans, more peas, lettuce, beets, radishes and a quick growing onion. I transplanted out the …
Yes, Of the Same, Again
The garden, that is. DH and I worked on the backyard the entire day: grading it with sifted soil, evening it out, then adding 1 to 2 inches of our composted cow manure. We still have about 1/3 to do, and I’ll try to finish that by my lonesome tomorrow, because DH needs to go …
Wild Turkeys and Seedlings
This morning started with shooing a couple of wild turkeys away from the veg garden and the hoophouse (which stood wide-open). Luckily it was just the two of them, not a whole flock. I brought the seedlings up from the basement and watered and fed them seaweed emulsion to get those root systems nice and …
Sheet Mulching the Herb Bed
The large 4 x 24 foot bed up front will be for the medicinal perennial herbs. (The culinary and the annual ones will go in the herb bed in the back, near the kitchen door.) This bed was started last Spring. First we did some deep tilling (with rototiller), then we installed the boards and …
Hoop House Harvest, Seedlings and Transplants
We had our first major harvest from the hoop house a couple of days ago, of mache, minutina, claytonia, and some kale. Though the claytonia had bolted the leaves were still sweet. I bagged these and took them to NYC, where we shared them with our friends, along with a vinaigrette made with my blueberry-basil …
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Designing At Last
We are leaving for NYC tomorrow afternoon and won’t be back until Monday evening. Hopefully with lots more drawings!
Rainy Days
Sudbury River at Saxonville – close enough Its raining, again. Third rain storm of the month. Governor Patrick asked President Obama to declare my county (among others) a disaster area, and he did. “My” river, the Sudbury River, is overflowing onto already well-saturated grounds, flooding roads and basements. As for us, we’re up here on …
Garden Snake and Other Back Yard Tales
While hacking out a stump in one of our “wild” side gardens, we scared this (harmless) garden or garter snake. He, or she, was very defensive, striking out several times and unwilling to leave the spot. So we left. Amie understood: it’s the snake’s garden too. In any case it brought home the importance of …