New England Gardener

We may have several feet of snow left on the mountains, but down low.. spring has suddenly arrived. Time to start season two of NewEnglandGardener.com.
Mark Brown of Andover Massachusetts reports tulips growing rapidly. This photo is from Tuesday March 9, 2010.
Same at my house, tulips grew 5″ this week, catching up with daffodils. The daffodils will bloom first.. April First that is
Mark also reports way too many pine cones raining from our sunny sky.. left over from last year’s excellent White Pine growing season.
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Filed under: Photos

Rainfall (and a little snow) has been a bit too plentiful this year. For the humans, we can be grateful for full reservoirs and green grass, though a dry weekend (coming up) will be nice. For the Birds and Squirrels, and all the other creepy crawly critters, this should be an Autumn and Winter of Abundant Food. Look at all the Plump Fruit on this Colorful Tree. Are these crab apples? And how about all the acorns!

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One week after watching the Patriots play in the snow, this Sunday (Oct 25, 2009) was the final day for our Garden. And what a Fun Day! We all took turns cutting a pumpkin from the vine. Though our first frost is yet to occur, this is Halloween Week, so there is no excuse but to put the ‘Garden to Bed” as Amy did last week. It was a sad year for Tomatoes, but the Pumpkin Productivity brought plenty of smiles. The harvest is a three step process:

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My absence from the blog for the last month pretty much reflects my life as a gardener. I’m wildly enthusiastic in May and June, celebrating every shoot and pod. By July and August, my enthusiasm gives way to methodical labor; weed-water-harvest-replant. By September and October, I’m down to a few quick harvesting missions.
So when my son asked if I was sad to say goodbye to the garden today, I said no without a second thought. I’m a four season girl and it’s time to put the garden to bed.
Sure, I’m jealous of the warm weather folk when I visit my Florida in-laws in March. (I swear I can smell the soil over the jet fuel when I get off the plane in West Palm Beach.) But year round gardening would become a chore for me.
And so on this chilly October Sunday, we ripped out the brown shriveled basil, lamented, briefly, the third crop of beans that never produced, untangled the squash vines, and left the last two brussel sprouts that should produce a few more few side dishes.

And Just as we did back in early May, my husband, son and I shoveled manure from a nearby horse farm onto the raised bed. The difference now is that my almost 4 year old has become a farmer. Without questions or whining, Zach went to the shed, grabbed his wheelbarrow and shovel, attacked the compost pile, only asking for direction once with a jaunty “where do you want it, Mommy?”
Now I can’t say for sure that it’s a summer’s worth of fresh organic vegetables that made the difference, more likely the passage of time, but it was a pleasure watching him grow along with the Just Add Water garden over the last six months.
I look forward to gardening with all of you again next spring!

Filed under: Just Add Water Project | Organic | Uncategorized | Vegetables

All the talk is of how this fall foliage season in as good as it gets here in New England. The cold wet summer of 2009 was torture for tomatoes and pumpkins, but good for a bounty of beauty in our hardwood Forest. This golden tree is always first to turn in our neighborhood. But not all trees are beautiful. Do you notice a red vine running up some trees around your home? The red vine may be pretty, but the tree it’s climbing may be doomed.

The red vine is one of the many invasive vines spreading throughout the northeast.

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Filed under: Flowers | Vegetables

Summer of 2009 started cold and wet here in New England. Our tomatoes, pumpkins, and blueberries suffered badly with the worst late blight in years. Though late blight is named for a fungus that usually shows up later in summer. This year we had an early outbreak, before our weather turned warmer and drier in August and September. We now have reports of a fine apple crop, and though we hear sad stories form many pumpkin growers, this writer had his best pumpkin years in years. I guess I lucked out a bit.. I certainly had my worst tomato season ever, and am concerned about my fungus riddled blueberry leaves. Let’s talk about the fun stuff.

I was very happy to get home from my 3 day jury duty last week to find a Jeep full of Mums. Janet took it on herself to hit up Shaws great selection of mums at a reasonable price to decorate our yard. I am also happy to report that my pumpkin garden produced abut 4 fruits per vine, I had three main vines.

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