New England Gardener

Spinach Sprouts In Just Add Water Bed

Here is the latest update to the Just Add Water project, I planted a second crop of lettuce, spinach, and a first of radishes and chard over the weekend. I was a bit disappointed by the pea germination. It’s a bit spotty. So I did some excavating. NO PEAS to be found in the bare spots. I suspect heavy rains unearthed some of my first pea planting and the birds made off with an easy supper. I’m now germinating a few more shell and sugar snap peas. this will have to suffice for a “second planting.” If these don’t take, I’ll call it good with the small crop I have because I want to use the space for carrots come mid-July.

The trellises are in place for the climbing cukes and tomatoes. I’ll put in the bean and squash seeds along with tomato and cuke seedlings right after Memorial Day weekend.

Zach Helps Plant Seeds Around Homemade Arbor

I know Arbor Day was created to encourage people to plant trees, but I took a little creative license with the holiday-which is celebrated the third week of May in Maine-and decided to build a sapling arbor for the Children’s Garden. I’d never built one before and found the project so easy, I now plan to construct one for my home garden as well. Collecting the building materials was as simple as walking the line where woods meets yard. It was easy to find 4, 8-10′ pliable hardwood saplings, along with the some smaller saplings.

I’m sure the arbor cogniscenti use nothing but saplings and maybe a few well placed nails to create their masterpieces, (see photo to the left that I pulled off the internet) but I’m a novice, so I grabbed a ball of twine for fortification. It’s also a defensive measure, knowing the arbor will soon have dozens of children playing, running and “oops!” knocking into it.

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Zach Tames Giant Pumpkin

My grandfather tended a large vegetable garden planted with pole beans, beets, tomatoes, lettuce, chard, spinach and all sorts of squash. Just before dinner, he’d head out to the garden, colander in hand, and return with salad. It was a revelation. My grandmother was equally passionate about flowers. She had large cutting beds filled with Snapdragons, Zinnias, and Asiatic and Oriental lilies (no Lily Leaf beetles to worry about back then!) She also delighted in roadside fauna stopping to point out Queen Anne’s Lace and Tiger Lilies during walks with the dog.

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Trellis Clip. Courtesy Tom Eickenberg Johnny's Selected Seeds.

For me, getting serious about trellising will be a departure from my usual modus operandi. I’ve never been a lipstick and heels kind of girl and my garden would never win prizes for its manicured beauty either. But now that the frame for the Just Add Water garden is in place, I see the true need for efficiency in my 10′ by 10′ garden. In order to maximize production, I’m going to trellis both my tomatoes and cukes.

Tom Eickenberg from Johnny’s Seeds has been holding my hand, electronically speaking, explaining how to get the job done. The following information and a wonderful link to tomato pruning article in Fine Gardening are from him.

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So, Amy got a chance to explain New England Gardener and the “Just Add Water” project on NECN not.com this afternoon. Odds are, if you are here because it was mentioned on television, you’ve already seen this. But just in case.

If you are new to the site, and want to learn more about the garden, all the links you need are on the right-hand side of the page. And you will soon see posts from Leslie and Mike in addition to the ones from Amy and Tim. And if you’re worried about Leslie’s “Easy to Grow? Yeah, right!” comment – don’t be. Believe me, I sit next to her, and she’s been chatting up her dahlias all afternoon. Seriously. ALL AFTERNOON. So she’ll be a regular contributor chock full of ideas.

I bet I’m not the only gardener who collapsed on the sofa, exhausted from a weekend gardening marathon. I spent the last two days hauling, hammering, squatting, shoveling and yes, at long last, planting, with the crazed zeal of a New England gardener in early May.

Why work at such a frenzied pace? Because the garden has taught me that labor in May pays off in July and August. Getting cool weather crops into the vegetable garden now allows for additional plantings of favorites like peas and spinach. I’ve also found May is the best time to tackle any kind of garden expansion. I’m always energized by the fresh green color that comes in May and up for anything involving dirt and a shovel. By June, the newness wears off, and other interests, like boating and the beach beckon. So, instead of tackling that project I discussed with the spouse over cocoa in February, I opt for “same old, same old” and call it good. And by September, forget it. I know the pros say its a great time to plant and tackle big projects, but by then, outside of harvesting, I’m done.

I’d be interested to hear what others have to say, but I’ve found there’s really no perfect “conditioning” for the May gardening marathon. I did break a sweat at my local garden center after discovering that my favorite tomato seed variety had been discontinued, but that didn’t do much to prepare me for the weekend’s grueling pace.

I know I’m not the only one with sore muscles because the community garden in my town in Maine was buzzing with activity. The renters, nearly 80 of them this spring, moved into their freshly tilled plots carrying seeds and stakes. They were so anxious to plant, they didn’t even care that the water system wasn’t hooked up yet and many hauled jugs from home.

Building the Just Add Water Garden Bed

Thanks to my husband and Zach we’ve now got a frame painted and built for the Just Add Water garden. The shell peas, sugar snaps and spinach all went in late this afternoon just as the water system was getting hooked up. The timing was perfect because after a weekend like this one, I wasn’t about to haul jugs of water from home!