New England Gardener

When planting a children’s garden, almost anything goes, but there are a few, three really, obligatory crops. And any kid can tell you what they are. Sunflowers, corn and pumpkins. And this September, the news from the pumpkin patch at the community garden is not good. We planted nearly thirty seedlings and do you know how many vines are bearing fruit? One. And by one, I mean one pumpkin. One small pumpkin.

Crop failure is always a disappointment, but losing pumpkins is a real bummer. I think those bright orange balls ease the transition back to the school year. Their promise of treats and after dark antics helps lessen the burden of homework and diminishing daylight after supper.

I always thought pumpkins were easy to grow. Stories abound…..”I just threw the seeds out the window and the next thing I knew, Jim had to use a forklift to get an 892 pound pumpkin off the lawn.” This has not been my experience.

The pumpkins were plagued with cucumber beetles, powdery mildew and too much rain this summer, but this isn’t the first year our patch has produced a scant crop. I’m hoping some of you pumpkin pros will have a few suggestions. We usually transplant seedlings into the garden in mid June and I wonder if we’d be better off direct seeding into the garden? Our soil is good, but maybe sidedressing with compost would help? The fact that we have so few pumpkins tells me we’ve got a pollination problem, but I find this hard to believe. There’s a very active beehive about 15 yards from the pumpkin patch.

We promise a “pumpkin for every child” at our fall Harvest Supper. Hmmm. Maybe I should start spray painting the zucchini?

There’s a new addition to the Just Add Water garden. “Swendall” the scarecrow is now standing guard, doing his best to intimidate the slugs and cucumber beetles. The kids stuffed Swendall and a number of other child size scarecrows during our Start of Summer Celebration in the Children’s Garden last weekend. In past years, the celebration served as an opportunity to put many hands to work planting before the start of summer programming. But the heavy rains swamped most of the garden right before our event.

Read more »

The rains that drenched southern New England all weekend made their way north into Maine today for an all day soaker, but not before our first harvest of the season from the Just Add Water garden.

On Saturday, we picked spinach and radishes. The radishes, Easter Egg from Johnny’s, were fine, but nothing to get excited about. The spinach–Johnny’s Emu–is worth noting. The color and flavor are quite good. The leaves seemed more resistant to chewing insects than others I’ve seen at the community garden. Germination and production, especially from the first planting in early May, were excellent. I plan to save the remaining seeds for another planting in late August.

Read more »

Normally a lunchtime stroll through the weekly Farmer’s Market in Portland is a pleasant diversion and a chance to glean growing tips from the pros. But last week’s trip left me feeling a bit inadequate and conflicted. You see, like many other New Englanders, I started a few crops from seed under grow lights this spring and managed to keep them alive and relatively healthy. Then, I saw the mammoth seedlings being offered by my local farmers. Not only were they gorgeous, they were cheap– a mere buck or two for the promise of a month’s worth of mouth watering tomatoes. And I’m not talking Beefsteaks and Early Girls here. These friendly farmers had many hard-to-find heirloom varieties.

Read more »

If this is your first attempt at a vegetable garden, the first thing to know is: it’s not rocket science. You can do it. Backyard vegetable gardening is pretty simple, as long as you plan a little, and make an effort throughout the season.

Over the next few months, I’ll take you through the process of planting, caring for, and harvesting a small backyard garden. l planted mine last weekend (May 17th). Details ahead, as we say on the news. And before we go further, please know I’m not a certified garden pro of any sort. I’m a backyard gardener who learned on my own, mostly from trial and error, reading, and talking to other gardeners. I’ve been growing vegetable gardens for 30 years, in California, Colorado, Indiana and New Hampshire, from 20′ X 40′ plots complete with pumpkin and watermelon patches, to my present 8′ X 8′ raised bed. I garden because I enjoy it, and because I like eating! To me, there’s nothing like a simple salad made with fresh tomato, cucumber, basil or oregano, a splash of olive oil, and dashes of sea salt and cracked pepper. Maybe a few chunks of feta or asiago cheese thrown in. I eat these salads for about six weeks straight during August and September!
Read more »

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.

Read more »