New England Gardener

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!

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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By mid-September, I’m all about harvesting and not much else in the garden. I overlook weeds and watering and only ponder insect infestations if supper is threatened. But experience has taught me that it pays to take a few minutes to review the season’s successes and failures before the leaves fall. Taking notes now will prevent me from attacking the garden catalogs like a sailor with scurvy come February.

As you know, I started the season with seed suggestions and a 10′ by 10′ layout from the great gardeners at Johnny’s Selected Seeds here in Maine. For the most part, their varieties and succession planting ideas worked well, but I will make a few changes next year based mostly on personal preferences. (Click on layout to the right if you’re curious about what I grew.)

Working with their plan encouraged me to try some new veggies. I’ve discovered that I like chard and LOVE summer squash. We’ve been doing ratatouille with squash, zucchini, basil and (sigh) canned tomatoes for the last month in my house. Even the little guy likes it. I’ve also concluded that for me, kale will go back to being an ornamental plant. Are we sure it’s food?

I had bad luck with some transplants. Neither my cuke or basil seedlings fared as well as the plants that were sowed from seed into the garden. Next year, I won’t bother starting those indoors.

The peas, beans, lettuces and spinach have all been delicious. All will be invited back.

Thanks to the confines of the 10′ by 10′ space, I found I was much more disciplined about succession plantings. In the past I tucked veggies all over my garden beds and sometimes forgot about them. Not this year. Even in mid-September, every inch of the Just Add Water garden is still producing. Beans are coming up in the tomato graveyard. New rows of lettuce and spinach are launched next to the beans. I tucked in some discounted celery and cauliflower seedlings where the peas once grew. Those will be harvested in the coming weeks. The buds on my brussel sprouts are starting to swell. And the chard, carrots cucumbers and squashes are growing like gangbusters.

Regrets. I’ve had a few. I’ve already said too much about the tomatoes, but that was the nadir. I also regret not planting several crops of carrots. Johnny’s layout called for only a mid-summer planting, but in my house, raw carrots are served at every meal. Next year, I’ll start sowing carrot seeds as soon as the ground is warm enough. That reminds me, I plan to lay black plastic down next spring and purchase a soil thermometer. I definitely would have forgotten that idea over the winter!

What lessons does your garden have to share? If you’re like me, you won’t remember them in February and by then your garden won’t be in the mood for conversation.

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?