For Gardeners of All Levels!
Strawberry picking season typically only lasts a few weeks, so if you love the red fruit, you better hit the fields now!
Check out this video from Krupp Farms in Comstock Park, Michigan.
Video provided by WZZM.
Click here for some extremely useful strawberry picking tips!
Sorry folks, we have been a little behind when it comes to answering questions to the blog. So even though I’m a tremendous garden slouch compared with some of the other folks on this site, let’s see what we can help with. (My garden is struggling a little, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.) More answers coming soon, too.
Teresa asks:
My peony has a tight ball that wants to bloom, but all of a sudden it looks like it’s going to die. Only one. I purchased it last year
and planted it last year. This year only one bud that turned into a ball that I could see petals and a yellow inside formed. But seems to not be able to get beyond that.
We're Livin' Off The Land!
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.
As you may have noticed, there is a new section on the sidebar of the site called “Your Photos.” We know there is a ton of great gardening going on all over New England and we would love to showcase it on this site.
Uploading your gardening photos is a breeze if you have an account with the photo site Flickr. Even if you don’t, you can sign up for one for free and have your pictures up in a matter of minutes. Click on “Upload Your Photos” in the sidebar to get started. We can’t wait to see your great photos!
Another chilly wet Tuesday here in New England. Heaviest rain today is 1″-2″ in southwestern Connecticut. This is the same area that had the most rain last week. The amount of rain in New Haven CT today, June 9, 2009, is 1.45″, most falling in an hour between 9 and 10 AM. Contrast with .08″ in the gauge here at NECN, where we have only .51″ from May 25 to June 9. On May 24, we measured 1.1″, our last soaker of a day. For New England as a whole, we are behind by 3″-6″ of rainfall for the year. The exceptions are northern Vermont to Aroostook County Maine, where rainfall is near normal for ‘09. But, in Aroostook County, we can not shake the cold. This morning 28° in Clayton Lake Maine, makes life tough for gardener’s. Do you have anything to report from Northern Maine? Please leave us a comment. As Amy Sinclair pointed out, our season is off to a slow start. And so am I.
I just got my tiny vegetable garden in this past Sunday, June 7, 09. Better late than never.
It is funny, for my entire life I have enjoyed working outdoors, much more than I enjoy working indoors.
But now my (paying) job is indoors, and with the advance of the World Wide Web, we are now enabled (required) to write (blog) about what we do outdoors. That leaves even less time to work (play) outdoors. This is why my garden is late, and I have not posted here in a while. 
Read more »
Warmer Soil Makes All The Difference
Sure, I scan the carefully researched information on the back of the Johnny’s seed packets, but after I answer the big question–HOW MANY DAYS TILL FOOD?–my attention begins to wane. Was it 2 seeds every 6 inches or 6 seeds every 2 inches? My point is that I tend to overlook the information about optimum soil temperature for germination. The Just Add Water project is reminding me just how important that little detail is. I planted a slew of seeds on May 25th. Nearly two weeks later, only a few of them had started the big push towards life. Then last Saturday, a garden explosion.
Squash Seedling Emerges From Slumber
I’m curious about what others do to prolong the season. Moving to Florida doesn’t count.
Think you can't grow a successful garden? NECN's Amy Sinclair would like to prove you wrong. She's working with Johnny's Selected Seeds of Winslow, Maine to grow a 10' by 10' garden that's low-maintenance and high-payoff. All you need to do is "just add water" (and maybe weed a little).
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