Today I put a few tomato seedlings in the ground (2 Momotaro and 1 Brandywine) and also direct-sowed butternut squash (Waltham) and cucumbers (Longfellow). I planted my dahlias (four out of the five I overwintered in the basement survived) and sprinkled cosmos seeds in between.
The basil plants had some damage from something/someone chewing on them, there were some big holes in the leaves. I hope they will recover.
Over the past couple of days I finalized my back porch plans. As usual there will be lots of herbs, which will make it easy for me to put the final touches on our family dinners. Specifically, I planted cilantro, Thai basil, Greek oregano, mint, sage, lavender, German thyme and rosemary. The sage and the rosemary are leftovers from last year that I overwintered in our kitchen, the sage is slowly coming back to life after I had chopped it back to a small stump. The mint is from my community plot, where despite my best efforts to eradicate it, it keeps coming back every year.
I also have basil in a big pot growing together with a hot pepper (Jedi) and flat parsley growing with a Japanese eggplant. In addition, there is a pot where I sowed butter lettuce and another one with rainbow Swiss chard. The last big pot is empty and will likely have a patio-style tomato.
Today I planted my potatoes. It is a bit late, but so is everything this year. I planted Magic Molly, a purple variety, and Banana fingerlings, both seed potatoes from Moose Tubers in Maine. The Magic Mollies (six cut-up pieces with nice large eyes) went in next to the fence behind the asparagus and the fingerlings were planted in two rows next to the garlic. When I was digging the trenches, I found a ton of worms in the soil. Yay! I also planted sunflowers in my plot.
On our back porch, I planted Swiss Chard, lettuce and nasturtiums and transplanted some mint I had weeded out in my plot into a planter. Other plans for my back porch include tons of herbs – sage, thyme, rosemary, parsley, basil, Thai basil, maybe cilantro -, eggplant, hot pepper and perhaps a small-fruiting tomato variety. And a few pots with flowers.
I have been volunteering at the greenhouse at City Natives on Tuesday mornings. I had done that years ago and started again this spring. What a magical place to be, especially during our cold and wet spring here in Boston. Those tomato seedlings in the picture above smell so lovely – the smell of summer! I love helping to take care of the seedlings in the greenhouse and hoop house and the vegetable beds outside. Especially, since I did not start seedlings myself this year and my garden is just waking up after a very long winter. So good to get gardening again!
City Natives is an educational urban farm, run by The Trustees of Reservations. The farm runs classes on-site and throughout the city, teaching urban gardeners anything from garden planning over pest control to foraging and bee-keeping. Most of the seedlings will be sold at two plant sales, at City Natives on May 12 and on May 19 in the South End.
Today I planted my garlic. This year for the first time, I used soft-neck garlic I grew myself. I planted three rows, maybe 30 cloves total. In previous years, I usually planted FEDCO seed garlic. I love planting garlic in early November. To me, it means continuity, the planting of hope for the next season when now everything else in the garden is winding down. In a few weeks, the new garlic shoots will appear before winter comes and they will be the first plants to come up in the spring.
I also harvested Swiss Chard and flowers and took out a rogue rose bush that occupied valuable gardening space.
Plot in early November: carrots, radishes, parsley, Swiss Chard, leeks, kale, chicory and flowers.
I spent several hours on this cool cloudy summer day weeding, harvesting and planting. I pulled all remaining carrots (a total of 2.5 pounds), a couple of large cucumbers and some beets. Also parsley. The plan is to turn the carrots and parsley into a Moroccan carrot salad (I always cook the carrots). The beets will be roasted and either go in a salad or will top some fresh bread with goat cheese. I also pulled the last garlic and sowed radishes, carrots, bok choi and lettuces.
It has been a cool and wet May here in Boston and my vegetables are loving it. This morning, in the drizzling rain, I put in pole beans and bok choi and also direct-sowed basil – an experiment. In the past, I have always started basil from seed indoors and then transplanted.
In my garden I have currently growing: rhubarb, scallions (already harvested those two twice this season), strawberries, radishes (almost ready to harvest), carrots, parsley, leeks, beets, kale, chicory, Swiss Chard, bok choi, Brussels sprouts, garlic, peas, arugula, potatoes, pole beans, basil, spring greens and flowers. For flowers, the tulips have faded, but I also planted dahlias, nasturtiums, sunflowers and zinnias. And the borage keeps coming up everywhere of course, as does the mint and the lemon balm.
Every garden is only as successful as its soil. Healthy, rich soil is the foundation of a productive garden. Today, I prepared part of my garden plot for spring planting. The city provides its community gardens with free compost in the spring, but the compost it typically delivered in April, which is still a few weeks away. That compost comes from leaf collections in the fall and spring and therefore is almost entirely “brown matter”, so it lacks organic components, which I dug in today in the form of, yes, aged chicken poop. I like to use chicken “stuff”, as it is easy to use, cheap and organic. But, yes, it smells a little. At least according to my husband, who likes to complain about the smell when he fixes his bikes in the basement next to our garden supplies. I dug the matter under my soil and was careful to turn only about 6-8 inches of the top soil, which is plenty for my crops. I garden in the city and when our community garden was established, it was all filled up with new top soil. Since I amend it year after year and have a lot of help in the form of tons of earthworms, I can be sure that my top soil is in good shape. But I am not sure what lies underneath and do not care to find out. I have my soil tested from time to time, every three to four years, to make sure it is free of heavy metals and also to see if it lacks any nutrients. Ready to plant peas!
As I was planning this year’s garden a couple of weeks ago I took inventory of my my seeds and threw out all that are old. I placed my seed order with Sand Hill Preservation Center , Johnny’s Selected Seeds and Renees Garden Seeds, some of my favorite sources for vegetable and flower seeds. If you are taking inventory, here is a useful chart that shows how long seeds are viable when stored properly. Some of my seeds already got a start indoors under grow lights: leeks, kale, lettuce and parsley.