I finally started my first seeds indoors. I sowed hot Thai pepper and eggplant. Five each (I will only need a couple of plants each). My setup is just one seed tray on a heat mat under a grow light. We have a small space so the seed-starting operation is tucked away in a corner of my son’s room in front of an unused door.
It is cold outside today. Perfect time for a hot cup of tea, my seed box and a stash of seed catalogs. Time to plan the next gardening season.
The first step is to take stock of the previous season, which I kind of do as I go along. I take notes throughout the season and then make a summary in late fall. I reflect on what worked well in the garden and what did not, and take note of what vegetable varieties I would like to grow again this season and in what quantities (same/more/less). Are there any new vegetables or varieties I might want to try this year? Are there any that I will definitely not grow again (because they did not do well, I did not like the taste, they took up too much space, required too much labor, were decimated by pests etc.).
Second, I take inventory of my seeds. I store all my seeds in a single cardboard box and use simple card stock dividers to sort the seeds by vegetable. Every winter/early spring, I go through the box and discard the old seeds and make a list of vegetable seeds I need to buy for the next season.
I then plan the layout of my plot and draw up a planting diagram for the year. I like to rotate crops and this is this year’s plan:
Here is my general plan for the garden plot for 2019:
For my back porch, I am planning: 1-2 tomato plants (I will select varieties that are suited for containers), 1 hot pepper, 1 mini eggplant, chard, head and/or leaf lettuce, herbs (sage, thyme, rosemary, parsley, basil, mint) and flowers.
Now comes the fun part — I browse the seed catalogs (paper copies and online) and make a preliminary list of interesting varieties to consider. I will then narrow down the varieties and prepare my final seed orders. I have yet to start saving my own seeds. Maybe this is the year?
Today, I spent 3,5 hours in the garden weeding and planting (bush beans, pole beans and carrots). I had neglected a large section of my plot that had not been planted yet (basically the entire right side of the plot starting at the pea trellis all the way to the fence) and it was overgrown with all kinds of weeds of the worst kind, including bindweed and yellow nutsedge. I have so much nutsedge in my plot, it is almost tragic. All of it was still small and growing and had not flowered or gone to seed. I used to use the compost from our community garden bins in past years and must have introduced the invasive weed this way. I got it all out (for now) and I feel very accomplished. The plot looks nice and clean. I also laid a new brick/paver path down the middle. Now I need to get more hay or straw to mulch the garden as the salt marsh hay cover is getting thin in some spots. No sign of the squash or cucumbers yet. I hope my direct sowing method worked. The nasturtiums I planted the same day are coming up, they are still tiny, I did not see them two days ago. I also hilled my potatoes today and they are now at ground-level. I took out the kale I direct-sowed a while ago. The plants were scrawny and chewed up. I will try to get some transplants. I also harvested some radishes and rhubarb.
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.
