Nine by Eighteen

First Night Frost

SabineNovember 9, 2017Leave a Reply

Last night, we had the first night frost of the season and there will be a few cold nights ahead. I put all our houseplants indoors yesterday, but still need to clean up my plot. The nasturtium and dahlias look limp but all the veggies survived. The dahlia tubers will be dug up today and I will also harvest any tender greens from the plot and put the garden hoses away. The water in our community garden is now shut off. It is also time to clean out the plants in my containers on the porch and bring inside my herbs that I plan to overwinter: rosemary, sage, thyme.

Lightly frosted carrot leaves

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Planting Garlic

SabineNovember 5, 2017Leave a Reply

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.

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Late October

SabineOctober 29, 2017Leave a Reply

Today I spent a couple of hours getting the plot ready for winter. I ripped out spent plants, pulled weeds and turned the soil. During the process, I found a number of potatoes I had left in the ground, a welcome basis for today’s dinner of roasted potatoes and carrots and pork tenderloin with mushrooms.

The rain kept me from cleaning up more than I had planned to, but I still got to pick some flowers for a little bouquet. Planting more flowers this season was definitely a good idea. I loved having fresh flowers every week this summer and fall.

I also harvested carrots (which we had for appetizers, dipped in hummus), kale, Chard and parsley. I still have carrots, radishes, leeks, Chard, kale, leeks, onions, dandelion greens, herbs and flowers growing in the garden. It has been an extremely warm fall and one of my plot neighbors has some strawberries growing in his plot. Crazy.

Dahlias, Jerusalem artichokes, parsley and foliage

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October Harvest

SabineOctober 8, 2017Leave a Reply

Today, I harvested my last beets and my first leeks plus kale and the last handful of green tomatoes before I pulled the plants. I also harvested some forgotten potatoes before the rain forced me inside. Still going strong in the garden: carrots, radishes, leeks, Chard, chicory, kale, onions, parsley and flowers. Dahlia, parsley flowers and foliage

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Volunteers

SabineAugust 25, 2017Leave a Reply

Volunteer fingerling potatoes

I must have left some potatoes in the ground last year and I found three potato plants that came up this spring. Those were super early, earlier than the ones I planted intentionally, which still have green foliage. I usually pull volunteer crops but left these and harvested some super delicious fingerlings yesterday.

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Late August Mini Garden Bouquet

SabineAugust 20, 2017Leave a Reply

Today’s mini garden bouquet: dahlia, Thai basil and asparagus

I usually have one Thai basil plant in the garden plot. I love the fragrance of it. It will be used to garnish a Pad Thai I plan to make in a couple of days. I also harvested a few more cucumbers, kale and parsley.

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Mid-August

SabineAugust 14, 2017Leave a Reply

Garden plot “bouquet”: dahlia, mint, asparagus and yarrow.

Last night while watering my garden, I took stock of what is going on right now. I have a couple of tomato plants that are not producing as heavily as I would want them to and one cucumber plant which has given and is giving me plenty of delicious cucumbers. I also harvested a bunch of beets, kale and parsley, and a small bouquet of flowers and herbs.

The radishes, carrots, lettuce and bok choi I planted a few weeks ago are coming along nicely. I had also planted pole beans earlier (my second batch and a little late this season because the first batch of seeds went right to the birds apparently) and they are looking alright. The leeks are looking good as well and the potato foliage is starting to yellow.

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Garlic

SabineJuly 30, 2017Leave a Reply

Two weeks ago, I harvested most of my garlic. I had planted a ton of softneck garlic last fall, but I realized in the course of the spring and summer, that I had a few hardneck volunteers popping up in clusters all over my garden. Those came from plants that I had forgotten to harvest last year or where the stalk had broken off and I had not dug up the bulbs. They produced several small heads very close to each other as they all came from the same garlic head.

Garlic right after harvest

For curing, I normally spread the garlic in a single layer in the sun for a couple of hours, just to dry off the dirt. I then gently rub off the dirt, leaving the skin intact and hang the garlic to dry in a ventilated place. A cool place would be ideal, but that is really an illusion for the humid, hot summers here in the Northeast.Dried and cleaned

I found that our back hallway is a fine place, especially in the cool summer mornings and evenings. The hallway connects the kitchen with the back porch and we usually leave it open, even during the night. I leave the garlic there to dry until the leaves and stalks are very papery, about two to three weeks. Then, for hardnecks, I cut off the stalks and store them in a basket in the pantry. This is my first year growing softnecks and my first attempt at braiding garlic (see above). Space-saving drying places -1Space-saving drying places -2

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Late July

SabineJuly 29, 2017Leave a Reply

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.

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Friday Harvest

SabineJune 23, 2017Leave a Reply

Mixed spring greens and sugar snap peas. These will go into a salad for dinner tonight. I will add some cucumbers and maybe mint and a citrus dressing.

2. Dandelion greens (Cicoria) and garlic scapes. With some basil (from the store, as my plants are still too small) , some pine nuts, grated Parmesan and good olive oil, these will make a nice pesto for later this week.

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