After the snowiest winter in Boston history, this spring, so far, has been a typical one. I’ve started nothing as far as seeds go. Some life changes coming up this year will make gardening, alas, a limited endeavor. But I’ll do what I can, taking pleasure where I find it. One cool thing…the garlic that I planted last fall, and which spend the winter under a deep mantle of snow, appears healthy and happy.
2014 is looking a lot like 2013…a late start, seedling purchased mostly from a garden center. I actually tried to start seeds at work and while some did OK most did not. I got brassicas into the ground not too late (early-mid May) but as of now (July 6) they’ve done very little. I got a first batch of tomatoes in last week in June and a second batch just the other day. The soil in the gardens does not look particularly good…I think my failure to add compost the past few years is showing. In addition tomatoes I put in some peppers, also bought at the garden center, but I suspect these will do poorly. I do have some nice heads of lettuce in the back garden although the seeds I planted in the whiskey barrel out front have not produced much.
With the second half of June summer arrived with several heat waves bringing days in the 90s. Lots of sun two although two big storms each brought about an inch of rain. To date I’ve had to do very little watering this year.
Finally in the past couple weeks I found time to get some things into the house garden. Way behind this year, and not expecting a great crop as a result, but you never know. The poor seed germination in April really hurt, and then all the other duties that kept me from the home garden throughout May made it worse. Anyway, here are some planting dates (reconstructed from memory):
June 17: tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, squash, cauliflower, tomatillo
June 26: cukes, parsley
Still to put in: beans, basil, chard, more lettuce/greens, perhaps some Thai peppers, giant sunflowers, marigolds
Ugh, the tomato seeds I got from Trade Winds Fruit had THE worst germination rate of any seed I’ve ever bought. For two varieties none of the seeds germinated. Old seed, I’m sure. So that blew three weeks out of the growing season. Now I’ll have no choice but to buy seedlings at the local garden center. So goes the one and only time I’ll buy seeds from TWF. All my pepper seeds, which I was going to start tomorrow, also came from them. Grr. 🙁
I think the philosophy for this year’s garden will be be simplicity. With the kids and the boat and fishing and work etc. each year it seems I have less time and energy to devote to the garden. Also, the experiments of past years have yielded their results; for my little plot of land, I feel like I know what works, what doesn’t, what’s worth doing and what isn’t. So in this posts I’ll try to lay out some rudimentary goals. I’ll keep it specific to things I’ll be planting, and tackle perennials, shrubs, construction projects et al in other posts.
The winter this year was extremely mild and we got almost no snow. It was the warmest winter I can ever remember and the mild weather has carried into the spring. Normally this time of year the ground would still be frozen for another couple of weeks. But that’s not the case this year.
Seeds are expensive this year! Not sure why. Harris and Burpee seeds on their sites are averaging about $4 a pack. Johnny’s all of a sudden are more affordable at $3.50. I’d like to price seedlings at the local places. And also think twice about certain things that take a lot of nurturing to raise up from seed (like tomatoes). I need to be much more dilligent about collecting seeds at the end of the season for next year. Also I have seeds from years past and am wondering about their viability. This web site gives a real range of opinions. Maybe I’ll start some tonight (3/18) as a test and record the results.
I looked at a bunch of online spreadsheets and calculators…all of them called for seed starting and outdoor planting dates that seemed ridiculously early to me (e.g., tomatoes in the ground in late April). The dates in the tables below derive from two sources: Unstarred dates come from the Victory Garden book. Starred dates come from a variety of sources, but ones that jibe with my general sense of what is correct.
The start dates in the tables below are proposed best start dates. Some of these dates are already passed and I’m still waiting on some seeds. I’ll track actual start dates in this post.
My thoughts on vegetable planting this year.
| Plant | Notes | Need Seeds or Seedlings | Start Seeds By | In Ground By |
| Beans (pole) | Might try to mix two varieties this year, just to add a little color. | Yes | — | June 1 |
| Broccoli | Broccoli is another of those crops, so cheap to buy almost makes it not worth growing. Also, once it’s ready it goes to flower so quickly. For now I’ll plan on putting in a few plants. | Yes | March 15 | April 21 |
| Cauliflower | Might try a few of these but wondering whether it’s worth it. Need to research. | Yes | March 7 | May 7 |
| Chard | This always does well and will be a staple once again. | ? Testing | April 1 | May 1 |
| Cukes (pickling) | I’d really like to try making pickles this year so this will be a first. | Yes | April 15 | May 21 |
| Cukes (slicing) | I’ve not had good luck with these the last few years. May need to try a different location. | Yes | April 15 | May 21 |
| Lettuce | Every year I plan to do great with lettuce yet I rarely do. Try again. A few different varieties. Need some that are regularly robust. | Yes | March 7 | April 7 |
| Mixed Greens | I’d like to grown these in the whisky barren out front. Direct seed? Easier but you really have to keep it watered. | Yes | March 7 | April 7 |
| Peppers (frying) | Yes | April 15 | June 1 | |
| Peppers (hot) | My supply of dried ones is running low. I’d like to find some Tia Dragons which have been tough to locate the past few years for some reason. | Yes | April 15 | June 1 |
| Peppers (bell) | Giving up on these. They just don’t produce well enough to make it worth it. | No | April 15 | June 1 |
| Squash | Will do a mix of green and yellow. After last year I want to shoot for smaller, higher yieldi varieties with goof disease resistance. | Yes | April 25 (summer) | May 25 (summer) June 1 (winter) |
| Tomatillo | Grew these a few years ago and they did spectacularly. One plant is plenty. | Yes | April 1** | May 21** |
| Tomatoes | Will do a mix of cherry, slicing, and sauce, like last year. A good candidate for flats. Will try 2-3 slicing varieties and maybe just one of each of the others. | Yes | April 1 | May 21 |
I generally do pretty well with herbs. They’re so fun to grow, pretty and aromatic. I want to make a much better effort this season to harvest and preserve dried herbs for cooking…they come in really handy and quality-wise are on par with or better than the store stuff.
| Plant | Notes | Need Seeds or Seedlings | Start Seeds By | In Ground By |
| Basil | May go with two varieties–an Italian and a Thai. Also want to try growing new plants from cuttings. | For Thai | April 15** | June 1** |
| Chives | My chive plants are at least five years old and still doing well. But I don’t like their current location on the side of the house. Too shady and dry. I’d like to move them this year. | No | n/a | n/a |
| Cilantro | An issue every year, my cilantro bolts long before any tomatoes are ready. Need to try to find a slow-bolting variety. | Yes | ||
| Dill | Will try some this year to have on hand for pickling. | Yes | March 15 | April 21 |
| Mint | Put some of this in by the back fence last year. I assume it will come back strong. Might be a good idea to dig it out and put it in a container before it becomes a proble. | No | n/a | n/a |
| Oregano | Did very well last year. Need to check on the state of last years plants. | No | March 15 | May 7 |
| Parsley | My parsley did phenominally last year. | Yes | March 15 | May 7 |
| Sage | Need to see if last year’s plants are returning before I buy seeds. Also wondering if it’s better to start from seeds or seedlings. | No | April 15** | May 31** |
| Thyme | My thyme on the southeast side of the house has done well but at 2-3 years old it’s woody and needs replacing. | ? Testing older seed | March 25** | May 7** |
Increasingly I try to cut down on the annual flowers I plant, especially those I start from seed. Between them and and vegetables and herbs it’s just too much work. But there are a few annuals I can’t imagine doing with (marigolds for one).
| Plant | Notes | Need Seeds or Seedlings | Start Seeds By | In Ground By |
| Sunflower | The mammoth sunflowers I planted in front of the hedgelast year did great. This year I’d also like to add some in front of the porch. | No | — | June 1** |
| Marigold | Once again last year the snails feasted on my young marigolds. I need to let then get a lot bigger before planting them. I use them in some many places that I need a lot although for some reason seed packs are very stingy in how many they give you. Ideally I’d like to have at least two dozen plants this year and look for varieties that spread well. | Yes | April 15** | June 1** |
Some notes from last season, before I start thinking about this one’.
Let’s see. I added a whisky barrel planter to the front of the house last year, planted with herbs and flowers and a cherry tomato. I also enlarged the garden area along the back and side fence, adding perhaps 30 square feet. Planted cherry tomatoes along the porch steps…fun to nibble on as you entered of exited the house.
Shrubberies did well last year. An azalea out front which had done poorly in past seasons made a nice comeback. The Rose of Sharon gets out of control every year and is a pain to keep trimmed. Same too of the rhododendron. The forsythia as always was a tangled mess…I just can’t figure out the right way to trim it.
The lawn in the front of the house takes a pounding from the kids. I think I’ll just need to accept that dirt will be its natural state for the foreseeable future. The invasion of that vining weed into the grass on Cindy’s side of the house was a real pain though and I didn’t do much to stop it.
I really should have done this a long time ago. Of all the things useful to keep a journal on year to year, gardening (or farming or any other type of husbandry) must be near the top. I did once write a database application in which to store all my gardening data. But the data entry was monotonous and when I migrated to a new laptop one year I accidentally failed to bring the DB with me. So much for that. I think and hope a blog will be better…more accessible, conducive to free form use and yet as structured as you want to make it.
Unlike my Wahoo! blog, I don’t really expect too many people will be interested in reading this. Hence I’ll likely put less effort into polishing the posts or conveying information in a didactic manner. Same goes for the appearance and functionality. This journal is mostly for me. Still…I see no reason not to make it public and if you have comments or suggestions please jump in anytime.