My Nahant Garden

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

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.

On Starting and Planting Dates

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.

Vegetables

My thoughts on vegetable planting this year.

Herbs

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.

Flowers

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).

Some notes from last season, before I start thinking about this one’.

Changes to the Garden Areas

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.

Things that Worked Well

• As usual I got decent production from my tomato plants and the nasties stayed away long enough for me to make lots of sauce.
• Chard produced, as always.
• The mammoth sunflowers I planted out front did great.
• The annual flowers–especially iris, day lilies, black eyed susan, clematis, primroses–were all happy.
• Herbs, with the exception of cilantro that bolted too early, all did well, especially those in front of the house. I put in some mint which I’ll have to keep an eye on.
• Had my first successful bean crop in three or four years. (w00t!)
• The ornamental grass I transplanted from Russ’s garden the year before did very well.

Things that Worked Not So Well

• Last year I planted carrots and radishes for the first time. While the radishes did sort of OK and the carrots less so, I don’t think it was worth devoting the garden space to. Carrots are cheap enough to by and no one was interested in eating the radishes.
• While I grew some large zucchini, the plants take up so much space and my garden is so small that I really need to shoot for higher producing varieties.Also rot became an issue at some point.
• Lettuce production was poor last year.
• My pepper seeds mostly failed so I bought six packs in June but something ate them in short order. Not a good year for peppers.
• As happens every year, the snails made a feast of marigold seedlings.
• My slicing cukes along the porch produced poorly and ended early.
• A timing issue every season…my cilantro matured and then bolted far in advance of any ripe tomatoes.
• Weeds in the flower beds…grass, crab grass, and this vining thing I need to identify…were very invasive. The sedum in particular is inundated with grass.
• Every year I try sticking in the odd vegetable plant wherever there’s a hole in the flower bed. Seems like a reasonable idea but it rarely produces anything noteworthy, especially as my flower beds are so shady.

Knights who Say Ni Report

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.

 Lawn Pests

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.

Other Stuff

• I moved some black eyed susans to the front of the house.
• A panel on the back fence fell apart and needs fixing still.