Medford Gardener

What's Cooking?

2007-10-25T22:06:00.000-04:00

It must be due to the fact that my mother is a kindergarten teacher, but I always seem to be drawn to children's books. Recently, I was given a copy of the new "Family Fun" produced cookbook "What's Cooking, A Cookbook for Kids," and I can only say how cute it is. The cookbook is based on the theme of the recent Pixar video "Ratatouille," which I highly recommend. In it you will find rat-shaped chocolate, Eiffel Tower sundaes, and even the famous Gusteau's Ratatouille. My only complaints regard the cake section, which doesn't give recipes at all, but merely offers up ideas on how to create rat-themed cakes.

For a full list of recipes, check out "What's Cooking" on Common Kitchen (www.commonkitchen.com) an up-and-coming website for foodies.

Graduation Day

2007-05-20T16:11:00.000-04:00

Well, it's official - Noah is done with school, possibly for good! "What's next?" you might ask...check out commonkitchen.com for an introduction to his newest endeavour. Congrats, Noah!

Mother's Day in Goshen

2007-05-13T16:18:00.000-04:00

Mother's Day brought us back to western Mass this year for a day full of boating preparation. While sailing did not quite come together, we still managed to get on the water. Noah's family was able to supply a canoe, and we borrowed a small rowboat that my dad built last summer. The wind proved to be a bit much, but it was still fun to be in the DAR again.

Gardening, Second Generation

2007-04-30T16:25:00.000-04:00

The success of last year's garden convinced us to expand into a second raised bed this year. We started on an extrordinarily warm day in April and followed the same steps as last time: digging down, building the frame, and filling it with better soil. A few bags of Goshen compost were a great addition, and hopefully we'll have some very happy plants in a few weeks!

Gardener Turned Wedding Planner

2007-04-22T23:21:00.000-04:00

A swift turn of events...from gardening to wedding planning! As my sister's wedding comes closer, I've decided to put my green thumb to use. Here's a bit of fun with Photoshop to experiment with dress and flower colors. We all loved this blue and white bridesmaids dress, but we'd already decided on fall colored flowers, such as red, orange, and rust. Will the blue fit in? Let me know what you think of these possibilities.

Oh, and yes, I do have too much time on my hands. A little creative editing has put my other sister in place of the Ann Taylor model.

Rain Delay

2007-04-15T09:59:00.000-04:00

I know April showers are supposed to bring May flowers, but this week seems like it might be a little bit excessive. Rainfall is expected to total about 3 inches during the next 24 hours, and this is expected to continue through Thursday. In an attempt to protect the seeds we planted last weekend, Noah and I worked into the dark last night making a clear plastic roof over the garden. Our hope is that it will shed the rain without blocking any potential sunlight and protect our little seeds from washing away. We'll keep our fingers crossed and wish all the marathoners good luck tomorrow!

Return of Spring

2007-04-09T21:07:00.000-04:00

It's April, and spring has finally returned to Medford. With temperatures 10-20 degrees below average, I've had a bit of a late start this year, but today marked the beginning of gardening. I spent today preparing my soil, and then had some help from Noah in seeding our first vegetables. We planted peas, spinach, lettuce, carrots, and white bunching onions. Earlier this week I started a few other things indoors, including tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers, but these heat-lovers won't see the outdoors for quite a while now.

Let the gardening begin!

Wings!

2007-01-04T21:30:00.000-05:00

The wings have been started! Forgive the terrible picture...

Mango Seeds

2006-12-31T16:07:00.000-05:00

Since Gabe was making some Mango Salsa, I decided to try and grow some mango trees.

Cut up the mangos, leaving the seed husk in the center covered by a little fruit.

Cut one edge so you can get at the seed inside the husk.

Stick your thumbs inside and pry the husk open, exposing the large bean-shaped seed.

Pull out the seed - it should not be too dry.

Plant it with the hump just barely sticking out of the soil.

I'll keep you posted on how its growing!

The Aeroplane has begun!

2006-12-30T16:01:00.000-05:00

Just a quick update - I finished the piece that holds the two wings together.

Next step the wings!

Tasty Harvests

2006-07-17T11:41:00.000-04:00

I picked the last of our peas yesterday and then pulled up the brown, withered plants. Peas are one vegetable that just can't handle the heat of summer. We will plant another crop towards the end of the summer for harvesting in early fall. I've heard that the fall crop is always sweeter than the spring since the peas mature in the cool weather, so this will be something to look forward to. Our little carrots have done well too. They are a "Little Finger" variety, which only grow to about 3 inches. Very sweet and crunchy.

Summer Growth

2006-07-17T11:29:00.000-04:00

I had never realized just how quickly plants grow once they're exposed to the heat of summer. The tomato plants especially have taken off. I think it's partly due to the fact that they aren't getting quite as much sunlight as they'd like to, but two of the plants are really stretching upwards. It's exciting to see that they are producing a few little clusters of cherry tomatoes! We ended up with three cherry plants from the ones we grew from seed, and then added one large tomato that we bought as a seedling.

The Veggies

2006-07-12T22:34:00.000-04:00

This photo was actually taken back in June, but it still shows how quickly our vegetables have been growing. We're already eating carrots and peas, and sadly, the spinach and lettuce have been destroyed by the heat. Next we'll have to think about what to replace the right hand side of the garden with, for all of these plants will go by within this next week or so. Beans perhaps?

Extracurricular Activities

2006-07-12T22:29:00.000-04:00

In addition to work, and of course, gardening, Noah and I have found the time for a few little weekend adventures. Whether they involve canoeing on our nearby Mystic River or in the South Boston Harbor, or even sailing on Lake Champlain, water never seems to be far away. You just can't keep Noah too far from that H2O!

June Plants

2006-07-12T22:24:00.000-04:00

Potted plants have been a real treat this summer, adding a little life to our back porch. The cucumbers have done amazingly well, even though they experienced some difficulties with insects, and actually have six or so little cucumbers per plant. Our pot of basil is also coming along nicely.

The Culprit

2006-05-24T21:06:00.000-04:00

He may look sweet and harmless, but do not be misled by the fuzzy exterior or this little rodent. Noah and I will be on the defense this summer.

Progress

2006-05-24T21:01:00.000-04:00

Everything is looking pretty green and happy these days. We were priding ourselves in starting all of our plants from seed, but this weekend we were so impressed by a few few huge greenhouse seedlings that we broke down and bought some. We really didn't have room, but we've added a green pepper, a few leeks, and some summer squash which will spill over the side of the bed. I guess we should have made a bigger garden!

Fried Cucumbers

2006-05-07T22:23:00.000-04:00

My luck seems to be taking a turn for the worse for my cucumbers and tomatoes were damaged this week, too. Noah set them outside for some sunshine on Friday when it was nearly 80 degrees out, and while they had plenty of water, they all got sunburns! I hope they'll recover.

Squirrel Food

2006-05-07T22:20:00.000-04:00

I truly thought I was being kind to my little potted plants by setting them outside for the day. Little did I know that a nasty squirrel would find them utterly irresistable! Here is the scene of the crime. I probably should have guessed this could happen based on the fact that he keeps nipping off my tulips. :(

Lazy Noah

2006-04-30T19:04:00.000-04:00

While I spent the day busily working in our gardens, Noah lounged with his computer on the porch and directed from a distance. Ohh, alright, I'll give him some credit: the end of the semester has left him with a lot of grading work to finish up, so Noah spent the day doing school work and giving me a hand when I needed it. I definately had more fun :)

Upgrading the Flower Garden

2006-04-30T19:00:00.000-04:00

We built a second trellis today for all of the climbing plants in our side flower garden. The central strings will have Scarlet Runner Beans, while the outer pairs will each have a Morning Glory and a Moonflower. This should make a pretty dense backdrop for the flower garden - so far we have Snapdragons, Lobelia and Alyssum growing in front.

Growing Peas

2006-04-30T18:52:00.000-04:00

The first sowing of peas has finally grown tall enough that it needs something to climb on. One of today's projects was building this fence of bamboo poles and string. Now we just watch them grow!

First Salad

2006-04-28T21:40:00.000-04:00

With the first leaves of lettuce ready to be picked in our garden, Noah and I decided to buy a salad spinner. Here is our first, although skimpy, fresh salad mix from our garden. Our first harvest!

Garden Rows

2006-04-20T19:58:00.000-04:00

Here's an update as to how the garden itself is looking these days. It's certainly a lot more green, but still not producing anything edible yet. Just another week maybe and we can try out the lettuce.

Lettuce Leaves

2006-04-20T19:55:00.000-04:00

The lettuce plants have really been enjoying this cool weather. We planted a blend of gourmet varieties, but this one certainly seems to be doing the best. I think we will start another row from seed this weekend in order to spread out the harvest.

Cucumber Blossoms

2006-04-20T19:52:00.000-04:00

The cucumber plants are amazing! Neither of them has very many leaves, but little buds are blossoming all over each of the plants. I can't believe we'll be eating cucumbers in just a few weeks.

Flower Gardening

2006-04-14T16:10:00.000-04:00

Our attempt to improve our lawn has included a new flower bed along the side of the house. So far it is fairly unimpressive, but eventually it will have Morning Glories, Moon Flowers, Violas, Lobelia, and probably some of our herbs. Our efforts have been out-done by the little Crocuses that have come up all over the back yard on their own accord. What a pleasant surprise!

What's the story, Morning Glory?

2006-04-14T16:06:00.000-04:00

When I described my tomato plants as being "monsters," I don't think I had seen how fast the Morning Glory seeds came up. In this photo, they are about 7 days old and are already at least 3 inches tall. The seed pack said to plant them indoors 6 weeks before the last frost, but I think we'll very quickly run out of space for them.

Planting Peas

2006-04-14T16:01:00.000-04:00

Things are finally starting to grow in the actual garden. this picture shows young little spinach plants in the far left and a few lettuces next to them. Here, I am planting the second sowing of peas, just two weeks aftere the first, which are now just coming up on the far right. These two rows will share a woven fence in between them.

The Great Outdoors

2006-04-09T19:57:00.000-04:00

The more I read about vegetable gardening, the more I learn that I've been missing out on precious planting months in the past. Certain vegetables like peas and spinach love the cold weather, and can even be planted when there is still snow on the ground.

Noah and I built this 6' x 6' raised bed and began our carrots, peas, lettuce, and spinach under a plastic cold frame cover about two weeks ago. The nights are now warm enough that the cover is not needed, but we will keep an eye out for any frosty nights that might come along.

Cucumbers

2006-04-08T21:40:00.000-04:00

The two cucumber plants we started from seed on March 1st are probably my favorite from all of the vegetables so far. They have grown immensely fast and have already earned their own ceramic pots. A bush hybrid, these plants are grown specifically for container gardening and will produce 6-7 inch long cucumbers. Another great choice from Burpee Seed!

We will plant a few more seeds this weekend so that we have a longer supply of cukes, and I'm sure we'll have a few extra to give away. Feel free to speak up if anyone would like one!

Broccoli

2006-04-08T21:26:00.000-04:00

The broccoli plants are probably the least exciting of the bunch, but seeing as how it is the only vegetable that Noah eats, I figured we better try growing them. We planted the first round of seeds on March 1st, but soon thereafter learned that we were much too early. A second batch went in just last week on April 2nd, but we're still waiting to see any activity from these seeds.

I'm quite excited about having fresh broccoli to steam this summer, but it really isn't the most practical vegetable for a compact garden like ours. We probably should have stuck with varieties that have greater yeild per plant, but it's worth giving it a try. We will have room for three or four plants in our garden and will just have to give the extras away.

False Alarm Peppers

2006-04-08T21:03:00.000-04:00

Browsing the Burpee Seed catalog was the best part of this winter. We wanted to choose a tasty and ornamental pepper plant that we could grow in a pot on our porch. We came across the "False Alarm Pepper," and it seemed to be a perfect fit. This little plant will have a heavy yeild of firey red, but only mildy spicy peppers. We started the peppers from seeds on March 1st, March 13th, and April 2nd. Because peppers need extremely warm temperatures, these little plants may end up living indoors for most of the summer. It's a good thing that they're well suited for container gardening, but we might attempt to throw a few in as borders to our flower garden.

Sweet Basil

2006-04-08T20:58:00.000-04:00

Herbs have been a little more challenging to grow, but our basil plants seem to be doing alright. They were planted just shortly after the tomatoes on the 12th of February, but they have not grown very much comparably. We also planted lettuce, onion and chives that day, and these have all stayed fairly small. The lettuce plants have already been moved into a cold frame in our backyard, but we will save a seperate post for that.

The great thing about these little basil plants is that they already smell like yummy pesto!

Monster Tomatoes!

2006-04-08T20:54:00.000-04:00

Our tomato plants are doing great, as you can see! This group was planted indoors from seed on February 5th. I think we were a little eager to start our garden :)

As with most of our plants, we began these seeds in peat pots in a Burpee plastic greenhouse. Tomatoes love heat and moisture, so we have been keeping them under a plant light for a little extra sun each day. Just a few more weeks and we can move them outside.