Hurricane in the fall and other disasters

The rare hurricane combined with a eastern-headed cold front combined with the high tide has the entire east coast in a tizzy.
I am rejoicing, because it gives me an excuse to sit down after days and days of furious canning...the advantage and disadvantage of living near farms selling abundant last harvests of green and red peppers, jalapenos, plum tomatoes and green tomatoes, ect... But my proud pantry is now groaning with sauces,pickles,jellies, jams...and strings of peppers drying,too!

As for my own garden, it is an unadulterated mess. I am thinking of hiring some people to come and help me re configure my raised rows into true raised beds..lots of work...but I am still satisfied with my gardening efforts every time I remember the taste of those fresh picked veggies. YUMMY!

The front yard, however, is looking good. I am progressing on my strategy of planting perennials until there is no more space for weeds to grow, and thus no more weeding! For some reason, the trend of  garden centers selling off their stock at ideal planting time (now) continues apace. Get out your shovels, fans.

And the herb garden is also doing well, and the herbs seem to be the most content when I leave them alone, an arrangement which satisfies us all!

Next: planting in the winter & planning for the spring

"Make something 365" project !

So my garden was reduced to weeds this year because our hot and humid weather, plus a distinct inclination towards lethargy on my part conspired together ....I have been working on the front yard lately, trying to revise the plantings a bit to introduce more color...


ANYHOW, I ran across this blog about creating something every day for 365 days, which has appealed to my sense of adventure...so last night, I began with creating the journal I will use to keep my creations in (or photos of them if I decide to make something 3d-ish).

I began with a left over cardboard box I found under my bed, some packing paper I saved, and sewed and taped the thing together...

Tune in to see what I make tonight!

Garden Struggles

Garden Struggles are a bit overwhelming at the moment. It seems as if free moments to putter in the garden are few these days. And I am starting to view the garden as work (which it is,of course) instead of fun (which it also is). I spent some of the day today weeding the front yard. Boy, did my flower beds need it ! If I wasn't (or is it weren't?) such a chicken, I would use one of those fire breathing thingies to burn the heck out of the weeds. Bock-bock, I can't do it.
On the good side, I was treated to a concert of bird song today that rivaled any music I have ever heard. And the plants in the garden don't notice my equivocation. they keep growing anyhow.

Today is Earth Day 2012, and I am afraid I celebrated by sitting on my couch like a duck on her eggs. I did a brief watering and check on the seeds happily growing under shop lights in our spare bedroom. Then I gratefully used the rain and cool weather as an excuse to laze away...
 Yesterday I did some serious weeding in the garden. My friend spotted a problem the other day...my second garden, made from the area of the yard that used to have our pool on it, is in shadow for an uncomfortably long time..I did not follow my own advise, and observe the spot closely. Now the poor plants eagerly growing upstairs may not have a good spot to grow in! UG! There is more digging in my immediate future ! Ah, well. The melons will be worth it.

Here is my first garden report for the 2012 growing season!

Spring has sprung here in south jersey, and my garden has already yielded its first harvest! Very warm weather for winter,plus my crop covers worked to keep my kale alive ! Some lettuce, seeded from last fall's crop when I missed some seed heads, has sprung up too. The garlic I planted in the fall is doing well, and so are the blueberry bushes.
I sewed some new things this spring: carrots, radishes, and bush beans. Radishes are doing strong and the other two did not germinate well. Perhaps I'll try again in another week.

Of course, good weather for crops means good weather for weeds, and boy, are they going strong. Most are creeping in from the garden's edges....I am trying to cover all with cardboard and newspaper in hopes of gaining control of them (so far a losing battle).


I am on the hunt for a new gate for my garden...free if at all possible. Wish me luck...and get out and dig in the dirt!

Quick tip

Just read a quick tip from an internet search for those frugal people among you: use empty medicine bottles to save your seeds. Soak the bottles to remove the labels and rinse very well to remove any medicine residue. Dry and you are ready to save! Don't forget to also save those little packets from shoes and pocketbooks ect...to help keep your seed dry.  We in the north east are not saving seed at the moment, but start saving this stuff now, as spring is coming & we will soon be busy planting!!

Busy Person's gardening, part four

So you should be getting lots of seed magazines by now, and have some idea of where the sunny and shady parts of your domain are. Busy people usually can't make time to start seeds indoors, so there is lots of time for you to plan your garden. The official first seed planted directly in the soil is peas, planted on March 15th (ask Farmer's Almanac why). So what to do in the coming month or so? Plan! I myself am a casual planner , and this is the way I do it: I go through the seed catalogs and my saved seed from last year's garden, and try to decide what I might like to add, subtract,or keep. I always plan for much more than my garden can hold, but as its still all in my head anyhow no harm is done.
If you are absolute beginning gardener, pick plants that seem easy to grow. Start planning with tomatoes..Tomatoes love clean egg shells, so start now. Wash your empty shells, crush them, and put them in the freezer to save for the summer (if you don't have a mulch pile, that is).
Tomatoes come two ways, determinate and indeterminate. A determinate tomato is usually bushy (instead of a tall vine), which is easier to maintain through the season. But all its tomatoes will come to fruit at the same time,and then stop. So you will have to buy an "early" variety ,mid-season, and a "late variety" to get tomatoes all season with determinate tomatoes.
Indeterminate tomatoes grow like vines, and get very tall, which means more work throughout the season. I My experience with these is that they also tend to have more problems, like disease ect. But you'll get a harvest all summer long. And these have (to me) a better, more old fashioned tomato taste. So plan to order which ever appeals to you. You don't have to decide how many yet...just plan on which ones you like.
More next time!