Taking down the garden this week

Harvesting the last tomatoes and beets.

Neglect reigned this season due to a new kid around here, but the amazing thing about gardens is that they still grow on without you. A little weedier, a little wild.

Fall 2009

end of summer

As the equinox draws nearer this week, the last of the summer flowers are floundering in their soaked beds.

This has certainly been the season for slugs, fungus of all types, powdery mildew and the like. The autumn mums, however, have somehow avoided much of the fuss and are well on their way to happy this week...lending some freshness to an otherwise tired idea. Another bright spot amid the muck--the hydrangea--have, since August this year, been turning subtle shades of green and maroon that I find rather comforting.


Rear bed, hydrangea in upper left.


Creeping Jenny constitute the only bright spots in the rear beds.

And the marigolds and sweet alyssum are still shining long after the midsummer lettuce patch was cleared away to make room for a fall sowing.
The last of the junior phlox fight powdery mildew beside spent lavender and just blooming pink mums.
In the edible category, cucumbers continue to pour in, despite some foliar powdery mildew.

And late blight finally arrived in the vegetable patch this month, starting on the cherry hybrids and moving to all three tomato plants very quickly. Since the season is drawing to a close, I decided to try to save some of the fruit, which seems to be tougher at resisting the spots than the leaves. As luck would have it, I'd already harvested a few dozen pints of cherry hybrids, so I wasn't too sad to pull and dispose of the entire plant. I cut out all of the cankers and infected leaves and stems on the brandywine and striped german, but left them on their stakes. This worked, for the most part, and we've been continuing to enjoy heirloom tomato basil salads and bruschetta for the last few weeks. Here you can see that the central stalk is all that is left of these two plants. These are nearly 9 ft tall and house at least a dozen more tomatoes, waiting for the plate, if they can hang in there. Last year I was swimming in green tomatoes in early October. Ah, well.


Nasturtium taking off as the weather cools off.
Beets ready to eat.

Peas and beets in June

The garden enjoyed the rains and 70 degree weather in much of may, and I've been mostly neglecting it these last weeks...just letting things grow as I work on another huge project. The early spinach came in all at once and my mom has been helping clip and freeze the overflow. Nearly 6 feet tall now, the sugar snaps are finally blooming and fruiting out in early June, although they don't like the 80 degree noontimes.


6 different varieties of beets are adjusting to their outdoor beds, hopefully well out of the future reach of the tomato and cucumber plants this time. Two jalepeno pepper plants have been transplanted for a few weeks now but don't really appear to be growing much. Perhaps they are waiting for warmer skies.

I gave away most of my extra tomato seedlings and put in one each of the Striped German and Brandywine heirlooms and the F-1 cherry hybrid. I get striped zebras and sungolds aplenty from my CSA share so I thought I'd try something different this year. No sign of cutworms yet.

And finally, my herb garden is beginning to ballon with cilantro and parsley volunteers leftover from the seeds of last season, chives, sweet and purple basil, fennel, dill, thyme, and several varieties of mint.

spinach, peas and seeds

While tomatoes, beets, marigolds, lettuce, cucumber and morning glories were sprouting under lights this month, the peas and spinach that I had direct sewed with my mom's help in March were emerging.

April 23rd

Peas took nearly two weeks to show any signs of life, but by early April they were starting to look like they'd make it. Only 1/3 of the seeds I sewed germinated--next time I will try to inoculate them beforehand. Around April 10th I sewed a few more in the bare patches.

April 6th.

partially constructed bamboo lattice, April 6th.

April 19th

April 19th

The Spinach seedlings emerged in step with the peas, and by April 19 they, too, were taking off.

history-March 2009

It was evident that spring was coming early this year by John's birthday in the first days of March. The weather broke from the 30s and 40s to a balmy 60 on that weekend and we were able to actually sit and eat outside on the patio when his family came over the celebrate. Wes and Anna built a fairy house on the table out of pine cones and sticks and several of the yellow crocuses that had just opened up that week.



My mom stopped in on her way back from a trip to Maryland on March 14 and helped me dig a new bed for spring greens. We amended it with two wheelbarrows of compost and plugged the dug up grass into the area that the tomatoes had overgrown and killed last fall. I also dug under the patch of winter rye that I planted at the end of last October and let it decompose--readying the bed for the beets and cucumbers I'll plant in it this year. In the potting room under lights I started a tray of tomatoes--brandywine, striped german and an F-1 cherry hybrid early this month along with a tray of several different kinds of beets--forono, yellow tall, red early.
On a trip to Nantucket to surprise Jareb on his 30th, we took a quick walk on the cliff and I checked in on my inspiration roses.


This row of boxwoods and climbing roses on the front of a Siasconset reminded me of England--although a bit more modern and crisp.

Jareb, Vika and baby Fiona at Sanford Farm.

Around Ritik's birthday toward the end of the month he and John and I flew out to San Francisco to surprise our ex-Brooklyn crowd. It snowed the day we left home, but in the Bay area the jasmine was blooming and the weather was so warm that people were in bathing suits in Dolores Park. The end of winter was always the greenest time out there. I was struck by some grass growing on a boulder under the Golden Gate bridge.