Some Much Needed Color

Saint Patrick’s Day is supposed to be pea planting time, but with temperatures barely getting above freezing today, I was hunkered down inside instead of digging in the garden. Winter seems determined to hang on a little while longer this year, and outside the spring bulbs are just barely beginning to push up through the soil.

This time of year the spring flower shows at the Smith College and Mount Holyoke College Botanic Gardens are the perfect antidote to the late winter gloom outside. Continue reading →

June in the Garden

After the May frenzy to get everything planted, June feels like rather a quiet month in the garden. Every bed has been planted, and there’s not much to do but water and weed and wait for things to grow. We didn’t get much sun in May, but so far June has been beautiful. Everything seemed to be stalled for a few weeks, but now that the plants are enjoying some sunshine, they are really taking off. Continue reading →

May Blooms

This afternoon as I was walking up to the garden, I noticed from a couple hundred feet away a flash of red in the flower border. I was a away from the garden for barely two days and while I was gone this happened:

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April in the Garden

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Things are really starting to happen now. The water doesn’t get turned on at the community garden until mid-April. Normally this isn’t a problem since we’re usually knee deep in mud this time of year, but our last significant rainfall was on March 3rd. This means ever since I planted my peas I’d been hauling a couple of watering cans and whatever containers I can find around the house to the garden each day, and my peas and spinach were getting just barely enough water to stay alive. I wasn’t sure if my poor little perennial herbs were going to make it. As you can probably imagine, the email I got at the end of last week announcing that the water had been turned on was pretty much the most exciting email I’ve received in a long time.

Now that they’re getting enough water, the peas are noticeably taller every day. I’ve enjoyed fresh spinach for dinner twice now. What a treat after a steady diet of kale for the past six months! I’m ready to not eat kale for a long time now. On Saturday I transplanted my lettuce, mixed greens, kale, and chard from the cold frame. I sowed beets and carrots too. I’m hoping to plant my leeks and onions this weekend. There’s still more brown than green in the garden, but now I have something growing in each of the beds.