Gardening

Boy, it’s been a warm one this year. We’ve had off and on mini-heat waves since June. It gets hot and sticky and then nice and cool. I’m not one for the heat, but I make do. Last week, in between the humidity, the temperature dropped to 53 degrees overnight. Laura and I had the […]

I got a good jump on my gardening this year, but was forced to stop because we experienced a brief heat wave earlier this week. The temperature rose up to 90 degrees and there was no way I was going to work outside in that. Early this morning, the heat moved out and the cool […]

Every spring, as I plant my garden, I surprise myself with how wonderful everything looks. I do the weeding from the previous year early on and when I’m finished with that, I plant the seeds. I usually grow tomatoes, kale, chard, beets, and various types of lettuce. After I plant, I sit back and wait. […]

I was outside yesterday picking some yellow squash that was getting rather large, when I noticed the orange tops of a few carrots peeking through the surface of some nearby soil. I decided to grab the greens of those carrots and give a nice tug. Surprisingly, some fully grown carrots appeared in my hand, like […]

This is the first year I planted beets, so I’m thrilled with how nicely they’re growing. I had no idea it was so easy. Really, beets are almost as hands-off as Swiss chard and kale. Take a look at these beauties. The stems and leaves of beets look almost exactly like those of chard. As […]

I think we finally got this gardening thing right. Last year, I planted way too much kale and chard and we couldn’t even come close to eating all of it. I had so much that I was giving it away. Basically, I had one raised bed (8’x4′) with only kale in it and another raised […]

I got this idea yesterday. Since I recently picked up a load of composted horse manure (that has no smell) over at the farm, why not try try to grow some chard indoors again? It’s the middle of October and my chard is still going strong outside, but I’m not sure how long that’s going […]

The entire goal of yesterday’s excursion was to shovel a load of horse manure into my truck and bring it back to the house to dump in our new raised garden beds. While the primary mission was accomplished, our secondary mission of petting and feeding the horses across the street somehow elbowed its way into […]

Well, this year’s gardening season was a complete success. I set up three raised beds and we grew cherry, plum and big boy tomatoes, green beans, chard, kale and lettuce. I, never in my life, thought we could get so much food from three small locations. I believe the first vegetable we began eating was […]

My good buddy, Steve, invited me over to his place this past Friday. He wanted to give me some gigantic chard plants that he grew in his garden this past summer. Since the cold weather is moving in, either the plants die or head inside. He figured that we could dig the plants up and […]

We’ve got a small problem in Maine when it comes to gardening. The season it very short. I’m not an expert on the subject, but I’m willing to guess that outside planting begins some time in May or June and ends in September or October. In order to get anywhere, you need to start planting […]

I was just talking to the neighbor outside when she asked how our garden was going. I didn’t really know how to answer. She caught me a little off guard, but I eventually said something along the lines of, “Umm, not sure. We’re getting some tomatoes, but not as many as I expected. It seems […]

I’ve had my eye on a few tomatoes for a week or so. The first one began ripening then and ever since, one by one, others followed suit. As of today, we’ve got one red tomato (which I just picked), two yellow tomatoes, one pink tomato and an orange tomato. Since I already picked the […]

When we first arrived in Palm Coast, we visited Lowe’s a few times, each time picking up one or two new plants. I’ve already told you about the rose bush, butterfly bush, blueberry bush, etc…but what I may not have told you about is our Rose of Sharon. This plant has been sitting in a […]

A while ago, I wrote a post on growing fig trees through their cuttings. Basically and in theory, you can take a few clippings from an already growing fig tree, stick them in some green moss, dirt or water and they’ll allegedly start sprouting buds and roots. I’m sounding very skeptical here because the initial […]

I have a short garden update for all those who are interested. I’m thinking that may be only two people, but for those two, I’d say this is exciting. First of all, I harvested our first squash about two days ago. I probably picked it a day too soon, but I got all sorts of […]

It seems that after every time is rains here, I go out to check on plants that are twice as large as the last time I checked on them. It rained pretty much all day yesterday. It was terrible. We had to go to the grocery store and I got soaked walking from my car […]

Our garden has really taken off. The tomato, cucumber, cantaloupe, squash and fig trees are at least twice the size of my last update. And the tomato plants are flowering quite a plenty. I’d estimate we have about 50 or so flowers right now. And what’s really exciting is that we have our first little […]

Our tomato plants have really taken off in the past few days. Even though it’s been raining pretty much every day around these parts, it’s yet to have any ill effect. I figured by this point, we’d lose something to over watering. Well, there is the papaya plant that’s not looking so hot, but I’m […]

Not that we’ve had any issues with animals eating our plants – well, let me correct that quickly here – we’ve had some birds eating my blueberries, but otherwise, the animals around here have been behaving rather well. They haven’t caused any damage to our tomato, pea, bean plants, etc…But I still worry. I worry […]

I just wanted to give you a quick update on our rapidly growing garden. So here goes… I finally received my 100 one gallon nursery pots, so I have been transplanting all the little baby plants, such as carrots, cucumbers, peas, peppers and tomatoes into various containers. The tomatoes were mostly split up as best […]

Our tomato plants seem to have taken a liking to the warm sun ’round these parts and have really taken off. I’d say they’re about four inches tall now and the size is just perfect for them to be repotted into their final homes. If you remember, we threw a bunch of seeds into our […]

The strawberry plants that we ordered a few weeks ago promised to offer “rapid growth” once planted and watered. Since I’m fairly new at gardening, I had no idea what rapid growth meant. Now I do. Once planted and watered, strawberry plants offer nothing other than rapid growth. Actually, these plants have been the only […]

I didn’t even know you could grow fig trees from cuttings. Apparently you can, because today, we received 6 cuttings that Laura had ordered last week. Did I know she ordered them? No. But that’s fine, because in just a short time, we’ll have 6 more fig trees to add you our collection. Check out […]

After I returned from Lowe’s with my new Papaya tree last week, I became somewhat obsessed with the fact that I may be able to grow one of my favorite fruits myself. Since we’ve arrive down in Palm Coast, I’ve been eating Papaya like it’s going out of style. To have some sort of power […]

Yesterday was a huge day with gardening. I purchased four bags of Sta-Green Garden Soil and a papaya tree. Papaya is one of my favorite fruit and after learning a bit about it yesterday, I discovered that it’s really easy to grow. All you need is seeds, good soil and a lot of heat. You […]

When we received these plants, the instructions told us that while the individual bare root strawberry plants may look lifeless, they are in fact very much alive – just dormant. And even though they are dormant, we can expect rapid growth once they decide to come out of their dormancy. I think they came out […]

We extended our gardening today to include the side of the house. Up until now, we’ve only focused on the front and the back, but with the heat of the summer upon us, we needed to get the lily of the valley in the ground. If you weren’t aware, we brought the lily of the […]

I didn’t know we had this many until I took them out to take pictures of them. Boy, we have a lot. I have no idea where we are going to put them all, but I’m sure we’ll find a place. But first, we need to get them germinated and set up for growth. That […]

When we first bought our small Knock Out Rose bush in the one gallon container, I figured it would be an easy plant to manage. And believe me, I’ve had these plants before and I based my belief on my history with them. They are easy to manage, but I’m beginning to have doubts about […]

We received a few small shipments this afternoon. Apparently, Laura has gone buck wild with ordering seeds. I didn’t know she did this. She told me about a few, but not all the ones I took pictures of and will post below. And she says that we still haven’t received the vegetable seeds. It’s good […]

For a few days now, I’ve been all stressed out about our future gardening endeavors. Laura makes fun of me, but my stress isn’t unfounded. The fact is, I’m not sure I’ve ever planted a piece of fruit or a vegetable successfully in my life. I’ve certainly tried, that’s for sure. But as far as […]

I was going to call this post, “My Mini-Garden.” Then, I thought of the word “micro” and figured that it sounded much more “green” and “organic,” so I used that. Now I can be like those hippie folk up in Ithaca who live in their “ecovillage.” All I need now is a guitar and a […]

Last Autumn, I dug up about six rose bushes from the hillside out front and transplanted them to a more reasonable area down in the front yard. I am now mowing the hillside and having those rose bushes with their sharp thorns is really a thorn in my side (haha). I get snagged all the […]

On Saturday, while driving around Glastonbury with my parents, we accidentally came across a local farm. We love these local farms because we never know what we are going to find in them. Since we were with my parents, I decided to pull in. I thought they would get a kick out of it. As […]

A few days ago, I walked outside and dug up a few “bunches” of Daffodils. They were regular Daffodils, but in bunches or clusters, meaning they consisted of about 10 or 15 individual bulbs. I am not sure if gardeners know this or not, but Daffodils are easily divided. Each bunch is just a whole […]

Remember when I told you I was transplanting the Daffodil bulbs from the area along the stone wall in the back yard to the area near the driveway? I told you I was doing this because the area was just too large for a garden and I would rather simply plant grass there instead. Well, […]

Perhaps the question is…Can I plant bulbs in the spring? I did find a few sites online that say I can. Here is one of them. I mean, places are selling bulbs all over the area now (if you haven’t noticed, it’s spring). Yesterday, I had to run up to Home Depot to get a […]

Well, I think it’s almost here. Yeah, now that I said it, it’s probably going to snow next week. What I’m talking about is Spring. If you’ve gone outside over the past few days, you might have gotten a tan. Sure, that may be exaggerating things a bit, but no one can deny sweating a […]

I think these two photos may have been the inspiration for my new photo gallery. I took them yesterday when it was kind of rainy outside. I thought it would be neat to post these really cool shots on the blog. Then, I thought that no one would know what the heck am I talking […]

Do you remember back when I transplanted those shrubs from the front yard to the side of the driveway? Well, everything is going well, except for the fact that the soil I planted everything in is extremely fertile for weeds. I had a little forest growing within a few weeks. I finally got my butt […]

Do you know how many people search for “When to steak tomotoes?” I bet a lot. Well, I think I spelled it correctly. I was driving down the road today and noticed that the neighbor had a bunch of tomato plants growing in buckets, just like me. His buckets may have been nicer, but mine […]

Actually, I am not even sure it is off the vine. It’s more like it’s off the plant. Well, I picked the first tomato a few days ago. We let it sit on the counter for a day and then cut it in half. Laura held a half and I held the other and we […]

I was looking at one of my earlier blog posts yesterday and came across the one I wrote about getting tomato plants. I was shocked…yes shocked, at how small the plants were when I got them. I would say these plants are between 3-4 feet tall right now. Here, take a look… I think they […]

We took another trip to a different town today. We went food shopping at Stop and Shop in Colchester. Colchester was a pretty neat town, but a little busy for my taste. It was cute with a nice park right off main street. I think it may have seemed busy because rush hour was getting […]

As you may know, I like to plant things and admire the things I plant. I even like Planters Peanuts. I take it personally when things droop or die. You may also know that the success of any new plant depends on many things, but one of them is the amount of water they receive. […]

When we first moved in, we noticed, and really liked the triangle garden right in front of the house. It was so full of a variety of plants. After we were settled for a bit, reality set in and I decided that this garden was way too full and needed to be cleaned out. One […]

One thing I really love to do is to stroll around the property early in the morning to look at all of our plants. I usually do this before work. People probably think I am crazy for actually enjoying what I work so hard for. I especially love to look at all the new growth […]