October Colors Vanish

October brings brilliant fall colors to the surrounding trees, but these hearty Marigolds are worth photographing too! This was the first year that I grew my Marigolds from seed. It will also be the first season that I've saved their seeds.

On Sunday, October 23, 2011, I got the rototiller back out to prepare the garlic beds. I decided to get an early start this season because I was cutting it too close in 2010 when I planted in November. I tilled the soil for well over an hour, stopping to clean weeds from the tines at least three times...

The weeds were worked into what is referred to as "green manure" which will decompose in the soil naturally over the next few weeks. It was getting late and since the sun disappears behind the mountain so much earlier in fall, it gets cold quick! 

The garlic planting would have to wait until next weekend. I was content in knowing that I had gotten this much accomplished a full three weeks earlier than last year. I thought to myself that it would be good timing and the garlic would be in two weeks earlier than when I did it at the very last minute in 2010. At least, that's what I thought...

This is what it looked like at 4:27 PM Saturday, October 29, 2011 on the day that I intended to get the garlic into the ground. The historic Nor'easter began about 2:00 PM and would continue well into Sunday. So much for that plan. 

This is what it looked like on Sunday morning with 18 inches of heavy, wet snow. The snowfall broke all historical records for most of the northeastern United States. Never before had anyone seen this much snow in the month of October. I was fortunate because I never once lost power. The nature of the snow being so heavy and the timing with so many leaves still on the trees spelt disaster. A few trees fell in this area but nothing compared to massive destruction to the east and south. Some folks were without power for more than two weeks.

In this photo you can (or can't) see the sun that is behind the mountain. This time of year, the sun continues to sink lower and lower behind that mountain. I only get about 2 hours of direct sunlight from 1:30 PM to 3:30 PM which makes it that much harder for the snow to melt.
You can also see that the garden is full of 18 inches of snow. Will I get the garlic in this year? I'm seriously wondering if I will have to start all over. Hundreds of cloves would not get planted this year. Or would they...

: |

September Begins with Cleaning Up

September began with my father and I cleaning & clearing the gigantic Black Willow that fell during tropical storm "Irene."
It was a slow start of limbing the smaller branches by hand with a humble tree saw, then hauling as much as possible with the tractor and trailer. It took about 12 trips but eventually most of the small stuff was removed so the big logs could be cut.

Luckily the gardens didn't suffer any major damage. Some of my yellow posts got pushed over by the giant tree, but that's it. The good news is that there will be much more sun shining on that garden since the huge tree is gone.

:)

August - A month that ends in Destruction

 I've had fun growing these Balsam flowers this season, also called "touch me not" because the mature seed pods pop when touched. Saving seeds from the pods is interesting. The flowers can range from white to red to purple and every shade in between. Only one color per plant.

 I've decided that container gardening is the new way for me to garden. The traditional method of rotor tilling, then everything goes to weeds by mid August is not working. I've made up my mind to build raised beds in 2012 as well as doing large containers such as baskets for tomatoes.

Flowers dazzle in August! These Black-eyed Susans are so bright yellow, you almost need sunglasses!

 A new apple off an old tree. I can only guess if this is a Macintosh because these old trees were planted long before I bought this place. I've added 4 new fruit trees so within a few years, I should be selling apples.

 The few sun flowers that made it seemed stunted this year at only 3 feet tall, but the brilliant red/orange colors make up for it.

So that's the nice part about August. Nice flowers, nice apples, nice weather... Then "Irene" came through on August 28th, dumping 6 inches of rain on already water-saturated soil. Flooding was immanent.

My gardens were untouched but I lost part of my yard due to flood erosion and I will be losing more because the stream has moved about 15 feet from where it once flowed. The result is dangerous undermining of my yard.

 The stream claimed this 100 year old Black Willow tree but it could not have fallen more perfectly! It just missed the garage and slammed onto a corner of the wood pile. It also smashed an old cast iron stove to pieces that was moved outside because it was cracked and too dangerous to use any more. I'm happy because now I can easily move the broken pieces and someday bring it to a scrap metal buyer.

This is a view from the road. You can see how the stream ate away at the soil and roots of the huge willow tree. Many other small trees were lost also. One thing's for sure, tropical storm Irene left a permanent mark on this area. It was an event that I would gladly like to forget but never will.

: |

July - Summer at its Peak

Why can't we just have July all year round? I ponder that as I take many short breaks in between the endless outdoor tasks while resting in my Adirondack chair. I look out over all of the lush green trees and grasses amazed at how all of this life can somehow be able to survive dormant in our harsh winter months. July is when all kinds of garden flowers wild flowers appear. My Maximilian Sunflowers (pictured above) began flowering on July 3rd.

My Northern Catalpa tree appears to be happy. I was worried about it earlier in the spring because it looked like it didn't make it through the harsh winter. The small bloom was a nice surprise (see June's entry) but I don't see any of the "beans" on it this year.

I'm very careful when I mow the lawn. I have about 4 of these "islands" of St. John's Wort that I spotted growing wild. I always harvest some in mid July to make "good mood" tinctures for the winter.

The corn, yellow squash and beans have doubled in size since this picture was taken on July 4th. However, the beans have had a tragic setback...

 Yup, I'm saddened to say that the whistle pig is back. Woodchucks are basically country rats that love to burrow under fences and target tender green leaves in the garden. This year, IT got in and ate most of the 4 varieties of beans. All hope isn't lost because when it happened last season, I saw that the beans grew back.
Activity was very high July 10th through the 13th, (Full moon was on the 15th) with 3 of the four fenced gardens breached.
Then, nothing. I haven't seen the furry bastard since. Let's just say the next time I shoot, it won't be with a camera.

There used to be four, 3 ft. tall African Marigolds in bloom, but the Guinea Pig on steroids chomped them off with his smelly teeth. Behind them, the tomatoes are doing well with my new method of compost then a top layer of straw. A few of the plants were eaten by the wood pig chuck, but they have since re-sprouted new leaves.

The firewood in placed around the fence base to help keep the fur pig out, but he has managed to move them in a couple of spots and burrow under anyway. Apparently, woodchucks do chuck wood. If anything, I hope he got splinters. I ended up replacing the firewood with a cinder block at one of his favorite spots. This seems to be working for now.

Meanwhile, after fortifying my fences, I actually got my peppers planted. They look pretty sad a week after I planted them. Most of them are shedding their leaves under stress from the hot sun we've had all week. I'm hoping for a thunder shower tonight since there's a slight chance in the forecast.

Finally, I v'e got a lot going on in the window boxes in front of the greenhouse. The pole beans are getting big, but no tendrils for climbing as of yet. The tomatoes are deep green and full of blossoms and the lettuce is ready to be picked. I spent some time making a nice support net out of garden twine for the pole beans to climb. It would be cool to see bean plants cover the windows of the greenhouse - literally, as they would cool the greenhouse by shading the windows!

We'll see...
:)

Garlic Scapes and Garden Gates

June was all about planting at the beginning of the month. I've planted more varieties of seeds than ever before. The weather Gods have blessed the gardens & orchard with a steady diet of rainy days and sunny days - not too many extremes.

We had some strong thunderstorms at the beginning of June, in fact, if you go to You Tube and search for "Tornado Springfield MA" you will find some incredible videos taken on June 1, 2011.

I was sad to see that my peach tree took a hit from the thunderstorms. For the last 5 years, I have been bringing this tree back from dormancy.

Saddest thing is that this year it was loaded with baby peaches. Oh well, that's the way the mop flops... Mother nature always has a surprise or two each year to keep me on my toes.

Now for some happy news. I bought this rather large Red Bartlett Pear tree and planted it on June 11th. I'm hoping that it will be ready to flower next year.

And now for those garden gates. Mr. Woodchuck will be visiting any time now, so the best defence is a good fence!

I read that woodchucks don't like tomatoes. I've found the opposite to be true - they love them!

On June 19th I began cutting the garlic scapes. I only did one row of about 100.

 I like to cut the scapes once they've gotten to one full curl. I am letting the rest goto a second curl and will harvest them in July. I'm curroius to know if letting the scapes grow longer will influence the size of the bulbs in the fall harvest.

Garlic scapes have a wonderful aroma, but taste much milder than a clove. The scapes will keep in the refrigerator for 2 weeks.

May Blossoms, Storms & Dragonflies - Oh My!

I'm happy to report that my 5-in-one apple tree has bloomed for the first time since planting it 5 years ago. It was badly damaged last year because of a rodent which girdled 3/4 of the trunk bark. If you venture back to my May post in 2010, you can see how I saved the tree with grafted prunings.

These photos were taken on May 20th. The trees were full of apple blossoms!

Above are some blossoms which are just beginning to open.

Close-up of a Macintosh apple blossom.

These are radishes (as of May 20) next to the garlic. The German Giant radish seed was saved from an over-wintered volunteer which had a golf ball-sized plump radish. It was hard not to pick it to eat! But I let it grow to flower and seed. I hung the seed pods in the rafters all winter. Each pod averages 4 seeds or more, so letting one radish plant go to seed will offer you well over 200 seeds next year.

Some last minute transplanting was done last weekend (May 22) with the smaller tomatoes and basil. Some were second tries of varieties that didn't have very good germination rates. All plants have been moved to the greenhouse to experience natural daylight. The last day under the fluorescent lights was May 21.

The last two weeks of May are filled with the threat of thunderstorms. These ominous clouds were overhead on May 24th. The atmosphere was very unsettled and clouds were approaching the tornadic stage.

Dame's Rocket just came into bloom on May 25th this year. It's also the time of year when I selectively mow parts of the lawn and leave some sections alone so they can flower, such as Daisy's, St. John's Wort and the brilliant colored Orange Hawk Weed - A.K.A. The Devil's Paintbrush (See next month's photos of these June flowers.)

After a brutal winter, this Northern Catalpa tree finally came back to life last week. I planted it last year because I have childhood memories of the one at my grandparents' house. I would fill my (kid-sized) purple wheel barrow full of the "beans" that fell from the tree. I called it "The Bean Tree."

I was concerned because many of the lower branches snapped from heavy snowfalls. It appears to be doing fine now.

I moved most of my houseplants out to the porch on May 29th. It's great to see the front porch come to life for the rest of the summer. Watering is easier with the hose and all of the leaves get a good misting treatment.

The Dragonflies have just come out as of May 29th. It's always great to watch them dart about by the hundreds at sunset. They provide added entertainment when I mow the lawn because the mowing stirs-up bugs that the dragonflies eat. Talk about 3D dive bombing!

:)