Ending 2011 and Beginning 2012

December is a month of the shortest of days. By the Winter Solstice, December 21, We get a 4:24 setting sun. Sunlight is scarce here because of the mountains that surround my home. Evidence of lacking sun can be seen (or not) amongst the dimly lit solar lights that are either on or not so much any more when I arrive home from work each pitch black evening.

December has turned out to be a great month for cutting down trees! I focused on 3 Birch trees initially, mainly for their ease of splitting and my love for their smokey smell whilst they burn!
2011 has been a strange year weather-wise, and the fact that December has had only a trace of snow put this season in the books as a rare one, indeed. I will actually be able to go into the woods on New Years day, January 1, 2012 and be able to collect kindling wood with no snow!

I'm officially amazed at how many seed catalogs have been delivered to my mailbox in November and December of 2011.
This year I made it a point to write the date of when I received each catalog in the upper right-hand corner on the catalog itself.
These seed companies must be using some new strategy because I've never had so many arriving in the months of November and December.

Here is a list of when and what I've received thus far:

11/14/11, HPS (Horticultural Products & Services)
11/23/11, Vermont Bean & Seed Co.
11/23/11, Totally Tomatoes
11/30/11, Seed Saver's Exchange Seed Catalog 2012
12/01/11, Johnny's Selected Seeds
12/17/11, R.H. Shumway's
12/19/11, Harris Seeds
12/27/11, Gurney's
12/28/11, Gurney's Henry Field's
12/28/11, Jung Seeds & Plants
12/30/11, Farmer Seed & Nursery*

*Not in above photo because photo was taken on December 29, 2011.

Here, I hold some special Rhubarb seeds which will be planted for experimental purposes. Any gardener that has Rhubarb knows that once a seed stalk shoots up, it is best to cut it back so the rest of the plant can produce better stalks to eat. I kept one seed stalk up and harvested some of the seeds. As far as I know, the seeds do not require stratification.

There is an amazing story behind this strain. It began in the early 1970s in Southwick, MA in my grandparents' garden. As a child, I would always get a small bowl of sugar and pick a few stalks of this luscious Rhubarb to eat like candy!

In 1981 (I was 14 years old), I transplanted a few roots to our new home in Chester, MA. By 1990 or so that patch was overgrown by weeds and the plants were almost lost.

I moved the few plants that I could from the old patch to a better garden location circa 1993.

As of 2005, even that section was compromised by weeds (and, unfortunately, still is today). I took the initiative to dig up two roots in early 2006 and planted them at my new house in Becket, MA, that spring.
It took about 2 seasons, but after 2008, I've had spectacular yields of Grampa's old Rhubarb!

It takes about 2 years for Rhubarb to grow from seed. Many books I have read say that I might get an entirely different type of Rhubarb all together.

So here we go! I can't wait to see what happens!
More photos will follow in the coming months.

:)

Garlic Planting

After the freak snowstorm of October 29, 2011, temperatures finally hit the low sixties on November 8th, 9th and 10th. The snow was almost gone except for a few patches here and there. In fact, it was the first time I can recall ever tilling snow into the soil in preparation for the garlic planting.

The German Extra Hearty garlic has been waiting patiently up in the rafters ever since harvest day back on July 24, 2011. I strung them up in bunches of ten bulbs each. They cured over a span of 15 weeks - 107 days to be exact. I fully intended to have them in the ground on October 29th, but the snow postponed the planting and had me wondering if they would be planted at all.

I pile the bundles into a wicker laundry basket (which has never been used for laundry, so I like to call it my "harvest basket") and move the operation to the front porch.

I first have to use pruning sheers to cut the dried leave stalks about an inch above the bulbs. Not a hard task but when you have to do 150+ it can get painful! I separate the smallest bulbs for eating and ready the larger bulbs for planting. Each year I see larger bulbs and cloves as the numbers grow.

This is my basket of small bulbs. While they are small, the cloves are large because this variety contains 4 cloves per bulb. There are a few (very few) exceptions with five and three cloves in a bulb. I make sure to plant cloves from the five-cloved bulbs but keep the three-cloved bulbs for eating.

On planting day, I use my thumbs to peal the outer dried skins to expose the tips of each clove. The next part isn't all that easy. Separating the cloves takes strength. Some folks use a dull, flat-head screw driver but that can damage the clove making it susceptible to disease or not to grow at all. If any clove gets a side exposed, I keep it for eating not wanting to risk a dud planting.

I planted over a two day period mainly because my thumbs were so sore from breaking up the bulbs. There are 120 cloves on the table in this photograph (about an hour's work). I planted 137 cloves the previous day.

I ordered five new varieties of garlic to plant this year. When they arrived in the mail in September and October, I stored them in the same place as my German Extra Hearty (up in the rafters). It didn't matter though. On planting day, the new varieties had moldy roots, some cloves were rotted and many others were sprouting.

New Garlic Varieties this season:

1. Siberian
2. Inchelium Red
3. Musik
4. Silver Rose
5. Duganski

I sigh to myself because that's how it starts. I received 3 bulbs of each variety, yet I had to discard about half of each. This new garlic is from a different place and is grown at different times. It will take a few years to acclimate to my growing schedule. By the way, my cured garlic, the German Extra Hearty that hung from the rafters was simply perfect, no mold, no rotting and no sprouting. I've trained it well.

I managed to plant about 400 cloves in all this season. The new varieties are seen planted on the left which I made a double row planting. The German Extra Hearty is on the right in a triple row planting. I mulch with straw to about 6 inches. If all goes well, I should see the first green sprouts in early April, 2012.

As for 2011, I ended up keeping about 85 bulbs plus any cloves too exposed to plant. I like this photograph because I can see the subtle purple blush which adds to how a perfect bulb of garlic should be.

Want some?

:)

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.