Tillage radish is a cover crop I had never heard of until this summer. One of the amazing things about the tillage radish is its rapid growth. After my neighbor Rol harvested his garlic he planted this bed to tillage radishes in mid-July. Already the wide row is completely covered with lush foliage that will die down once we have a killing frost. The long daikon radish roots that have developed will also rot over the course of…
Spring planting did not go happily for me what with the rabbits coming along and eating each little shoot as it came up. Since spring we have added new resources – a big fence around the vegetable garden, and row covers. Therefore I am going to try for a fall crop in ways that I have not before. I took a look at the seeds I have leftover from the spring and realized that many of them can…
Rol's vegetable garden is one of the wonders of Heath. His is one of two very different gardens that I visited last week. My neighbor Rol is the garlic and onion king. This spring he coordinated a group order of onions from Dixondale Farm. I bought 60, and though we planted at the same time I can tell you that my onions look nothing like his. Weeding and watering seem to be key elements to success. Many of…
When I visited Daniel Botkin of Laughing Dog Farm some time ago, he showed me how he did a lot of planting in goat manure-laced hay. I envied his access to so much bedding because it does provide plants with nutrition and eliminates weeds. No fertilizing. No weeding. He is a lucky man to have manured goat bedding from his barn, as well and old hay bales. He said he doesn’t use the hay bales for planting until…
It seemed a little early but on March 6th I started some seeds indoors. Now, three weeks later it seems like it might have been totally unnecessary. I have neighbors who tilled sections of their garden and have already planted a number of cold hardy plants: lettuces, spinach, snap peas, carrots and beets. Who can gauge the risks in times like these? I might have been too cautious in starting my seeds, but my neighbors may have been…
I spent today at a wonderful Spring Symposium organized by our local Master Gardeners who do so much to help us all improve our skills while offering us lots of inspiration. I bought a copy of the Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener's Handbook by Ron Kujawski and his daughter Jennifer, who live near by. I know Ron from his days as a Cooperative Extension educator (and my days on the Extension Board). This sturdy spiral bound book published by Storey Publishing…
Paul Hicks has been farming in Charlemont just about since the day he was born 54 years ago, following in his father’s and grandfather’s steps. Now grandsons Tucker and Brody (aged four and two) are out in the barn and advising their father on how to drive the oxen. Of course, the farm has changed over the years. Paul’s father Richard and his uncle Walter had dairy herds. My husband and I got to know them because they…
Last fall my neighbor gave me several of his famous garlic bulbs to use as seed so I could plant my second garlic crop in the vegetable garden. My first crop was not very successful, mostly because I did not pay attention to cutting off all the scapes in the spring. My harvest in July was puny. This time I planted each clove in well tilled soil and mulched heavily with spoiled hay in mid-October. You can read…
Over the past couple of days three of my 6 fancy chrysanthemums and some morning glory seedlings in my little circle garden (which guards our mower from a huge boulder) have been eaten or pulled out. At first I couldn't figure out who would pull two of the mum babies out and hide them, but we have got bunnies around this year - for the first time. I never thought bunnies liked mums. Or morning glories. When I…
The old joke goes that if you don’t lock your car doors in August you’ll return and find the back seat filled with zucchini. You might be happy about this if you don’t have a vegetable garden, after all zucchini is a versatile vegetable that can be used in a number of delicious ways, is nutritious supplying protein, vitamins A and C and numerous other good elements but no cholesterol, and contains only 20 calories per one cup…