Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 61 Entries. Wednesday, February 12 View Page I hope 2025 is off to a good start for everyone. The Collard Greens are encased in snow and ice. Overnight lows have been in the single digits down to around five degrees. Will they survive this winter?   Tuesday, February 25 View Page Waimea Valley's botanical garden on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii. Over 5000 types of tropical and subtropical plants. A nice escape from the cold in New England.   Thursday, February 27 View Page Beautiful gardens at The Royal Hawaiian in Waikiki Beach, Honolulu. Despite being in one of the busiest parts of the city, its very quiet here.   Saturday, March 15 View Page We visited the park and garden today for the first time since last November. The Winter Rye will probably start cranking in the coming weeks. We have to do a better job this spring of keeping it short before tilling.   Saturday, March 22 View Page A beautiful Spring day in Boston. We started some seeds from Johnny's today indoors for the vegetable garden: Brandywine OG Tomatoes Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes Supersweet 100 Tomatoes Hybrid Paste, Plum, and Roma Tomatoes Grandero F1 OG Hybrid Bell Peppers, X3R Red Knight F1 Hybrid Hot Peppers, Red Ember F1 OG Hybrid Savoyed Spinach Sunangel F1 Basil Prospera Italian Large Leaf-Hybrid Downy Mildew Resistant (very important in the community garden) Summer Crisp Lettuce Magenta MT0 Marjoram Zaatar OG Greek Oreegano Portuguese Kale As far as the giant pumpkin, I am going to grow my own seeds for this first time this year from the DeMarco 266, which comes from the Young 1502 and the Connolly 1375, great shape and color, and proven in small spaces. The community garden will open for the year on 4/19 which will be mandatory clean up day. Soil samples will be taken. I will be using two small hoop houses this spring in the community garden and I am planning on three rounds of planting: One early start indoors around the middle of April that will go into the bigger hoop house. This will be a bigger transplant that will be indoors for around a month. A medium start indoors that will be indoors for around two weeks before going into the small hoop house. Direct seeding in the other two corners of my plot. I am still working on the above dates. While I will have hoop houses and black plastic, I will not have heating cables so I still have to be careful with the cold.   Friday, April 4 View Page The cold tolerance of Collard Greens is very impressive. These three survived the winter and are thriving now.   Saturday, April 19 View Page Today was clean up day in the community garden. It held up well over the winter. We raked and bagged a ton of leaves.   Saturday, April 19 View Page Our first time in here since 11/2 of last year. We took soil samples. Despite patchy Winter Rye, it still did a great job of blocking weeds.   Monday, April 21 View Page Happy Patriots' Day Marathon Monday! I started two DeMarco 266 seeds this morning. The dome runs around 84 degrees. This will be my early start, large transplant, that will go into a hoop house. I will also be using clear plastic on the soil this year to help heat things up. Two more rounds of seed starting will follow.   Thursday, April 24 View Page The veggies are off to a great start. I want to do a better job of gradually hardening this year. Last year I left them outside in the bright sun too long early on and lost a few plants.   Saturday, April 26 View Page This is the first time I have germinated one of my own seeds. Crappy, cool, rainy day here. No rush to head outside in this weather with no heating cables.   Monday, April 28 View Page I am going to expose the pumpkin plant to more natural sunlight this year early on before transplant.   Wednesday, April 30 View Page Transplanted into a two gallon pot today and some afternoon sun. The Collards have bolted and I harvested today. Three of the six survived the winter. A very nice April harvest.   Thursday, May 1 View Page Soil test results just came back.   Saturday, May 3 View Page San Diego Zoo's Food, Wine, and Brew Celebration. Our favorite event of the year. This zoo is also a botanical garden and some people come just for the plants. We set timers on the grow lights and left water in the trays.   Saturday, May 10 View Page We tilled both plots today. Not the best weather, but it had to get done. The soil doesn't retain a ton of moisture so it really wasn't that bad. We have never seen so many worms in our plots. The greens went into the veggie garden. We kept on top of the Winter Rye and tilling was so much easier this year. This old truck really comes in handy.   Sunday, May 11 View Page I direct seeded two DeMarco 266 seeds into this mound of potting soil that I added organics to. One of the seeds germinated late indoors so I added another fresh seed. Hopefully the .7ml clear plastic and a cut Polar Seltzer bottle will heat up the soil.   Sunday, May 11 View Page The greens are weak, despite a lot of hardening off. The tomato seedlings really overgrew them in the trays. I added some skewer stakes for support, they work great for small seedlings.   Sunday, May 11 View Page What a beautiful day.   Wednesday, May 14 View Page I am putting the plant out in natural sunlight as much as possible this spring.   Friday, May 16 View Page The soil temp in my plot is 66-67 degrees, but is likely to cool off with chilly weather on the way. Veggie garden is about 65 degrees. Both pumpkin seeds have germinated inside the plastic bottle, but with these soil temps they are very slow to break the surface. Some of the greens are looking better, while some of them did not make it.   Thursday, May 22 View Page 48 degrees with a Nor'easter. The plant will be going outside sometime after Memorial Day. I will carefully work the main down when it warms up.   Sunday, May 25 View Page The rest of my plot came in at 59 degrees. Under the plastic is 59 too. Clearly sunlight is a very important part of soil solarization.   Sunday, May 25 View Page Overall the recent weather really took its toll on the greens. We will be getting seedlings soon.   Monday, May 26 View Page I replaced the seltzer bottle with a one gallon jug today. Soil temp is 64. The sun helps!   Tuesday, May 27 View Page This morning I thought I snapped the pumpkin plant when I picked it up and it twisted. Fortunately it's okay. The veggies are going out into the garden tomorrow.   Wednesday, May 28 View Page The veggie garden is fully planted, except for the cucumbers.   Friday, May 30 View Page The final indoor picture of the pumpkin plant. It's time to go out into the world.   Friday, May 30 View Page As we know, these larger plants don't like to be transplanted.   Friday, May 30 View Page Just as other local growers are removing their hoop houses, my plants are going in. Why? These are not for frost protection, but rather an effort to add more heat to the soil and plants. One end will remain open. The goal is a larger plant at pollination than in previous years.   Friday, May 30 View Page This hoop house is also vented.   Friday, May 30 View Page The rose garden is looking good. More on that tomorrow.   Sunday, June 1 View Page The city cut down a tree just outside of the garden and left a nice pile of wood chip mulch. We hauled it inside and into the rose garden. Hopefully this will really cut down weeding time and effort this year.   Sunday, June 1 View Page Under the hoop on the smaller plant.   Sunday, June 1 View Page The larger leaves usually droop for a bit after transplant, but the main looks good. It should perk up in the near future.   Sunday, June 1 View Page Round three and the final round of planting was done today. I direct seeded these into the remaining two corners of the garden. These are my insurance plants in case the other two get cooked.   Sunday, June 1 View Page In the veggie garden we direct seeded Cool Customer OG and Gershwin F1 cucumbers under the plastic containers.   Sunday, June 1 View Page Veggie garden corner shot. The plants have perked up a bit since Wednesday night.   Wednesday, June 4 View Page Work event in Brooklyn. The summer heat is here. Hope I am wrong but I think a lot of our plants are going to be in trouble tomorrow.   Sunday, June 8 View Page As expected this plant is looking a lot better now. One side was open during the recent 90 degree plus day we had.   Sunday, June 8 View Page We worked the main downward today on the direct seeded plant and extended the hoop house. It is vented on the sides.   Sunday, June 8 View Page Fortunately only three tomato plants and one basil were lost in the recent heat.   Sunday, June 8 View Page The greens are looking good.   Thursday, June 12 View Page Looking a lot better now with the recent weather. I have to get in here in a day or two and add a slit to the plastic. The plant is starting to throw off bottom roots.   Sunday, June 15 View Page I was out of town for a work trip for a couple days and it looks like the plant got burned a bit on the closed side of the hoop. Its another cool day here in Boston with an east wind. We will not see 80 degrees again until Thursday.   Sunday, June 15 View Page The newer growth on the plant has good color. We are starting to pick up speed, which is typical for the middle of June.   Wednesday, June 18 View Page The plant is telling me it's time to come out of the hoop house. And the upcoming hot weather too.   Wednesday, June 18 View Page Into the Great Wide Open.   Wednesday, June 18 View Page This is a funky looking plant, but has great color and big leaves.   Wednesday, June 18 View Page Nice to see the veggie garden starting to take off.   Friday, June 20 View Page The Celebrity tomatoes took some damage.   Friday, June 20 View Page The wind is ripping out here.   Friday, June 20 View Page Much better now with additional stakes.   Friday, June 20 View Page We had a wind advisory today. Multiple trees down in Boston with power outages. I am laying off vine burying early in the year so I had a partial blow over.   Sunday, June 22 View Page It feels like a new chapter today. When we got to the garden this morning it was 74 degrees. Within a few minutes the heat really hit. We have some small Sungold tomatoes and hot peppers.   Sunday, June 22 View Page With the heat here I expect this plant to double in size this week. I am going to change it up this year with regards to pollination. From past years I have been in the 270lbs-370lbs range with pollinating a small plant from 6/30-7/6. That has produced a max of 13lbs a day of growth. This year I am going to let the plant get bigger and pollinate later in July, perhaps the second or even the third week? Depending of course on how the plant looks.   Sunday, June 22 View Page Plant number two.   Monday, June 23 View Page Unfortunately sunflowers are not allowed in the community garden. The past few years I directed seeded a bunch in the front yard, but the birds and squirrels got them all. This year I will be transplanting these Titan Sunflowers out front when they get larger. A few years ago John at Western Labs told me sunflowers come down to mainly two things, genetics and nitrogen. Don't worry Hayden, your MA sunflower record is safe.   Monday, June 23 View Page Last Monday I started some hot pepper seeds. We grew the Impalas a few years ago and they are one of my favorite peppers. I also started some Piri Piri seeds, pictured here. We can trace these back to the early 1970s when my girlfriend's relative brought seeds from Mozambique to Western Mass.   Tuesday, June 24 View Page 102 degrees in Boston today, an all time June record! This picture was taken during lunch hour after watering. Both plants are loving yesterday and today's heat. The second plant might just be the keeper if it continues to take off.   Tuesday, June 24 View Page I was surprised today to see that the Brandywine heirloom tomatoes were less stressed by the heat than any other variety, even Celebrity. Now that the soil is warmed up we have to get straw mulch down soon and start trench watering.