Thinking about the new year

I knelt down to have a look at the remaining lettuce this weekend. Unfortunately, it looks pretty frozen. The weight of the snow and ice on the plastic cover pulled the sides up far enough that the lettuce was exposed to below zero wind chills. I will check again on Christmas Day when a high near 40 F is forecast, but I think this may be the end of the 2009 garden.

It is hard to believe that we will be starting seeds for the next garden season in only 8 weeks. It seems very close.

I have been perusing several gardening books online, they all receive excellent reviews on Amazon:
The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year Round Vegetable Production Using Deep Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses - Eliot Coleman;
The New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener (A gardener's supply book) - Eliot Coleman;
Backyard Market Gardening (Good Earth) - Andy, W Lee;
Fresh Food from Small Spaces: The Square-Inch Gardener's Guide to Year-Round Growing, Fermenting, and Sprouting - R.J. Ruppenthal;
Sprout Garden - Revised Edition - Mark Mathew Braunstein;

Happy Holidays to everyone and a happy and prosperous new year. The best is yet to come!

Final harvest...almost

I intended to make the final harvest this past weekend, however there was so much lettuce that I decided to harvest only half, put the plastic cover back on and get the rest next weekend. I was able to harvest several carrots, a beet, lettuce, kale and parsley. In future years with more planting, we should be able to eat fresh veggies from the garden right up to the New Year with nothing more than a thin layer of plastic covering the beds. We just need to get the timing right for the Fall planting. I believe that will be somewhere in mid-August.

Update March 23, 2011: Based on subsequent experience, mid-July would be the latest for us to plant in order to harvest greens through the winter.

Potato harvest

Last weekend, we harvested the rest of the potatoes. It was fun digging through the soil, a bit like finding Easter eggs on Sunday morning. My youngest daughter and her friend enjoyed helping.

With the Holidays quickly approaching and more left to do to prepare for Winter, I have decided to do a final harvest from the garden this weekend and then pick up again in the Spring. I will be reporting on my indoor kitchen gardening experiments in the meantime.

Late Autumn update

I have not figured out how to back-date posts so I will post something I wrote on October 27 and then continue with this week's update. October 27: This past week, all of the trees that were green finally put on their autumn colors. There are many trees that are bare now, but the garden is still growing and producing beautiful greens. I was especially impressed by the lettuce when I took off the plastic cover Monday morning. We are having a bit of a "warm" spell. I don't know if it qualifies as an Indian Summer, but the sunshine and relative warmth are appreciated. November 11: I harvested some kale, lettuce, parsley, carrots and beets Monday morning. We had beautiful weather in the 60's Saturday and Sunday thanks to hurricane Ida pushing the warm Gulf air up our way. It often happens that when there is a hurricane churning in the Gulf, our weather is as perfect as one can imagine. When I looked at the weather forecast for the week, it looked like it would stay above freezing, so I left the plastic covers off the garden frames. To my surprise, we had a heavy frost last night. I am hoping that the lettuce will survive. Because my last planting of lettuce did not come up, there is a lot of open space in the garden frames, but there is enough left to experiment with extending the season.

Frosty mornings

We have had several frosty mornings in the past week (this morning's temp was 25), but the daytime temperatures have been in the 40's and 50's. This week, daytime temperatures are forecasted in the 50's and 60's. I have covered four of the five frames with plastic in the hope that it will give the remaining vegetables a warm boost during the day and keep them from freezing at night. I have drawn up plans for a greenhouse made with electrical conduit, PVC pipe, a 2x6 ridge and plastic, which will provide a double layer of protection. My inspiration for the greenhouse is Eliot Coleman's "Four Season Harvest".

In other news this weekend, I trapped and relocated a pesky red squirrel who failed to get the message that I didn't want him chewing holes in my garage and I finished a fence around our arbor vitae to protect them from the deer. For the past few years, I have been wrapping the arbor vitae with burlap, usually at the last minute, in the dark, in the midst of a driving snow. This year, I drove metal stakes and hung a 5' high fence on a nice sunny day, a definite improvement.

I have seen it mentioned often that deer like to eat arbor vitae. In my experience, they will only eat it when everything else is covered with snow. In other words, they don't prefer it but will eat it when nothing else is available.

I am imagining all of my plants thriving under the protective warmth of the plastic, hopefully they are not getting too hot. I will provide an update later this week.

Mid-Autumn update

The leaves have mostly turned and the forecast is beginning to mention snow. This past weekend, I harvested a lot of greens, carrots, and beets, pulled out the plants that are not going to produce any more (cucumber, basil, green pepper, bolted cabbage), and harvested some very small potatoes. My youngest daughter calls them "American Girl" potatoes, just the right size to satisfy her AG dolls.

Last night, I covered three frames with heavy duty plastic. I hope to cover one more tonight, then turn my attention to covering the arbor vitae before the deer find it is the only edible green thing in view.

I have been working on a "lessons learned" document and hope to post that sometime soon.

End of September update

Last chance to post in September, here is a quick update. As the weather begins to cool off, there are several things in the garden that should be harvested. The lettuce in frame three has been ready for a couple of weeks. The remaining kale continues to put out new leaves and there are quite a few leaves that haven't been harvested for weeks. There are a couple of cucumbers and lots of parsley. Also, it is time to dig out the potatoes which were left in the ground to cure to see if there are any unaffected by the blight.

My mind has turned to all of the tasks around the yard that need to be completed before the really cold weather sets in. Still, I am hoping to cover the garden with some kind of greenhouse structure to see how far the season can be extended. Also, I would like to plant some garlic.

Sowing spinach and lettuce

With all of the spaces freed up from tomatoes and melons, I had the equivalent of a full garden box available. This was planted with several varieties of lettuce and spinach. Overall, I planted about 70 lettuce and 18 spinach. I am interested to see if these will mature before the weather gets really cold and will be experimenting with some form of inexpensive greenhouse or row cover to extend the season. The goal is to have enough greens to pick throughout the winter.

Autumn is approaching

Friday evening I planted 8 kale seedlings and picked the last of the cherry tomatoes (about 2 cups). Last night, 32 spinach seeds were planted. In recent weeks, I have visited gardens across Western and Central New York have seen no melon, potato or tomato plants unaffected by blight.

Leaves on the trees are starting to turn. Goldenrod, white snakeroot, flax and purple loosestrife are the most abundant wildflowers in bloom.

Tomato blight

Well, not long after I was bragging about how well my tomatoes were doing, I came out to the garden to find my plants consumed by the late blight. I did some research and found that it has been particularly bad in the Northeast this year. I picked all of the fruit but much of it had to be thrown out. We enjoyed the tomatoes while they lasted. On the bright side, this opens up a lot of squares for planting Fall crops and we harvested enough basil to make some nice pesto. I will be planting spinach, kale and lettuce tomorrow evening. Pictured to the right, one of the more unusual bugs that have visited the garden this summer.

Morning Glories and setting suns

These are the morning glories that we started in February. Only four of the nine plants survived, but I am told that they will self-seed from this point forward. The length of daylight is getting noticeably shorter. The last two evenings I was mowing the grass until I could barely see and it was only 8:30PM when I came in. Officially, the sun sets at 8:00PM tonight. I was surprised to find that the length of daylight is about 3 minutes shorter each day (the length of daylight that we lose each day increases up until Autumn Equinox where it tops out at 2m 53s). By the end of September the sun will be setting at 7PM (September Sunsets). I had better setup some lights outside if I plan to do any gardening in the evenings this Fall.

Tomato tally

It feels like summer only lasted about a week here in Western New York. I am not sure we even made it past 90 degrees, but that is just fine with me. It is much more pleasant to work outside when the temperature is below 80. Most people that I talk with are saying it has been a tough year for their tomatoes with all of the rain and cooler temperatures. I think we are doing better than most. The cherry tomatoes are reaching well beyond the 7 foot trellises that I built and are filled with ripening fruit from top to bottom. The larger tomatoes are also looking lush and producing lots of fruit. I don't know whether this is due to the superior qualities of the Mel's Mix (square foot gardening soil mix) or something else, but the tomatoes are what are giving me the greatest pleasure from the garden these days. We started picking cherry tomatoes at the beginning of August, maybe four cups up to the 16th, then we picked six cups of cherry tomatoes on the 16th, four cups during that week and another four cups this past weekend (this is from about 8 plants). We have picked about 4 of the larger tomatoes at this point. The lettuce stand that I started in July has been rather disappointing, with scanty growth. I think it is the seed variety or perhaps the variety is intended to be planted more closely together. Fortunately, we have been receiving donations from other gardeners and CSA members who have gone on vacation and have no need for their farm share (including the Squash People). We also have another lettuce stand developing and quite a few parsley plants. Next year, I think that I will focus more on growing garden greens, carrots and beets and less on the cole crops. As soon as I have time to build another frame, I will be planting garlic for next year.

Attack of the squash people

Last Friday we harvested some more greens. We have been picking cherry tomatoes for the past couple of weeks. It looks like the big tomatoes need another couple of weeks to ripen. I didn't plant any zucchini or crookneck squash this year, knowing that they are always in overabundance. Coincidentally, I was given a book of poetry yesterday and the first poem that I opened to is titled "Attack of the Squash People". Queen-Anne's lace, flax and purple loosestrife were blooming along the roadsides on the way to the farm Saturday morning (white, purple and pink). Interestingly, only the flax is native to our land. This was also the first day that we noticed the sound of the cicada's, a sure sign of the approaching end of Summer. I picked up some garlic from the farm stand and will be planting that as soon as I can get another garden frame built. This morning is the first time I walked outside and felt like summer had arrived. You know, where the low temperature the previous evening is in the seventies instead of the fifties or low sixties? I believe that our July was the coolest and wettest on record.

Late-midsummer review

The Spring kale and chard appear to have given everything except for one more harvest. The second planting of lettuce is almost in full swing, providing enough for a respectable salad this morning. I will definitely want to have more garden space next year and more frequent plantings of cooking and salad greens.

Cute carrot

I was able to spend several hours working on the garden this weekend, though I became thoroughly drenched with rain and the mosquitoes were doing everything they could to bite my ears. Three of five garden frames now have trellises. A final handful of broccoli was harvested (not shown) and the plants finally pulled to make room for more Fall crops, 16 parsley and 8 lettuce. The lettuce seeds that were planted earlier this week are beginning to show. I also planted several squash plants that have been languishing on the front porch. These were planted directly in the ground beside the frames.

First Fall planting

This past weekend, I managed to get a trellis completed and tomatoes trimmed and tied in frame one. Some of the cherry tomatoes are beginning to ripen. More trellises are planned this week for frames three, four and five. This morning, I harvested mostly parsley with a little lettuce, kale, broccoli, basil, marigolds and chard. The cucumber plants are beginning to fruit. The watermelon and pepper plants are growing very slowly. Hopefully that will change as the weather warms up in August. Also this morning, I seeded about 25 lettuce, 9 spinach, 6 chard and 16 carrots to fill up empty squares for the Fall harvest.

Diversity

Though this morning was not our largest harvest, it may be our most diverse. We harvested peas, chard, kale, beet greens, cabbage, broccoli and marigolds (and I was tempted to pick a few lettuce leaves but decided to wait another day or two). If we had planted summer squash, we might be harvesting them now, but there is always plenty of squash to go around. The previous two cabbage heads were delicious in stir fries. I think I forgot to mention that we harvested a couple of carrots when the potato frames were put in place. They were tiny, but delicious. I am looking forward to harvesting more carrots and beets, perhaps in August.

Penthouse potatoes

This past weekend, we pulled the remaining three lettuce plants from the original planting. Fortunately, the 26 new lettuce plants will be ready to begin harvesting soon.

The potatoes that were planted a couple of weeks ago are growing well. I added an extra 1x4 frame around them so that they will produce more.

We visited friends in Dansville where we sampled raspberries, blueberries, and currants from their garden and had a nice picnic including homegrown crookneck squash and broccoli.

I am hoping to plant the Fall vegetables this weekend and add a couple of trellises for the burgeoning tomato plants.

Final big lettuce harvest

We had another good harvest this morning, the last of the original lettuce plants, except for three plants left in frame three. I pulled about 24 lettuce plants that were near bolting. Our Fall plantings will replace these soon. The recently planted potatoes are coming up well and some of the cabbage looks about ready for harvest.

Wild raspberries

Today we harvested more peas and broccoli and lots of wild raspberries. There is also a bowl of mint leaves in the picture which were later dried in the dehydrator for tea.

How much is it worth?

My Master Gardener sister-in-law just sent me a fascinating link to the story of one family who potentially saved $2,150 at the grocery store by growing their own fruits and vegetables. Note that the family lives in Maine! So no excuses about a short growing season :) This will be especially true when we begin experimenting with extending our season with row covers and simple greenhouses this Fall.

20 Garden Veggies That Could Each Save You $25 or More (Including One Worth $600)

Original article by Roger Doiron:
What’s a home garden worth?

Raw data and lots of interesting comments and references from other gardeners:
Economics of home gardening

Saturday is Food Independence Day! -- for some people at least :)

Harebells and daisies

Just as things started to dry out this weekend, the rain started up again. I haven't had time to do anything with the slugs except toss them one by one away from the garden when I find them. Youngest and I harvested veggies on Saturday morning before the day heated up. We harvested enough broccoli for a meal, some snap peas and more kale, chard and lettuce. The wild raspberries look like they will be ripe in the next couple of weeks. We have harebells and daisies blooming in the yard.

Tatopoes and the slug invasion

I received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from my youngest for Father's Day. I also planted 16 potatoes in squares formerly occupied by kale, spinach and lettuce. The potatoes were purchased at the Farmer's Market, since all of the seed potato suppliers sold their stocks weeks ago.

The garden is in transition from the continuous bounty of fresh greens to the beginning appearance of broccoli, peas and baby tomatoes. At the same time, the lettuce and kale are producing more slowly and the spinach is history. I am looking forward to the 26 new lettuce plants maturing over the next couple of weeks. We will need them to avoid buying lettuce at the grocery store.

With all of the rain that we have been getting, the slugs are out in force. I am planning to invite them to a beer party (I have heard they can't resist a good beer), then ship them off to a distant location. I also learned that they do not like copper. I may line the inside of my garden frame with copper tubing next year to see if that keeps them out. The gardens were pest free up to this point with more than one visitor commenting on how few holes were present in the vegetable leaves.

Rain, rain, rain

It has been raining off and on for the past three days. More to come tonight and tomorrow (1"-2"). It is nice to have a break from watering.

I noticed this morning that there are several snap pea pods ready to pick. It doesn't take long once the flowers appear.

I am hoping to get some potatoes, lettuce and carrots planted on Sunday after the rain.

Latest news...

This morning, I pulled the rest of the spinach plants that were bolting and several romaine lettuce that seemed near the end. This will free up some squares to plant Fall crops. I also harvested the first head of broccoli. It is only about three inches across. I didn't want to wait too long and miss the opportunity.

This past weekend, the extra lettuce that sprouted in the 8 places where I placed seed in frame 5 was transplanted. This gives us 26 young lettuce plants instead of the originally planned eight (see frame 5). It is one of the great things about SFG that when more plants come up than fit in a square, one can easily transplant them elsewhere. The soft, uncompacted soil ("Mel's Mix") is the key.

Regarding lettuce plants, we currently have 33 mature plants that have been providing cuttings every 2-4 days for the past several weeks (along with 9 spinach, 6 chard and 9 kale plants). This seems to be a good number of plants for our family of four, allowing us to have salad with dinners and healthy sandwiches and salads for lunch. It sounds like a lot of plants, but 32 lettuce plants will fit in eight squares or one-half of a single garden frame.

We are easily saving more than $10 a week with produce from the garden which has replaced the lettuce, celery, carrots and asparagus that we had been buying every week at the grocery market.

Surprisingly, the kale is sweet enough that we don't mind eating it raw in a salad. It is also good lightly sauteed with olive oil and garlic.

I have posted a before and after harvest image of frame two from this morning so that you can see how I trimmed some cabbage leaves to allow room for the lettuce and kale to grow and also to see how the lettuce and kale are harvested, leaving just a few smaller leaves to mature for the next harvest.

Roof raising

Well, I finished the new roof for the broccoli and as you can see, it really needed the room to stretch. It took until well after dark and the neighbors were beginning to worry about the strange noises in the backyard... I have also included a photo of our first pea blossom.

Trellis

Last night we finished the trellis for garden frame two. I can already see the tomatoes and peas stretching into the new space. Tonight, I am hoping to raise the roof on the broccoli another 18 inches. One of our basil plants wilted and dropped leaves after the latest rain storm. It had been struggling with some kind of insect or fungus. It is odd because the other three basil plants in the same garden frame are healthy and undisturbed. In other news, I noticed this morning that another spinach plant has bolted. Stopping by David's garden on the way to work, I saw some beans and lettuce popping up through the soil.

Bounding broccoli, bolting spinach

I made a quick harvest this morning and allowed the broccoli stretch it's legs for a few minutes. I didn't expect the broccoli to reach such a height... One of the spinach plants has bolted (gone to seed).

Eldest daughter and I attempted to build a trellis for frame two but ran out of daylight. We will finish up tomorrow evening, then the peas and tomatoes will have plenty of room to grow.

Note: the camera date is off by four days.

Got milk?

I noticed a quarter size broccoli floret on one of the broccoli plants this weekend. We haven't had time to do anything except keep things watered.

We started a milk share with a local farm this week. Our first two attempts to make butter from the cream failed miserably, but we will try again next week. We made farmers cheese (paneer) with the remaining milk and that turned out fine.

Morning glory

I spent some time in the garden this morning before work, pulling off the frost protection, harvesting greens and pulling some weeds. Everything looks healthy. I don't think it got quite cold enough to frost here.

... and a Frost Advisory!

This is getting old... another frost advisory tonight. I think that this will be a new record if it really happens.

The broccoli, tomatoes and peas are beginning to reach the top of the garden frame protector. I will have to build trellises and open the rear of the frame protector this week so that the vining plants can keep growing. I spied a tomato flower blossom this evening and the marigolds that we started in April are getting ready to flower. In the non-edible vegetable realm, I saw a yellow lily flowering and the peonies are getting ready to burst their seams.

Sunshine and rain

There is not much to say about our garden this weekend, though I hope to add another photo to each slideshow to show how things have grown. We spent the day helping a friend plant his garden and it has been raining steadily this past week and tonight, so we haven't had much time. Note in the picture that we planted a lot of hot peppers for Dave. Dave likes peppers!

I am feeling pressure to get another frame or two built to accommodate some plants that we have started. Maybe I will find some time during the week. I have noticed daisies, honeysuckle, rhododendron and poppies blooming around town this week.

Memorial Day update

We just had six days of warmth and sunshine overlapping Memorial Day weekend. The lettuce, carrots and beets that we planted in garden frame #5 are now coming up. We picked a lot of greens this weekend and I am working on an animated graphic to display the garden. (Updated Tuesday 26)

Spirea and chestnut trees are blooming.

Pick a little, talk a little...

Two nights ago, we picked another large bowl full of salad greens. It has been three weeks since we purchased any greens at the grocery store (though we did accept a donation of spinach and arugula from our neighbor). This means that we are saving at least $5 a week at this point thanks to the garden.

We have had a long stretch of sunny, warm weather. We have been watering each garden frame with about 2 gallons of water every morning or evening. That may sound like a lot, but according to Mel (the originator of the SFG method), it is impossible to overwater a square foot garden due to the special soil mix that absorbs what it can and allows the rest to drain away.

This weekend, we will be helping a friend and his two daughters start a garden. Next week, we will need to build more garden frames to ensure a continuous harvest through the Summer and Fall.

One more frost

The temperature gauge said 24 degrees Fahrenheit this morning. This is getting ridiculous. Another frost warning tonight. Hopefully that will be the end of it. The forecast is for a high of 80 degrees on Wednesday.

We picked a couple of gallons of greens for dinner and this time there was more we could have picked.

Another freeze warning

I had to bring out the drop cloths again tonight to cover the cold-sensitive plants. It is getting really late to be having frosts. My sister-in-law, the Master Gardener, identified the brown spots on the tomatoes as frost damage, so I covered them extra well this time.

We finished planting the fifth garden frame this weekend (seeds: 32 carrots, 32 beets, 8 lettuce; plants: 2 watermelons, 2 tomatoes, 2 basil, 1 pepper) and started some garlic cloves, sunflower and lettuce seeds inside. Iris and dame's rocket have started blooming.

Mmm, greens!

We harvested another loosely packed gallon of greens this evening for dinner (romaine and oak leaf lettuce, beet greens, and spinach). We will pick some kale tomorrow evening. The tomato plants are developing brown spots, not sure if that is due to the cold weather or something else. Honeysuckle and cornflower are beginning to bloom.

Freeze warning

We appear to have survived a freeze warning last night by covering our sensitive plants with drop cloths. This weekend we built two more garden frames and planted one. So we have four frames in production and one awaiting groundhog protection before planting. We harvested a loose packed gallon of lettuce and spinach.

I think I have the design for the garden frames worked out, so will be posting some instructions and pictures soon. Another freeze warning tonight, that should be the last of them...

In the photo of the new garden above, my eldest daughter planted from seedlings everything except the beets and carrots. The beets and carrots were moved from the first frame where more than one plant sprouted in the same location. Pictured are four tomatoes, four basil, two green peppers, six parsley and two marigolds.

Lilacs in the air

It was a warm, sunny morning. The scent of lilacs is in the air and wild strawberries are blooming in the yard (no weed-and-feed for us ;). The watermelon seeds that my daughter planted last week are pushing up through the vermiculite. We have plants sunning on the front porch waiting to be planted. Everything should be in the garden this weekend. We will also begin harvesting lettuce and spinach in earnest.

Celandine and winter cress blooming around the yard and iris flower stalks appearing.

Progress

It has been a while since I have written. Looking at the photo with the last post, those plants have all grown tremendously and we did get everything except the tomato, peppers, parsley and basil planted that weekend. We have been making progress with the garden amidst birthday celebrations, chorus recitals and soccer games. One thing that we have learned is that it doesn't pay to put out seedlings too early. Though cold-tolerant plants like lettuce, spinach and cabbage can survive frosty nights, it is the seedlings that matured a little more inside before planting out that are now flourishing the best.

We now have three garden frames fully planted and two more under construction. I felt that I needed to get some tomatoes planted, so we planted them among the peas even though the peas are only two or three inches tall. Hopefully, these plants will get along. No sign of frost in the forecast.

Now blooming in the yard are violets, vinca, quince, pilewort (buttercup), garlic-mustard, forget-me-not, cuckoo flower, ground-ivy, dandelion, and apple and pear trees.

Fair weather

I placed all of our tomato, lettuce, basil, parsley and broccoli outside today so that they can have a taste of real sunshine and the gentle breeze. Hopefully, we will get everything except the tomatoes, basil and morning glories planted out this weekend.

Yesterday, I visited the Cornell Plantations in Ithaca with my eldest daughter. Our favorite spot was the rhododendron garden built on a large round hill with several benches and hidden spaces to sit and enjoy nature. The smell of the pine mulch and beautiful surroundings brought back memories of walking in Sequoia National Park with my grandmother. I told my daughter that her great-grandmother would tell us to breathe the fragrance of the forest deeply through our noses and exhale through our mouths.

New arrivals

We have lettuce, carrots and beets sprouting in the first garden frame. We planted those by seed on March 29. About 10% of the peas have sprouted as well. The weatherman is calling for temps in the 70's this weekend which should cause a surge in growth. The morning glories are about four feet tall in the house. We definitely need to start those later next year...

The Lilac Bush and the Apple Tree

We spent the weekend cleaning up the yard and moving wood piles. Not much to say except that the forsythia, violets and vinca are blooming in the yard, the deep red peonies are beginning to unfurl their leaves and the lilac and apple trees are showing their first green leaves -- which reminds me of one of my favorite songs. It was a nice sunny weekend, soon to be followed by cold and rain. Good for the rain, the ground was beginning to look parched.

The Lilac Bush and the Apple Tree
by Kate Wolf

The Lilac Bush and the Apple Tree
Were standing in the wood
Out on a hill above the town
Where once a farmhouse stood

And in the winter the leaves are bare
And no one sees the signs
Of a house that stood and a garden that grew
And life in another time

One spring when the buds came bursting forth
And grass grew on the land
The Lilac spoke to the Apple Tree
As only an old friend can

Do you think said the Lilac this might be the year
When someone will build here once more
Here by the cellar still open and deep
There's room for new walls and a floor

Oh no, said the Apple there are so few
Who come here on the mountain this way
And when they do, they don't often see
Why we're growing here so far away

A long time ago we were planted by hands
That worked in the mines and the mills
When the country was young and the people who came
Built their homes in the hills

But now there are cities the roads have come
And no one lives here today
And the only sign of the farms in the hills
Are the things not carried away

Broken dishes, piles of boards,
A tin plate, an old leather shoe
And an Apple Tree still bending down
And a Lilac where a garden once grew

Last Frost Date

The average last frost date for our area is quickly approaching. Using data from the Northeast Regional Climate Center, I put together a chart which can help assess the risk of frost after a given date. The chart shows the frequency of the last frost date since 1939. It looks like the odds are in our favor Saturday, May 2, though it still may be necessary to protect frost-sensitive plants after that date depending on the forecast. I may try planting out some tomatoes in wall-o-waters on May 2 just to see how they do.