Port Potager

You may recall that the epic Winter of 2015  brought with it a lot of damage to our plants , especially those in the perennial border and the orchard. Our small Granny Smith tree was hit particularly hard, since it was, for a time, completely buried in a full Gronk of snow : When the snow finally melted, its massive weight broke every branch on the little tree: We figured it was a total goner, but since it managed to both blossom and set fruit (!!!), we didn't remove it. The result? One perfect apple: This is the one and only Granny Smith apple harvested from that tree ever , and it was a great one: extra large, crisp, and juicy. It's a shame the tree isn't worth saving (we have some orchard redux in mind for next spring, actually), but it was nice to see it put out one prefect piece of fruit.

All those giant piles of snow from the historically blizzard-prone Winter of 2015 left behind a lot of damage. Though the snow was initially very light and fluffy, it compacted into a heavy block of ice as the season wore on, and all those piles pinned down the branches of shrubs and garden plants. Not all the branches were able to withstand the weight of the melting snow, as I discovered this week when I was finally able to take a proper tour of the garden without snow boots. Starting in the perennial border, our tree peony took a big hit. Many branches were broken, and I'm not sure that it will be worth saving. It will depend on what it looks like when it blooms this spring, but I feel like it might be so lopsided that it will need to be replaced. This section of the border took a big hit, as it took on snow blown from the driveway and  snow shoveled off the music room roof. Here you can get a better idea of how lopsided the tree peony is (it's the plant on ...

Over the weekend we finally  were able to get out into the orchard to prune the fruit trees. This is typically a task that we take care of in February . Usually we can count on at least one not-horrible day to shape the trees up. This year, not so much. There was just so much snow that we couldn't even get to the trees.  We've finally had some melting, though, despite the fact that it has snowed every single weekend since the end of January. This time it was just a light flurry and a dusting on Saturday, but still: snowy weekend number ten . Despite the cold and pesty snow on Saturday, Sunday was warm enough for Fletch to enjoy surveying out work from the front porch: And the orchard even has bare ground in spots. Most is still in the snow, and it was enough that I had to wear boots, but at least it was passable:  Since the trees are no longer fully dormant and the buds are beginning to swell, we only did the lightest pruning possible. Pruning en...

… just wait a minute.  Or so the saying goes about the fickle New England weather. Trouble is, I was enjoying the weather this afternoon, and didn't need a change, thank you very much. Tiegan and I took a walk after school and had a lovely time: balmy breezes, warm(ish) sunshine, pleasant conversation. About a block from home, though, it started to sprinkle. By the time we got home, it was lightly raining. No big deal.  I went to check the sap buckets, and they were overflowing thanks to the warm afternoon. I was getting a little wet while I transferred the sap to the big buckets, and since we had so much, I had to get another one to of the basement, wash it out, and dig some more holes in our snowbank/refrigeration system: Just as I was sliding that last bucket into place, an icy gust of wind nearly knocked me over. And then I was pelted in the face with a barrage of hail. Um. The temperature dropped like a stone: 20 degrees in just ...

I apologize if you're bored of reading about the weather, but that's kind of all there is to talk about right now. I guess you can just take a break and come back in May? (I wouldn't mind doing that in life, thank you very much.) Though today was cold and blustery as per usual this winter, yesterday was amazing: sunny and 55 beautiful degrees! So we shoveled the remaining 32 inches of snow off the lettuce bed: You can see by the way that Kirk's feet aren't sinking into the soil that the ground is still frozen. We've had a lot of melting in the past few days, though, and we are hoping to speed along bed prep by getting rid of the snow so the soil can dry out more quickly. We lose the insulating power of the snow in trade, but once the snow is gone completely we'll put the cold frames on that spot and speed up the warming through the magic of glass. This snow is now heavy and icy, and there's still plenty of it. I'm sure this w...

It's been another, shall we say, brisk day. It was just 5 degrees outside when I left the house this morning, and it didn't get out of the 20s today despite brilliant sunshine. Again. Lots of people have been asking how the chickens fare in all the snow and cold. They're fine. Here's proof: As you can see, there's still plenty of snow in the garden, though the ice you hear crunching on the path is almost all gone. The chickens came out the day Kirk shot this video, but when it gets below 20 or so they tend to stay inside the coop. They also don't like snow on their feet, so we try to keep the run at least a little shoveled out for them. You can also see that Kirk threw down some wood shavings for them to walk on.  The inside of the coop is fairly warm, if you're a chicken. Remember, they have a light in there, and it adds a fair amount of heat during the coldest part of the night since it's an incandescent bulb. The heating pan for...

Last Sunday we decided it was time to tap the maple tree. A look ahead at the weather showed that this week would bring above-freezing temperatures for at least a few hours most days, and that means that the sap should start to run. Last year we waited until March 8, but I think we missed the earliest sap that yields the really pale amber syrup. This year we thought we'd try to get an earlier start. But first, some digging: It's hard to gauge in the photo with all the whiteness, but I am standing in the path to our front door, looking over some steps carved into the snow and across a path that Kirk (mostly) cleared to the tree. The snow here is still 24 to 30 inches deep, and it wasn't easy to shovel as it is now compacted into an icy block. If you look closely, you can see Kirk shoveling behind the tree. In the end, he couldn't get all the way around to complete the circle because the snow on the north side of the tree is really frozen solid. We ma...

We're all a little stir-crazy here in snowy New England, even the cat: That's Fletch, looking like he's ready to pounce on any intruders from his perch on the roof of our side porch. We're not quite sure if he used a snow bank to help in his climb or just leapt up from the fence, but the poor guy must be incredibly bored. The only places for him to go are through our few shoveled paths, and his neighborhood prowls are pretty much impossible with all the snow on the ground. Hunting hasn't been great, either (though he did leave us half a mouse a couple days ago, so that's something).  I love how in this photo Fletch looks like he's working on his vicious bobcat impression. Kirk, who caught Fletch on the roof while feeding the chickens, said that he was actually just mid-yawn. Still, I wouldn't want to run into him in a dark alley. This looks like he's liking the drips off an icicle. I will never understand how or where that ...

Though the bulk of this month has been ridiculously frigid, once in a while we get a "warm" day. Take last Sunday, for instance:  After an early morning icy-snow situation, the afternoon temperature got up to almost  the average high that we could normally expect. We used the brief warm-up to dig out the tunnels and check on the leeks: As you can see, the plastic is a little worse for wear after being beaten down by by the snow. Once inside, Kirk really had to wrestle with the leeks to dig them out. Though we've had one warm day, the ground is still mostly frozen, even in the tunnels: He managed to get a few big ones out, though. The leaves aren't too much to look at, but the thick stems are still fine: Even the part under the soil was mostly frozen, so these are definitely for cooking: they'll be soft when they thaw. That's ok, though. When's the last time you used raw leeks for anything? We also took a look at the carro...

Look what happened today: That's right: temperatures above freezing! Despite it being just 7 degrees for my errands downtown yesterday morning, today it was sunny and almost 40. It's the first day like that all month, and after shoveling away last night's snow (yes, it's still snowing here), we enjoyed a walk  without our coats and hats .  When we got back, Kirk fired up the snow blower again to carve out part of the patio: First he had to find the entryway. If you look carefully, you can see that on the right side of the path a bit of the lavender has been exposed. That was excellent: It made the whole area smell great. After getting through the beds, he cleared away a decent-sized circle. This heretofore untouched blanket of snow is a great reminder of just how much of the white stuff there still is. This is about 3 feet deep, though the entrance to the pathway is above my shoulders.  This area should be just big enough to set up the ...

If you're not from around here, a quick reminder on the state of the winter here in eastern Massachusetts: 1. It has snowed at least a foot every weekend for the last four weekends in a row. It is supposed to snow again this coming weekend but could mix with sleet and rain. 2. Though it fluctuates daily, this February is the coldest or second-coldest on record.  3. We're up to about 96 inches of snow in Boston and 111 inches in Lowell on the year. We got another couple inches here last night, so those stats are already out of date. Even casual readers of this blog know that Newburyport is a terribly windy place , but this week the Arctic blasts have done us a favor (for a change) and uncovered some of our greenhouse tunnels: We haven't yet dug them out, but plan to before this weekend's storm. If we do end up with rain on top of the snow, they'll be frozen shut until May. Since I'm hungry for some leek soup, I'm hoping there's ...

Not much gardening happening today, what with the 65 mph winds and 7-foot snow drifts: We're up to over 90 inches of snow on the season, and we've had two winter's worth of the white stuff fall in less than a month. Yeah, it's a lot. But all this enforced inside time does allow us to catch up on some chores that we might otherwise let slide. For example, we finally got around to shucking our strawberry popcorn. After harvesting it last September , we let it sit around to dry … for a really long time. Until today. With absolutely nothing better to do (we were not  going out to shovel in that wind), we got to work on rubbing the dried corn off the cob:  This was nowhere near as easy as it sounds. These are tiny kernels that end in a sharp point. We figured out that if you used your thumbnail to clear a little patch of kernels, then you could press the rest of them toward the open area and they would (mostly) come off easily. Still, after a couple ...