Port Potager

Last weekend I transplanted three tomatillo plants to the garden. They were looking really good: big, strong plants ready to take off out in the sunshine. Here's what we have left: Only the one on the right remains, and that one has been damaged pretty severely. The culprit? Cutworms. Their tell-tale destruction looks like this: Cutworms are the larvae of various moths. They overwinter in soil, and in the spring evenings they feed on the stems of new garden plants. They basically shear off the stem, eating a little bit near the ground and leaving the rest of the plant to die. I think I hate them most because they are so wasteful. At least a groundhog or  turkey has the decency to enjoy the whole vegetable . Some quick internet research revealed that there is such a thing as a turnip cutworm, and since we had turnips in this bed previously, I'm guessing that this is our particular pest. I noticed that some of the carrots we overwintered in this bed were ch...

We must not think that the Turk[ey] is so unskillful To leave that latest which concerns him first... ~Othello, Act 1, scene 3 Yesterday we spent the first day of summer vacation having family fun in Boston. Little did we know that while we were living it up, the same was happening in our garden: This used to be our nicest, biggest head of broccoli. It was about a day or two from picking. Here's another, which has a few nubs of broccoli left ungnawed. How thoughtful. Broccoli eaten whole: 19. Broccoli eaten partially: 4. Broccoli left unscathed: 4.  Also, a whole cabbage here was mowed down. The bright side on this one is that we still have at least a dozen left, unharmed. The leftover leaves on this one went right to the chickens, so I suppose that's another glimmer of a silver lining as well. Carrot tops: chewed. I don't think this will spell the end of the carrots. Lots of leaves are left, so they will likely be slowed down as t...

Today I found a new nursery, and I love it for two reasons. First, Newbury Perennial Gardens  is at someone's house, and you ring a big old bell if they aren't around at the selling shed. Second, they have a 50% off everything sale in August, so I was able to pick up plants for the rest of the perennial border at a fantastic price. They also had some herbs left, and I got some tarragon, marjoram, and chives. It was lucky that the ones they had just happened to match the ones needed in the bed that's actually ready to be planted. They also had rosemary, and although we don't have the bed where that goes ready yet, for half price I'll find somewhere to put it for now. We were never able to overwinter rosemary at the old house, so it won't be in the ground long before I pot it up and bring it inside for the winter anyway. From left to right are the tarragon, marjoram, and lavender. In the background where the bed bends you can see the sprouts of fall cabbag...

Looks like our Fourth of July hiatus to enjoy life and stop lifting heavy things for a few days is stretching into a full two-week vacation from garden-building. Our next step is to move some earth to finesse the transitions from the brick paths to the yet-to-be-planted grass (making gentle slopes instead of steep drop-offs), but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to try to plant grass before we head to the shore for a week, so we haven't worked on it. A rationalization? Yeah, probably. In the meantime, I did spend some time today weeding the orchard. What orchard, you ask? Why, this one: These are our 10 fruit trees in the front yard. We planted them last spring, the first act of gardening in our new house. We decided to plant them in the front because it is a southwest facing slope that has a hedge along the street that serves as a windbreak (sort of—a lot of the prevailing winds come straight across the front from the west northwest). If, by the way, you immediatel...