Port Potager

In theory, we should be planting peas and onions next weekend, but this is the state of things in the garden today: A series of four nor’easters and below-average temps have set us behind schedule for planting. I imagine the snow will be gone by next weekend, but I’m not sure if the soil will be ready to work or if it will be too frozen or too wet or too something else.  I’m not feeling in much of a rush this year since it’s been so miserable outside this month. The local weather reporters have taken to saying that March is the new February, and they’re right. Since we appear to have some additional time on our hands, I transplanted our broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower seedlings into peat pots: It should be noted that these seedlings look great  this year. I attribute this to more diligent use of our lamp to make sure they were getting enough light on all those cloudy, stormy days: The brassica is scheduled to be transplanted into the garden in t...

Back in the spring , one of the perennial herbs we chose for the garden was a small bay laurel plant from  The Herb Farmacy . I think it had about three or four leaves on it when I planted it outside. It's been pretty much forgotten all summer as everything around it got bigger, but before frost we remembered we had to bring it inside: Bay laurel is a Mediterranean plant that just won't make it through freezing temperatures, so it will spend the winter in the southwestern exposure of the living room window. We can plant it back outside in the spring when it warms up, or we can just keep it as a container plant for the patio.  As you can see, bay is a pretty slow growing plant. I think it put on maybe four inches of height this growing season. We haven't harvested any bay leaves from it at all yet because of its small size. Maybe in the spring, if we prune it to encourage some branching, we can have some leaves to dry and use for cooking.  I have read tha...

About a month ago I planted tomatoes in seed-starting trays. This was new for us because in the past we would always buy transplants from a local nursery. Now that our big, giant garden plan calls for something like 80 tomato plants, we decided it would be much more cost-effective to start them from seed. We chose four varieties from Johnny's : bush variety romas Monica and Bellstar , and vining heirlooms Rose and Moskvich . After four weeks of growth indoors, they are getting big: By the way, that's just one tray. I have another half a tray with tomatoes that aren't in the photo. Anyway, they are outgrowing their space, and they still have at least 10 days to go until our frost-free date — maybe more, since I need to harden them off, and we aren't about to take any  chances with our favorite vegetable (fruit, if you insist) of all. So it is time to transplant them not outdoors, but into bigger pots. This is where that collection of plastic pots from...