Port Potager

Last fall I moved into my tiny office in the back yard, and this spring Kirk put up one small finishing touch: the lattice around the foundation. That means I could plant a little garden by the stairs: This is a tough spot, because it is shaded for most of the day by the maple tree in the compost yard. Some areas get strong afternoon sun, but I would call the exposure partial shade to full shade in spots. One full shade area is along the side, where I planted hosta and snakeroot: The snakeroot has very dark leaves, which is hard to see against the compost. Here’s a better look: Both of these shade-loving plants should eventually fill in. They’ll also have fragrant flowers in the summer (hosta) and fall (snakeroot), so I’m hoping the fragrance blows right in the windows of my office. The hosta variety is "Guacamole," which is supposed to have a nice scent. This whole garden is about smelling good! Around the front (which gets a little more sun...

We’re a little behind the eight ball this year on the garden planning. Usually we start a new plot of all the vegetable beds on New Year’s Day (or very shortly thereafter). This year we only just got around to this, so we’re about three weeks behind schedule. Though that doesn’t seem like a big deal (we’re nowhere near planting seeds outdoors, after all), it puts us behind on ordering the seeds we need to start. Still, it’s hard to get too  worked up about it when the wind chill outside is just 10 degrees. Anyway, we finally did get our act together and lay out the plans, so here is the patio quadrant plan for the spring: On the left-hand side there is a long row of strawberries. Though we considered moving the strawberries to the other small fruit beds to replace our struggling cranberries , we ended up keeping them right here, where there’s much more room to devote to a crop that has been quite successful for us over the years. Provided everything survives the wint...

I definitely didn't plan this. You may remember that in the perennial border I have a strict white and red color scheme, and in the cutting garden I planted mostly sunset shades. Despite those plans, it was hard to miss the pink and purple fiesta that burst into bloom mid-June: In the foreground is one of our rosa mundi bushes, looking a little bedraggled but still pretty after being picked over to make rosewater . In the background is a container full of bright purple pansies, which finally filled in after a very dry spring.   Here's the reverse view, with purple pansies in the front and roses in the back. Just one bloom of pink and white lupine this year — these are short-lived plants, but still worth having in the cutting garden for their strong stems and tough petals. In the background you can see purple salvia. Here's a better look at that saliva, with some dusty rose-colored yarrow to the left, and the roses and pansies farther in the...

Remember when I made rosewater ? That kind was distilled, so it is crystal clear, with just the essential oils mixed in. Since then I have made another three or four batches, and at the bottom of these larger batches is left a really beautiful rose tea: Well, it's not all that lovely until you drain off the faded, mushy rose petals. Then it's this really beautiful liquid. It has a stronger flavor than the distilled rosewater — ever-so-slightly bitter, with just a plant-like flavor. Like a tea. (Duh.) That flavor should be fine for cooking sweets though, since any bitterness will be masked with sugar. The color is also a bonus. First up, rose syrup. This is just a simple syrup — equal parts sugar and the rose tea, brought to a boil and cooled. I suppose with more sugar and more boiling, this could be made in a much thicker consistency for pancakes or ice cream, but I am planning to use it in its basic form to sweeten drinks. I'm thinking rose lemonade a...

This year our rosa mundi  rosebushes are starting to fill in nicely and have come into bloom now that we've finally had a little warm sun: They smell wonderful, and look great, so I am somewhat ambivalent about the next step: Yesterday morning I picked al the petals off of all the open flowers to use them to distill some rosewater. I collected this bowlful, but there look to be many more flowers waiting in the wings, so I am hoping to repeat this process once or twice more this spring. Once the petals are gathered, I put a brick in our tall stock pot, and filled the space around it with the rose petals:  Then I covered the petals with enough water to reach the top of the brick (they float, so I had to push them under as much as possible).  A small glass bowl sits on top of the brick to catch the rosewater:  The idea here is that when the heat is turned up and the water with the rose petals starts to boil, the essence of the roses ri...

It started raining here Friday night, and it hasn't stopped yet. The weather radar shows the storm as already having moved out to sea, but it's still drizzling here in Newburyport. Back on Friday afternoon I quickly planted all the seeds on the schedule for this weekend to take advantage of the coming rain. In the ground and soaking are more corn and Brussels sprouts, plus new hills of cantaloupe and watermelon. I also had to replant almost all of our sunflowers and one of the borage plants — something pretty efficiently mowed the newly-emerged seedlings down. I didn't have time to cover them, but the first dry(ish) day we have, those things will get row covers to deter what I assume is the work of the chipmunks. I have to admit, getting to watch movies with the kids and take a four-hour nap instead of going like gangbusters outside all weekend has been a nice change of pace. My back is mostly better now, but this rain delay has probably been good for my aching body! A...

Remember those little tomato plants we started from seed ? Well, after taking almost two weeks to harden off (cool and rainy weather slowed that process down a bit), they were finally ready to go into their permanent locations this weekend: Here are 32 Roma tomatoes. They are bush varieties that will later will get cages to support them. The ones in the foreground are Monica; the ones in the background are Bellstar. To the right you can see a cookie sheet with several pots of extra plants. I misread our plan and started enough seeds for 32 of each variety, rather than realizing the total of 32 would mean only 16 of each variety. We have plenty to give away — if you are nearby and want some, let me know! These varieties should work in a (big) container with a cage, I think, if you are pressed for space. The long, narrow row in front of this bed has 32 more tomatoes. These are planted closer together because they are our vining types. We will add a frame from which we h...

Now that we have the plan in place for where all of the perennials will go in the vegetable garden, I was able to spend some time this week researching roses. As detailed here , we need two rose bushes for the beds near the patio, and they need to fit in a 4x4 foot space and bear hips  for making things like sauces and jams . In general, we already knew that the best roses for hips and fragrance would be old garden roses rather than the newer hybrids that you see in a florist's shop. Further research suggested that the tastiest hips would be from rosa rugosa  plants, but those are so tough that they grow to more more of a hedge size — possibly 6 to 10 feet! So that's obviously too big for the space, and we had to rule it out. Rosa officinalis is another old variety suggested for scent and herbal uses. It is also known as the apothecary's rose — in general, any plant variety with officinalis after its name is a classic for herbal use, because the officinalis  designa...