December 23, 2013

                          Time To Start Thinking Spring!

Hello again, everyone!  It's that time of the year again when we can begin to plan next year's spring garden.  It's only a little more than three months away, at least here in southeast Pennsylvania. The holiday season (except for the fact that Hanukkah was really, really early this year) is a great time to look at your leftover seeds to determine which are still viable for this year and which are more than two years old. Most seed packs have a use by date on the back of the pack. I honestly believe that you can use last year's seeds nearly 100% of the time.  The older ones (more than 2 years old) can be thrown away because they very well may no longer be viable and cause lots of disappointment.

                                   Some of the catalogs I've received recently!
 

I've found, over the years, that even if I had entered a time warp, I would always be able to tell when it was holiday season even if I had no calendar. All I would have to do was check my mail regularly. Suddenly, you get a first batch of gardening mail from garden/seed companies, usually before December 25. You'll get more as winter progresses, but the first batch is always the most enjoyable if only because it WAS the first!

 

Enjoy the holidays!  I'll be back in January &  I hope to see you then.

Chuck

The First Day of Winter, 2013, Lancaster, PA, USA. Bright sun and 63 degrees f. !

A Little Bit of Indoor Gardening

Hello again everyone!  It's nice to be back here.  Nearly every year for as long as I can remember, I've started a small indoor garden in the autumn of the year. I began this years garden in mid-October and our first batch of lettuce is maturing.  As the weather has cooled down, sometimes to below freezing, I've kept the container inside the house at a sunny window. If the weather moderates into the mid 40 degree range, the plants spend the day outdoors in the autumn sunshine. We'll start a planter of spinach next week.

Autumn Lettuce

 

Thanks for stopping. I hope to see you again soon. For those of you in the United States, Lois and I would like to wish you a very happy Thanksgiving!

 

Chuck      

                           

 

 

                                       The Garden Just Keeps on Giving!

Hello again!  What a wonderful week this has been here in Lancaster, PA!  The temperatures have been in the high 70's and low 80's daily with nightime temps in the mid to high 50's.  The garden has responded to all the sunshine and warmth. The plants we started on August 5 are thriving as if it were late spring. I normally think of the late crop of veggies as being smaller in both size and amount produced.  That's not the case this year.  Leaf lettuce, garden beans, zucchinis, butternut squash and bell peppers are all heading into our kitchen every three to five days. The highlight of the week was two pounds of  the garden beans.

                                                  
The green beans were quickly placed in the "crockpot cooker" and served that evening.

                            And one of the butternut squash soon became a pie.

 

 The bell peppers are soon to be picked and stuffed.

 

 

So, all-in-all, it's been a great week.  And I'm hoping for another one coming up!

 

 Chuck

9/26/13

The First Week of Autumn!

Welcome to autumn!  Thanks for stopping. Clearly, things have been slowing down in the garden.  The good news is that the garden is still productive. The seeds we planted on August 5 have matured and are producing a healthy amount of produce. In the past ten days we've picked more than 12 pounds of vegetables - peas, peppers, butternut squash, zucchinis and raspberries 

 

The raspberries remain productive

 

 It would appear that the plants will continue to be at least somewhat productive through mid October. At that point we will have had an active garden for nearly seven months. The lettuce below will become a crisp salad later this week and then we will have to rely on our local markets for that vegetarian staple until next spring.

 

                                                   Last of the late lettuce

 

Mother Nature continues an active role in the garden even as the season gets late. The autumn change of weather brings gardeners a wonderful bounty of future compost material as she sets the trees in motion to drop their leaves. Our city property has no trees so we will be raking leaves from our neighbor's yard. This is a help to both of us since they have no garden and they would have to be bag the leaves  for the city collection.  I really enjoy the synchronicity of the relationship. 

 

I'll be back from time-to-time over the fall and winter as topics come about that might be of interest to you.  If you have comments, ideas for new topics, etc., please use the link below to get in touch. 

 

Chuck

 

chuckscards42@hotmail.com

 

                                                      Summer's End!

Hello again! Thanks for stopping by.  You may remember that we put  zucchini, pea, and green bean seeds in the first week of August.  The beans are all now setting flowers and some beans are beginning to develop. The zucchini is developing fruit and we've already picked two that had reached a nice medium size. We should be able to pick the last of this year's vegetables in the next week or ten days. At that point, we will have reached roughly 200 pounds of produce from this year's garden.  That's down from 300 pounds we've had in past years, but we deliberately cut back on zucchini and cucumbers this year rather than growing enough for the neighborhood!

Lois made a zucchini pie. You're seeing it before it went into the oven.

 

The last of the green beans for this year!

 

We've had very few problems with local critters getting into the garden this year. This week, a hungry squirrel caused more damage in one feeding than we've had in total all summer. I suppose it was after the butternut seeds. But we have been extremely lucky! 

 

Hungry squirrel damage. Or maybe the possum?

 

And, finally, another sign that autumn is near...the chrysanthemums are in bloom.

 

Mums 

 

Misty watching me in the garden taking a picture of mums which are just below him. He's a stray that calls our garden area home.

 

Time to go back outside and put a fire in the fireplace which is one of the joys of fall!

 

Hello again!

Well, the Blogger site was down yesterday and most of today so I was unable to post on my usual schedule.  But chucksgardenspot is back and I'm happy to be here!

                                                            Weed killer

 

I was busy for a few days last week cleaning out a garage for a local charitable organization. It was very clear very early that no one had cleaned the place in many years, well before the current occupants ever took control of the property. Aside from junk lumber, assorted trash, and a few tools, there was a spray container of "weed killer".  An unopened small booklet was attached to the container.  The booklet, among other things, gives directions on what to do if it gets in eyes and also supplies "emergency medical information" and "hazards" to animals and humans.  As a side note, it is believed by many that the widespread use of "weed killers" on lawns, golf courses and many other places has been a major factor in the decline of the honey bee population. It instantly reminded me of how fortunate we are to be tending our small garden in an organic, environmentally sound manner.

 

 

Considering the fact that it's getting to be late in the gardening season, we were very pleased last week to have continued bringing in fresh vegetables.  The haul included bell peppers, lettuce, zucchini, and potatoes.  The peppers, zuke, and lettuce are in the garden proper. The potatoes were in a 5 gallon container.  We had planted them in early May and only one "eye" of a potato was placed in the soil filled bucket.  It yielded two pounds of "New" potatoes.  Yes, they are small, but it was rewarding just to have them as "parsely potatoes". And I honestly don't think I've ever had a potato that tasted as good as these fresh from the garden versions. Lois turned this batch of bell peppers into "stuffed peppers" the day the came into the kitchen.  Plus, we are still picking the second round of beautiful raspberries.  Delicious!

 

                                                         Fresh bell peppers

 

We will have more vegetables coming in from the garden for the next few weeks, but it's clear that the season is growing short!

 

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope to see you again next week!

 

Chuck