Early Spring Gardening: Build the Soil! What can you do in the garden on these warm early spring days? Take a Soil Sample This would be a good time to improve your soil. Take a soil sample to find out the pH, percentage of organic matter, and mineral content. For a more complete report on minerals and organic matter percentage, send your sample to UCONN or UMASS For basic info bring it to the CT Agricultural Experiment Station, 123 Huntington St. New Haven. Clean up beds from last year If your gardens still have dead plants from last year, clip them off and put the ..read more

My Garlic is UP! What Should I Do??? As the weather warms up, you will see the garlic that you planted in November emerge from the soil. It looks like the tip of a daffodil bulb emerging or a very thick grass blade. Each clove happily extended its root system last year in the weeks before the ground froze. Now the stem of the plant has enough energy to burst out and reach for the light. Poke around in the mulch to find the shoots but don’t remove the mulch. You can gently move the mulch back to just expose the shoots. It’s still cold at night, so keep the soil around them covered. I ..read more

Seeds & Seed-Starting Buying Seeds Check out our favorite seed companies here >>> First of all… YOU DON’T HAVE TO BUY NEW SEEDS EVERY YEAR! Most seeds stay viable for at least a few years. The only seeds we buy every year are alliums (onions, leeks, etc), parsnips, and a few herbs (like Angelica). Everything else will be good and growable for several years if you store them well. Good storage means: dry (paper envelopes, indoors), cool (not on top of a radiator), and as air-tight as possible (jars, bins, ziplock bags). Have extra fridge or freezer space, even better ..read more

We need rest in our year. One of the things I truly love about living in New England is the way the natural world dominates. The winter is time to stop. As a gardener and as someone who grows plants for people, We Must Slow Down. We can store those nuts and get excited about them, and boy am I excited about these juicy seeds, but there’s only so many lists and plans and mental exercises that I can do. Physically, I can stock my firewood and I can shovel the snow and these things help my mind rest on what is most important and present. On new year’s day I cooked up the first dry beans I ever gr ..read more

The late summer winds and storms are here. This is the time of year when I really start evaluating the whole season and thinking about the next. Keeping a journal to record thoughts, successes, failures and ideas at this time of year is so helpful to look back at in the winter when I’m planning the next season. Your garden and life is like no other and will probably not look like mine, but perhaps my stories will help you be grateful for what went well for you and know that every garden year has its own unique quirks. Flower borders create a beautiful space to be and a rich landscape for polli ..read more

The late summer winds and storms are here. This is the time of year when I really start evaluating the whole season and thinking about the next. Keeping a journal to record thoughts, successes, failures and ideas at this time of year is so helpful to look back at in the winter when I’m planning the next season. Your garden and life is like no other and will probably not look like mine, but perhaps my stories will help you be grateful for what went well for you and know that every garden year has its own unique quirks. Flower borders create a beautiful space to be and a rich landscape for polli ..read more

What we’re doing in the garden in July… Mulching Watering Weeding Monitoring for pests and diseases Pruning, staking and tying tomatoes, peppers, tall floppy flowers Feeding plants with organic fertilizers Harvesting Succession planting Mulch If you haven’t yet, it’s not too late. Mulch is amazing. It keeps the soil cooler and more moist during heat waves and dry spells. It prevents weeds from growing. It protects lower leaves from getting splashed with soil during rainstorms (this keeps your veggies cleaner and prevents the spread of diseases and fungal infections). The right mulch for the ..read more

Hopefully your garden is going strong and is overflowing with produce! If you grew lettuce, broccoli, Asian greens, peas, beets, cabbages and other Spring crops, they are probably all about done producing. You’re most likely harvesting the rest of your beets, cabbages, and broccoli in the next week or two. If you’re in this boat, you’re about to have a whole lot of empty space. You now have a few options: grow weeds, grow more food, mulch heavily to prevent weeds, or grow a cover crop. Great fall crops to get started now: Brassicas: broccoli, Fall cabbages, kale, bok choy etc A fall successio ..read more

Here are some watering tips. Actually not just tips – watering properly can make or break a successful garden. Did you notice the title of the post? Water the soil over the plant roots. The plant’s roots are not just right under the stem, they spread out and downward looking for water and nutrients. Water all around the plant. Water the soil around the plant then go back over the same area and water again. I always picture the first water soaking in and sticking to the soil particles, and the second time provides the water that the root hairs can take up. Visualize how deep the water would se ..read more

Ok everyone, we’re extending the time for ordering all of the summer collections until May 16th! We looked at the plants still doing great in the greenhouse and Alani and I decided that we can accommodate more orders. Take a look at the summer collections in the store and choose something that looks fun and delicious. – Brenda ..read more