Happenings around the garden.

Graham and Gay gave me a vertical planter for herbs and I love it. It’s so simple that anyone can do this. I thought if you have access to wooden pallets you could make some good money selling these. So simple.
There was one row of plants that was way too close to the other so I had to take that one off. I learned how to put this vertical planter together by taking a bit of it apart.

photo credit: CK Worley

You’ll need a wooded pallet, some burlap, heavy duty cardboard, Soil Moist, scissors, heavy duty stapler and a screw driver. The screw driver is to help you make the holes through the cardboard and burlap.

photo credit: CK Worley

photo credit: CK Worley

Cut the burlap to fit around the slats. Wrap each row with burlap making a trough. Staple it as tight as you can. Cut the cardboard to fit into the bottom of your trough. Next, make holes that go through the cardboard and burlap. Be careful not to pull the burlap loose. Next fill the trough with soil and herbs. Use Soil Moist pellets to make sure the plants don’t dry out. You only need a small amount of Soil Moist to make this work. I talk about Soil Moist in many of my blog posts.

http://www.growitfirst.blogspot.com/2013/06/grow-it-first-with-ck-worley-how-to-pot.html

I have to replace some of the plants that were originally in there but that's okay.
Here is the finished product. So fun! A wonderful Father's Day Gift!

photo credit: CK Worley

Just an update on this years garden. I made some chicken wire cages to go around my tomatoes. This is a great way to inexpensively stabilize the plant.

photo credit: CK Worley

When I start to see fruit appear I’ll throw some garden netting over the tomatoes to help keep the squirrels from eating everything. The netting lets the sun and rain in and (hopefully) will give us a chance to enjoy the fruits of our labors. Last year between the dogs (they love tomatoes) and the squirrels we didn’t get one tomato on the table. I would love to be able to make my yummy summer salad with tomatoes out of my garden this year.

photo credit: CK Worley

The recipe can be found on my August 23, 2011 blog post here-

http://www.growitfirst.blogspot.com/search/label/tomatoes

My potato plants are coming along. I first cut the bottom off a large plastic pot and washed it out. The cut doesn't need to be pretty. It's going to be on the ground.

photo credit: CK Worley

I cut my potatoes leaving an eye or two on each one then left them out to scab before planting them in the bottom of my open ended pot.
More on potato planting on March 29, 2013 blog post here -

http://www.growitfirst.blogspot.com/search/label/planting%20potatoes

photo credit: CK Worley

photo credit: CK Worley

As the plants grow I’m adding soil to the pot being careful not to damage the stems. I’ll leave the top of the plants uncovered to continue to grow and get sunlight. As the plants grow I’ll add more soil to the pot until I reach the top. The stems will root and grow more potatoes as time passes.
Harvesting will be easy and I won’t have to worry about damaging the potato because there won’t be any digging. I’ll just shimmy the pot up and off the plants and the potatoes should fall out. Remember potatoes need to dry out for a week or two before you cook them. Store the potatoes in a cool dry place.

I’ll add pictures to the bottom of this post as the plants progress and are finally ready to harvest. Stay tuned!

Trip to Boston

Boston in May is very windy. The leaves on most trees are just budding. I was still able to find some interesting stuff while we walked through Fenway Park. Fenway Park isn't just for baseball! It's a real park within walking distance from the stadium. They have victory gardens and beekeeping plots. It's a great place to walk your dog or run the trails.

We noticed a Blue Heron sitting on a branch of a tree that had toppled over into a retention pond. These birds are known to eat fish, frogs, salamanders, turtles, snakes, insects, rodents, and small birds. This pond is the perfect place for a Blue Heron to live.

photo credit: CK Worley

This tree caught my eye. It's leaning toward the sun. The only problem with a tree that leans this much is it could become disease prone. This tree seems to be doing very well.

photo credit: CK Worley

If you look closely you can see right through this tree trunk. It's hollow but still alive. Trees feed through the cambium layer which is just beneath the bark. The cambium layer distributes food and water to the tree. This is why it still has leaves and turns green during the summer. Most likely it will fall in a strong storm. I wouldn’t want to be standing near it in high winds which is why after I took this picture - we quickly moved along.

photo credit: CK Worley

Fenway Park has a program where you can rent plots of land to grow vegetables. There is a $30 fee per year and you have to be a Boston city resident. People put chairs and tables in their yards and grow vegetables. It's a large area with 500 garden plots. Fenway garden is the nations only WWII Victory Garden remaining today spanning 7.5 acres! This is a must see when you visit Boston.

One word of warning. I wouldn't walk this place at night. It didn't seem well patrolled and there were no call boxes that I could see.

photo credit: CK Worley

I found some beautiful azaleas right in front of the Harvard Medical School. Most of the other azaleas looked kind of sick but these were really pretty. Harvard has it's own garden. The Countway Community Garden was created by a group of staff, students and faculty. The garden includes vegetables and medicinal herbs.

photo credit: CK Worley

My daughter tells me that almost every mall around Boston has green space. Here at the Prudential Center there is a plant guide to help you identify many of the different varieties of plants that you'll find in their garden. They even have free concerts and movies on the lawn during the summer. For example one of the movies at sunset is "Brave" on July 27th, 2014. If you are in Boston near the Prudential Center this summer you should check it out the happenings in the South Garden.

photo credit: CK Worley

And lastly, we had a great time at Boston Gardens were my daughter joined 3,303 of her fellow students in the 2014 graduation ceremony. It was an exciting time and a great trip!

photo credit: CK Worley