I know it's early, only mid February, but it's time to get started thinking about and planting your seedlings for this years garden. Some seeds take longer to germinate or are slower growing than others. You want to keep all your seedlings about the same size (as much as possible) on one tray, so i can keep them all 2" under the lights at all times. This is how close you want your seedlings to be. So, I start some seeds before other seeds to keep their growth rate even. In 2014 i didn't soak my parsley seeds. If you don't don't some seeds before planting they can take 3x longer to germinate. Parsley will take 3 weeks without soaking, but about 7 days if you soak the seeds overnight before planting. Celery, onions, leeks also benefit from soaking overnight before planting.

Even if you've planted seedlings for years, it's always good to keep a seedling log, I learn new things and write them down every year. It helps me do things better each year, and new stuff always comes up. Logs will help you track things, and you can refer to them the next year to refine how you're growing your seedlings. On every seed pack, or in seed catalogs, they will tell you how long a seed takes to germinate. It's always a range, i.e. 7 - 14 days. The reason for that range is depending on how warm the area is, how you planted the seedlings, the light source you're using, all of that will impact how fast or slow a seed takes to germinate. When you keep a seedling log, you are finding out how long the seeds take to germinate in your growing conditions. You can also track how fast different seeds grow, so that you can plan on when to start each different variety of seed, and give them all the best growing conditions they need.

Always pay attention to the information on seed packs and/or seed catalogs. They will give you great information on when to start your seedlings, how long they take to germinate and when to plant them outdoors. Knowing your final frost date is important. Here in New Haven CT our final frost date is May 15th. So, if a seed pack tells me to start my seeds indoors, 6 weeks before the final frost, that means i'll plant the seeds around April 1st. This information is important; while i start parsley very early, hot peppers, celery, eggplants a bit further on.. i won't start my regular tomatoes till early April. Tomato plants grow really fast and if you start them too soon they'll be leggy and the plants will be weak (though it's easy to deal with leggy tomato seedlings, more on that later).

For now, start planning your seedling plantings, keep a log.. and i'll post some more info on lights and good growing conditions soon. 

Getting to be the middle of January and time to get those seed orders in! Better to order sooner than later to avoid missing out on anything you'd like to grow because the catalog you order from has sold out. If you're not bothered by having to substitute a different variety than the one you've chosen, then you have time. I order for clients as well as myself and I don't want to have to scramble trying to find winterbor kale cause the place i usually get my seeds from has sold out of it. That has happened to me a few times. Of course, there are times when that will happen anyway, but you stand a better chance of getting everything you want if you order earlier, rather than later.

I use the 3 catalogs in the top of this photo more often than any others. I get most of my seeds from Fedco, which gives you a lot of seed for the money. However, they don't carry everything I want or need. Johhny's is more expensive but they do have some good deals on onion plants, sweet potato slips among others. The catalog is also full of great information on planting, fertilizing, etc on each variety of plant. They also have great photos which are good to look at and compare when you're deciding what to buy for this coming season. Fedco is sans photos, but if you know what you want, or use another catalog to look at photos, you can then order from them and get a better deal.

I live in CT, so I try to order from places in the same area as I live. The seed and/or plants the catalogs I use sell were grown in this area (Maine to be exact), so I know they'll do well in my area. You should try to order from catalogs in the area you live, you'll get better results that way. Though, getting a catalog (such as Johnny's) which has great info and photos, can still be a good resource tool.

It's December, and here in the northeast that means it's getting pretty cold especially at night. I still have lots of things going in my gardens. It's wonderful to be able to eat fresh veggies at this time of year. The photo above shows some winterbor kale, baby bok choy and barely visible on the left, swiss chard. With my mid weight row cover i can keep these vegetables going for quite awhile yet. It keeps the soil from freezing allowing me to harvest when most uncovered vegetables have died for the season. I also have row covers on my beets (for beet greens), my full size pac choi and my carrots. While carrots will over winter without protection, once the ground freezes you can't harvest them anymore. The row cover keeps the soil from freezing and allows me to harvest carrots much longer. These are all in raised beds, so the soil freezes faster than if I was gardening directly in the ground. I could harvest all winter long if i used cold frames under the row covers. Hopefully i'll be able to do that with a hoop house next year on some land my partner and I are starting to work. More on that next post.

 Living in an urban area, i have to be creative about gardening spaces. This is one of 3 garden areas i work for myself. In the above photo from left to right are; red russian kale, collards and garlic covered with straw mulch. We've had several frosts so it was time to cover the garlic. You want to wait till after a frost so that pests won't over winter in the mulch. All organic gardeners struggle with pests enough during the season, you don't want to help them with a nice cozy over wintering place. You can also see row cover hoops over the red russian kale. This type of kale can take some frosts but it's not as cold hardy as winterbor. Once the weather starts getting really cold I'll cover the row so i can keep harvesting longer.

This photo shows another view of the same garden space. In the lower left is parsley which is still fine. You can see i already have a row covered. Under the row cover are chard and carrots. Carrots can take the cold. You can even over winter your carrots in the ground with no protection and they'll be fine to harvest next early spring. You'll want to harvest the carrots as soon as the ground unfreezes though, or they'll use the energy from the root to flower and go to seed. The reason i have the carrots covered is to keep the ground from freezing so i can harvest them longer. Row covers can allow you to harvest your crops much longer than you would without them. If you have some small cold frames, and put those under row covers you could harvest most of the winter. This is why it's good to plan having fall crops a good size by the time it starts getting cold. They won't grow much during the winter, but the extra protection allows you to harvest much longer and possibly all winter long.

We've had a wonderful extended fall here in CT. Above are some of my sweet potatoes. You want to wait to harvest sweet potatoes till the vines start to die and turn black. Usually that happens with the first frost. The reason is, while the vines are still green and vibrant, they are still growing your sweet potato tubers, making them bigger. The first frost also tends to add sweetness to certain vegetables. Carrots, parsnips and collards are good examples. We had a frost here last friday night and the sweet potato vines turned black, so saturday i harvested the sweet potatoes. It was a good harvest. Got over 200 potatoes from one 30' row. Some you might want to eat right away, but a lot you'll want to save to eat over the next few months. Best way is to harvest them and lay them out in the sun for the day. Being in an urban area, if i did that, i wouldn't have any left the next day! So, next best method is to brush off as much dirt as possible, and lay them out in an airy place for a week to 10 days. Don't wash the sweet potatoes before you cure them, you are letting the skins get a bit tougher and that will protect and help keep the sweet potatoes for a longer time. Store only those potatoes that you haven't cut in 1/2 while harvesting, or have other deformities. Whole, blemish free potatoes will store the best. Store them at around 55 to 60 degrees with about 85% humidity. They will keep for you all winter long this way. If you don't have a cellar you can store them in, try keeping them in the fridge.

I usually plant my garlic in the middle of october. We've been having some nice warm weather lately so I put off planting for a week or so. You want to plant your garlic so it has time to acclimate but not so much time that it starts to grow too much. If it starts to put out leaves, it will have to stop when the weather gets too cold and the ground freezes. That takes energy from the garlic clove that it doesn't need to be expending now, as it will have to do that in spring.

Garlic is a heavy feeder, so I enrich the soil with composted manure or compost before i plant. Separate the garlic head into individual cloves. Plant the cloves (pointy end up) 4" deep, 4-6" apart and 6-8" between the rows. You should cover your garlic with mulch for the winter. 6-10" of mulch for hard neck garlic, and 10-12" for soft neck garlic. Don't put the mulch on till after the first frost, if you put it on too early, it will give overwintering insects a nice warm home for the winter, and give them a jump on your crops next season.

Most garlic types are winter hardy, though some varieties of soft necks only do well in warm climates. The reason you add the mulch is to prevent the bulbs from heaving out of the ground. When the temps start to drop, but warm up during the day, or in spring when it's getting warm but then gets cold again, the bulbs can heave themselves out of the ground. The mulch keeps the soil temp from fluctuating too much and keeps the garlic in the ground.

Lots of garden crops are still doing fine, as we haven't had a frost yet. The heat lovers though aren't very happy. It's not warm enough for them, and the sun is getting weaker than they like as well. My cayenne pepper plants have a lot of large green peppers on them. A good way to ripen some of them up is to pull the entire plant, dust off the root ball, then bring inside and hang upside down in an airy place. A good number of the peppers will ripen up for you that way. 

 My fall crops are doing nicely. The above photo is of broccoli i started indoors back on June 20th. I transplanted them to the garden a few weeks ago once another crop was finished. They're growing well (despite the lack of rain here). These will get a row cover when the weather starts getting too cold.

 This next photo is of pac choi and the smaller stuff is baby bok choy. I direct seeded these as they grow fairly quickly and will develop before the weather gets too cool. Once it does cool down i'll put a row cover over them so i'll be able to harvest them longer. It's good to have several types of row covers to help you out through the season. Light floating row covers can help protect your crops from pests or warm things up earlier so you can start planting. Heavier weight row covers can protect your crops once the weather starts getting cold. This allows you to plant later and harvest longer.

The above photo is of another direct seeded crop of yukina savoy. It's an asian leaf green, wonderful in stir fries. It grows quickly and doesn't mind some cold weather, though when it starts to get too cold i'll put a heavy weight row cover on it and be able to harvest well into the winter. Next post i'll talk about the ways you can protect crops and lengthen your harvest even through the winter.

We've had a weird summer, not much heat though most crops are doing well, or at least ok. It's the end of August so time to think about and plant your fall crops. In this photo on the left is my red russian kale, it's a great flat leaf kale but it's not incredibly winter hardy. I started winterbor kale back in mid June and transplanted it to my garden last week. Behind the winterbor kale is pac choi that i direct seeded and on the right is some nice large chard. Once the cold weather hits i'll put all of it under row covers to protect it and be able to continue harvesting up until the coldest part of winter. If i had a hoop house (high tunnel) i could use row cover in that and be able to harvest up till next spring. I will eventually use a 2 row cover system that will allow me to harvest longer than with just one single layer row cover. I'll also have row covers over my carrots to keep the ground from freezing so i can harvest them longer as well. I planted my fall carrots a few weeks ago so that they'll be ready by the time the weather gets too chilly. More on extending your harvest soon.

Seedlings & seedling log

When i first started this blog last year, a friend told me i should post every 3 days or so.. Sounds fine, and last year i tried my best to do that. This year, things are crazier.. I work for a non-profit helping coordinate 50 community gardens. Things have changed in the organization, we got a new executive director, moved the office, searching for money for the program.. it's a lot of work and keeping me much busier. So, yeah, i haven't posted in 17 days.. oh well.. This years blog is going to be a bit different, the same, but different, like life, you know?

The warm weather, so far, is pretty non-existent. It will be nice, sorta, like 50 F, which after this winter seems like a heat wave.. but then, it goes back down to freezing.. lovely.. All of us who want to start planting are getting very edgy.. but that's gardening in the new climate change world. Still i'm hopeful, sorta.. at least for this year.. so i've started my seedlings.

The photo above shows gretel and fairy tale eggplants, cayenne peppers and basil, and to the far left parsley. The basil is smaller cause i start it a week to 10 days later than the eggplants and peppers. Basil takes off like a rocket, and will outgrow the eggplants and peppers. If i start them later, they'll catch up, fast, to the eggplants and peppers and my flat will be pretty even height wise in another few days. This is important cause you want those seedlings 2" under the lights at all times.

This is why a seedling log is a good thing to do. I write down when i plant each variety, mark down when they germinate, so i can plant my flats and get everything growing at a good rate and together, as much as possible. Garden logs are good learning tools, but so are seedling logs. Even though i've been doing this for a lot of years, i learn something new every year. All that info helps me do it better the next year, I refer to what i did last year, so i can improve this year. Seedling logs will help you coordinate your seedlings so that they all get the best growth possible, and you'll get the best, most productive plants possible.

 I find it really useful to have a couple of garden planners. That way i can see at a glance, things i want to plant, when i need to either start seeds or plant outdoors as well as if i can get another crop in once the first is done. There are lots of garden planners out there. This first one is very useful if you start your own seeds. You can see by color what you want to start indoors and when. For instance, i've already started my parsley (notoriously slow to germinate) and a week later my hot peppers and eggplant, both a bit slow to germinate. On the other hand i don't want to start my tomatoes (super fast growers) till early April. By looking at my planner i can see when i should start my seeds. I can also put in when to direct seed some of my crops. I direct seed almost everything with the exception of tomatoes, eggplants, hot peppers, sweet peppers, basil, celery, a few other crops and other herbs. Everything else does just fine directly seeded in the ground. The other exception is a late crop of lettuce, kale, and others. Most lettuce will not germinate in soil temperature too warm. So i'll start some inside in late july for a fall crop.

Another good thing about this type of planner, is that you can see when things will be ready to harvest and can plan on a second crop to take it's place. I plant my peas usually in mid march. Course this year we still have almost 2' of snow on the ground so i'll be lucky if i get to plant in late march! Either way though, the peas should come out by early July and that leaves plenty of time to get another crop or even two, in. Beets, turnips, carrots, late lettuce, late kale.. they can all go in once the peas come out. I can see at a glance, where space will be available, or where it will be taken up by crops that go till frost.

This second planner is really useful for second crops. You will find all the info about how long crops take to mature on seed packets or in garden catalogs. For instance, beets and turnips take anywhere from 35-50 days to mature, that's less than 2 months. If i plant beets in spring, they'll be out by early June and I'll still have plenty of time to plant something else. By using a planner like this one, you can plot out what you want to grow and when that crop is mature, what you want to plant in it's place. That way you're not pulling your beets thinking, "what was i going to plant here?!"

We get so busy, pulling weeds, fertilizing where we need to, harvesting, etc.. That it's hard to remember what we wanted to plant where. With garden planners, you can have that info easily available and not have to stress out thinking what you missed.

Another good way to keep track of things is with a seedling and garden logs. Next post i'll talk more about them.

It's been a very long winter here in the northeast. The snows kept coming, the temperature stayed freezing, the winter wonderland turned into black ice, crusted 3' snow mounds and a desire to never see the color white again. There's still snow on the ground and another storm coming, but a good way to stave off the urge to throttle winter, is to plan for spring.

First, you need to decide what you want to grow this year. Take into consideration how much space you have, as well as how much room the plants you want to grow need. If you have one 8' x 4' bed and are thinking of growing squash, you might want to rethink that, unless that's all you want to grow! Most squash vines spread at least 10' and would smother other plants too close to them. Tomatoes need a foot of space on every side, pepper need 10" - 12" of space... You need to think about that when you decide what you want in your garden. Most seed packets but especially good seed catalogs will tell you that kind of information.

I use mostly Johnny's and Fedco. Both are great seed companies (both employee owned) and both catalogs will give you a wealth of information. Whether you should start indoors or direct seed, what soil and/or nutrients the plant needs, how long to germinate and harvest, what pests and diseases the plant is susceptible to... and lots more. These catalogs are a great resource guide, as most reputable and respected ones are.

It's always a good idea to use seed catalogs from the area you are in. All the info will pertain to the growing conditions in your particular area. Weather, typical soil, planting dates, pest and disease problems, all of these vary widely even with a single state. It's good to have information that's pertinent to the area you'll be growing in. Another benefit, most of the good catalogs either get seed from around their area or grow it themselves. This means the seeds are right for your climate, your area and will do better for you than seed from a different part of the country.

When ordering your seeds, keep in mind multiple crops. If you want to grow beets, lettuce, carrots and peas, but only have the space for 2 of those, remember beets only take 30-40 days to mature. Peas are out by mid/late June (least here in CT), that leaves plenty of time to put in other crops. This maximizes your growing potential, even in smaller spaces.

Next i'll post a couple of garden planners. It's useful to mark things down to refer to, so you can plan your garden all season long.

Have fun going through all those seed catalogs!

It's January 4th.. time to start looking at your garden catalogs and decide what you want to grow this year. In my next post i'll talk more about planning your garden. Now is the time to look at those garden catalogs and dream of all you want for this year's garden.

I always go through the seeds I have left, not only to see things i don't have to order this year, but see if the seeds are still viable. Tomato seeds can last 4 - 10 years, lettuce about 3 years. So it's a good idea to go through your seeds and toss the ones that are too old. If you have a lot of them and want to see what the germination rate is there's a simple way to do that. Take a few paper towels and wet them down, ring them out so they're damp not soaking wet. Put 10 seeds on one side and fold the paper towel over them. Put them in a warm place, like on top of the fridge. Spray the paper towel with water every few days so it doesn't dry out. After 1 - 2 weeks check them to see how many sprouted. If 5 out of the 10 sprouted, you have 50% germination. If 1 sprouted, it's 10% and the seeds aren't worth keeping. Remember different seeds germinate at different rates, so don't be impatient, give them at least 2 weeks and sometimes (in the case of some peppers or parsley) even 3.

You should keep extra seeds (or seeds you've harvested from your own plants) in a covered container in the fridge, with a packet of silica gel. The silica gel keeps the seeds dry and the cold in the fridge keeps the seeds viable longer.

Another thing i like to do in the winter is have some blooming plants indoors. Helps me get through these dark, cold snowy months. The above photo shows my amaryllis called apple blossom. This amaryllis has bloomed for me every single year since i got it about 7 or 8 years ago, until last winter. Last winter it didn't bloom and i thought it was done. This year, just before i was going to start watering it again, it put up a flower stalk. I promptly starting watering it, and it started to bloom a couple of days ago! It has a light fragrance and is so nice to see in early January.

It's between christmas and new years.. nothing going on in the garden cause i don't have a hoop house, low tunnels or a green house.. got all my catalogs and going through them to put in my order soonishly, cause.. starting in february i'll start some seedlings.. but not quite yet.. So, to keep you all entertained till i post again, which probably won't be for another couple of weeks.. here's a photo of my cat, Muddy.. he just turned 2 in November.. he's a big cat, about 15 pounds, not fat, just big! I call him little big cat. I know, not much to do with gardening but he is one good looking cat! ; )

I know i've been really slack about my blog lately. There are a few reasons.. #1. it's winter.. there's not a whole lot going on in the garden in winter. Though, as you can see from the above photo, i'm still harvesting kale, brussels sprouts, and not seen, collards, and lettuce. The second reason is i got the flu.. Kinda puts you off your game for awhile. I'm not 100% yet, but i've had to get back into gardens i work to clean up for the winter.

It's important to clean up your garden area before the ground freezes solid. You don't want insects making a nice winter home in your garden debris; just gives them a head start next spring. So besides overwintering crops, like garlic, you want to pull out all your stalks, stems, etc.. from your garden area. Not only does this help with pests, it also means you're ready to go next early spring.

Also, if you've had pests like tomato horn worms, or flea beetles, and the like, not only do you want to pull out all your dead vegetation, you want to turn your soil over now.. Reason, a lot of pests lay their eggs in the soil, by turning it over now, you can expose a lot of the eggs and hopefully kill them. While i'm not usually an aggressive person, i do believe in killing pest insects with vigor. After all, they're eating my food, i don't think they worked for it!

So.. maybe in the next few weeks i'll post a photo of my empty garden, which is kinda sad.. one day i'll start posting photos of my incredible greenhouse where i grow stuff year round, but till then.. and till February when it all starts again.. Lets harvest what's still growing, and give thanks for the season we had!

It's getting cooler now, we've had a few frosts and this morning we even got some snow flurries. While that doesn't make me happy, it does mean it's time to cover my garlic. On this bed i used a type of organic straw that's been treated so there are no weed seeds. Garlic does not like to compete with weeds, so it's good to use a mulch that doesn't have any in them. Leaves are acceptable as well as pine needles. Both leaves (especially oak leaves) and pine needles are more acidic, but only using it as a mulch and not digging it into the soil, will not affect the pH of your soil.

If you're planting hard neck garlic then you'll want a good 4" to 6" of mulch on top of them. For soft neck garlic you'll want 8" to 12". I'm planting both kinds this year, so obviously i want to keep track of what garlic i planted where. Next post i'll show you how I do that. This bed holds german red and music garlic, both hard necks.

The reason you want to mulch over your garlic isn't because it isn't winter hardy, at least with the hard necks. The reason is that in the fall and in the spring, we get cold temperatures, then warm, then cold again.. This can make the garlic bulbs heave out of the ground, not something you want. By mulching them over, it regulates the temperature better and they won't do that. For soft necks you're also protecting them from extreme cold, which they don't like, and which is why you use so much more mulch on top of them.

So why would I plant a soft neck when they're so much more trouble? They also have a higher failure rate than my other garlic varieties. The answer is, they are the longest storing types of garlic. I'm planting a kind that's supposed to be a little more winter hardy than some others. It's called susanville, and i'll let you know how it did next year.

For now, all my garlic is planted and protected, now all i have to do is wait....

We've been having some really nice warm autumn weather lately. A bit too warm to put straw down on my garlic. You don't want to mulch over your garlic while it's warm out, the reason is pest insects can make nice cozy winter homes in the mulch and you don't want to give them a head start next spring. So, I'll have to wait to mulch over my garlic. On the up side though, i'm still harvesting lots of stuff from the garden. Shown here from left to right; a fall crop of romaine lettuce, kale, above the kale are purple brussels sprouts (we have had a frost so they'll be sweet) a couple of nice green tomatoes and a 1/2 red sweet pepper. The reason you want to wait till a frost to harvest the brussels sprouts, is as i said, because they'll get sweeter, same for collards. The garden my collards are in though, haven't gotten a frost yet so i haven't started harvesting them quite yet.

I started planting my garlic on October 20th. Usually here (in New Haven CT) you want to start planting your garlic around mid October. You don't want to plant it too early as the cloves will start to grow too much, but you don't want to get it in so late that the garlic doesn't have a chance to acclimate before the winter sets in. We've been getting some warm days here so it gives me more wiggle room to get them all in. I've been working in 3 different gardens, but I'll be planting my garlic in 4 places. My partner and I are starting a farm and I'll have lots of room to put in more garlic this year. Garlic is a heavy feeder, so the first thing you want to do is enrich the soil before you plant. I get composted manure and humus mix, add that to the soil and dig it under before i plant. The above photo shows the compost added, i rake it around then dig it under and rake it smooth. 

Once i do that, i separate the cloves of my garlic. You want to plant each clove, pointy end up, 4-6" apart, and 6-10" between the rows. Remember that all these little cloves will grow into a full head of garlic so give them room so you can get a nice big head of garlic. If you plant them too close they won't have the room to get large. I like to separate the cloves and lay them out on the top of the soil, then all i have to do is dig 4" deep and plant them in, they're all set where they should be. Makes the work go faster. I'm planting 4 different kinds of garlic this year. The music and german red garlic are from what i grew this year. I'm also trying cascade rose which is an early developing hard neck, and susanville which is a soft neck garlic.Soft neck garlics aren't supposed to do well here, this one though, is supposed to deal with tough winters better than others, and the soft necks can save for over a year, which most of the hard neck garlics won't. So.. giving it a try.

You need to add some kind of mulch to garlic. While the hard necks are very hardy, you want the mulch on it to prevent heaving. Heaving means, the garlic rises up over the soil line, this isn't something you want to happen, it occurs when temperatures go up and down. 4 - 6" of mulch on top of your garlic will prevent this, for soft necks, you want 10-12" of mulch as they're not as hardy. I'll show photos of that when i add the mulch. I don't want to add it too soon as the temperatures are well above freezing and there's no need to do it yet. if you add the mulch too soon, it will give nice cosy homes to pests for the winter.

 Finally! Some of the mushroom logs a friend and i inoculated are starting to fruit! These are shitake mushrooms. Inoculating wood with mushroom plugs isn't hard. You do need fresh wood (not aged) and shitakes are partial to oak, but they'll also do well with other hard woods. You need a shady area, or you can cover the logs with a shade cloth as well. They also need sufficient moisture. Soaking the logs before inoculating can help, but make sure the bark dries out before you inoculate them. If it's hot and dry in the summer, you'll need to give them moisture as well. Once inoculated, you can soak the ends of the logs for about 8 hours, then turn them over to soak the other end. Doing this every couple of weeks will help them fruit. Letting the mushrooms fruit naturally can take time, sometimes, lots of time. You can force them as well, but they won't fruit as long if you force them.

Most mushroom varieties will give you a large fruiting in cooler weather, so spring and fall. If you force them, you can get them to fruit in summer as well.

Been starting to plant garlic as well. Our autumn has been very mild so i've been putting back the time i usually plant my garlic. Next week though, things will start to happen in earnest, got a lot of garlic to get in the ground!

Part of my harvest today. From left to right; red russian kale, swiss chard, carrots and baby bok choy, which is bit more like teenage bok choy at this point. I also got a few tomatoes, long cayenne hot peppers, lettuce and beets. The fall garden is going nicely, but we're starting to get cooler weather at night. Had to take out a couple of tomato plants today and have a feeling most will go in the next week or so. This isn't altogether a bad thing. I have limited space and i want to get my garlic in soon. I planting 4 kinds this year. Once we start getting some frosts, my collards will also get sweet! There's a zen saying I like a lot, and it applies to gardening; you never get something, but that you lose something. Always changing, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I know i've been slack with my blog lately. But i've been working 7 days a week since May, something had to give and this was it.. Needless to say i'm pretty exhausted! But, my fall crops are coming in nicely, been harvesting lettuce, kale, chard and this, my baby bok choy! Bok choy and pak choi do so much better here in fall than in spring. They grow quickly and bolt slow.. opposite of what they do in spring. My pak choi is doing well too though not large enough to harvest quite yet. Soon i'll be planting my garlic for next year, and i really wanted to show you that. So.. i'm back, and for a little while so are my vegetables.