Osgood Garden

Last Wednesday I went to the garden for another ginormous romaine lettuce head when Laura once again walked by to say hello. I also met Pete, my gardening neighbor in Osgood Too, and Tony was there to take some pictures of all the action.

We went with Laura to see her garden over in Osgood Garden, which is shadier than Osgood Too. Her garden looks well organized and newly mulched, I especially like the purple spotted basil.

Garden Dinner Party

I invited my gardening comrads to come by for a Lettuce Party and the gals were all for it. I instituted the theme of Lettuce, but our dinner included other early crops as well.

Before the dinner, I visited my garden after a week of abandonment to pluck a head of Romaine (though Laura was kind enough to watch it for me in my absence). Everything sems to be growing well (except my failed peas), but most especially the weeds. Why is it I'm the only gardener with weeds as my predominant crop? Could it be the hay I use, or not enough of it? I threw my arms up and got busy weeding...wondering where to score some more hay, or whether I should just ditch it all.



Twisting head of lettuce from the garden is surprisingly satisfying, which worries me slightly. They are so huge it's hard to find where the lettuce meets the ground. With both hands on either side of the head, and my feet firmly planted rather stoutly, I twist my upper body in a counter-clockwise direction and *snap*, the head pops off and the root ball is left in the ground. It sort of feels like I'm snapping off a person's head, but much easier I would suspect, minor all the gore and resistance. Not that I'm into that you see.



Anyways...I took my lettuce home and got the place ready for the dinner party. Laura came in with some arugula, local bread and solar powered cream beer. Karen brought some leftover pesto wheat pasta she made and rhubarb crumble (the rhubarb is from her garden). I made a grilled chicken caesar salad with the romaine.



The dinner went on through a lightning storm and much conversation. By the time it was over I was pooped from all the activity and chatting. The gals and I hope to continue the garden dinner parties into the upcoming months and mid summer crops. More updated to come!

Plants on the porch:

A month of Lettuce

I keep forgetting to bring the camera to the garden. The Experimental Herb Patch (EHP) is prospering and the lettuce is outdoing itself, putting the other seedlings to shame for miles around. And it's pretty tasty too. I gave one head to my parents, one to my brother (who was equally impressed), and one home for myself and the roommates.






General Update:
It's been crazy hot here. 4 days of 90+ degree heat has made many a hardy New Englander cower in the relative coolness of their homes. My house however, is not so cool. With a 90˚F temp reading inside, and 90+ outside, what can one do but install the AC early and cower! Putting aside the human suffering, the heat seems to make the garden plants happy, especially the plants on the porch (basil, tomatoes and nasturtiums), which are basking in even hotter temps due to the blacktop porch flooring.

Peas are not doing that great, but everything else is coming along. I noticed the sun gold tomatoes have something funky going on with the leaves. A slight discoloring, almost a rusty look to them, I'm hoping it's not a disease and they will do ok without any intervention.

Gardener of the Month

Today I've decided to highlight a Somerville gardener, friend, and neighborhood posse member, Karen D. She recently became a backyard gardener, enjoying the largeness of a recently built boxed-in bed.

This winter I sat down with Karen, Laura (another gardening enthusiast), and Erik (the maker of the boxed-in garden) to talk about growing from seeds, what to plant & when, etc. After our talk, Karen bought a bunch of seed packets, Erik got working on the box, and Laura and I studied up on the plant book for our community gardens.



I finally visited Karen's house & garden this weekend, and upon walking on the front porch I immediately noticed the orange and pink Lantanas (I didn't know they could grow big enough to be hanging plants!).


We went out back to the garden, and I was in awe of the well-built box and neatly ordered rows where each set of seeds or seedlings were planted.

Some very well-trained peas were making their ascent along a chain link fence in their arrow-straight row (Karen & I both bought peas seeds at the same place/time. Though I bought 2 varieties, one of which is not doing nearly as well as these babies).

She also had baby lettuce greens & a gourmet mix popping up in front, as well as swiss chard, spinach, and onion seedlings sprouting up. Several tomatoes, peppers, and herbs were waiting to be planted, and nearby were some empty spaces left for cucumbers (and something else which I can't recall).

Karen also gave me the tour of her other yard plants, including the hydrangeas, pesky rhubarb & morning glories, and strawberries.











Thanks for showing your garden, Karen. You're off to a great start, can you believe this is her first year doing vegetable gardening? Looking forward to a "lettuce dinner" this summer...I'll bring the romaine and cilantro!