Yay! Spring!

Take a HAPPY break on this first day of Spring and enjoy these “GARDENING TIPS FROM A 3 YEAR OLD."
http://vimeo.com/channels/gardeningwithkids 
   
As I watched my youngest son decapitate the dahlias in my garden with a tennis racquet, it occurred to me: this kid just sees the world differently than me. To him a pumpkin is a soccer ball. Freshly picked tomatoes deserve applause and celebratory dances. And it’s okay to fill your pockets with worms to give them a better home in a nicer part of the garden. So I decided to style, shoot and edit a video series of my 3 year old son trashing and celebrating my garden. All I had to do was grow this beautiful space, a little hidden oasis on a busy Boston street, and then let Ollie tear into it.
   
Be sure to take a look. And if you need any content shot, edited or both — give me a shout. If you need someone to spit on your weeds, mow your pool or relocate your worms, please call my son.

   

HAPPY Spring!

Spit

Here it is, the first chapter of 'GARDENING TIPS from a three year old.' You'll find very useful tips like 'Spit on your weeds.' Enjoy! 
   
Chapter 1: SEEDS
   
Or click here to watch it full-size on vimeo  
   

Happy Spring!

[ I'm completely ignoring the fact that it's snowing right now in Boston. ]   In honor of this first full day of Spring, I'm posting about my garden journal. C'mon now, control yourselves. There's enough of this fabulous blog post to go around. 
  
I keep more of a visual record of my garden's progress but I've also got a binder full of good stuff. I've gathered magazine clippings, advice, pictures and more over the past six years that I want to refer to easily and quickly. I started with a 3 ring binder and divider pages from Russell and Hazel. And this is how I organize it (follow to flickr).
  

If you want a simpler journal idea click here. 

My roses are growing on Flickr...

In case you want to follow someone who knows very little about gardening, click here, where you'll find lots more about my garden adventures on flickr. Yes, yes, I am obsessive—I love my garden as much as I love my husband. And that says a lot because I love my garden a real lot! 

  

Plant a seed. Watch yourself grow.

Six years ago we bought a house in the city with a huge yard. It was a yard — not a garden. To me, there's a magnificent difference between the two. A yard is something you mow. A garden is a journey—it's something you respect and love—it's a compost pile you care for because you know it will grow healthy vegetables which in turn, feed your children; it's a single chair nestled into the farthest corner so you can look back and smile at her one minute before the sun is totally gone for the night; it's the roses' scratchmarks on your arms and the dirt engraved in your knees for life; it's the complete joy of watching snakes wiggle across the grass, frogs sneak in under the privet, butterflies dance just outside the window, wrens raising a family in the dead tree you swear to never cut down; and of course, it's the sweetness of the first tiny piece of candy of the season - a cherry tomato. 
   
Before March 2005 I was not a gardener. Every plant I owned died. I didn't know the difference between an annual and a perennial. I didn't know the definition of "full sun." I just woke up one morning and decided to plant some seeds with small hopes of transforming a yard—instead the yard transformed a girl.
   
This is my journey. A work in progress.  (follow this link to my garden on flickr)
   
Happy Spring everyone! 
   
Plant a seed.
  

My Salad Bar

It's been dancing around 17 degrees in Boston lately as a low and I'm still growing and eating delicious lettuce and arugula. Crazy! This is the first year I've done this and I wish I'd started a few years ago. It's so easy. At night I cover the lettuce and arugula beds with a floating row cover (vegetable quilt). I put it over wire hoops and hold it down with rocks or hooks.    
  
Just make sure you grow frost-tolerant lettuce like this freckled romaine (click here). The majority of my seeds come from Botanical Interests. And Gardeners.com sells great season-extending products at great prices (follow this link). (I think the bottom shot is Red Sails.)
  
Earlier this year: the Pea-Pea Teepee (snap peas from botanical interests)
  

Candy Store

My vegetable garden is out of control. I'm like a kid in a candy store—every time I go out to pick veggies and herbs, I come back with buckets full. And it's not just quantity, it's quality. Everything is beyond delicious. I've never had this kind of success with vegetables. On the flip side, I've always been successful growing flowers—not this year. But that'll have to be another blog post entirely.
  
If you're interested, the only 3 things I did differently from the past few years:
  

1) laid out a bottom layer of newspaper then a top layer of straw over the entire space after every plant was transplanted in late-spring (this proved to be especially helpful with the heat and little rain this summer) 

2) fertilized one time mid-summer on everything (except the pole beans and carrots) with an all-purpose fertilizer more info here on gardeners.com 
3) used escar-go to keep the slugs and snails from continuing their wild dinner parties in my garden more info here on escar-go
    

BeST purchase... Snail Bait

(Yes I'm aware how strange it is that I'm posting this as a "best purchase.") This is the first year I've used Escar-go and it's the first year I have had NO problems with slugs and snails in my garden! I tried everything from beer to removing the buggers by hand over the years. I swear by this stuff!  

  

Garden's Alive sells Escar-go. 

  

green thumb...

Keeping a visual record of my garden is easier for me. I don't have time to sit and spend hours writing in a garden journal, especially when I'd rather be in the garden getting my hands dirty anyway. So I take before-after pics of spaces I change or plan to change in the yard. I also take pics of what I'm adding to the garden, where I'm adding it, of the flower so I know what the color palette is in that space and of the tag so I always have info on the plant handy.  
  
(Green thumb post-series is me offering up my gardening tips, which I warn you, probably aren't all that helpful. Enjoy!)
  

before-after (2006)

Over the past five years, I've made some big changes to my garden and plan to make some more. I take on one huge project a year. Here's one transformation from 2006—I cut down an old clothesline (or should say sawed), removed 4 large practically-dead forsythia bushes—roots and all, dug out about 100 big rocks and then "built" a poorly constructed rock wall, added raised beds, removed a yew, and added beautiful peonies, dahlias and vegetable plants. Let's just say I was in killer shape after that!
   

Poop and Peat Pots

Over the past few years I've tried starting my seedlings in peat pots, in plastic pots, in cow pots, in egg cartons... and so on. The only thing that's worked for me are plastic pots. CowPots were the worst and I so wish that weren't the case. I really wanted them to work because I love the idea — recycling cow dung, how great! But the plants I started in plastic yogurt cups grew faster and larger than the same ones started in the cow pots and peat pots. So if you're starting your own plants from seed this year, see what works best for you but don't put all your eggs in one basket. (Very interesting post, right. Don't be jealous, you can aspire to this level of blog posting if you work really hard.)

Gardening Books

Because I like to attract wildlife into my garden; I want to have my own bees someday; I want my children to get their hands dirty with me and appreciate mother nature as I do; because I love melons; because I'm clueless (was); because I love the outside of my house more than the inside; and for no real reason at all; here are some of my favorite gardening books: 

Purchasing Seeds

Please, I know I have issues, especially when it comes to my garden. I just bought $100 worth of seeds for crying out loud, and I'm not even done yet!!!  I buy my seeds from:
Botanical Interests

Renee's Garden

Seeds Trust

High Mowing Seeds
Please, please don't buy seeds from big companies like Burpee selling GMO (genetically modified organisms) seeds. Support local and small seed companies by purchasing organic and/or heirloom varieties. The links above will get you started.    
    

Here's what I bought this morning and how I organize my seeds so I know what to plant and when: 

Loving Your Compost (too much?)

My compost pile loves Autumn! It's the pile's last solid meal of the year. 
 
So I'm a little crazy when it comes to my garden. I know this. And I know that it's strange to consider your compost pile to be your third child. But I have a few tips to offer up if you're serious about composting. (I'm laughing that I'm doing this post.)
  
1) First off, steal your neighbors leaves in the fall. Make sure they're bagged already. Less work for you. 
2) Don't take the first or last bags that you see. Wait for leaves to fall, but don't wait too long or you'll get wet leaves, mud, garbage, and just plain gunk.
3) Stalk trees in the neighborhood. I scout out the best trees in my neighborhood (yes, really, I do). If a yard has a big beautiful tree full of wonderful leaves then go back to that yard and take those bags. If there's a house without trees in the yard and they have 20 bags out front on collection day, be hesitant! What could possibly be in those bags? 
4) Don't take heavy bags. Big red flag. People might hide trash or rocks in the bag. Good, dry leaves are light, light, light.
5) Watch the weather forecast! You want dry leaves so grab bags before it rains or a few days after it rains. 
6) Store the bags in your shed or garage thru the winter so you can use them in spring and summer when "browns" are hard to come by.
7) Before adding them to your pile, dump a bag on your lawn and mow over them. They'll break down much quicker.
  
This year I think I stashed about 17 bags in my garage. Some women hoard shoes, I hoard dead leaves. 


(our japanese red maple)

It's Been a Very Long Winter

While I wait for my flash guy to finish my website, I decided to get my fix for Spring and ignore the snow outside. So I planned my garden for this coming season, bought and organized my seeds and organized my overstuffed Garden Binder.

Did I mention that I'm a tad bit crazy about gardening? And you didn't believe me.