April 1, 2010 ~ New England

Tell us what's going on in your New England garden world!
As for me, well, here we are, April 1, 2010. I was hoping that I could have planted my cold weather spring crops before now, you know, peas, beets, onions, shallots, spinach... but no, the schools are all canceled in my area for a SNOW DAY! The forecast calls for 4"-8" of snow today.

If I was a truly tenacious Yankee I would just go out and stick those peas in the ground! But no, I am feeling patient & I still have enough to keep me busy in the house.
I recently transplanted 2 varieties of tomatoes, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, broccoli and basil. I sowed coleus yesterday and plan on sowing a few more annual flower seeds today.


I am continuing to do work on the new hive in anticipation of the arrival of my package of bees in a few weeks. Yeah! Bring on the pollinators!

What beautiful pictures, I know you are sick of it, but it's still quite pretty.

YEAH for bees!!! We have 3 hives and I have tons of things planed to stick in the SFG for bees, now if I can keep the goat out.

Turning it back over to you hardy N'Easterners.

FarmerValerie wrote:What beautiful pictures, I know you are sick of it, but it's still quite pretty.

YEAH for bees!!! We have 3 hives and I have tons of things planed to stick in the SFG for bees, now if I can keep the goat out.

Turning it back over to you hardy N'Easterners.

Thanks Val!!

Thanks for the pretty pic! We somehow sescaped the snow piling up, but it's still snowing.

I'm just getting started and love that your sfg are in front of your home. Our home backs up to a hill with trees and the back yard is quite shady. I will definitely have to consider doing a box or 2 out front. Keeping pests (kids, cats, neighbors...) out will be the biggest challenge.

I went out yesterday to cover the raised beds I'd shoveled free of snow, with plastic so that when the snow stops, I can just pull that snow off. Except that snow is sooooo heavy. So far 8" and still coming.

I know its durn pretty, and my creative eye loves it. My gardening self can't take much more of it.

My flower beds. I saw Iris greens popping up yesterday but today the heavy snow is bending the roses and other perennials over with their weight.

Inside, tho, my seedlings are doing well but need to go outside pretty soon. They are getting too big to stay inside much longer. These Broccoli are ready for the outdoors.


Lets hope the daily temps rise quickly to melt all this white stuff.

Good luck to all my gardening friends in the great white north!

When I lived in MA I used to think "If I can just get through February it will be OK".

An Oct snow is a bit of a treat but an April snow is just mean spirited.

I am glad for the rain for my seedlings but I wanted to be outside today doing things on my garden list. Tomorrow rain or not I am heading to my community plot and moving a holly bush. Here's were things are so far here in Boston.

Put together cold frame and moved some of my seedlings out (coleus was not a fan... too early I guess for the flowers)
Beds topped off with MM and extra compost added to each square
Started to put my wagon covers together for the garden blankets
Sowed carrots, beets, greens, endive, cress, mache, spinach, peas
Transplanted broc, cauliflower, cabbage

I finally went and bought all the electrical conduit to put up the trellises for each box. Putting them together was my plan for today and now tomorrow.

I took a walk thru my garden beds today. The snow is almost gone in the raised beds.

Last fall I mentioned I sowed winter rye as a greeen manure crop in some of my beds. Well, the green grass of winter rye came thru the winter just fine. A little too fine, even being buried under 2 feet of snow most of the winter. I foresee a hard job of cutting down below soil level this spring. I won't be doing that again. If I do a green manure crop at all it will be one that dies during the winter months.

I covered 3 of the beds with plastic before last weeks additonal 8 inches of snow and with the warm weather, they seem to be doing OK.

The proposed asparagus bed is covered with plastic. I'll be amending the soil very soon to get it ready for the asparagus crowns I've ordered.

All in all, I'm adjusting to my later start this year. I have to get my A-frame back up this week and my son is going to build the cold frame so things are in train.

Lets hope the warming trend continues in our neck of the woods.
Good gardening luck to my New England neighbors.

Yes, it's late, but last night I made the soil blocks and planted my 44 indoor seedlings and put them on a heat mat. Today I'm leveling my four boxes outside with stakes (this ground is so slopey and rocky that I could barely even find a good place to put them!) but I don't think I'll fill them yet, have to get a few more bags of compost.

Today it's off to Lowes to get the cedar for the afterthought 2 x 8 box for tomatoes (in back), squash & watermelons in front. Come to think of it, I'll need more fill for that box too.

Slow start, but getting there! Between the late depressing snow & cold weather and then 2 of my chickens got sick and died and I was researching for days about that issue. If my eggplants don't have a long enough growing season this year, I'll just try them again (earlier) next year.

I'd love to know how you all learned about your beekeeping. I'm taking a class in June, knowing nothing about it.

Take the class first, ask questions, check out books. My husband and I have wanted bees for years, I tell people all the time we have pretty much the same to do list, they are just arranged in different order. He took 1 class, bought a hive, and dug right in. With the goats, he brought them home, then I got some books, then we started building the pen, oi vey-men.

NHGardener wrote:Yes, it's late, but last night I made the soil blocks and planted my 44 indoor seedlings and put them on a heat mat. Today I'm leveling my four boxes outside with stakes (this ground is so slopey and rocky that I could barely even find a good place to put them!) but I don't think I'll fill them yet, have to get a few more bags of compost.

Today it's off to Lowes to get the cedar for the afterthought 2 x 8 box for tomatoes (in back), squash & watermelons in front. Come to think of it, I'll need more fill for that box too.

Slow start, but getting there! Between the late depressing snow & cold weather and then 2 of my chickens got sick and died and I was researching for days about that issue. If my eggplants don't have a long enough growing season this year, I'll just try them again (earlier) next year.

I'd love to know how you all learned about your beekeeping. I'm taking a class in June, knowing nothing about it.

NH Gardener, would you be able to get a photo of your garden area and
post it here? I would love to see what you are starting with.
We, all of us here in New England that like to get a jump start, are getting going a few weeks later than we wanted, but all is well. As long as it warms up soon you will have some success in your garden. There are still many, many folks who wont put their tomato starts out in the garden until Memorial day.
If you can get a bed done and get your early stuff (peas, beets, chard, spinach, onions) in this week all will be well with those babies.
As to the eggplant, you will probably get fruit, just not early.
Sorry about your birds!!
I am taking a beekeeping class through a local club. We meet once a month for about 6 months. My bees arrive on or about April 23. I would encourage you to find a local club start going to their meetings, if they have speakers do attend those events. Read, read, read. I have found that as many beekeepers I talk to there are as many opinions about how to do things. Go get 'em!
I hope you enjoy the weather today, it's going to be glorious.

camprn - I'm trying to post photos, but hmmm. Is the right place to put them the Gallery? When I try to upload, it says the file is too big or corrupted. I even shrunk the size of the photo and it's still saying that. I'll keep trying, but if there's an easier way or place to put them, that would be great.

Okay, I'm trying this one more time. I think I got the hang of it, I got 3 of my 4 photos to show up on preview, but then I lost them all.

One more time:

I told you this was ugly. Shield your eyes:

Now let me see if I can get the other 3 photos to show up.







And this was the best spot... Anyway, the 2x8 tomato box will go behind the other 4.

NHGardener wrote:When I try to upload, it says the file is too big or corrupted. I even shrunk the size of the photo and it's still saying that. I'll keep trying, but if there's an easier way or place to put them, that would be great.

Sorry for the inconvenience; it's not your error. I will contact the person who contact's the person who can fix it!