the peas are gone, here come the cucumbers and squash

On Tuesday, we had a busy work day, taking down all 180 feet of snow peas off the fence.  Tracy and I snipped the vines at their base, so that we could leave the roots with their nitrogen-rich nodules in the ground (as natural fertilizer).  We hauled the vines into a big pile, where Noah, Keff, and Yvonne helped remove the last few pea pods (we got at least another 1-2 pounds).  Hannah was a first-time volunteer, and she helped me water while Tracy joined the others in sorting through the rest of the peas.

We ended up with a huge volume of spent vines, a pile almost as big as a car.  Luckily, Yvonne has access to a large compost pile, and I was able to take two loads over in the back of the Subaru that we have the summer, to add them to the pile.

Here's Keff near the pile of pulled vines.  This was just the start--the final pile was TWICE this big!

Some of the lovely, sweet snow peas.  (These are actually some we picked on July 2nd.)

Here's some of the chard that's growing in front of a row of cucumbers (and you can see the old peas in the background, too).


I was over at the garden today, and spent about two hours tying up tomato and tomatillo plants to the fence--they're already so big, they're starting to need some extra support.  We have lots of tomato blossoms and some small tomatoes already growing.  I've seen a few tiny tatume squashes already forming, and the cucumbers are starting to march up the fence and setting out plenty of flowers.  We had some rain last night, which is helping everything continue to put out some very large, healthy leaves.


Many people stopped by while I was working today, to express their gratitude for the garden and to chat about it.  One young guy visiting from Michigan said it was one of the high points of his visit to Boston so far.  That kind of feedback certainly makes working in the hot sun a lot more enjoyable (though I'd do it anyway).

I wonder how long it'll be before the first cukes, squash, and tomatoes are ready to pick?

Back in Brookline--the garden is thriving

We're back after our long summer vacation (we didn't do any gardening while on our trip, but did get to a farmer's market and an alpaca ranch in Estes Park, Colorado). I checked out the garden yesterday--it looks great! Thanks very much to Yvonne, Alexis, Caroline, Shelly, Sarah, Maeve, and perhaps a few others, who all helped weed and water while we were gone.

Despite our fairly poor soil quality, the heat and careful watering have helped the plants grow well. The cucumbers, especially the Marketmore 76, are already flowering. Some of the pole beans have reached the top of the fence, and the Tatume squash have leafed out nicely. I think we'll have cucumbers in just about two weeks. We'll see how the rest of the plants perform. If the weather continues to cooperate, I think it'll turn out well.

We're seeing a few weeds sprouting, since the mulch we have isn't very thick, but it's nothing a few hands can't handle in 30-60 minutes.


I watered yesterday, with bucket and watering can. Doing it by hand makes it easier for passersby to approach me with questions or comments. People are still extremely enthusiastic, about both the concept and the aesthetic transformation that's already occurring on this piece of ground. It'll be even prettier once we see more blossoms all along the fence line. Last night's rain provided a good soaking that will really help boost things along when the hot, sunny weather returns.

(on the right above, you can see the Tatume Squash has large leaves after just 3 1/2 weeks in the ground and is starting to vine into fence.)


And here is a cucumber starting to bloom. I think it looks healthier than my cucumber plants in our community garden plot, which had some beetle problems.

Starting to climb

I did my daily 7 a.m. check on the garden this morning. Some of the pole beans are starting to wrap themselves around the fence (some with a little help, but mostly on their own).

Unfortunately, the great signs that Kate Rhodes decorated from us were damaged by the rain. We laminated them, but also punched holes to attach them onto the fence. Lesson learned. We'll have to find a different way to attach them. Luckily, I scanned the decorated versions into our computer before hanging them, so I should be able to reprint them using our color laser printer. The signs definitely work--I saw people reading them (what's left of them) this morning while I was doing my check-in.

Also, I realized (thanks to careful fact-checking from Neal, an editor and reporter at the TAB) that I've been citing the wrong name for the standard cucumbers. They're not Market 87, instead they're Marketmore 76 cucumbers. Somehow my brain played around with the numbers and name. I bought these seeds from High Mowing Seeds.

Plants Have Made It So Far

I watered the plants this morning around 9 a.m., and it looked like everything made it through the night. Even the tomatoes look like they might survive (barely).



I was able to water the entire strip with just a watering can and bucket. It took me four trips to the spigot, which was a workout, but not too bad. We might bring in some hoses (on a wagon), for other watering days. We'll have to see.

Now that everything has settled in a bit, and I had a chance to water, I can see that the soil is pretty fine (friable) without much organic matter in it, which means that when it starts to rain, we'll lose a lot of soil due to runoff. Mulch is the best way to solve this, and I've talked to the property manager--she said they might already have a mulch pile on the property that we can use, which would make life easier. If not, we might need to arrange to buy some in the next few days.

The weather forecast is for rain all day tomorrow, with thunderstorms the rest of the week. The plants will be glad for the water, but hopefully everything won't wash away before we get the mulch in.

By the end of the week, we'll need to have some sort of watering and work schedule put in place.

Good News (and a little bad news)

I talked to the property manager for the site and got the super good news. The fence is on schedule--in fact they're working on it right this very moment. We have permission to start planting as of this weekend.

In an interesting twist, they're repositioning the fence, so that the posts will be set right into the concrete retaining wall that borders the parking lot. This shifts the whole thing to the other side of the two-foot wide strip of ground. This is actually good news, because it means that our volunteers don't have to spend time climbing and balancing on a 12-inch-wide retaining wall. It does change the aesthetics a bit, in that the commuters on the sidewalk won't be confronted so directly by this wall of veggies that I'd hoped for. And it'll be a little harder to pick--there will be two feet of dirt (and flowers) between the commuters and the veggies, but I don't think it'll make much difference. We'll see. I hope the impact, visually, isn't lessened too much.

The hard part with the new fence position is that the plants will have to lean over about six inches of concrete to get to the fence. I hope that this won't cause problems when the plants are young, in terms of stem development.

More good news--it looks like the fence will be a little taller than the old fence, maybe 15-18 inches taller, I'd guess close to 4.5 feet high. This is a big help for the pole beans, which can easily grow 6 feet tall. We'll have to do less trimming. And, if we can get the planting dense enough, we'll have a stronger visual impact from the fully grown garden.

I got permission, again, to use water available at the site, which will be a big help. We might just use watering cans from the spigot, we'll see.

On the downside, we can't put in a compost bin, which means that we'll have to cart away all the weeds and waste. Not a huge problem, but it makes a bit more work. I understand why they don't want it on the property. Maybe next year. (Maybe someday we'll even have worm bins.)

The really tricky part is that I've got an intensely overscheduled weekend--a family social event Friday, a neighborhood ice cream social I'm organizing on Saturday, and a writing workshop I have to help with on Sunday. Oh, and I've got a rare (but well-paying) freelance writing gig that needs to be finished by the middle of next week, which means I need to work on it this weekend). Somehow I've got to schedule a time to start putting seeds and plants in the ground this weekend, and pull together a bunch of volunteers to do it. Should be a challenge. (I'll post a time on this blog soon, for interested volunteers. We'll need folks with hoes, trowels, and compost. And a wheelbarrow or two. And paper yard waste bags.)