Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 60 Entries. Monday, January 1 View Page Happy New Year to all! Made it to the summit this morning of Mt. Holyoke. Views of the Connecticut River, Berkshires, NH, VT, CT. A Bald Eagle was circling the summit. Our first time up here.   Saturday, January 20 View Page Boston Harbor Winter Wildlife Cruise. 20 degrees and a three-hour tour. No Snowy Owls this year, but a lot of Harbor Seals.   Friday, February 16 View Page GPC Big Show in Kasterlee, Belgium. We had fantastic hosts! It was great to meet growers from all over the world. On Saturday there was also a separate offsite tour option. Congrats to all of the award winners! Learned a lot. Great people, great food, and great drinks!   Saturday, March 30 View Page We had our SNGPG spring meeting in Exeter, RI today. Congrats to all who received awards.   Saturday, April 6 View Page Started two Connolly 1,375 seeds today. Great color and shape, and proven in small plots. Also started a bunch of vegetable seeds. Celebrity, Super Sweet 100 tomatoes, and cucumbers will be started later.   Saturday, April 13 View Page Today is opening day/clean-up day at the community garden in Boston. We raked and bagged a ton of leaves, and cleaned up branches and sticks that fell during the winter. While Boston only got about 12 inches of snow this winter, we did have a lot of wind. After clean-up, we paid the annual fee and signed the contract. Once again, we went with Winter Rye as our cover crop-planted it around Halloween of last year. Took soil samples today that will be going to UMass soon.   Saturday, April 13 View Page Corner shot of my girlfriend's vegetable garden. While the Winter Rye is a bit spotty in each of our gardens, it still did a very good job of blocking out weeds.   Saturday, April 13 View Page The fence on the West side of my plot partially collapsed this winter and is now leaning over private property. A few posts rusted out and completely separated from the concrete. Boston Parks is aware-as far as when it will be repaired, who knows? As a precaution I will not be starting any plants on this side of the garden. Hopefully repairs do not lead to any plant damage in my garden.   Monday, April 22 View Page Dropped off soil samples today at the Paige Laboratory at UMass Amherst. A beautiful day for a drive.   Saturday, April 27 View Page Reminds me of a ZZ Top song from back in the day.   Sunday, April 28 View Page Much better now in two gallon pots with stakes.   Friday, May 10 View Page 69 degrees indoors. I thought about building a hoop house, but since there would be no heating cables and it would be offsite, we decided to simply keep the plants indoors until the soil is warm enough to go outside.   Saturday, May 11 View Page The Winter Rye got a bit away from us. First time here since clean up day.   Saturday, May 11 View Page My girlfriend’s vegetable garden.   Saturday, May 11 View Page First stop this morning was Home Depot in Quincy. We rented a Mantis Tiller. Light enough to simply carry into the garden. Also used a hand tiller for the edges and rock borders.   Saturday, May 11 View Page Lots of green manure.   Saturday, May 11 View Page A couple Robins feasted on some worms. These birds must spend a lot of time in the park around people. They came up very close to us.   Saturday, May 11 View Page Fortunately Boston Parks fixed the fence.   Saturday, May 11 View Page We cleaned up the Rose Garden too.   Saturday, May 11 View Page The other end of the community gardens looking North.   Saturday, May 11 View Page Leaving the park. All done for the day. Time for a very late lunch in Dorchester.   Monday, May 13 View Page Hardening off some veggies that we started from seed.   Monday, May 13 View Page The pumpkins are out front for a few hours.   Thursday, May 16 View Page Grant Park Rose Garden in Chicago. Ran the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge this evening. Work trip. Back to Boston tomorrow. During the chilly New England weather this week my plants remain indoors.   Tuesday, May 21 View Page Sort of a random post: We overwintered a Jalapeno and Impala Pepper plant. They were doing pretty well until around March, but I think they are dead now. Will leave them outside in the warm weather for a couple weeks and see what happens. The bonsai on the left is my newer one. My original did not survive, but fortunately Bonsai Bar lets you attend again and receive a free replacement tree. What would we like to improve upon this year? Pumpkin Last spring it went out on 5/18 and pretty much sat there in chilly temps for two weeks or so. Powdery Mildew was an issue Had some disease when we went away. An easy one to fix, we shall see this year. Vegetable garden Do a better job hardening off plants. We lost a few last year. Formally measure out and distance the rows this year Hook up a hose next to the vegetable garden so we can water at the same time with two hosses More stakes on the Florida Weave for the determinate tomatoes Skip blood meal as animals got those transplants We had a lot of cracking on the Sweet 100 tomatoes last year. Lots of summer rain too. Growing the Super Sweet 100s this year which are newer and apparently are more crack resistant.   Friday, May 24 View Page Two plants are secured and ready to head down to the garden. We had some real heat followed by storm potential so I held off transplanting until this evening.   Friday, May 24 View Page Not the best looking transplant, but it should perk up soon.   Wednesday, June 5 View Page The plant was droopy and looked stressed for a while after transplant. Fortunately it perked up a few days ago and is growing.   Wednesday, June 5 View Page The vegetable garden is complete (except for one more plant). Probably the widest variety of plants we have grown in it including some herbs.   Sunday, June 9 View Page Well I guess I will not be making it to the garden this morning. Truck was vandalized on the street.   Thursday, June 13 View Page About 4.5ft long and marching to the other end of the garden.   Thursday, June 13 View Page The vegetable garden. We pushed the rows out this year closer to the perimeter for more planting room in the trenches. Full list of plants coming soon.   Saturday, June 15 View Page Vine burying today with WOW products and Espoma Biotone (the poor man’s Root).   Saturday, June 15 View Page We fully weeded the Rose garden and my plot. Weeding the border rocks can be quite tedious so we just move them to fully weed.   Saturday, June 15 View Page Based on the previous few years the plant should almost double in size over the next week. I made a slight depression ahead to make vine burying easier.   Saturday, June 15 View Page We fully weeded the vegetable garden today too and cleaned up debris from yesterday’s storm. Added some tomato cages, stakes for the Florida Weave, and used left over mulch. To cut down on weeding we are going to fully mulch the vegetable garden this year-not just the trenches.   Thursday, June 20 View Page Back in Boston. I was in Birmingham, Alabama Sunday-Wednesday for work. Boston is literally hotter than Birmingham this week. Made it down to the garden during lunch hour, watered and misted. Two male flowers on the plant.   Sunday, June 23 View Page Sweet Meadow Feed and Grain in Sherborn. 18 miles away. Bales of straw mulch are hard to come by in this part of MA. It beats paying city prices for small bags of hay/straw mulch.   Sunday, June 23 View Page We have the first female around 11ft-12ft out.   Wednesday, June 26 View Page We got caught in rain storm and then it turned into a sun shower. Very isolated. When we got back to our neck in the woods in Boston it was dry. But at night storms raced up the Mass Pike and we got hit hard. Checked on the plants on Thursday and everything was okay.   Friday, June 28 View Page Pollination is upon us very soon.   Friday, June 28 View Page Two secondaries are taking off on the north side of the plant. One has a female that just started. The second pollination most likely.   Friday, June 28 View Page We weeded and mulched the vegetable garden. Yes this process took time, but hoping it pays off by saving us weeding time from now through Halloween. And we grow everything vertical in this garden so hopefully that eliminates any mulch mold issues. And we are extra careful and pruning lower tomato branches since they are in trenches. The garden dries out quickly and the mulch should help with moisture rentention.   Sunday, June 30 View Page Self pollinated this morning. Also pollinated 6/30 last year. Pollination about 11ft out on a 15ft main.   Sunday, June 30 View Page Side view.   Sunday, June 30 View Page I set up the FL Weave for the Celebrity tomatoes and the sweet peppers. Also fertilized both gardens. Too hot to do much else today.   Sunday, June 30 View Page Last pic before leaving the garden.   Thursday, July 4 View Page A change of scenery for this 4th of July, Scottsdale, AZ. McDowell, Mummy, and Camelback Mountains. Highs of 114-118. Lots of time spent in the pools. No pumpkin plants spotted.   Friday, July 5 View Page Pepper plants thriving in the Scottsdale heat.   Sunday, July 7 View Page DAP 7, it didn’t take. Agh.   Sunday, July 7 View Page Should be pollinating this one on the main tomorrow morning.   Sunday, July 7 View Page Pollination will be a week later than the last two years, but on a larger plant.   Monday, July 8 View Page Self-pollinated this morning.   Monday, July 8 View Page I used three flowers to pollinate.   Monday, July 8 View Page Looking towards the Northwest corner of the plot.   Tuesday, July 9 View Page Second night in a row that I forgot to bring down the plastic cover for the pollinated pumpkin. Assuming it takes, unlike last year the pumpkin will be on the inside of the curved main-which could get a bit tight. But, I will not need nearly as much of a curve as most other growers.   Thursday, July 11 View Page DAP 3. Pollination appears successful and the pumpkin has landed. Off to the races...   Friday, July 12 View Page Burying vines now with compost provided by Boston Parks.   Friday, July 12 View Page My goal is to fill the plot out as quickly as possible. This sounds crazy but I might curve the main and then have it cross over itself and head to the far right corner of the garden in this pic. Some pruning would be needed.   Friday, July 12 View Page Planning to loop this secondary behind the base of the plant and run it to the corner.