Garden Update & New Plants

After a few busy weeks of life with little to write about I'm back with a quick garden update and a few new seedlings.

In the garden the garlic is looking really amazing! The shortest plants come to about my knee and a few of the taller ones reach up to mid-thigh level. The radish, arugula, and kale we planted are looking really healthy while  the leeks, red bunching onion, and butter head lettuce aren't growing at all. Oh well, that is why I over plan!! If something doesn't work I will try and squeeze something else in when the time is right!

Speaking of planning... Saturday Gail and I visited Russell's Garden Center to pick up some marigolds, our pepper and tomato seedlings and a few impulse buys: shiso, parsley, and eggplant. When we got back to our apartment and set them all down our table looked like a small jungle of marigolds and veggie plants:

The shiso and parsley were planted in the garden yesterday along with most of the marigolds. I will give the peppers and tomatoes some time indoors while it warms up. For tomatoes this year we went with:
1 Matt's Wild Cherry
1 Black Krim
2 Caspian Pink
2 San Marzano Redorta
For peppers aside from 1 Jalapeno plant I went with some new varieties:
1 Jalapeno
1 Corno Di Toro
1 Cherry Bomb
1 Thai Dragon
1 Valencia
2 Carmen
The eggplant was Gail's request and is a Fairy Tale, which look like purple monster fingers! We've never grown eggplant, and I'm excited to see how it goes.

How's your garden growing?? Are you growing anything new this year??

Grow Grow Grow!

The garlic seems to have done very well with our mild Boston winter. I am keeping my fingers crossed for a great garlic harvest later this summer!!
The garden is off and running, nearly 3 weeks ahead of  when I have been able to get things going the last few years. Gail and I have made a few trips down there and have been hard at work weeding, digging and tidying up. We've also managed to plant a few seeds here and there - Leeks, Kale, Peas, Arugula, Radish, Spinach, and a Thyme plant with much more to come in the coming weeks and months.
Hopefully the on again-off again threat of rain will actually come to fruition- while Gail and I were weeding and digging we noticed the soil was incredibly dry. The water should be turned on at the Garden by now, I just haven't had the chance to make it down there to check.
Stay tuned for more growing updates!

re:char & The Black Revolution

There are a number of food related Kickstarter campaign's out there from Wood-Fired Pizza Carts to Urban Farms and dozens of other projects in between. One such project I recently stumbled upon is more garden related, but the end outcome is greater vegetable production so it falls into the food category. I decided to support Jason Aramburu's Black Revolution Biochar project!
Jason Aramburu is a Princeton graduate who is interested in soil science and Biochar. Biochar is a charcoal produced at very high temperatures from plant waste and was used by farmers in the Amazon Basin as early as 3,000 years ago to help increase the fertility of croplands. Many believe products like biochar can be used to reduce carbon emission because once plant waste is turned into biochar it doesn't decompose into CO2. See what Jason has to say in the below kickstarter campaign video:

From the Black Revolution Kickstarter page they are looking to test biochar with a variety of growers (a few potted plants all the way up to small farmers) and skill levels. Backing the campaign gives you the opportunity to be part of the US trial of Black Revolution as they will "ask backers to measure the height and yield of their plants at multiple points for publication into a comprehensive study. We will also determine how much carbon we have all offset through the use of Black Revolution. All backers will receive results of the study upon completion..." 
I pledged $35 and had the honor of being the donor to bring the project over it's fundraising goal and guarantee it will be funded. For my pledge I will be receiving a small bag of Black Revolution (enough for 4-5 potted plants).
I look forward to receiving the Biochar and sharing the results with the re:char team as well as here on the blog!

2012 Garden Plan

I finally finished my Garden plan for 2012! Just in the knick of time... with the unusually warm winter I might be trying to get into my plot at the end of this month or early next month to get a jump start on this years gardening.

I'm doing something different this year: I sketched out, in 2 week intervals my garden plan from Late March/Earl April - Late September. Though it was fairly tedious I found it to be a great constructive exercise that allowed me to use the space available as effectively as possible.
My first season lacking any real knowledge I severely over planned and last year I only made a rough list of  what I wanted to grow and winged it for the most part. This year I am trying to strike a balance between over and under planning.
Sketching out the Garden in 2 week intervals allows me to produce an 'ideal' road map if all goes according to plan and the weather cooperates. It also let's me adjust plans on the fly as life and weather dictate my gardening time - one of the challenges of gardening in an urban community garden!
I'm ready to start growing! I just need to find the time to get to the garden and see how it looks after an unusual Winter.

New Plant Hardiness Zone Map for U.S.

Last week the USDA released a new climate zone map for the country, showing a general warming trend (no surprise there). Looking at the new map, the Fenway neighborhood of Boston (the location of plot Z1 the garden home of Grown Away) now sits squarely in Zone 6b, having moved up half a zone from 6a.
Overall this is not indicative of major changes for gardening around here. Plants that are only fairly hardy may have a better shot at survival, but overall I don't expect the growing season to start earlier or to end later, although this past fall I could have easily gardened into December, ah hindsight!!