Low tunnel installed for fall season

Well we are having some cold, rainy weather here this week, so I decided to put my low tunnel over my garden yesterday. The weathermen are referring to this as a 3 day nor'easter, so I figure some protection from the elements would be a good idea. The low tunnel went up as planned, but a wind gust last night removed the plastic cover. I think one of the stakes at the end of the tunnel was not deep enough and pulled out, resulting in a big sail. I drove a longer stake into the ground and reattached the plastic cover tonight. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

SPIN gardening

I became aware of SPIN gardening this past spring. SPIN involves using small plots of land in the suburbs for gardening, instead of large farms in the country. SPIN farmers use their own or other people's yards to grow vegetables. They either rent the land or barter for it with vegetable produce. The idea is to lower the cost entry barrier to farming. Well I'm just starting out so I am using my own backyard, but if I decide to enlarge my gardens, I will follow the SPIN method and use other land close to home to grow.

Other SPIN concepts involve growing multiple crops per season on the same land. I hope to do this in the future by extending my growing season using low tunnels and grow multiple crops per bed. One SPIN suggestion is to use beds 2 feet wide and 25 feet long. I may add 2 more growing beds next year this size. My current 5 foot wide bed makes it difficult to reach the middle of the bed. With 2 foot wide beds, I can straddle the beds with my feet and easily reach the middle. The following picture shows my current growing bed with the area for my future beds outlined by the wood strips.



My summer garden is just about done and the colder temperatures will be here soon. I hope to harvest some more bush beans and my celery before the first frost. The beans just need to grow a little bigger!



I started some lettuce, spinach and broccoli last week in flats indoors. I planted them in my garden today.

Seeds just germinating



Seedlings prior to planting


I'll show the seedlings in the garden when they get a little bigger.

Welcome to my gardening blog

Welcome to my vegetable gardening blog. I live in a suburb of Boston, MA and currently have a 20 foot by 5 foot raised bed garden. My soil is poor here, so I have brought in a lot of compost from our town compost pile. It is good stuff, but there are a lot of weed seeds in it, so I've been doing a lot of weeding. I have been generally using Jeavon's raised bed, organic techniques. I double dug my bed, added compost and enclosed it with 8 inch wood sides. I bought rough sawn lumber and painted it with house paint to make it last a little longer.













This year's plantings included 5 varieties of lettuce, spinach, radishes, bush beans, celery, broccoli, carrots and tomatoes. I am also looking to extend my season with a plastic row cover.

My bush beans















My lettuce
















I also have a small plot next to the house. I use it both as a cold frame and this year for tomatoes as well.






This is my low tunnel. More details on how I built it and how well it works in a future post.


Well, that's it for my first post. More info on the status of my early October garden next.