Author Archives: M Riland

Preparing for the Fall Garden

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A tray of fall seedlings.It sounds crazy, summer has not even begun and we are already preparing for our fall garden. But in order to have our broccoli, cabbage and swiss chard plants ready to plant by the middle of July, I had to start the seeds inside about two weeks ago.

I start all of my seeds in soil blocks, made from my homemade soil block mix. This year I planted 25 broccoli blocks, 15 cabbage blocks and 10 swiss chard blocks. I will keep these under my grow lights (click here to learn more about my homemade grow light stand) until a week before I am ready to plant them outside, at which point I will slowly move them outside to harden them off.
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Garden Update 6-16-13

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Lettuce PlantsI can use one word to describe our garden right now “Growing”. Over the last few weeks we have been really busy planting a wide variety of vegetables for our summer garden and even harvesting a few things from our spring garden.

Last spring I had a really hard time growing lettuce, but that is not the case this year. Over the last few weeks we have been enjoying a wide selection of lettuces. We have been enjoying some great homegrown salads.

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Garden Update 4-7-13

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Greens in the spring garden

One thing you begin to realize the longer you garden is what little control you have over certain things, like the weather. Here in the Northeast, Spring has finally arrived, after a colder than normal March. This has set my planting schedule back a few weeks, just one of the many adjustments you learn to make during the gardening season.
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A Simple Seed Starting Stand

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Wire shelf seed starting stand.

Depending on your location and planting schedule, it may soon be time to start thinking about starting those seeds indoors. If you are considering trying this for the first time, here is a simple stand that you can build quickly to get things started.

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Winter Garden Update – 1-5-13

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Winter Garden Vegetables

Even with snow on the ground our winter garden is still surviving. With the shorter days not much is really growing this time of year, but everything is still alive.

Throughout December we had several really nice harvests of lettuce, green onions, carrots, swiss chard and radishes. It was really nice having some fresh greens on a cold day. Continue reading →

Winter Garden Update – 11-29-12

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Lettuce in the winter garden.Even though we are still four weeks away from winter I am still considering our winter garden a success. As you can see in the photos, we have a lot of great vegetables still growing in the garden, even as we near the end of November. Continue reading →

Winter Garden Update – 11-7-12

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Rows of winter greens.Despite the fact that the days are getting shorter and the weather is getting colder, our garden is doing really well. We have been harvesting carrots, radishes, lettuce, swiss chard, kale, arugula, and spinach. It’s a great time of year for greens.

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Building a Low Tunnel

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A low tunnel frame.One of the biggest challenges in having a winter garden is protecting it from the weather. Most people do not live in regions where the weather is perfect all year-round. So, in order to have a winter garden, most gardeners need some level of protection for their crops.

There are so many ways to protect your crops from the winter weather: greenhouses, high tunnels, low tunnels, cold frames, or a simple cover over wires. Each one of these options has its advantages and disadvantages, along with a wide range of expenses.

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Heritage Harvest Festival At Monticello

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Thomas Jefferson's Monticello.

Yesterday, my wife and I attended The 6th Annual Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello, in Charlottesville, VA. This event was put on by Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. The focus of the event was heirloom gardening, but there was so much more to see and do.

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Garden Update – 9-13-12

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Rows of green beans in the garden.

Over the last few weeks we have been busy planting a few rows a week, in preparation for our winter garden. While our thoughts are on a winter garden a majority of our time has been spent harvesting and maintaining our current garden plots.

With the exception of our lettuce crop and one bad tomato plant, our gardens have been doing great this year. As you can see in the picture above, our green beans we planted at the end of July have really grown, we just started harvesting beans this week.

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