The Cambridge Urban Gardener

Compost, Manure and Netting, getting the Garden Beds Ready!

2011-04-13T00:14:00.003-04:00

Pulling the compost out of my Composter

Lettuce Bed is ready to go!

Large Garden Bed with Bag of Manure. Also I’ve already overturned the Winter Rye I had planted in the Fall

Garden Bed by the side of the house is ready to go. Notice that I have already pruned the Concord Grape Vine

Another view of the side garden bed next to the house

April 8, 2011, first sign of spring in my garden

2011-04-10T10:10:00.001-04:00

Thanks,
Tom

Winter salad in garden and on the table

2010-11-30T23:59:00.001-05:00

Thanks,
Tom Culotta---Sent using BlackBerry

Herb Garden - April & October 2010

2010-10-26T19:02:00.000-04:00

Thanks,
Tom Culotta---Sent using BlackBerry

Images of my side garden bed from March 2010

2010-10-24T20:42:00.000-04:00

Thanks,
Tom Culotta---Sent using BlackBerry

Winter Rye

2010-10-24T20:31:00.001-04:00

Now that the garden bed is clear, I've planted winter rye which is considered "green manure.". In the spring I will turn this over and mix in with the soil. This will release nitrogen into the soil.
Thanks,
Tom Culotta---Sent using BlackBerry

Clean up of the 2010 garden bed

2010-10-24T20:24:00.001-04:00

Thanks,
Tom Culotta---Sent using BlackBerry

Last look at tomatoes from 2010 garden

2010-10-24T20:15:00.001-04:00

Thanks,
Tom Culotta---Sent using BlackBerry

Tomato Paella on the Grill!

2010-08-19T15:19:00.000-04:00

The big ones are in

2010-08-17T18:11:00.001-04:00

My aussie tomatoes are in & they are huge. The one in my hand is close to 2 lbs.
Thanks,
Tom Culotta---Sent using BlackBerry

San Marzano tomatoes after being oven roasted

2010-08-13T22:23:00.001-04:00

Thanks,
Tom Culotta---Sent using BlackBerry

San Marzano Tomatoes before being oven roasted

2010-08-13T18:37:00.001-04:00

Thanks,
Tom Culotta---Sent using BlackBerry

Cannellini beans with fresh tomatoes from the garden

2010-08-13T08:03:00.001-04:00

Fresh cannellini beans fried with onions & prosciutto, then finished with fresh tomatoes from the garden
Thanks,
Tom Culotta---Sent using BlackBerry

Gemma picking cherry tomatoes

2010-08-12T13:52:00.001-04:00

Thanks,
Tom Culotta---Sent using BlackBerry

Gemma picking cherry tomatoes

2010-08-12T12:38:00.000-04:00

The cherry tomatoes are so prolific as always. Here my daughter Gemma is helping pick them.
Thanks,
Tom Culotta---Sent using BlackBerry

Crews work to eradicate stinging fire ants from Cambridge - Cambridge, Massachusetts - Cambridge Chronicle

2010-08-11T21:33:00.000-04:00

The Cambridge Chronicle writes about the status of the fire ants in my backyard. Check it out!

Crews work to eradicate stinging fire ants from Cambridge - Cambridge, Massachusetts - Cambridge Chronicle

Lunch- Tomato Salad

2010-08-10T12:07:00.000-04:00

Simple...Cherokee Purple, Aunt Ginny Purple, New big dwarf, Moskvich & Cucumbers. Salt & Olive Oil.
Thanks,
Tom Culotta---Sent using BlackBerry

Penne with cherry tomatoes, zucchini & onions

2010-08-09T20:35:00.001-04:00

Dinner from my garden. Simple dish. For reference get Biba Caggiano's cook book "Italy al Dente"
Thanks,
Tom Culotta---Sent using BlackBerry

Toni's Garden in Wareham

2010-08-08T17:02:00.001-04:00

Great little garden on the shore.
A lot of chard, tomatoes, squash,lettuce,ect...
Thanks,
Tom Culotta---Sent using BlackBerry

Cherry tomatoes

2010-08-07T17:47:00.001-04:00

Cherry tomatoes from garden
Thanks,
Tom Culotta---Sent using BlackBerry

Tomato Paella

2010-08-07T09:55:00.001-04:00

Tomato Paella from garden Tomatoes
Thanks,
Tom Culotta---Sent using BlackBerry

Connecting my Cell Phone to the Blog

2010-08-07T09:15:00.000-04:00

Well, it is August and summer activities are non stop so my apologies for not blogging.

Today I just connected my cell phone with my blog so I will be pushing more updates this way.

With respect to my garden, it is doing great! This summer has been super with all of the sun and 90 degree plus days. Tomatoes are thriving as are other items. I will provide more of a status update soon enough.

For now, expect to see more images coming in from my cell.

Tom

IMG00088-20100720-1758.jpg

2010-08-07T09:10:00.001-04:00

Testing out linking my phone with my blog
Thanks,
Tom Culotta---Sent using BlackBerry

The Rest of the Garden is In!

2010-05-29T22:54:00.000-04:00

From last week to this week I've been slowly adding to my garden. Finally I can say that all of the components of my garden are in. Here are a few images of the garden.

In my last blog I had mentioned I wrote about getting my tomatoes in. In addition to this here are the other items that went into the ground.

6 Celery seedlings

6 Italian Parsley seedlings

3 Cucumber seedlings

All of these where planted in my long side raised garden bed, next to my tomatoes.
In the garden bed on the side of my house, I planted the following:

6 yellow Hungarian Pepper seedlings

3 Zucchini seedlings. The big reason why I grow these are for their flowers!!!

6 cayenne peppers

Rosa Bianca Italian Eggplants

And lastly I've sowed 3 more rows of Green Swiss Chard. Currently my chard is not growing and I'm getting a bit concerned. If this does not work I will put a fresh soil / compose mix down and will try again.

There are a few other interesting developments in the Garden. I've noticed that I have 4 new zucchini plants that have come back from last year in addition to 3 tomato plants. I will wait to see how the tomato plants progress, but I will pulling up the zucchini as it can take over the garden. Plan will be to share them with my neighbor Barb.

Lastly, today I planted to additional Sun Gold Tomato Plants today. The Director of my daughters school had two extra that she was going to get rid of so my wife took them. I'm at capacity in my raised beds, but have planted the two Sun Golds in pots. My philosophy is that you can never have enough Tomatoes!

Tomatoes Went into the Groud Today!

2010-05-16T22:15:00.000-04:00

A lot of work in general went on today but the most exciting thing to report is that my heirloom tomatoes went into the ground today.

Here is what I've planted: 2 New Big Dwarf, 1 Paul Robeson, 1 Black Prince, 1 Aunt Ginny's Purple, 2 Moskvich, 1 Lemon Boy, 2 San Marzano, 1 Green Zebra, 1 Aussie, 1 Super Sweet 100 and 1 Sun Gold.

Please refer back to my past blog on Heirloom Tomatoes to get a description of the tomatoes listed below.

Here are a few images I took of the plantings.

In this image I've first laid out the seedlings in the approximate distance I want the plants. Approximately 20 inches apart.

In this image you can see the white around the seedlings. This is the ash from wood that I burned last night. The sulfur is excellent for the soil in lowering its pH.
To see why, sulfur is good, check out this link. http://ohioline.osu.edu/agf-fact/0507.html

Also you can see my irrigation hose. Tomato leaves do not like a lot of water, and thus I've set up an irrigation system to get water to the Tomatoes stem and roots.

When you plant your seedlings, make sure you put at least 1/3 of the seeding into the ground. If there are leaves already on the lower portion of the seedling, don't worry ad it will become part of the plants root structure. In burying 1/3 of the seedling you will ensure a strong root system for your plant.

Here you can see how deep I've buried my seedlings.

Once I finished putting all of my seedlings into the ground, the next thing to do is water and then fertilize. The fertilizer I use is Neptune's Harvest. It is expensive but a very good organic fertilizer.

For use, be careful in not using too much as you'll burn your plants. Here is my process. I'll use a cap, about the size of a shot glass and will then combine that with roughly a gallon of water. Very simple process. Shake your Neptune's Harvest pour your cap sized portion into a watering can, fill it up and begin fertilizing.