This year’s weather gave us the usual New England spring temperature extremes, followed by a warm and unusually wet summer, resulting in very little watering. We had a long autumn, pleasantly punctuated by rain, and no hard frost until well into November.
It was a good year for alliums, legumes, squashes, root crops and celery, and it was a slightly less good (but not bad) year for brassicas and nightshades.
New crops this year were Scarlet Runner beans, Lemongrass, Shiso, Gai Lan (Chinese broccoli), Japanese Wasabi radish, Black Futsu winter squash, Lemon Verbena, Turkish Rocket (perennial arugula), and Black & Tan sesame.
Work at the garden began with completing the garden’s double-digging with the back perimeter beds, resulting in removal of another massive rock. Other infrastructure projects included a metal structure for the squashes and building our garden shed.
We assisted dedicated Friends of Robbins Farm Park volunteers with Spring Cleanup Day and Town Day. (Field Day and Fall Cleanup Day were cancelled due to the closing of the playground for reconstruction.)
None of this would have been possible without the ingenuity, persistence and genuine good humor of this year’s amazing gardeners: Alan, Carol, Celia, David, Elisabeth, Lisa, Mike, Nicole, Shakti, Steven, Suzie, Tim, and Wendy. Thank you all!
