• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Robbins Farm Garden

A Cooperative Learning Project

  • About the Garden
  • Membership & Rules
  • Veggie School
  • Local History
  • Contact Us

Uncategorized

Spring Greens

May 19, 2019 by Elisabeth

Finally, they are here – our first lettuce and spinach! The spinach has done particularly well this year. It’s a new variety: Regiment from High Mowing Seeds.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Egyptian Walking Onions

April 27, 2019 by Elisabeth

We harvested some lovely young Egyptian walking onions today. They were a delight to take home at the end of a full day of seed planting. These onions have thrived in some of the garden’s least desirable real estate and we’re grateful for their easy reseeding each year.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Get Ready for Opening Day – April 6th

March 31, 2019 by Elisabeth

Mark your calendars with a big squash blossom star for Opening Day at the Garden on April 6th from 9AM to Noon.

Weather permitting, we will be cleaning up the garden, possibly planting early seeds and seedlings, turning the compost, checking the overwintered crops and harvesting parsnips.

Come join the fun!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Who needs a pickup truck?

March 24, 2019 by Nathan

Picking up lumber for the new accessible front gate and raised beds.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Seedlings are up!

March 13, 2019 by Elisabeth

The first crop of 2019 seedlings, planted on Saturday, are up and growing under lights. The brassicas (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbages and cauliflower) were the first to break ground, quickly followed by the greens (lettuce and spinach). The alliums (leeks, onions and shallots) and celery have yet to appear. Thanks to the seedling crew for getting things started!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

2019 Seed Selection Meeting – January 26th

January 13, 2019 by Elisabeth

Save the date – our annual Seed Selection Meeting will be on Saturday, January 26th in Community Room of the Community Safety Building from 10 am to Noon(ish).

Everyone interested in the crops & varieties we will grow at Robbins Farm Garden this season is welcome. Prospective new members of the garden group are especially encouraged to attend and join in the discussion. Bring your seed catalogs and great expectations for the season to come!

You will find the Community Safety Building (Arlington Police Headquarters) at 112 Mystic Street. When you enter the building, go directly up the stairs; the community room door will be on your left.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

2018 Notes to the Future (end of season notes)

January 13, 2019 by Elisabeth

General comments:

  • Fertilize EVERYTHING on a more regular basis – and not just with compost. Research to find ideal frequency & nutrients needed, by crop. Consider foliar feeding, e.g. with Stress-X or other seaweed-based fertilizer, which also helps to discourage foliar diseases.
  • We need to be more ruthless in our thinning. Research ideal spacing, by crop, & adhere to that when thinning.
  • Use an organic critter deterrent (spray and/or in small, ventilated bottles hung throughout the garden, possibly allowing us to avoid chicken wire around crops where the wire interferes with tending/harvesting.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

2018 Alliums (end of season notes)

January 13, 2019 by Elisabeth

Garlic: did well, fertilize in spring next year.
Leeks: did well, but not quite as robust as in some years.
Onions: sets did fine, seed varieties all did well, counting problems with seedlings, consider fertilizing mid-season.
Scallions: grew stronger and faster in sunny spot near gate, bed near bench took all season to mature. Scallions near bench were in thick hedges, consider distributing the seeds in thinner rows to make harvesting easier.
Shallots: did well, but didn’t have enough, consider fertilizing mid-season.
Walking Onions: provided spring scallions, first bulblet planting not as successful as second.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

2018 Brassicas (end of season notes)

January 13, 2019 by Elisabeth

Broccoli: first crop slightly discolored (try fertilizing mid-way), second crop solid, but all headed up the same week. Late crop covered with insect screen, but lots of cabbage worms matured under the screen. No noticeable lasting damage from the worms.
Brussels sprouts: grew 3 varieties due to old seed (difficult to tell apart) some didn’t mature, aphids only on leaves.
Cabbages: early green did well (red variety was small), late varieties good (except Aubervilliers hardly headed up). consider covering spring cabbage bed with agrofabric when transplanting seedlings.
Cauliflower: early crop variety did well (some headed up very early), late crop didn’t all mature.
Kohlrabi: good way to use space in center of zucchini bed, but difficult to harvest, try starting as seedlings or maybe making a raised-bed, like leeks?

Filed Under: Uncategorized

2018 Carrot Family (end of season notes)

January 13, 2019 by Elisabeth

Carrots: first crop basically failed: poor germination and die off, second crop planted earlier than usual did well. Make sure to keep soil moist after sowing.
Celeriac: strong seedlings, plants did well; too close together. If we’re going to continue planting these, maybe we should plant half as many?
Celery: strong seedlings, most plants did well, may have wrapped too early, research blanching and companion plantings. We need to keep an eye on these once they are wrapped and it rains. A couple of them rotted. Needs calcium (eggshells) and boron.
Parsnips: poor germination despite pelleted seed (straw mulch or soil temperature?), those that matured were good, harvested late Late harvest after poor germination reinforced the need for serious thinning, as most of the parsnips harvested were a good size.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

2018 Flowers, Grains, Herbs, etc. (end of season notes)

January 13, 2019 by Elisabeth

Basil: plants did well, some insect damage (wooly bear caterpillars)
Cilantro: first planting good, but spotty germination afterward
Nasturtiums: did well (took over Malabar Spinach), consider planting with zucchini. Overtook the malabar spinach seedlings, consider bigger gap between them.
Okra: strongest seedlings ever, all matured, need mid-season fertilizer.
Popcorn: new variety similar to old variety, slightly less productive.
Rhubarb: hanging on, but not thriving – research ideal conditions. Rhubarb definitely loves sun, so moving it to a sunnier spot would help.
Sunflowers: awesome!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

2018 Greens (end of season notes)

January 13, 2019 by Elisabeth

General: consider insect screen for more crops, esp. Collards, Chard, Lettuce, Spinach.
Arugula: first planting good, but spotty germination afterward.
Bok Choi: both crops did well.
Collards: did well, some insect damage early in season.
Kales: chicken wire worked well for bunny protection, some insect damage.
Malabar Spinach: strong seedlings plus self-seeded plants did fine on side without nasturtiums.
Lettuce: germination a problem all season (lots of transplanting), early seedlings did the best.
Mesclun: grew fine in shady bed, need to establish schedule & find someone to adopt. Good way to use up old greens seed at end of season.
Mustard: green not as robust as red, need to establish schedule.
Perpetual Spinach: did well again, even in terrible location.
Spinach: seedlings bolted a bit, seeded crop had spotty germination. Needs lots of calcium (eggshells).
Swiss Chard: some die-off (rot or fungus) early, try transplanting to fill gaps, use larger piece of screen to cover Poor productivity- need to research possible causes of rot/die off problems. Screen definitely helped causes problems.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

2018 Legumes (end of season notes)

January 13, 2019 by Elisabeth

Beans (bush): chicken wire worked well for bunny protection, germination problems with yellow varieties, lasted just long enough to meet first pole bean harvest. Infilled yellow bean several times; could germination issues be related to the company we ordered from (not our usual source)?
Beans (dried): saved (from bunnies) by chicken wire, though not as many perfect beans due to lots of rain late in season It would be helpful for these beans if we could remove the chicken wire once the beans were tall enough. We couldn’t do this because several of the squash plants had grown through the chicken wire.
Beans (pole): saved (from bunnies) by chicken wire, purple variety was early & good, green variety was later & good, Romano types weren’t as good as Garden Of Eden.
Fava Beans: best yield yet, but hit by wooly bear caterpillars.
Peas: uneven seeding & washout from rainstorm, yet good yield from spring planting. Fall planting had typical poor germination (high soil temp).
Soybeans: chicken wire worked great to prevent bunny damage, germination not great, replanted some areas twice.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

2018 Nightshades (end of season notes)

January 13, 2019 by Elisabeth

Eggplants: all needed staking, Asian type most productive, Italian type hit by insects and dropped off early, white variety less productive.
Peppers: did well, reasonable yield. Matured a little slower than patio plants at home. Pick off any flowers on seedlings or low on the plant. Avoid extra nitrogen.
Potatoes: all did well. Might do better following the bean bed in rotation.
Tomatillos: grew 3 plants (rather than 2), healthy, productive plants but small fruit.
Tomatoes: awesome! Left extra leaders, fertilized every 2 weeks, mulched and finger pruned. Only disappointment was determinate Defiant. Possibly increase spacing between plants since the extra leaders spread I think I lost control of the pruning at some point in the season. It’s a quandary because we don’t want to decrease the number of tomato plants but things were definitely out of control. Oh, and the clover died off because of the shading from the tomatoes. Rutgers tomato did poorly- probably should take it (and the Defiant) off the list.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

2018 Root Crops (end of season notes)

January 13, 2019 by Elisabeth

Beets: only one crop this year, seedlings were weak, but those that survived did well. Likes pH neutral soil; try adding 10% elemental boron.
Jerusalem Artichokes: grew well, lots of flowers and tubers.
Radishes: standard varieties were fine, daikon variety wasn’t worth the effort, late season planting partially washed out by rainstorm, try growing with salad turnips after onions.
Rutabagas: interesting experiment, needed to be thinned and given space.
Sweet Potatoes: remove all slips from tubers to produce more (don’t let them get too large), experiment with deeper planting.
Turnips (cooking): did well.
Turnips (salad): early crop did well, late crop (after onions) was awesome.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

2018 Squash Family (end of season notes)

January 13, 2019 by Elisabeth

Butternuts: good yield, needed fertilizer mid-season.
Cucumbers: good yield, but short season due to wilt/mildew. Distributed cucumbers weren’t as productive or disease resistant this season. Heavy feeder, give frequent fertilizer.
Delicata: hit with borers, but still reasonably productive.
Pumpkins: good yield despite borers, needed mid-season fertilizing. Mildew/wilt left a few small immature pumpkins.
Watermelon: seedlings almost wiped out by mechanical damage, only one melon.
Zucchini: seedlings were strong, plants hit hard by borers, but good, long yield from both varieties, try starting a second crop earlier than in 2017. Consider covering squash with insect screen until the first blossoms emerge to reduce chance of moths laying eggs. I agree that it would be good to try an insect screen experiment next year, possibly with not all of the plants because of space concerns.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Praying mantis

September 15, 2018 by Shakti

Second sighting of our resident praying mantis.  It was resting upside down on the chives.

Praying mantis

Filed Under: Uncategorized

An Outdoor Education, a Garden Tour for the whole family

September 9, 2018 by Elisabeth

Public welcome to this family-friendly, free, self-guided tour
Saturday, September 29, 2018 – 11 AM to 2 PM
Seven Locations Around Arlington, Massachusetts
Visit seven beautiful public gardens, each offering lessons in environmental sustainability


Join us on Arlington’s self-guided walking tour to explore and learn about (and from) some of our beautiful public gardens! You will get a chance to visit a wide array of locations, from the Cyrus E. Dallin Elementary School gardens to the community space of Magnolia Gardens. This event is a great way to hear from local gardeners, pick up new planting methods, and learn about the gardening opportunities provided by the town of Arlington. Free admission, all ages welcome. We hope to see you there!

Tell us you’re coming and share this event on Facebook, #AnOutdoorEducation

Maps of the event will be available (coming soon) or at any of the stops along the tour:
Robbins Farm Learning Garden – all kinds of vegetables will be ripening
Dallin School Green Team garden – includes backyard composting demo/Q&A by Jeremy Marin at 12:30 PM , and “Meet the Hawk” by Arlington’s Animal Control Officer Diane Welch at 11:00 AM
Hurd Field Rain Garden – includes Stormwater Awareness activities for the family with DPW’s Jack Turner
Arlington Reservoir’s Habitat Garden -see native plantings in their fall glory
Bishop School learning garden and Green Team pollinator garden– includes “Meet the Hawk” by Arlington’s Animal Control Officer Diane Welch at 1:00 PM,find out how Bishop is integrating gardening into their curriculum
Arlington’s new orchard – a hidden gem
Magnolia Community Garden – tour the newly-expanded Arlington Recreation community garden, includes a lesson on backyard composting best practices with garden compost coordinators Allie and Steven

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Our first winter squash of the season

August 11, 2018 by Elisabeth

Our first harvest of Sugar Dumpling squash and Baby Bear pumpkins of the season.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Tomatoes – how we doin’ this year?

July 22, 2018 by Nathan

July 26, 2015

July 23, 2016

July 22, 2017

July 21, 2018

What’s different in 2018?

  • Regular fertilizing per instructions (Espoma TomatoTone)
  • Hay mulch vs red plastic
  • Less pruning – only suckers below the first fruit set, and allowing multiple leaders. Also by hand, not with a clipper
  • Early spray with copper fungicide (Bonide)
  • Some new varieties
  • Pretty good weather

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: tomato

Curing your garlic harvest

July 22, 2018 by Nathan

You’ve harvested bunches of lovely garlic…now what? How do you prepare them for storage?

This from Karen Chrisman, Master Gardener (http://www.wmassmastergardeners.org/0708.html):

“CURING Brush the dirt off the plants and bulbs and lay them on a screen or a flat basket in a warm, dry spot with good air circulation, such as a well-ventilated room or covered porch. Most sources recommend shade for this. Curing is complete after three to four weeks when the skins are dry and the necks (stems) are tight.

The dry tops and roots can be cut off. If you further clean the bulbs by removing the outer skins, be careful not to expose any cloves. Although hardneck varieties are more common in the north, growing some softneck garlic gives you a chance to make a hanging braid, created the same way a French braid is done with hair. Braiding is easier before the stems are completely dry.

STORING Only store well cured bulbs. Garlic stores nicely under a wide range of temperatures, but produces sprouts more quickly at or above 40 degrees F. Mature bulbs store best at 32 degrees F with low humidity. Cloves should keep for six to seven months; I usually have garlic right through the following harvest.”

We grow Georgian Crystal and Russian Red, both hardneck varieties.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: garlic

First Saturday of July

July 10, 2018 by Elisabeth


The first Saturday in July ushered in our first major harvest of beets, eggplant, peppers, potatoes and zucchini. The tomatoes aren’t far behind!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Excess seeds

May 28, 2018 by Nathan

We still have some surplus seeds available for the asking. Here’s the list Steven has compiled:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pu1BuPvCr71CRBn0YJMtRKehiqTRIgQ8-RJJtLXjofI/edit#gid=0

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Starting Squash Seeds in Sterile vs. Non-sterile Soil

May 24, 2018 by Elisabeth

We’ve been starting our cucurbit (squash family) seeds indoors under lights to get a leg up on the season for a few years. Last year, we noticed that the germination rate for these seeds was unusually poor. This was brought into painful focus when only 1 of 33 of our Baby Bear pumpkin seeds germinated. A clue presented itself when we noticed that this pumpkin variety was the only one of our cucurbit seeds that was offered as treated seed.

Following our notes from last year, we started all our cucurbits in sterile soil this year. The results are now in, and they are striking. The one-to-one comparisons are shown in the table below. Each of the varieties shown were grown under the same conditions from the same seed from the same source for that year (2017 for non-sterile and 2018 for sterile).

[It’s important to note that we start most of our indoor seeds in sterile soil. In fact, we sterilize compost and make our own soil mix using coir, sand, vermiculite, wood ash and organic fertilizer. However, we decided to risk the non-sterile mix for the cucurbits because we start them just 2 weeks before they’re planted in the garden and they seem like such robust seeds.]

On average for all the cucurbit seed, the germination rate went from 53% for non-sterile soil to 94% for sterile soil. As for the pumpkins, we opted for the treated seed this year… and the germination rate went from 3% to 83%.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Warm weather seedlings get real sun!

May 7, 2018 by Elisabeth

The newly-transplanted tomatoes, eggplants and okra are seeing real sun for the first time today in the greenhouse. They will be ready to go outside and get full sun soon, in preparation for being planted in the garden. We will have well over 100 seedlings (including all the wonderful peppers, tomatillos and basil) when planting day comes…

Filed Under: Uncategorized

« Previous Page
Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

  • 2020
    • 2020 Crops List
    • 2020 Garden Plans
    • 2020 Garden Schedule
    • 2020 Finances
    • 2020 Photos
  • 2019
    • 2019 Crops
    • 2019 Garden Plans
    • 2019 Garden Schedule
    • 2019 Finances
    • 2019 Photos
  • 2018
    • 2018 Crops
    • 2018 Garden Plans
    • 2018 Garden Schedule
    • 2018 Finances
    • 2018 Photos
  • 2017
    • 2017 Crops
    • 2017 Garden Plans
    • 2017 Crop Schedule
    • 2017 Finances
    • 2017 Photos
  • 2016
    • 2016 Crops
    • 2016 Garden Plans
    • 2016 Crop Schedule
    • 2016 Finances
    • 2016 Expenses
  • 2015
    • 2015 Crops
    • 2015 Garden Plans
    • 2015 Crop Schedule
    • 2015 Finances
    • 2015 Expenses
  • 2014
    • 2014 Crops
    • 2014 Garden Plan
    • 2014 Crop Schedule
  • 2013
    • 2013 Crops List
    • 2013 Garden Plan
    • 2013 Crop Schedule
  • 2012
    • 2012 Crops
    • 2012 Garden Plan
    • 2012 Crop Schedule
  • 2011
    • 2011 Crops
    • 2011 Seeds
    • 2011 Garden Plan
    • 2011 Expenses
    • 2011 Project Proposal
    • 2011 Supporters
  • 2010
    • 2010 Crops
    • 2010 Seeds
    • 2010 Expenses
    • 2010 Supporters
    • 2010 Veggie Adoptions
    • 2010 Pilot Project Report

Recipe Collection

Log In

Footer


Copyright Robbins Farm Garden 2010-2018. All rights reserved. Site design by Carr-Jones, Inc.

Copyright © 2021 · Genesis Child Theme for Robbins Farm Garden on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Robbins Farm Garden
Proudly powered by WordPress Theme: Genesis Child Theme for Robbins Farm Garden.