Ever since Dick, our vegetable gardener extraordinaire, first joined his wife Mary in the Blithewold gardens, we’ve had more produce than we know what to do with. (Dick orders the vegetable seeds, starts them, plants them and tends the vegetable garden along with his faithful sidekick Cathy and any of the garden volunteers willing to spend time in the hottest spot on the property.) The vegetable garden’s raison d’etre is to give visitors an up close look at a beautiful and productive vegetable garden, and is a great place for the camp kids to learn about growing and harvesting vegetables.

But none of us want to throw good food on the compost heap. We have always offered all of the kale, Swiss chard, cabbage, beans, peas, basil, artichokes, broccoli, cauliflower, endless zucchinis, millions of tomatoes, mountains of lettuce and anything else to Blithewold staff members and volunteers willing and able to come down and help themselves. But because the garden is so large – and so productive – we often ended up with extra and although Gail and I have had every intention of bringing the surplus to the local soup kitchen, we didn’t always share as much as we could have. What we lacked was time and an easy way to get the produce to where the need is.

Enter my neighbor Dyan. She suggested and is facilitating a partnership with the East Bay Food Pantry, which according to their website, currently serves an astounding 900 households (3000 individuals including 850 children.) We have adjusted our work schedule in order to pick first thing Tuesdays and then Dyan comes right over to fill her car, and then her cool cellar and fridge with an abundance of fresh veg. She delivers it to the pantry just before they open their doors every Wednesday.

So far, since we started picking for the EBFP the first week in June, we have donated about 180 pounds of produce. (Dyan not only stores the food and delivers it, she weighs it too!) And we still have plenty left over for our staff and volunteers (not to mention our bunnies, woodchucks, and cabbage worms…) And when I worried that so much kale and Swiss chard might be a tough sell, I was assured that the food pantry volunteers are giving pantry clients cooking advice and recipes, and that all of the produce donated from Blithewold’s garden and other home gardens has been snapped up fast.

Does your garden produce more than you can eat? Have you donated any surplus to a food pantry or soup kitchen?

- Or they would be if it ever stopped snowing and the sun came out. Truth be told, the sun was out yesterday and the vents in the propagation house opened for the first time all winter. And even though we haven’t seen a whole lot of sun lately, there’s new growth (and growths apparently – this grapefruit has scale, eeeu) on plants that have been sitting like lumps since summer – resting might be a nicer way of putting it. Even Gail and I are aware that the sun is higher in the sky and out for just a titch longer everyday. We’re not actively growing (or are at least we’re trying not to… damn girl-scout cookies…) but we are finally finalizing the seed orders and building enthusiasm for much brighter days ahead.

As I was filling out order forms this year it occurred to me that our methods must be very old-school compared to other gardeners’. We don’t phone in our orders and we don’t order on-line. We fill out the sheets, which are becoming harder to find inside the catalogs, write checks and send them via snail mail – often in our own envelopes. We have also only just started to think seriously about using a spreadsheets to keep track of all the plants we grow. How behind the times are we? How do you place and keep track of your orders?

For gardeners, this blustery cusp of fall into winter is the true turning of the year – much more real to us than the holiday in January that opens the calendar year. As our gardens cycle now into rest, so do we cycle into reflection. This is our time to look gratefully back on a season rich and bright enough to sustain us through a long, dark winter. And, of course, the official Thanksgiving holiday is a perfect excuse (as if we need one) to celebrate the abundance of the passing season and share it with generous abandon.

It is also the start of a new season at Blithewold. Just as our attention shifts this time of year from deciduous plants to evergreen, we also concede a shift from outside to inside. The mansion is once again lavishly and glitteringly decorated for Christmas, and will be open from November 28 to January 2. (Click here for hours and events. – And don’t forget that the grounds, gardens and greenhouse are open daily, year-round.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I’ve always wondered a little at the seeming redundancy of the phrase “unexpected surprise”. But I think I get it now. I came back from vacation fully anticipating certain changes and was still caught off guard.

Even though the rain held off until my return, I knew that (unlike at home) the gardens here would grow and flourish on a carefully monitored watering schedule. One shocker in particular was in the Display Garden. The castor bean ‘Pretty Purple’, which is not only supposed to be a dwarf variety but was cut back last month, towers a good two feet over my head now. It takes my breath away (not literally of course – though it would if I tasted it.)

Another unexpected-expected surprise was the green-striped cushaw squash (Cucurbita mixta) in the vegetable garden. I knew we were growing a special squash… but, not knowing which one it was, I had no idea that it would be such a beauty. I have just learned that it typically grows in southern gardens and must be loving our tropical summer. I also had no idea that it is the one with a reputation for making extra super delicious pumpkin pie. – I expect to be surprised by the truth of that sometime around Thanksgiving…

I knew that a sculpture exhibit would be installed while I was away. Last week local artist, Paulette Carr placed several site-specific sculptures on the property for a show she entitled Vestiges: Traces of the Past. Gardeners are perhaps more tuned in than most to how the introduction of a new element – whether it’s a plant or an object – can dramatically change the perspective, mood and view of a space. It’s something we probably think about all the time without even being aware of it – and maybe for that reason the shift in perspective (mood, view) can come as a big surprise. My photos from this morning don’t do it justice – come experience Vestiges for yourself if you can before it comes down (the exhibit runs from now through October 2) and see how it surprises you.

Fill me in – what surprises have been growing in your garden lately?

For the last three years I have not let up begging our gardens intern, Lilah “Weed Woman” Anderson to write a guest post for the blog – on any garden topic of  her choosing (vegetable gardening, please.) At long last, she gave in! Accompanying photographs are also by Lilah.

Blithewold’s vegetable garden has undergone some big changes this year. It has nearly doubled in size and the design has been re-organized to demonstrate a variety of different planting techniques. For my third year as the gardens intern I have been spending much of my time in the vegetable garden. Fortunately master gardener and devoted volunteer Dick Philbrick is there for helpful advice and a very green thumb.

The main goal for this year’s garden is to be an educational resource to our visitors on different growing techniques. We have put in our usual rows with succession plantings as well as companion beds and hills for vines. These different planting methods work well for different kinds of gardens. So if you have a large space like us it’s easy to do rows, but for a cramped city garden companion beds may be a better route for maximizing space and productivity.  The hills may also prove to be a challenge for a small plot, however I am experimenting with different trellising ideas that just may work for a tight spot.

There are also three different kinds of mulches being used (straw, grass clippings, and woodchips) to accommodate the many different plants in the garden. The tomatoes are well suited to the thick golden straw whereas the petite herb and flower rows enjoy the finer grass clippings. For our pathways the woodchips keep down weeds and provide easy access to beds. The fourth section of the garden is devoted to Blithewold’s younger visitors. It is filled with lots of pathways around flower-beds. The deep purple salvias and the bright marigolds and zinnias are meant to attract birds, bugs, and butterflies. There are also some interactive plants like cotton and pineapple sage (which smells surprisingly like a ripe pineapple). Fred and Dan have designed a playhouse for our young visitors and camp attendees that is slowly being covered by pole beans. This area will hopefully spark an interest in children to grow vegetables and flowers of their own. Overall, we have incorporated a number of different vegetable growing methods to educate and inspire our visitors both big and small.

The idea of having a garden can seem daunting if only a small yard or terrace is available but on a recent trip to Cambridge MA it was easy to see that every green pocket can produce.  My boyfriend’s father has quite an impressive city garden that utilizes a large raised bed and numerous containers to avoid the lead-filled soil. I have to say I have never seen rhubarb growing so happily in a container nor have I seen such an intricate tomato trellis as in Ivan’s garden. The small but robust garden provides quite a harvest that even includes cucumbers and broccoli growing in containers.

This tiny but productive plot inspired me to visit some of the Cambridge community gardens. There were two within walking distance from Ivan’s garden. The community gardens were composed of many small plots, all of which were stuffed full with a variety of plants. Many plot-tenders had creative combinations of plants to take advantage of space and maximize yield. A man and his daughter were already harvesting zucchini and another woman and her daughter gave me some of their ripe gooseberries to try. These pockets of green were an inspiration to me in furthering the educational aspect of the vegetable garden at Blithewold.

In an age of large food corporations it is refreshing to see so many people growing there own food and I hope that the Blithewold garden can serve to encourage visitors to try their hand at a vegetable garden.