Tag: Burnham’s Field Community Garden

What’s New in Jenna’s Garden – Week 11

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

By Jenna Howard

"The Burnham’s Field Community Garden survived Hurricane Irene but not without some damage. It seems that most gardens, including mine, had damage to their tomato plants. The extremely heavy winds blew my tomatoes over and caused the stakes to pop out of the ground. I was lucky that I was able to get my plants standing again. But I did lose lots of ripe tomatoes, which I found on the ground around the garden, unfortunately. I’ve included photos of some of the damage done to other’s gardens. Looks like everyone has some repair work to do this week!"

Jenna

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What’s New in Jenna’s Garden? Week Seven

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

What’s New in Jenna’s Garden?

Jenna Howard headshot

Pleasant Street resident Jenna Howard is providing updates on the chard, cauliflower and other vegetables growing in her plot at the new Burnham’s Field Community Garden. The reports and photos allow GoodMorningGloucester viewers to follow the garden’s progress with a weekly answer to the question, “What’s New in Jenna’s Garden?”

By Jenna Howard

Week Seven

Over the past few weeks I’ve been doing a lot of “housekeeping” in the garden. As you may have read in last week’s update, I had to re-stake the tomato plants and remove the squash from the garden. This left a lot of free space and possibilities for new additions.

On the right side of the garden you will see a small fence. This is simply three sticks (that I took from my yard) tied together with twine. This structure was made for the green beans with hopes that as they grow they will climb the fence. This should keep them from interfering with any of their neighbors!

green beans

The newest additions to the garden are Bright Lights Swiss Chard, cauliflower, Romaine Lettuce and Wooly Thyme. While the far end of the garden is looking very mature with 6+ foot tall tomato plants, the middle of the garden is filled with young plants that are just starting to grow.

You may also notice the wild-looking vine growing at the foot of the plot. That is a pumpkin that I grew from a seed! (Yes, I’m very proud to have successfully grown something from a seed!) It has been doubling in size every week. And this week I was so excited to see that a small green pumpkin has appeared!

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What’s New in Jenna’s Garden? Week 5

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Pleasant Street resident Jenna Howard has agreed to provide updates on the squash, peppers and other vegetables growing in her plot at the new Burnham’s Field Community Garden. The reports and photos will allow GoodMorningGloucester viewers to follow the garden’s progress with a weekly answer to the question, “What’s New in Jenna’s Garden?”

By Jenna Howard

Jenna Howard headshot

Week Five

After a week of high heat some of the veggie plants were looking a little wilted — especially the giant squash leaves. I made the unfortunate mistake of pruning some of its dry leaves. I learned a very important lesson when I later read that you should NEVER cut off squash leaves! There are three important reasons why you should not do this:  First, it opens the plant’s vascular system up to bacteria and viruses. Second, the squash leaves also act as a natural sunscreen for the fruit. Without the leaves they are susceptible to sun scald (like a plant sunburn). Lastly, the leaves not only shade the fruit, they also block the sun and make it hard for weeds to grow around the plant. So the moral of the story is: Don’t cut the leaves from your squash not matter how dry or wilted they look. I had to learn this lesson the hard way. I just hope it doesn’t affect my squash too badly!
On a positive note, we have an eggplant! Well, at least the very beginning stages of one.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

GMG Series: What’s New in Jenna’s Garden? Week 4

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Pleasant Street resident Jenna Howard has agreed to provide updates on the tomatoes, squash and other vegetables growing in her plot at the new Burnham’s Field Community Garden. The reports and photos will allow GoodMorningGloucester viewers to follow the garden’s progress with a weekly answer to the question, “What’s New in Jenna’s Garden?”

Jenna Howard headshot

By Jenna Howard

Week Four

This week was THE week for tomatoes! The tomato plants are growing like wild — literally. I had to use gardener’s Velcro to keep the tomato plants in their cages and stop them from shading the other veggies. Lots of cherry tomatoes appeared this week. But even more exciting was the sight of the tomatillos. For those who aren’t familiar with the tomatillo, it is basically a tomato that grows in a green husk. Pretty cool, right? And these tomatoes are perfect for making salsa! Tomatillos are "self-incompatible," which means they need another tomato plant nearby for proper pollination. Lucky for my tomatillo there are plenty of others around which is probably why we already have so much fruit.

Here is a yummy salsa recipe using tomatillos. Enjoy!

Tomatillo Salsa Verde

Ingredients: 1 1/2 lb tomatillos, 1/2 cup chopped white onion, 1/2 cup cilantro leaves, 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice, 1/4 teaspoon sugar, 2 Jalapeño peppers (stemmed, seeded and chopped), salt to taste

First remove the papery husks from the tomatillos and rinse well. To roast the tomatillos: Cut in half and place cut side-down on a foil-lined baking sheet. Place under a broiler for 5-to-7 minutes to lightly blacken the skin. Put tomatillos, lime juice, onions, cilantro, chili peppers and sugar in a food processor and pulse until all ingredients are finely chopped and mixed. Season to taste with salt. Cool in refrigerator and then eat up!!

GMG Exclusive Series: What’s New in Jenna’s Garden?

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Novice gardener and Pleasant Street resident Jenna Howard has agreed to provide updates on the squash, peppers and other vegetables growing in her plot at the new Burnham’s Field Community Garden. The reports and photos will allow GoodMorningGloucester viewers to follow the garden’s progress with a weekly answer to the question, “What’s New in Jenna’s Garden?”

Jenna Howard headshot

By Jenna Howard

Week Two:

"The squash is taking over! It seems that every time we go to water our garden the squash has doubled in size yet again. Its leaves are now about 24 inches in diameter and it has started producing flowers and fruit! Did you know that squash blossoms are edible? Yup, that’s right, those pretty yellow flowers that you see growing from squash plants are not just a decoration. I’ve heard that they make for a tasty treat when battered and fried in a little oil—and they can also be eaten raw!"

Jennas garden week two June 26, 2011

New GMG Series: What’s New in Jenna’s Garden?

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

At Joey C.’s request, novice gardener and Pleasant Street resident Jenna Howard has agreed to provide updates on the tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables growing in her plot at the new Burnham’s Field Community Garden. The reports and photos will allow GoodMorningGloucester viewers to follow the garden’s progress with a weekly answer to the question, “What’s New in Jenna’s Garden?”

By Jenna Howard

Week One:

"Three continuous days of rain followed by lots of sunshine proved very beneficial to the Burnham’s Field Community Garden! I was surprised to find that some of our plants had doubled in size in just a few days. We even had to harvest our first batches of kale and spinach because they were shading some of the smaller plants! And we noticed that something seems to be eating the radishes. Hmm, wonder what it could be …”

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