Sylvan Gardens

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Introduction to Sylvan Gardens

Our goal is to provide you with information to help you grow all or some of your vegetables. We'll have very frequent updates in which we'll talk about increasing your yield, pest and disease prevention, preserving your harvest, recipes, what to grow, indoor gardening, hydroponics, composting, nutritional values of various vegetables, herb gardens and everything else we can think of (or that you suggest) that relates to gardening. We will also add information on finding and collecting edible plants in the wild.

We'll even update existing articles with the latest information so don't forget to check back on older articles from time to time as well.

We started growing as much of our own vegetables as we could because we wanted to have a healthier diet, to avoid commercial pesticides and chemicals, to reduce our carbon footprint, to save money, and because it's just plain fun! Whatever it is that motivates you to garden, you'll find something helpful at Sylvangardens.com. We'll share what works for us, what didn't work, our favorite tools, seed varieties, methods, and much more. The menu to the left of the page will guide you to all of our articles and scroll down this page for our most recent updates.

Updates from Sylvan Gardens

Gardening Videos Added! Choose one of our new videos for more great gardening information!

October 21st, 2008

Here on Blue Job Mountain in New Hampshire, the growing season is essentially over. We have had a moderate frost for several nights in a row. The last of the tomatoes and squashes have been killed off by the frost. We still have leeks, garlic, onions,Thai chili peppers, and brussels sprouts growing. We'll let the leeks, garlic and onions that we don't use this fall stay in the ground and overwinter for harvest next year. We've had great results with 2nd year leeks when we were in Connecticut and although we the winters are noticeably colder here in New Hampshire, we expect them to overwinter well and thrive in the early spring. We still have beets and carrots in the ground as well. We'll pull these before a hard freeze and use and/ or preserve them. The carrots we'll slice, blanch and dehydrate for use in soups, pot pies, and things like that. In our experience, carrots lose much of their flavor when dehydrated but they still make a great addition to more complex dishes. We like to dehydrate a soup mixture of carrots, celery, chives, and other herbs which we add to chikcen broth with fresh ingredients for a delicious light soup to warm us up when we come in from the snow in the winter. The beets get boiled thoroughly and frozen in serving size packages. As we empty the garden beds, we also work on preparing the soil for next year. This means adding composted manure (purchased from our local Home Depot), compost from our own tumblers, and in one test plot, we're adding biochar. I'm only adding it to one plot because I'd like to try to compare the results of that plot against others without biochar. You can read more about it on our biochar page, where I will also track any notes about the results from next spring.

September 20th

We've just added a new page about biochar. Biochar is a great organic way to increase your garden's yield. Researchers have reported yileds 3 to 8 times greater simply by adding biochar to the soil. Biochar is natural, organic, and free! Triple your garden's yield for free? OK, I'm in. we'll be adding some homemade biochar to our soil in some of our garden beds here at Sylvan Gardens and we'll keep you posted on the results of our experiment. Meanwhile, the new page on biochar has tons of information including four embedded videos that tell you everything you need to know about biochar. It's actually an ancient technique used for centuries by the great civilizations of South America. It is only now being investigated and measured. Researchers were astounded to see how effective it is. You will be too.

September 12th -Update

The Blueberries are done. Those left on the bushes are withering and suitable only for the birds. Next year make your plans to pick more During July and early August! Meanwhile here are some tips on Cold-Hardy Plants for Northern Climates. The plants listed here are mostly flowers with some trees and shrubs mixed in.

August 23rd -End of Season Update

There are some blueberries left, but the season is winding down. There is not much time left to get up to Little Blue Job Mountain and pick your blueberries. Bring some moquito repellant for the hike. Once at the top of the mountain, the wind does a pretty good job of keeping them at bay (and if it's sunny you'll have no problem), but the hike through the woods is getting a bit buggy.

July 7th - Update -Blueberry Season!

We have picked over four pounds of blueberries since July 1st! Blueberries are in high season. There are probably enough berries on top of Little Blue Job Mountain for 15-20 people to spend 10-12 hours a day picking for the whole season. Remember, this used to be a commercial blueberry farm, so there are plenty for all and more coming ripe every day.

July 1st - Blueberries are Ready at Little Blue Job Mountain!

We also saw an adult black bear July 1st about a mile away from the blueberry fields, so get your blueberries before the bear does. Actually, don't worry there are more than enough for all. We picked nearly a pound of blueberries without getting five feet into the fields. The blueberries and admission to Blue Job Mountain State Park are always free. Little Blue Job Mountain is located in Strafford, NH. In case you didn't see it, we've added a strawberry page and will soon be adding a blueberry page as well. We've also added a links page, if you'd like us to link to your gardening site, drop me an email at brad@sylvangardens.com.

Email us with your comments or topics that you'd like to see covered here!

The words and photos found on this website are copyrighted (2007, 2008) with all rights reserved and may not be reproduced in any fashion without our express written permission. However, we will be liberal in granting that permission if you ask nicely, include acknowledgement of the source, and a link back to our website. The photos are our original property, if you would like to use them for your own project, you must contact us for permission. They are also available in high resolution. Contact Us.