New England Gardening

My husband first made this observation when we came up here looking for housing as part of my relocation package. "How the heck did these towns even come to be in 1639? How did they live here?" Why?

Because this area is one rocky rolling mess of sand, wetlands, and well, more sand. As someone who likes to consider themselves a decent gardener, this area has challenged my skills. Not only is the soil (if you can call it that) mainly sandy till you hit rock not too far down, the growing season is like rediculously short as well.

I set out my vegetable garden last weekend, seems reasonable right? To plant tomatoes, peppers, etc around May 15th? Well I was scorned by the locals who told me "Nothin in till Memorial Day". What? How the heck can you grow anything with the threat of last frost at the end of May and the first one in September?

So that brings me back to "how the heck did people live here?" New England is not a farming friendly area {hence the beautiful historic stone walls} and with the climate the way it is, how did anyone make a family garden to feed themselves?

I ended up trying to cover my garden last night because of a frost warning. Seems the temp only dipped to about 36F, but still enough to stunt my little saplings out there eeking out an existance.

I have already noticed that my raised bed from last year is doing much better at water retention and soil quality. This years bed is dusty brown and not too lively, wheras last years is a nice rich black. Looks like I have more work to do!