Robbins Farm Garden is a cooperative community garden project at Robbins Farm Park in Arlington, MA. Since 2010, we’ve grown vegetables organically as a group, created an educational resource in the community and continued the agricultural tradition of the farm at the park. We garden Saturday mornings April – November and Tuesday or Wednesday evenings June – September. The project is run through Arlington’s Recreation Department.
Finally, A Successful Second Crop of Beets!
With our fourth attempt at a second crop of beets at the garden, we’ve had our first success.
– In 2020, we seeded a second beet crop on August 15 in an open portion of the fall broccoli bed. We determined the crop failed due to late planting and resolved to plant them earlier in 2021.
– In 2021, we seeded a second beet crop on July 17 in the same plot, as soon as we finished harvesting the spring beets. This second crop failed as young seedlings, possibly due to a hurricane.
– In 2025, we seeded a second beet crop on July 12 at the edge of the zucchini bed. This crop also failed, probably due to competition from the expansive zucchini plants.
These failures led us to try starting the second beet crop indoors and planting them out in good garden real estate (but not in the same bed as the first crop) this year. For convenience, we seeded them with our last indoor seedlings (a second crop of zucchini) in mid-June. We’ve started our first crop of beets indoors since 2017.
We followed the same process of successive seedling thinning as the spring crop. Three seeds were planted in each 6-pack cell. After a few weeks, these were thinned to one seed per cell, each of which has up to three sprouts. When transplanting in the garden, each seed was then thinned to a single sprout.
This year, we provided a proper garden spot by transplanting the beet seedlings into the plot where the fava beans come out in early July. That space had previously been occupied in the latter part of the season with fall peas. (Sadly, a crop of fall peas is too much of a crap shoot in our climate.)
As usual, the beet seedlings looked dreadful after transplanting into the garden. They were covered with shade cloth for two weeks to protect them from the summer sun and heat while they recovered. (Though sadly, we did lose one transplant.) Then they were on their own, and began growing incredibly fast.
For reference, the first beet crop was seeded April 5, transplanted May 3, and first harvested on June 20, 76 days from seeding indoors. The second crop was started June 15, transplanted July 4, and first harvested on August 12, only 58 days after seeding indoors.
It may be worth noting that we cover our spring beet crop with insect screen, protecting the foliage from leaf minor. The second crop was left uncovered, being past the seasonal window for leaf minor. Though the leaves are not as perfect as the spring crop, they are still good quality greens.
We might be able to forego starting the second beet crop indoors by seeding directly in the soil when the fava beans are removed in early July. Though the soil temperatures this summer have been quite high, it’s something to ponder for next year.
New Garden Structure
Our new corn frame, seen from eye level.
Losing our local source of bamboo instigated a transition from bamboo garden structures to structures made of metal conduit several years ago. We began with the tall pea trellis and tomato frame, followed by the two shorter squash trellises.
Our latest structure is for the corn and beans section of our Three Sisters bed. It’s an elegantly-simple “table” frame strung across the top with twine, stabilizing the corn and supporting the ever-exuberant beans that grow on the corn.
Each of the five conduit structures is designed to be simple, sturdy, long-lasting, and easy to move as the crops rotate around the garden. And each is restrung with twine every year. When the garden is in peak season, they do their job while almost seeming to disappear. Many thanks to Alan for his brilliant design and construction!
angine de poitrine des aubergines
First Tomato of 2026
A ripe Sun Gold greeted us on the 4th of July this year.
Collards of our Dreams
Success with starting kale indoors (see last year’s post) inspired us to follow suit with collards, with similarly spectacular results. They were on the same schedule as the kale: seeded on April 5 and planted out on May 3.
The photo above was taken on May 23, 2026; the photo below was taken on May 24, 2025. Not only do we have our most uniformly-robust collard plants, we are harvesting from them a full two months earlier than last year. The results are well worth the extra seedling work in the spring!
Seedling Season in full swing
Say hello to some colorful beet seedlings ready to go in the ground!
The early-season seedlings we started indoors in early March have all found their way into the garden as of this weekend. That includes: broccoli, sprouting broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, fava beans, leeks, lettuce, onions, shallots, and spinach. In the case of the broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower, the early start gives us time for two crops each season.
Many of our mid-season seedlings were also started indoors. Our beets, celery, collards, edible flowers, kales (curly and dinosaur), and kohlrabi were started indoors in early April for transplanting into the garden in early May. We once started these crops outdoors, but the indoor start gives us stronger and more uniformly-stellar plants.
And the late-season seedlings are well on their way. We’ve begun hardening off the peppers, the tomatoes and eggplants are following close behind, and the basil, ground cherries, okra, papalo, sweet potatoes, and tomatillos will be ready to make their garden debut in coming weeks. The garden is definitely taking shape.
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