The Winchendon Courier
Serving the community since 1878 ~ A By Light Unseen Media publication
Week of July 15 to July 22, 2021

Gardening

Keep Your Garden Looking its Best All Summer Long

Late summer vegetable sowing
For a fall harvest, plant areas in the garden that were not planted this spring or replant rows of quick maturing vegetables that have already been harvested.
Photo credit: photo courtesy of MelindaMyers.com


Now is the time to plan and plant vegetables for a bountiful fall harvest. Planting now extends the harvest season for greater yield without expanding the garden.

Start by looking for vacant spaces in the vegetable garden. Fill areas that were not planted this spring or replant rows of quick maturing vegetables like lettuce, spinach, radishes, and beets that have already been harvested. Expand your search to other vacant spaces in flowerbeds, mixed borders, and containers.

Select vegetables that will have sufficient time to reach maturity before your growing season ends. Simply count the number of days from planting to the date of the average first fall frost in your area. Those in frost-free areas can plant longer season crops that benefit from maturing during the cooler months of fall.

Second plantings can be started from seeds or plants, if available. Check the back of the seed packet or plant tag to find out how many days each plant variety needs to grow and produce. Add a few weeks to allow time for harvesting. As long as there is enough time for the seeds to sprout, grow, and produce before the end of your growing season, they can be added to the garden.

Fill your late season garden with lots of variety. Include root crops like beets, carrots, radishes, and turnips. Greens like leaf lettuce, spinach, collards, kale, and chard provide the basis for a great fall salad and some make great additions to stir fries. Try onions, kohlrabi, cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and sweet corn for some variety. Just make sure the seeds or transplants will have enough time to grow and produce.

Some vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts taste better when grown and harvested during cooler months. These along with other vegetables like spinach, mustard, lettuce, radishes, and leeks tolerate a light frost, giving you a longer harvest season.

Wait for the soil to cool before planting lettuce and other vegetable seeds that require cooler temperatures to germinate. Or start the plants indoors and move them into the garden as transplants. Help keep the soil cool by mulching plantings with shredded leaves, evergreen needles, or other organic mulch.

Water your gardens as needed throughout the season. New plantings will need a bit more attention when establishing roots during the hot summer months.

Extend the harvest season with a bit of frost protection or added warmth as needed. Cover plantings with floating row covers that allow light and water through while trapping heat around the plants.

Cold frames and high tunnels are other options that allow you to plant earlier and harvest longer. You will find ready-to-purchase options or instructions for creating your own season extending growing system.

Midsummer planting adds a few extra weeks, even months, to your harvest season. You will enjoy the garden-fresh flavor while benefiting from the increased nutritional value of your fall meals.

Melinda Myers is the author of more than 20 gardening books, including Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses "How to Grow Anything" DVD series and the Melinda's Garden Moment TV & radio segments. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine. Her web site is www.MelindaMyers.com.

Antiques

Collectibles Market Investing Boom

Babe Ruth vintage trading card


In recent columns, I've discussed how major investors are buying into the collectibles market. The trend is continuing with one group of big-name investors purchasing an auction house and another group purchasing a coin and card grading company.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, "Sarasota's Certified Collectibles Group is selling a majority stake in its company to private equity firm Blackstone in a deal that puts the company's value at more than $500 million." Blackstone's investors include NBA star Andre Iguodala as well as rapper, song writer and music executive Jay-Z.

Other big-name investors recently purchased Goldin Auctions. According to Yahoo News Ken Goldin "sold Goldin Auctions to Collectors Holdings, a group owned by New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, hedge fund billionaire Dan Sundheim and venture capital investor Nat Turner." The terms of the deal weren't disclosed. The Los Angeles Business Journal wrote that Goldin also made another deal recently. They've partnered with Barstool Sports. Barstool Sports' website describes it as "a sports & pop culture blog covering the latest news and viral highlights of each and everyday with blogs, videos and podcasts." Goldin hopes to capitalize on Barstool Sports' mostly younger audience and attract them to invest in sports memorabilia.

Along with these major investments, the digital age is bringing change to the way sports collectibles are sold. Leaf, Upper Deck and other card manufacturers have inserted patches from uniforms or slices of game-used bats inside sports cards. When these cards were first produced over 20 years ago, collectors could own a small piece of Michael Jordan's jersey or a slice of Babe Ruth's bat. MarketWatch reported that small investors are now able to own part of an item without having it literally sliced into pieces.

Collectable.com is offering the public an opportunity to invest in a $6 million Babe Ruth rookie card in $3 shares. According to MarketWatch, "Collectable is a platform that allows people to buy equity in memorabilia when they may not be able to afford the piece as a whole. This concept is similar to how brokerage firms like Robinhood offer fractional shares of public companies. Investors in the card can sell their fractional shares at any time, and if the card is outright sold at a higher price in the future, those investors would see a profit. The price per share of the collectible only changes when the item is sold, not on perceived value change."

The drawback that I see with this model is that you can only see a profit (or loss) when Collectable decides they want to sell the card. However, in my opinion, it is still much better than cutting up a bat or jersey.

I'm happy to announce that I'll be returning to some in-person events soon. I'll be appraising items for the public at the John B. Gough House in Boylston, MA on Saturday, August 7th from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM. Looking ahead to the fall, I'll be teaching my "Evaluating your Antiques" class at Bay Path Evening School on Wednesday November 10th.

We have an exciting upcoming online auction featuring a Mickey Mantle card, a Roberto Clemente card as well as other baseball cards and memorabilia scheduled for August. Session 4 of our model trains, die-cast toys and models online auction will begin soon. Other events are also being scheduled. Visit our website for details on upcoming events: www.centralmassauctions.com.

Contact us at: Wayne Tuiskula Auctioneer/Appraiser Central Mass Auctions for Antique Auctions, Estate Sales and Appraisal Services www.centralmassauctions.com (508-612- 6111) info@centralmassauctions.com