June 2009
39 posts
Weather Update: More of the same…rain, rain, rain. I just looked a the10-day forecast, and it looks like this weather pattern might finally break on July 7th with a sunny day. That means that we will have seen the sun 9 out of 36 days! This is a record breaker for us both in the amount of rain and the lack of sunshine. And, our daytime temperature is still in the low 60s, with an occasional...
Step One of Invasive Plant Eradication: This afternoon, I pulled up 2 tansy plants that I was using to control insects on my apple trees (I never did notice that they were doing any good). As I pulled up the plants, the strong odor from the crushed leaves enveloped me. Tansy is a natural insecticide. Well…it is a natural Lauriecide as well. I had a major allergic reaction to it and ended up...
Native and Non-Invasive Plant Update: Susan Hayward just informed me of a great plant guide titled, Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide, which marks each plant with an (*) if it is non-native. Awesome! I’m going to order one from Amazon today. I am also going to order: Last Child in the Woods (Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder) by Richard Louv, Reading the Forested Landscape (A...
Native and Non-invasive Plants: I just attended an awesome three day Forest Themes based workshop, and I must admit that it opened my eyes to the importance of native plants to the landscape, including our yard. The person who has drilled home the importance of this the most is Susan Hayward (Bates college professor, and steward of Thorncrag Nature Sanctuary of Lewiston.) I now plan to uproot the...
New Slogan for Maine: Drew says that Maine should have a new slogan that says, “Welcome to the Pacific Northwest of the Northeast!“ Aughhh…at least the outdoor temperature is rising so the plants have a chance. Today, the temp. will rise to 74F, and the sky will be partly cloudy. I cannot get into the garden to replant the cucumber seeds because it is still quickmud out there....
Weather Update: We are trying to be optomistic here. This morning, Drew said, “Wow, look there is only one cloud in the sky…one continuous cloud!” It is sprinkling rain outside at 8am, but at least the rain is light enough that the puddle in the driveway has disappeared. Check out the weather for the Month of June chart on Weather.com. This may not look too bad to you, but until...
Soggy in Maine on the First Day Of Summer: We are officially tired of rain. It has rained, and will continue to rain every day for the next 10 days…Usually, by June 21st the rain has stopped, but not this year. We have seen the sun 7 days out of 21 thus far in June. Ugh…I stepped into our vegetable garden and sank down to my ankles in mud. It’s like quicksand out there! Luckily,...
Gardening: Today, I planted winter density lettuce (romaine lettuce), Pinetree lettuce mix, Mediterranean oregano, basil, and some sweet peppers (that truly do not have any way of producing even one pepper before the first frost, but I grew them from seed, so I planted them anyway:-)
Weather and Plant Update: It is a very cloudy day today. But, the good thing is that the rain has stopped for awhile! Yippee! We took this opportunity to transplant two huge yellow iris clumps into our neighbor’s yard. Whoo…that was a lot of work. Tomorrow, I am going to transplant a couple of daylilies into the space that the irises had occupied.
Peonies: There are three gorgeous...
Winter World: Huh? Well…This morning, I just finished reading Bernd Heinrich’s book, Winter World. It is a great book to read if you live in the north. I’ve been poking away at it since last November. The second to last chapter is about winter buds. We are still in the flower bud stage here in Maine. The black locust have just dropped their flowers, while the basswood bloom in...
Snapping Turtle: We have been waiting patiently for our female snapper to walk over from Caesar Pond to lay her eggs…We were at school this morning and did not get home until 12:30pm. And, what did we see in the middle of the road? A snapping turtle that had been run over. Drew got a shovel to move her to the side of the road, but before he reached her two more cars ran over her. Her eggs...
Day One of Summer Vacation: We can look for a high temp. of 61F with rain all day…Ugh…
Frog Chorus (plus Barred Owl): Gee…how many...
Gardening: Today was a whopper of a gardening day. I convinced Drew to take me to Lewiston to Provencher’s and then to Landscape World (my two favorite nurseries) to buy my annuals (orange, pink, and yellow symphony flowers, brilliant pink petunias, salvia, white petunias, penstemon, and marigolds), a few perennials (delphinium, columbine, and red yarrow) that I could not resist, some cherry...
Weather: After a few days with temperatures in the low 70s, we are going to enjoy a high of 59F today, along with some rain. I would be happy if the temp. never got higher than 70F all summer.
Vegetable Garden: Our back garden area finally dried out, and we planted 3 rows of green beans, 2 rows of cucumbers, and zucchini. Tomorrow, we will plant the tomato plants we started in February. They are the most pitiful tomato plants we have ever grown from seed. We hope they survive transplanting as they seem very fragile.
Have Walking Sticks Will Travel: I got home from school at 5pm, and hit the trail by 5:20pm. I grabbed my walking sticks, plastered Deet onto all exposed skin, and wore my headnet so I felt ready to brave the mosquitoey woods. I think this was my fastest walk ever because of my walking sticks. My arms tried to keep pace with my feet, and I felt like I was flying through the woods. Of course, the...
Garden Plants: Today, I planted a dwarf penstemon, a low bush blueberry plant, wintergreen, and bunchberry, all purchased at the Coastal Botanical Gardens native plant sale last Saturday. I planted the penstemon in the sunny flower garden, the wintergreen in the shady flower garden, the bunchberry in the main front flower stump, and the low bush blueberry near the potentilla. Drew tilled the...