Almost Memorial Day & Finally Some Warm Weather

A two-day heat wave landed in Maine and the plants are loving it. I will be in Chicago for the holiday weekend but will return with Julian for almost a week's work on the homestead following the holiday so major projects might be revealed in the next post around June 1st. More flowers and perennials are now in full bloom as these pictures show. The wood stash for the winter of 2009-2010 is now just about complete. Approximately three cords are cut, split and stacked as the picture below shows. Each covered pallet holds a little less than a cord. There is only a little more to split and stack to finish this process as the warm weather prompts a refocus on just gardening work now for the summer season.
The strawberries are in full bloom and the picking should begin in about three weeks or so with an expected great harvest. The first oven full of strawberry-rhubarb pies will happen then as well.

Familiar blooms & plants return

May brings back some of my favorite blooms and plants in the gardens. The lilac bed is maturing and should offer more blooms this year as will the bleeding hearts near by the nestled under the trees bordering the east side of the property in what has been called the Mulch Garden. The creeping phlox is taking over its spot in the Peace and Joy Garden, surrounding the St. Francis of Assisi statute. The Lillies of the Valley transplanted from Cambridge are spreading okay after all in front of the house and soon the hosta there will overwhelm as usual.

Ah the strawberries! They are beginning to flower now and all are healthy; how far away can strawbery jam and strawberry-rhubarb pie be now? The rhubarb as always is faithfully offering itself for a first sampling in May. The picture of a part of a highbush blueberry gives you an idea of what appears to be a bountiful year. Nearby in the Raised Bed Garden are peas bursting forth.

I continued with more wood gathering, planiting and garden preparations this past week. 45 tomato cages are now in place in the Field Garden and support for a dozen cherry tomato plants are set up in the Raised Bed Garden. Pole beds are in and so is the first planting of green and yellow bush beans. More lettuce was planted as well. All the gladiola and dahlia tubers left their basement winter storage and entered the ground in various location to add their significant visual splashes in both vegetable gardens. How could I forget...the relentless annual task of cutting grass has now begun in earnest!

More Veggie gardening prep work & planting

The green house is now full of seedlings. I moved all indoor seed plantings from the house to the green house in the Field Garden and planted several more trays of flower seed plantings and more veggies. The weather has been great and the May full moon has now occurred so there is almost no chance of another frost. It is now time to plant directly some corn, sunflowers, the first bean plantings and the 2nd planting of lettuce, carrots, beets and more peas.
I constructed a couple of new trellis structures for the pole green beans and pole Lima beans. I prepared the large tomato bed in the field garden with 40 tomato cages and did my grand experiment with cardboard/paper and compost to suppress weed growth between the tomato plants. I will surround the tomato bed with a thick planting of marigolds. I do not believe in rototilling the soil and so hope that this works. Tilling adds to one's carbon footprint and also destroys the worms tunneling in the soil. The cardboard/newspaper and composting/mulching encourages even more worm activity. Tilling also stirs up weed seeds that are always lurking in the soil.
I was able to have the first meal of delicious asparagus and noted that the recent potato plantings have already shown signs of growth. The dwarf peach tree is full of blooms so it might be that this tree, the newest of the mini-orchard, might yield the most fruit this season!

Early May Rains

The first week in May in Southern Maine is proving to be a wet one. I am not complaining at all for the rain is coming gently and stops for part of the day allowing for some outdoor work. For the last few springs the homestead has face an annual torrential storm triggering destructive garden flooding but this year may well be the exception. The relentless task of mowing has begun though, but only around the Field Garden and in Midge's Orchard so far. By this weekend the entire place will need mowing and this will mean the beginning of adding grass clippings to the compost piles. The rain also makes the weeds flourish and they always grow faster than the flowers and veggies plants so this means a lot of time will be spend on hands and knees communing with nature in weed form.
More seedlings are emerging, especially peas, turnips, radishes and beets. More and more asparagus shoots are appearing in the Field Garden but none yet in the Raised Bed Garden. I notice that tons of blueberry buds are forming on the 18 bushes. I think a bumper crop will be the 2009 blueberry story! I noticed the first buds on one of the dwarf apple trees so some first apples should happen this year. Many blooms are emerging on the lilacs as well. All tulips are now in bloom in their many locations and the three circles of grape hyacinths in the lilac bed are blooming as well. There is nothing like a burst of spring flowers to trigger great gardening excitement each spring!

The White House Vegetable Garden

Here are two photos I found of the garden so far. I thought the blog readers might enjoy some images from the Obama Vegetable Garden. I was one of the petition signers urging that the White House add a garden and lead by their example this movement of growing one's own food as much as possible and buying local, organic produce. Here is a website that was one of the movers in this lobbying effort. It has a lot of good information so might be worth a regular visit to check its blogs and additions: http://www.kitchengardeners.org/

Here also is a PDF of the schematic plan listing what varieties are to be planted and where: http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/artsandliving/documents/WH_Garden_Diagram_040909.pdf

A Cool, cloudy Sunday

No planting today, but late yesterday I planted two new rhubarb plants from Moody's Nursery to increase the amount planted here. To my pleasant surprise I noticed a lot of asparagus emerging in the Field Garden. I had planted 50 free plants from a neighbor last year in two long rows. My attention turned again to more wood cutting and splitting. I only have a bit more than two cords stacked for seasoning for next winter so far but want at least three on hand. That's good work for cool weather!

The View on May 2, 2009

I thought it might be nice to have an overview of the property and gardens as the growing season begins. Some of these image views will be updated as the season goes on showing the changes that will occur.

The Field Garden Cam

I should have added this to the last post. There is a garden camera that is pointing over the fence behind my place toward the Field Garden. You can watch this garden grow and any farming action that might be happening at the moment you are looking. Hopefully you can figure out the various settings to watch it live or capture images. go to: http://saco.schlaver.com:90/

The Field Garden

The Field Garden is much larger than the Raised Bed Garden and has only experienced one season. It is on my dear neighbor's property; Midge Sanborn generously has allowed me to expand my farming operation here. Historically much of this large field was planted in vegetables but has not been farmed for 20 years. Hence I am having a real battle with weeds that will continue for a few years as the raised beds (without frames) are developed. The dimension of the garden is 120 feet by 85 feet.

The Raised Bed Garden

I thought I would post a few images from the 2008 mid-summer Raised Bed Garden and will soon post some images of its current state with little visible plantings as yet. This Raised Bed Garden is the primary veggie garden that was started in a very modest way the first summer here, in 2003. There are now 20 wooden framed raised beds. Two beds in the middle are permanent herb beds; two others have strawberries and one other bed has rhubarb and asparagus. The remaining 15 beds are planted each year with a mixture of veggies and flowers. On the border of the garden are two rows of high bush blueberry bushes, 18 in total. On the back side there are six dwarf fruit trees that may well produce a bit of fruit this year on some of them. The last image I am posting is the grand view of the garden taken a few years ago on a misty day.

The Weeping Cherry Tree

Spring in Saco at the fish pond

The Blog Begins

Welcome to the SchlaverseedFarm Blog. I will try to add pictures and keep you inform of activities here at the Farm in Saco Maine

Today's activities

Today more strawberry plants were added to bring the total in the new Field Garden to 200 in two beds. Various seeds have emerged in the Raised Bed garden including peas, turnips, green onions and Broccoli Raab. Maybe tomato, tomatillos and cabbage plans have now emerged in the in-house plantings. Yesterday 200 feet of potatoes were planted: Yukon Gold, Red Nordlands and fingerlings