A Glorious April in Maine

This is the eight spring I have experienced in Maine and certainly the best. March was a record breaking rainy month but April continues to be filled with sun and more warmth than usual. I have been loving it and am able to spend hours outside working nearly every day.

I finally developed the flowerbed near the road and sidewalk as you drive into my property. I was given five rugosa rose bushes last fall and had them staged in a garden bed awaiting my plan to put them in this flower bed. The forsythia bush planted in 2009 is healthy and flowering now. There is a culvert under the road at this point so much of this flowerbed is filled with stones for drainage.  I dug many of them and piled in the center and brought in several wagon loads of garden soil so I could plant the rugosa roses on the left side.  I also added some liastris bulbs  that will bloom later in the summer and transplanted some tiger lilies. Hopefully this will be a low maintenance and colorful flowerbed from now on.

I couldn't resist adding another photo of the magnolia tree that graces the yard so beautifully at this time of year with its fragrant white flowers. Yes, that is my trusty 1992 Oldsmobile near it!

I have on occasion, but not for the past two years, landed a free dump truck of wood chips from a local tree service. My prayers have been answered again for I just acquired a load of fresh oak chips and have begun to spread them in garden paths, as mulch around trees and bushes, etc. Two photos below show such use. I plan to use most of them between garden beds in the Field Garden. The five dwarf fruit trees are all looking healthy and starting to show some budding and flowering so I am hopeful that this year will bring some peaches, pears and apples.

The remaining two photos show the blooming weeping cherry tree overhanging the garden pond and another showing some blooming hyacinths on the edge of the Peace and Joy flower bed.  The tulips are starting to bloom now and the endless daffodils, hyacinth, jonquils and creeping flocks add color throughout the flowerbeds.

As to vegetable crops...I have now planted 100 feet of potatoes, including Yukon Gold, Kennebec, and Red Nordland varieties. I also have 100 feet of onions sets in as well, red, white and yellow varieties. Some peas are planted too.  I have now planted more seeds indoors for late May garden planting, including: winter and summer squash, watermelon and cantaloupe, cucumbers, romaine lettuce, cabbage and marigolds. The previously planted tomatoes, Brussels sprouts, red cabbage, leeks, tomatillos, green, red and various hot peppers are all doing well under grow lights.

The strawberries are all looking good and the first asparagus spears are almost ready for picking!  I can also report that I now have two cords of wood cut, split and stacked for next winter. I want to have three plus cords so will keep at it to complete that task before mid-May when the full focus on gardening occurs and the weather gets a bit warm for wood splitting.  Oh yes, lawn mowing has begun!

An early spring has sprung in Maine

A month has flown by since the last post and I can't blame a lack of interesting news to report on this Garden Blog for the silence. I did travel a lot during March though. I attended the CFA Consumer Assembly in Washington DC, traveled on to Richmond VA to visit the Coplan clan and flew back to Maine only long enough to celebrate St. Patrick's Day at the Wonder Bar in Biddeford before heading on the train to New York for another Brooklyn visit and some enjoyable babysitting duties with Cotton. There was also a day trip to Boston at the end of the Month. But every free moment while in Saco was spent enjoying the wonderful weather here. Snow is a distant memory and even chilly, rainy spring days are not very frequent.

There was another horrible late March rainstorm triggering the biggest garden floods I have experienced though before sunny, warm days took over ever since. The garden ponds created by the nearly five inches of rain brought a pair of ducks to the homestead for four days until the pond disappeared. Cotton, Julian and Roxi were able to make an unexpected Easter weekend visit here and certainly enjoyed the warm, sunny weather and the burst of spring flowers all around the property. Cotton enjoyed an Easter Egg hunt and played for hours in the sandbox. The flower beds have been cleaned of mulch and debris and many perennials are popping forth: peonies, hosta, ferns, hydrangea buds,lilies, lupine, sedum,and bulbs everywhere.

My new garden cart...a freebie along the side of a country road...has new wheels and worked perfectly behind the riding mower for gathering all the debris piles around the yard. The family pet, a rabbit named Ms. Clarence, moved into her summer home in the garage from indoors and has a pleasant visit around the yard thanks to Roxi. The pond had the pump activated and was cleaned of fallen leaves and is ready to gain some water plants. The magnolia tree alongside the driveway is nearly in full bloom.

I am busily splitting and stacking wood since major garden work is still a few weeks away. My goal is to have a couple cords all ready for next winter, covered and seasoning over the summer months. But the seeds of many vegetables and flowers are already started indoors and I am planning my planting locations in anticipation. This has been the nicest late March and early April in my nearly eight years here so I am confident the planting peas, potatoes, and some other early crops are merely days away. The lawn is so green that I may be mowing grass well before the end of the month!

Here's hoping that this surprisingly sunny, warm spring is an indication of a great, long, hot growing season and the best garden year ever. But remember all gardeners and farmers have to always enter the spring season brimming with optimism and I am no exception to that rule.

Enjoy some images that visualize the above words: