Maine Gardeners, save the date for Maine Garden Day! This years’ event will be on Saturday, April 14 at Lewiston High School.
Maine Garden Day 2012
January 27, 2012Dwindling seed diversity
January 26, 2012
As part of an article entitled Food Ark, National Geographic Magazine produced this great graphic demonstrating how hybridization is reducing the varieties of food crops. A 1983 survey showed that since 1903 there has been a huge loss, of with over 93% of the 66 varieties in the survey now extinct. The article highlights efforts to preserve genetic diversity in the seed supply, and is well worth a look.
The climes they are a-changin’
January 25, 2012Come gather round, gardners, wherever you roam, and admit that the climate around you has warmed.
The USDA has released new climate zone maps which on the whole show a warming trend. The Northeast is half a zone warmer than the previous map, released in 1990, indicated. Henbogle has moved from 5a to 5b according to the new map.
While my oil bill might be smaller for this news, this really only has an impact for gardeners when considering plants that overwinter. The increased temperature may mean a marginally hardy shrub or tree has a better chance of survival. It doesn’t really mean the season will be longer, the frost later in the fall or earlier in the spring. It might mean though that overwintered leeks are more successful. It might also mean that some pests, reliably killed by cold winter temperatures, survive. You takes the good with the bad.
Thanks Manny for the heads up.
2012 Vegetable planting list
January 21, 2012Although Dan and I are going to be abandoning Henbogle for much of the summer, I’m still planning a garden. With my hoophouse, and judicious selection of crops, I should be able to produce some good eating in the spring and later summer. My plan calls for a 3 distinct phases.
First, I’ll plant a mix of short and medium season crops, started early in the hoophouse, others outside as soon as the soil is warm enough. The next phase will be to plant long season crops in the main garden and mulched heavily to keep weed down and soil moist over the summer months. The third phase will be the harvest of long season crops when we return, and planting more short season crops for fall harvest, both in and out of the hoophouse.
One of my regrets this winter is I did not have enough planted in the hoophouse to take advantage of the very mild fall we had. We had a killing frost of October 8, followed by 20 more mild days before a freak snowstorm on October 29, followed by another stretch of unusually warm weather. Had I filled the beds in the hoophouse, I would have had some good eating in the fall. Ah well, at least the beds are ready now for me to wintersow cold-tolerant veggies in February, in hopes of early spring veggies for Phase 1 of the garden plan. Here’s the overall plan:
March 15 – June 15 — 90 days
- Broccoli Raab — Sessantina Grossa 35 days
- Mini Broccoli — Happy Rich 55 days
- Broccoli — Blue Wind 49 days
- Cauliflower — Snow Crown 50 days
- Tatsoi — 45 days
- Pac Choi — Shiro 30 days
- Kohlrabi — Eder 38 days
- Lettuces and arugula, etc, cilantro and parsley
June 15 – October 10 — 115 days
- Brussels Sprouts — Diablo 110 days
- Cabbage — Deadon 105 days
- Cabbage Storage #4 95 days
- Leeks Bandit — 120 days
- Parsnip — Albion 120 days
- Squash — Confection 95 days
- Butternut — Waltham 105 days
- Tomatoes –Cherokee Purple 72 days
- Amish Paste 85 days
- Speckled Roman 85 days
- Rose 78 days
- Dill — Superdukat 105 days
- Parsley — Titan 75 days
- Maybe some melon or other long season heat lover in the hoophouse
August 20 – October 10 — 50 days (but allowing for less sunlight closer to 37 days)
- Broccoli Raab — Sessantina Grossa 35 days
- Broccoli — Blue Wind 49 days (I can dream, right?)
- Cauliflower — Snow Crown 50 days (more dreaming!)
- Tatsoi — 45 days
- Pac Choi — Shiro 30 days
- Kohlrabi – Eder 38 days
- Mache – Vit 50 days
- Minutina — 50 days
- Claytonia — 40 days
- Kale — Red Russian 50 days
- Cilantro — 50 days
- Lettuces and arugula, etc
So, am I missing something? Is this plan completely unfeasible, or might it work?
Harvest Tuesday: Purple Bok Choy
January 3, 2012
Weatherwise, it has been a bewildering fall and early winter here at Henbogle. An early heavy snowstorm in October had me thinking we’d be in for it, but the snow melted and temperatures climbed. A mere 8 days later, Dan and I were planting shallots in our shirtsleeves. The day before Thanksgiving we got another big storm with 10 inches of snow, which disappeared a few days later. It rained, the days were warm, the ground soft, the grass got green, I thought I’d have to mow the darn lawn.
We received a little snow to whiten Christmas, then a few days later it is 51°F and Dan and I are beachcombing?? Upon arriving home on Sunday, I peeked in the hoophouse and thought, I should pick those 2 bok choy plants. I had left them for dead weeks earlier, but with the mild weather, had survived and even grown a bit. Sadly, I got distracted, and did not pick them. Monday night, temperature plunged again but today, after the cold night last night (high teens, brr!) Dan picked them when he got home from school and it was still balmy in the hoophouse.
My first harvest of 2012! 2 ounces of bok choy is destined for the dinner plate in a stir fry tomorrow for dinner. Maybe we’ll finish off the last bit of Meyer Lemon Ice Cream from Christmas to celebrate the harvest.
A sunny start to 2012
January 1, 2012After a dreary freezing rain and drizzle yesterday which spoiled our travel plans, today dawned bright and sunny. Dan and I decided we needed a breath of fresh air to start the year, so we headed for the coast to let the salt air and sea breeze blow away the cobwebs of 2011.
The sun shone, the temps in the upper 40s were warm enough that I abandoned my fleece jacket. We clambered about the rocks, and I played a bit with my splendid new camera. It was a nice day, and the parks were pretty busy with people out enjoying the weather. I was so busy enjoying the coast and the company I didn’t actually take many photos, but here’s a couple.
Isn’t he cute? I just love that smile.
Trying out the self time feature. Two seconds is NOT enough time. Look at that blue sky!
I made it, but no Dan. The exposure is a little off, but I haven’t learned how to adjust that feature yet. Fortunately, Dan managed to snap the one of the two of us I used in the header file.
We enjoyed a nice seafood lunch, and then made our way back to Henbogle. We’ve been puttering about this week, working on our travel plans. I ordered travel information from our primary destination states, and we joined AAA and ordered some maps and travel info from them, and this afternoon, we created a travel planning center from an as yet un-restored bookcase.
The stack of travel mags on the left of the center shelf includes Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana and South Dakota. The stack on the right is all Oregon. Oregon must have a very large travel and tourism budget. For some reason, I forgot to order Washington state materials. I’ll be fixing that right quick.
I think we’ll have enough maps.
Tomorrow we are working on New Years’ Resolution #1 — cleaning up the barn, getting ready for a project. No before pictures to avoid self-incrimination.
A white Christmas
December 23, 2011
Much to the dismay of the hens, we’ll be having a white Christmas at Henbogle!
securing the Winter Palace cover
December 22, 2011
A couple of people have asked me how we secured the plastic to the pvc frame of the hoophouse. We used 2 methods. In some places, we pinched the plastic between the base or a purlin with a piece of old wood lathe and used our brad nailer to nail them together. This works best where the plastic won’t be removed because it leaves holes in the plastic cover.
For the open end of the Winter Palace, or on low hoops used in the garden, we used plastic clips which fit tightly over the conduit, pinching the cover in place. When I purchased a second shade cloth from Lee Valley, I also the white clips seen holding the shade cover on, but they were expensive and I was concerned the UV would make the plastic brittle over time.
Nonetheless, we had them, so we used them. I didn’t like the squared edges, feeling they were more likely to tear the plastic, so we cut up an old microfiber cleaning rag to put between the clip and the plastic cover, adding some cushion and making the fit a bit more snug.
We needed a few more clips to securely fasten the cover on the Winter Palace and the tractor cover. Dan came up with the perfect solution (of course). Using a piece of 1″ (outside diameter) black pvc pipe procured from our local transfer station (aka dump) he fashioned a clip by cutting the pip
e into short lengths, then cutting them lengthwise to open the pipe. He actually cut out about 1/4″ of the pipe, then rounded the ends slightly to minimize risk of tearing. Perfect!
I don’t know how long this clip will last given UV exposure, but it is cheap enough that being short-lived won’t be a problem. Plus, we have more pvc pipe, and I’m sure we’ll be able to find more in the future, recyclers that we are.
Tweaking the Winter Palace
December 20, 2011
We hadn’t quite finished the winter palace as of the previous post. Dan managed to do that this weekend. He used additional bales of mulch hay to close off most of the open end of the Palace, leaving an entrance area and a viewing window for us to check things out.
The hay is stacked and held in place with some spare pieces of rebar (handy stuff, that rebar) driven through the bale into the ground, making the hay bale end wall more stable.
To discourage egg laying in the Palace, we leave their food in their nearby coop, hanging near the nest boxes, handy for snacking while laying an egg. The water is also in their coop, on a heater to keep it unfrozen. Just in case, the hay bales are set inside the dome, making it possible to lift the dome with the handle to add straw, adjust the roost pole, or (we hope not), collect eggs some foolish chicken laid in the Palace.
The weather has changed since that balmy fall day when we put the Palace together. Sunday night the temps got down to 6°F, and the day time temps were not much warmer with a chilly breeze. This gives the girls a warm place out of the wind, but until the snow flies, they are often seen ranging throughout their area. Once the snow is on the ground, they will spend their days in the dome or in the coop.
The winter palace
December 11, 2011
Today’s project was upgrading the hendome. The simple rebar and conduit structure served us well
for years, but we wanted to make something a bit sturdier that would better able to withstand the snows.
We took a cue from the hoophouse and using a couple of 2″x4″s and some scrap lumber, we built a a 10′x8′ base frame and secured the hoops with conduit clamps. We used a pipe connector to lengthen the pipe to 12 feet, and added a handle on the ends to help move the lightweight hoophouse about. This allowed us to construct the hoophouse on the lawn near to tools. Note the grass, amazingly green for December.
We used lightweight 4 mil plastic from the local hardware store as the cover. A slightly heavier 6 
mil cover would have been better, but this is what we could find. Perfect is the enemy of good as they say, so we went with the 4 mil. As with the hoopshouse, we secured the plastic to the frame with old plaster lathe (from a long ago project), and stapled to the base with the air compressor.
Once we had the cover on, we carried it to the hen yard, and set it down in a level spot, set up a perch for the girls’ afternoon naptime, and spread some mulch hay. We’ll create an wind block with stacks of hay bales in the open end, 
leaving a small entrance for the hens. This new hoop gives the hens about 80 square feet of covered area to roam during the winter months. 
We liked the idea so much we built another small hoop to cover the lawn tractor.
