LC, a hen from New Gloucester, Maine, has become a regular at the New Gloucester Village Market. Since first wandering into the store one day, she has become a regular customer, and is now posing for ads and is regularly featured on the market’s Facebook page. Perhaps I’ve found some work for my aging hen, Bea, who is not pulling her weight in the egg department?
I hope LC comes to no harm crossing the road on her way to the market.
Maine Gardeners, save the date for Maine Garden Day! This years’ event will be on Saturday, April 14 at Lewiston High School.
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 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.
Although 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
June 15 – October 10 — 115 days
August 20 – October 10 — 50 days (but allowing for less sunlight closer to 37 days)
So, am I missing something? Is this plan completely unfeasible, or might it work?
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.
After 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.
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