Southern Maine Gardener

The Hardening

It’s something I’ve never quite mastered – the transition from cozy interior to harsh exterior.  I don’t have a greenhouse or a cold frame.  My plans to harden off seedlings have always been a few hours each day for a few days, extending the length of time they’re outside each day until I lose patience on day 4 or 5 and just put them in the ground.  I decided today was the day for spinach, kale, broccoli and lettuce.  In they went.  My new row cover fabric will go over the bed at night.  We’re still getting down to high 30s to mid-40s at night.  Beets will go in at the end of the week, as well as some peas.

In the meantime, I am enjoying the random spring stuff popping up.

Winter, where was thy sting?  Never mind, forget I asked.

Though it’s officially the 2nd day of Spring, we’ve been feeling that vibe for at least 3 weeks now.  Our snow is long gone and we’ve been in the 50s and 60s during the day.  The garlic was up before the crocuses!

Started the following seeds today: Beets: Wonder Tall Top and Red Ace; Broccoli: Blue Wind; Eggplant: Orient Express and Mangan; Kale: Winterbor; Lettuce: Black Seeded Simpson, Simpson Elite and Roman Emperor; Peppers: Dulce (jalapeno), Yankee Bell and Sweet Chocolate; Spinach: Salad Fresh, Bloomsdale Long Standing, Tyee and Whale.

I have two bell pepper plants (Blushing Beauty and Unknown Variety) and two Eggplant plants (both unknown varieties) that did great wintering in the house and will go out in May at some point.

Got lumber for another two beds and row cover and hoops as well.  Phase I of the 2010 season has begun.

” … The morning sun shows the trees
In white against white.
There is a certainty that
Tomorrow will be the same. For months thereafter
The days hang onto each other
Like timid sisters.
Nothing is changed but bed sheets …”

Marianne Wolfe, from The Thaw

As Maine begins a long, long period of hibernation, the SMG family decided to fly south to warmer climes for a week.  Also, I turned 40.  The Florida Keys seemed appropriate.

The flora in Florida is, as one would expect, 100% different than what we’re used to seeing around here.  Hibiscus bushes blooming in December, that kind of thing.  It was sunny, in the 80s, just about every day.  We visited Bahia Honda State Park, just a little south of Marathon, where we stayed.  Here’s a view from the defunct train bridge in the park:

Bahia Honda State Park

Train Bridge

There were iguanas and lizards everywhere.  Hotel pool, parks, beaches, grocery store parking lot, you name it.

Iguana

We also went to a Wild Bird Center in Tavernier, kind of a combination rehabilitation space and sanctuary.

Herons

Mr. E was sort of impressed.

E and Pelicans

We had a nice time.  Maine apparently wasn’t happy, though.  We were greeted with a blinding snowstorm the first day back.

Orange Oak trees in our front yard

Oaks

Red Blueberry bushes

See you next year

Pink volunteer Snapdragons

who knew you'd still be around?

Planted 3 bulbs worth of garlic – about 20 cloves – on October 7.  Then after a subsequent week of cold temps, I decided to end the growing season yesterday by pulling up the bean, squash and tomato plants.  Lettuce is still in the ground along with two volunteer pea plants that popped up underneath the beans (good luck, little ones).

Lessons and Observations from this past year …

• Put warmer-weather fruits/veggies (melons, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant) out earlier under hoop-supported row covers.  Our unpredictable climate and short season postively requires such adaptation.  This year’s experiment of keeping them in pots on the deck (where I thought they’d get more heat) didn’t help them a bit.  Brought in peppers and eggplants for the winter – if I can keep them alive, they’ll go in the ground under covers in spring.
• Continue policy of planting more peas and carrots.  Especially carrots.  I may devote most of a bed to them next year – it’s one of the few veggies Mr. E will eat.  Tilling, creating the lightest soil mix possible and picking out stones (screen soil next year?)  = carrot success.
• I hit the limit in terms of beans with 7 bush bean and 6 pole bean plants.  We can’t consume more than that.
• Ditto Lettuce: 6 plants is enough.  There’s always a chance for 2nd planting in September.
• No success in growing cucumbers again this year.  Try sowing seeds directly into the ground in June under landscape fabric next year in addition to a few seedlings.
• No real success with spinach again (2 anemic plants).  Test soil and put out earlier next year.
• Order 4 more tomato ladders from Gardener’s Supply.  The 6 I put out worked like a charm – had my plants done well this year, I would have been in trouble constantly trying to stake and tie them.
• Successes: lettuce, peas, beans, 12-15 potatoes, 9 squash/zucchini (incl. 2 babies), 4 ears corn, 2 heads broccoli, 3 small peppers, 1 beet, 1 melon and about 15 green tomatoes of varying sizes. 
• New produce for next year: pumpkins, winter squash, kale, garlic (already planted) and asparagus.

Building at least one, maybe two more beds.  Oh man, it’s going to be a long winter.

We have entered the Fall weather limbo phase around here.  Not warm like summer, not cold like winter.  Which means not much produce left.  Still picking pole and bush beans 3 or 4 times a week yielding between 1 and 2 lbs.  I know, I can’t believe it either.  A warmer growing season and I would have been freezing them or giving these guys away.  Picked another full-sized zucchini and 2 baby Zephyrs.  Had some flowering broccoli, so I cut that.  Cut 4 green tomatoes to ripen in paper bags on the counter for a couple weeks – they all appear to be piriform red pears.  In an extremely tough year for toms, these guys pulled through somehow, so they’ll surely be in the lineup next year.

Speaking of next year, I’m already researching hoop-supported row covers for my beds so I can get things started a bit earlier.  Our season is too short to be mucking about the first week of June.  Warmer-weather things like toms, eggplant and peppers need to be in the ground by 2nd week of May, under those covers at night.

More than a few days of warm weather has brought new life to the garden.  Cut two more zucchini and a small bucket of beans.  That makes four (4) from the squash family so far this season, the most I’ve produced.  Before I started growing squash last year, I’d been inundated with stories of people burdened with too many fruits and was worried I wouldn’t have enough friends or co-workers to unload my excess bounty.  So funny, those people.  Let’s just say I have not had that particular “problem.”

Found a Savor melon growing underneath the bush beans a week or so ago:

Savor Melon

Last night I was looking at the Johnny’s catalog, came across the Savor stock photo and decided I couldn’t wait any longer.  I grabbed a flashlight, snipped the melon and cut it open.

Too Early, Sucker

It’s supposed to look like this (when one waits until it’s ripe):

Johnny's Savor Melons

And it tasted not unlike a cucumber.  Damn it all.  Ah well.  Lessons for next year.

Pulled my beet and the Zephyr, otherwise known as squash #2, along with some more beans.

Harvest 09112009

Oh yea, and two tomatoes for ripening on the counter in paper bags.  I might just eat a homegrown tomato after all.  Still sunny and beautiful, but getting colder up here.  In the 40s at night and 60s during the day.  2nd planting of lettuce and broccoli liking the weather, though.  Another two weeks and I’ll close up shop.

As usual, the end of the season prompts a list of lessons, successes and failures that I’m compiling.  Two of the failures, once again, were eggplants and peppers, but I have a method of improvement for next year that I’m excited about.  After reading a fellow gardener’s advice on the GardenWeb forum, I’ll bring these (already potted) plants inside for the winter and set them out again in Spring (under hoop covers in one of the beds for a month or so).  Radical, I know.  We have such a short growing season and these warm-weather loving plants need all the help they can get.

Also … can’t let another adoring article about Portland’s food scene go unmentioned, in the Times, no less.

We’re down to the low 50s at night now and 60s and 70s during the day.  Longest stretch of sunny weather with no rain that I can recall (not a drop the past 10 days).  This has given the squash and the toms (aside from the cold nights) a real shot in the arm.

1st Zucchini

Another 4-5 on the way if the weather holds out.  Defying its description, summer squash made an appearance:

1st Zephyr

Zephyr is a neat hybrid from Johnny’s.  I have about 10 toms doing their best to hurry up before cold weather strikes:

tomatoes september

No idea which varieties these are, labels got “misplaced” during the seedling phase.  Put in a 2nd planting of lettuce, broccoli and Kale for Fall.  Beans have slowed to a crawl with the cooler weather.  Still bizarre to me that seasons change.  Living in Texas for 20+ years will do that to you.