It’s been a while in the making and it still isn’t fully ready, but I’ve decided to go ahead and start posting there. I figured you wouldn’t mind the bare bones blog for a while until I get all the pages/features set up and added. Head on over there and check it out. The plan is to add lots of interesting features like a plant list, garden journal, and others, along with the usual blog. No related posts ..read more

Last year I started a pollinator bed in an awkward spot by the driveway. It looked OK last year, but it was mostly weeding and watching the space for sun. This year I moved a ton of mature perennials to the bed from the nursery area and it has really filled out. Here are photos of the bed from earlier this summer in June and from a week or two ago. A friend made this lovely sculpture for me, we ended up turning it the other way after this (as you can see in the following image). I neglected to get a photo from this angle in June. I was just telling Mr Chiots the other day that I need to put a ..read more

I’ve always grown kale and I love it, not only is it edible, but it’s also beautiful. This is the first year I’ve grown kale specifically as an ornamental plant and included it throughout the borders. A new one for me this year is ‘Purple Moon’ from Renee’s Garden Seeds and it’s a true showstopper! I’m also growing a green curly kale that was given to me by a friend and lacinato kale throughout the garden. The dark kale is a perfect pair with the echinacea! The dark bluish black of the kale really sets off the dark pink of the echinacea. I’m especially fond of the green curly kale above wit ..read more

This is my 8th summer gardening here in Maine, the edible garden is the best it’s ever been. That’s to be expected, all the additions of compost are really improving the soil structure, and the garden is almost expanded to the full size that we have been planning. I still need to add fruit trees, berry bushes, grape vines, and a few other items, but overall it’s really starting to settle into place and look fantastic. It no longer looks like a new garden. It’s filled with tons of self seeded flower: anise hyssop, verbena bonariensis, echinacea, dill, coriander, and rose campion. This year I ..read more

Every year I select a few new varieties of things to grow. Typically, they’re something I already grow and love. While I have favorites of many vegetables, there are times when something new is much better than the old favorite. Such is the case with Burgundy F1 broccolini! I really like growing broccolini, it is ready to harvest quite early compared to heading broccoli, it’s easier to harvest small amounts for meals for two, and it provides harvest throughout the season if not allowed to flower. When I saw purple broccolini in the Johnny’s Selected Seed catalog I decided to give it a try. I ..read more

I mostly focus on growing vegetable with a lot of perennials mixed in. While I sometimes cut perennials and bring them indoors, I haven’t done that as much as I’d like in previous years. It seems the chores of gardening just take up lots of time. This year, I’ve been trying to take the time to cut flowers from the garden at least once a week. This year, I’m especially loving the roses, most of which were planted over the past couple years. They’re all David Austin roses, with the exception of one heritage rose. I’ve also been cutting clematis flowers to add to them, which I’m really liking ..read more

This spring we started experimenting with making hot compost. I saved this article from Deep Green Permaculture years ago with plans to give it a try. Our first batch was 100% litter from the duck/turkey/chicken coop, which means it was manure and various dry garden material I add with lots of manure. We piled it up, turned it, then watered it well because it was super dry, and started turning it regularly (per article instructions). The results were AMAZING! Unfortunately I didn’t get any photos with my real camera, but I did create an Instagram highlight of our efforts since I started docume ..read more

This is the season of babies, baby birds in particular. You can hear them in almost every tree. This year we had a nest of woodpeckers in the big ash tree out front. We heard the babies for a few days before finally being able to locate the nest. We watched and watched to see the babies, after a week or two of them being super loud, we were able to spot them. A week later, they fledged and it’s been quiet in the ash tree again. Related posts: Shhhhh, Babies Sleeping I checked on the robin’s nest today while mom was... Crazy Little Birds We seem to have a few new male hummingbirds around ..read more

Three years ago I started developing a garden on a slope by the driveway that was difficult to mow. The soil is very sandy and dry, with no organic matter to speak of. It was also infested with quack grass. I laid down cardboard and covered it with mulch, then I let it sit over winter. This garden bed is filled with things just for the pollinators, I’ve working hard to plan for blooms throughout the season. Currently, there are sages, spiderwort, persicaria, spurge, cushion plants, scabiosa, iris, veronica, and geranium, I recently added a few shrubs as well, ‘Miss Kim’ lilac, a ‘Coppertina ..read more

The frost is thawing from the vegetable garden as I sit and write this post, on the morning of June 1. It was a bit of a surprise, but not really. The predicted low was 37 degrees, at 2 am it was 32. This will be a welcome change in other ways. I’ve long since starting using my phone to take photos instead of my good camera. I take way more photos on my phone and that’s where they stay. The result is that the photographic account of my garden last year is less than stellar, well, it’s on my phone, but I don’t look through those like I do my photo catalog. So, here we are again, I look forwar ..read more