Hello Friday!
Things are doing well here in Mid Coast Maine in our little vegetable patch. Yesterday I harvested our first round of sugar snap peas {and a few green onions too} for some stir fry and as expected, everything tasted great.
Now that the weather has warmed up and has been consistently in the 70’s or so, things are really taking off.
Our first planting of cilantro is ready to be picked {I’ll be planting another round this weekend to use in the salsa I plan to can later this summer}.
And the parsley is gaining in height.
We also picked our first Sun Gold tomatoes this week! Sun Golds are our all time favorite cherry tomato. Have you tried them? They are super sweet and most of them get gobbled up while we’re standing in the garden. 🙂
The Ace tomatoes I started from seed are nice and big…
And our first little zucchini of the season is about 3 inches long.
The onion bulbs {both yellow and red} I planted 8 weeks ago are coming along… I haven’t harvested any full sized onions yet but we have harvested the green onions {and chives too!} I started from seed back in February.
The first of the poblano peppers.
And that little garden patch I started in the field about 10 days ago?
The first seeds are finally up! Although if you look closely at the soil, you can see a bunch of old tree roots and charcoal surrounding the little squash seedling. 🙁
When we tilled up the little patch in the field with Manny, the ground was pretty tough and after walking the field and taking a closer look, we noticed there were several old stumps that were barely visible throughout the field. We think the field, at some point was full of trees and someone had them cut down {and burned the stumps} to level the area out.
So as it is, the ground isn’t that great for growing vegetables and I think if we want to turn the field into a huge vegetable garden, we’re either going to have to bring in a bunch of garden soil {which would cost a fortune}, or hop to it and get going on building up a lasagna garden if we want to be able to plant anything out there next year.
A lasagna garden is basically layering organic materials, and I’ve done it before so I’m not to stressed about it. In fact, I’m sort of excited about it.
I just found out that here in Maine, you are allowed to harvest up to 50 pounds of seaweed for personal use a day. 50 POUNDS A DAY, that’s nuts! I have no clue how much seaweed I’ll need to get started on the lasagna garden project, but I’m pretty sure Lucy and I will have some fun going out and collecting it.
People have been using seaweed in their gardens here in Maine forever, and well, I guess I’m going to get the chance to give it a try too. Learning new gardening techniques is pretty rad, don’t you think?
Well, that’s all I have to report for today,
Have a great weekend everyone.
~Mavis
P.S. If you garden with seaweed and have any tips, I’d love to hear about them.
KC says
Do you have to rinse the seaweed before using, or is the extra salt on the outside from dried seawater (in addition to the salt within the seaweed plant material) not that big of a deal to add to the soil? Do varieties of seaweed matter, or is all seaweed approximately equivalently good garden fodder?
I don’t have any answers, but questions: those I have! 🙂
My mom used to put the post-wood-fire [thoroughly out and cooled] coals and ashes into her garden, but that may have been making up some specific deficiency – not sure.
Mavis Butterfield says
You know, I looked online about the rinsing thing, and it’s about 50/50 so I emailed my friend Lisa who lives in Tasmania and uses tons of seaweed in her garden to find out what she does. I guess I find it hard to believe that people who lived along the coast 100 years ago used up their precious well water to rinse the seaweed before gardening with/composting it. But I’ll see what Lisa has to say about it and let you know.
Susan H. says
Mavis, do you have a problem with the cilantro bolting? Mine keeps going to bloom even when I keep the bloom picked off. (I don’t mind the coriander, I just want to enjoy the cilantro for a bit.
Stacie says
When the temperature gets above 80 degrees I have a terrible time with cilantro bolting. I get a better cilantro crop in fall / winter when it’s cooler.
Mavis Butterfield says
So far so good here… but then again we haven’t had too many days above 80.
Mama M says
I enjoy your blogging much. Am always surprised how late your harvest is. I live in zone 4B but when it gets hot, it’s hot. My peas were gone weeks ago. I’ve had zucchini for a month. Such different growing climates although we only have 100 day season. It frosted first of June, but I protected everything. That’s unusual. It was also 100 degrees first part of June.
Mimi says
I freeze Sun Gold tomatoes whole and use them in this pasta recipe all year long:
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/pasta-with-sun-gold-tomatoes-365185
I highly recommend it!
Susie says
Mavis, I noticed that you pulled the green onions completely out of the ground. I always cut them off close to the soil line so that they regrow. Just curious if there’s a particular reason you don’t?
Mavis Butterfield says
Hi Susie, that’s a great tip. 🙂 We have loads of onions planted {enough to last through fall} and so I am now working towards clearing the green onion patch so I can plant something else.
Joanna says
Hello Mavis.. How do you get rid of powdery mildew off you zucchini plants? Should I pull the plants
Mavis Butterfield says
Here’s a cool tip: https://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com/how-to-get-rid-of-white-powdery-mildew-on-squash-leaves/
Joanna says
Thank you!