Report from the Portland Flower Show

This year's flower show was different. Most of the major garden centers and their lovely forced flower displays were absent; word has it that last year's tough spring combined with the fact that they don't make any money at the show led to a decision not to participate. In their place were several delightful designer displays, with a strong theme of natural and woodsy. You could almost feel the mosquitos. The stonework was particularly beautiful, and show coordinator Joanna Sprague did a fine job with the formal gateway featuring standing stones. A highlight of the show was the display by the city of Portland and Friends of the Park featuring the Deering Oaks duck house, which will return to its home in the pond this spring.

It's March and the first harvest is around the corner

Amazingly, last year's garden is still providing tasty food, while the spinach in the cold frame promises the new season's first harvest next week. The black jug in this photo is a passive solar heat sink, a Poland Spring jug filled with water, which helps keep the soil warm at night. Walnut Street gardener Deb Cole reports she had a delicious salad from her cold frame last weekend. Recently, I ate the last of 2005's frozen creamed spinach and sorrel, put up after Thanksgiving. But the baskets of garlic and shallots on the shelves in the cellar promise lots of good cooking until this year's cloves are ready in mid-summer. Aside from garlic and shallots, the food cupboard in the cellar still has a supply of canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, pesto, salsa, and peach chutney.
This year's mild winter has made year-round gardening much more accessible to city gardeners without high tech greenhouses. And it's not just cold frame aficionados: today's Press Herald featured an article about the work in Maine of Slow Food, an international organization of fresh food aficionados. Slow Food is working with schools and chefs from southern Maine restaurants to reacquaint Maine students with vegetables and herbs, and the kids love it.

Spring Things

Spring is bursting out all over. First tree found in bloom is this witchhazel (Hamamelis vernalis) found in a stand at Post Office Square Park. And the sap is really running at the Willis Street sugarbush, where, thanks to a tap from Paris Farmer's Union and a cider jug from Ricker Hill Farms, we are collecting over a gallon a day.

Watching spring approach II

This week's warm days and moderate night time temperatures are sure to start the sap running, as it carries stored sugars from the roots of sugar maples up to the tips of branches to nourish swelling buds. On the way, maple taps and collection buckets catch a few gallons in sugar stands, and lucky Maine residents can enjoy the first crop of the new season: maple syrup. Maine Maple Sunday, with its delicious pancake breakfasts, will be held March 26 this year.

Real plant geeks can observe the rising of the sap at the University of Vermont Proctor Maple Research Center web site, which tracks temperature in the soil, air, and tree core and branches, as well as sap pressure, in monitored trees. Very, very cool.

Watching spring approach

Journey North is a project that tracks online the northward appearance of regular spring events. Among the phenomena tracked are the arrival of robins, the emergence and blooming of the first tulips, and the monarch butterfly migration. Scientists in the field are children in classrooms across the country, who report their sightings online to Journey North, which enters the data into their mapping software. As of today, tulips are reported emerging from school plantings as far north as Concord, MA.

Horticulture scholarship announced by CCMG

The Cumberland County Master Gardeners each year fund a $1700 scholarship for a student enrolled in a post-secondary program in horticulture or agriculture. Students planning to attend school next year as well as those already enrolled are eligible to apply. Deadline is March 30. The application is available online at the Master Gardener Web Site.

Seed starter's guide

Starting seeds indoors can be simple or elaborate, ranging from a few seeds in little pot or tray on a window sill to elaborate growing setups like this greenhouse at Southern Maine Community College, where students are growing annuals and herbs to sell at the Flower Show next weekend.

Here's a list of tips:
* Buy small packets of seeds (Pinetree Seeds specializes in small packets) and plant a few more than you think you'll need to take into account losses and less than 100% germination rates.
* Read the packet and follow directions: if seeds should be started outdoors, wait--some things don't like transplanting.
* Plant in small trays, peat pots, or Jiffy pellets and transplant at least once to larger pots.
* Use seed starting mediums, which contain vermiculite, peat and soil, and hold lots of water.
* Follow directions for planting depth, light, and temperature. Warm-season crops like warm soil. The top of the refrigerator is a good place to start warm-season crops.
* Provide plenty of light--at least 12 hours a day--once your plants have sprouted. They need lots of blue and red wavelength light--ordinary incandescent light bulbs are lacking.
* When the seedlings are getting top heavy for the starter pots, think about transplanting.
* Water regularly. Do not feed until you see at least four leaves on the plant, and then feed weakly.
* If you see a whitish fungus, spray with cool chamomile tea immediately.