Raspberry Canes

The leaves are starting to come out on the raspberries! I've had some help putting in more permanent supports for the canes this spring. We are trying to bring some order to these wild and crazy berries that want to take over the garden. Two rows this year, maybe another next, but we're training them along the wires and I'm transplanting or pulling everything that strays out of those rows. We may not get as many berries this year, but I hope in the future we'll get more, as it's much easier to tend them when they are not clumped together as closely.

Hard to look at these and imagine that a little over two months they will be heavy with fruit. Can't wait!

Seedlings

So it might be a little early, but the snow is off the deck and that means it's time to start the seeds. I started some cosmos, marigolds, asters, zinnias, petunias, cilantro, basil, two varieties of cukes, zucchini, and musk melons. I also am trying some of the edelweiss seeds Ossian brought home from Switzerland last summer. We'll see how that goes! I'd love to have a little rock garden for them, if I can get them started successfully.

I also started some spinach, chard, and lettuces in the garden itself. It's really cold, so I'm not sure if this is too early--but I think these are cold tolerant plants, and I know that they tend to bolt when it gets hot, so hopefully they'll be okay.

Beginning

I have been an enthusiastic if not overly successful gardener for several years now, and recognized last summer that having some sort of gardening journal would be very helpful. I have taken notes on scraps of paper and notebooks which are never handy when I need them and are not in any kind of chronological order. When I'm trying to figure out when to plant certain seeds, or when I put my tomatoes in last year, the chronology really helps. And since I'm always online, an online gardening journal makes the most sense.

So here I am a year later. I'm not sure if anyone else will find these things interesting, but by way of introduction, let me say that I am gardening in Midcoast Maine, just north of Portland. We have a very short growing season here, with light frosts dragging into June sometimes and starting up again in late September. This makes gardening a real challenge, but having no green and bright colors for more than six months of the year makes me an eager gardener. You might even call me a "gaga gardener"...and these are my garden stories.