Maine

[lazy gardener]

Agreed, it's been a slow spring, with seeds taking forever to sprout. I have beans just straggling up through the soil. Have some lettuce, peas, spinach, carrots, parsnips, beets and such up. Volunteer lettuce is any where from 2 - 4" tall. We've been eating greens from green house since mid April. Kale is super tender and sweet, even though it's bolting to seed now. This weekend, I set out some tomatoes, cukes, and peppers. Peppers are under a poly tunnel. Potatoes planted last weekend. Not showing yet. volunteer potatoes are up. Volunteer dill, calendula, sunflowers, raspberries, garlic all over the place. Iris are blooming!!!!

FYI, I think I am being converted to traditional garlic management. While my mega clumps of garlic are looking great, the single cloves that I planted last fall are simply astounding. The stocks of those things are HUGE. So, I will remove scapes from them as they appear, and then do a comparison.

Any one have experience in preserving garlic in olive oil?

 

[Cluckcluck1215]

Hi my Maine Friends!
My mom is starting to get the Garden in!

And we are going to be re-building the chicken run at the end of July.

 

[Hiltonizer]

After whining about sprouts I thought I should give credit where it's due. These are Winter Lux sugar punkins from Fedco at 2.5 weeks in the hoop house.... Compare to the equally aged Cosmonaut tomatoes and Diana Watermelons in the tray below.

Ministro Cukes for comparison...

 

[buckabucka]

This is a great year for a hoop house. It was raining late yesterday, but I was able to plant the remaining peppers. The tomatoes I put in a week ago are now getting that nice dark green color.
Outdoor seeds are taking longer to germinate, and many brassica seedlings did not make it in the ground yet because I didn't want to plant them in the drizzle.

 

[combatfuzzball]

Have tried the fertile egg route for quite some time. Was hoping she'd just eventually hatch something. Unfortunately other birds just continue to deposit eggs and filth in there. And she's so nasty you can't reach in there. She has 2 nests, also, one that is manned by her and one that's manned by her broody chicken friends. I let both nests go hoping that if anyone hatched chicks she could have one. No one has and two days ago I cleaned that auxiliary nest out, and boy did it stink. 42 eggs!
Just hoping to get one chick.
Nothing in the ground here, yet, and melon/pumpkin seeds just starting to sprout in my basement.

Lazy Gardener might have some chicks. She was selling some and said she had some new chicks. Not sure how old they would be now though.

 

[lazy gardener]

Nope. Mine are 8 weeks old... almost as big as the broody hen would be! I'm delighted with the chicks from my own flock this year. A lot of muffs and beards.

 

[IZZYBELLA]

Long shot, I realize... anyone within an hour of Portland have chicks? I had a broody hatch out two chicks, one of which she killed immediately and the other she rejected. :-( There are still 4 eggs under her but I'm not holding out hope that they are viable. I hate to brood one little chick alone!

 

[Michelle Cousineau]

Hey all you mainers I'm from windham maine, I just wanted to know if next winter I should insulate my coop

Yes. I think so. I am in Whiting. Our hens got a little frostbite on their combs last year in an uninsulated coop. So yes, by this winter mine will be.

 

[DwayneNLiz]

Long shot, I realize... anyone within an hour of Portland have chicks? I had a broody hatch out two chicks, one of which she killed immediately and the other she rejected. :-( There are still 4 eggs under her but I'm not holding out hope that they are viable. I hate to brood one little chick alone!

i'm about 1:45 from portland but have you checked craigslist
there was a lady in ossipee nh that had chicks
i will have some hopefully this week or next week

 

[IZZYBELLA]

i'm about 1:45 from portland but have you checked craigslist
there was a lady in ossipee nh that had chicks
i will have some hopefully this week or next week

Thanks! I managed to get some this AM.