The News from Kenabeek

It is now MARCH 2009. The season continue their cycle, with infinite variations; I am not sure to what extent we have had a warming trend, but this past winter there were two occasions when we had, not a “normal” thaw, but a big one, days of mild temperatures and lots of rain. It does seem that we are experiencing more see-saw temperatures, and fall in particular tends to have a lot more cloud and rain. What global warming may have in store for this area is a big swamp.
This is the first winter we’ve had no whiskeyjacks at all; last winter we had one pair instead of the usual two. I am not sure of the significance of this, but a man I talked birds with at the Mennonite butcher shop in town said he had them where he lives, so at least there are some still in the area. Otherwise our winter bird population seems much the same. I am waiting to see if our thrushes come back this summer.
We still don’t have the secret of growing lots of tomatoes in the sunroom – the indeterminates I grew two years ago produced best, but we continue to have the problem of lots and lots of skinny, viney plant, with little fruit. One theory is that I water them too often; in Italy the weather is hot and dry. This year I wasn’t going to even try; I found last year I could grow lettuce quite nicely in containers so I thought I’d focus on salad greens and herbs. But I ended up getting some seed specifically for tomatoes in planters, and I will try that in one container. It will be nice to be able to see out the sunroom windows all summer!
The groundhog will continue, I’m sure, to be a problem in the vegetable garden; still no fencing. But our biggest problem last year was a cool, rainy summer. Only the carrots did really well. We have had no blueberries to speak of for two summers now; done in by two inches of wet snow in early June 2007, just when the plants were budding; and although the bushes looked healthy last summer, and there was no late snow or frost, they bore very little fruit. I actually had to buy berries last summer! I did hear from someone local that after a late frost there was a second year of no berries, so I hope they will be back to normal this year.
All the flower gardens are doing well; they are at the stage where I do some cutting back and transplanting, tweaking the look, but they’re all full and lovely. Surprising when you consider that I bought the perennials according to no particular plan!
My big job last summer was digging up ALL the daffodils and re-planting them in a new bed, behind the stone wall, where there leaves can flop all they want. The new bed was constructed, first, by my partner cutting back the bush, then by me hand-weeding, then by him hacking at root clumps too tough for me with an adze, then laying down bags and bags of black earth, so the level of the ground is close to the top of the stone wall. All the preparation took two summers (along with all the other stuff we do in the summer, of course). My weeding included weeding the wall itself, since many roots had protruded through the stones. I’m not sure the earth is deep enough for all of them but they are tough and naturalize well, so even if they don’t all make it this year, there will be enough for a good show, and they will increase with time. I meant to count the bulbs I replanted but I lost track; I do know there were 50 or 60 left over to give away.
Winter has been relentless this year and for the first time in almost 20 years in the north I am sick of winter and dying for spring! But in a month I can start seed in the sunroom …