On Our Way To Another New Season

Cypripedium pubescens

“The energy of the Earth flows through the veins of Springtime.”
— Terri Guillemets

This weekend we’ll be deep into greenhouse work potting up some great Asian and native Arisaemas, an array of Hepaticas, and several new varieties of Primula. Hard to believe we are only a month away from opening for the season! In addition to many rarities from around the globe, our selection of native and woodland plants is large and varied. The first of the early ephemerals are soon to appear. The snow is melting!! We’ll be offering our Spring Ephemerals and Early Risers class again this year on Sunday, April 29th from 10:00-12:00. For more information and to sign up, please look here.
It is always exciting to start uncovering last year’s propagation work to see what’s come through the long winter slumber. We are already getting mail from customers with questions and thoughts about their own gardening endeavors. Folks are signing up for classes and making plans to visit. The thrill of a new growing season is in the air! No stopping it now!
For us, it’s time to hit the ground running (and avoid sinking too deep into the mud!). Time to head into the cozy earth-smelling greenhouse with a cup of hot tea and some classical music to fill pots and sow seeds for the upcoming season. Ooh, La La! We’re looking forward to seeing everyone next month, can’t wait to talk plants and share ideas. Any specific plants on your ‘have to have it’ list? Any new garden beds being developed?

Join Us For a Brew And A Film At Threshers!

On Saturday, April 7th at 7:00p.m. we will be gathering over at Thresher’s Brewery in Searsmont, Maine for the showing of SEED, The Untold Story. First, let me tell you a little about Threshers Brewery. Threshers, owned and operated by Ethan Evangelos and Scott Bendson, opened its doors in 2016 at the old Sprowl building in Searsmont, Maine.You can read about Ethan and Scott’s story here! For us, it has been a welcomed addition to the community. Here’s why… It’s close by. They have a variety of excellent well-crafted beer (really, these boys know what they’re doing!). The atmosphere is welcoming, easy-going, and friendly. And, they are very community minded. We have been to several benefits and events at Threshers that have helped worthy organizations. In two short years, they have opened their doors many, many times to host events that directly help the community at large. Bravo to Ethan and Scott and their families for being so involved! We appreciate it. We need venues that encourage gathering, socializing with neighbors and friends, and who offer their space for community functions.

We never know who we’ll meet at Threshers, it could be an old time friend in the local community or a traveler who’s heard about their great beer and great events and mosied up to check it out. Always interesting and great conversation, that’s for sure!
We had been talking with Ethan over the last year about showing the film, SEED The Untold Story at the brewery. It’s a film anyone who grows food…anyone who EATS food should watch. When it was first produced ( two years ago?), we here at Fernwood made concerted efforts to promote it and it’s message. We had been contacted by their staff, given a synopsis of the film, and were asked to do our best to get the word out. SEED is an amazing film, beautiful cinematography and it will surely open your eyes to what’s happening with our seed diversity and its impact on our food supply.. It is truly one of our favorite films and we cannot say enough about the effort that has been put into the making of it. Please join us at Thresher’s Brewery (you won’t be disappointed!) and enjoy a free film. By the way, I recommend trying the ‘Ponderosa’ beer (my favorite) at Threshers! See you there! For more information please visit the Threshers Brewery facebook page here.

Tree Climbing

We recently had to hire an arborist to take a couple of old trees down. Normally, we cut and harvest our own trees but these two trees were in a precarious situation. Both the trees were in among the display beds, and, in addition, had the potential of hitting the power line. Underneath the trees were a variety of shrubs and perennials that were easy targets for falling limbs…azaleas, Japanese maples, a few viburnums, a dogwood. We really didn’t want to do any damage while trying to fell these trees, so, we called Treewise Arboriculture from Appleton, Maine. Jacob DiGirolamo is the very talented and skilled arborist behind Treewise, and let me just tell you, he’s a man skilled in his craft. In a short amount of time, Jacob had the trees down, bit by bit, never once laying a single branch on one of our beloved woody shrubs. Of course, he also missed (with great precision) the house, the arbor, the phone and electrical wires, and a few choice garden sculptures. Just imagine a pinball machine that requires the operator to send their pinball up the course without hitting a single obstacle and with the intention of scoring as high as possible. I’d say he scored pretty damn near 100! Jacob came and stood to look up and access the task at hand, then strapped on his climbing spikes and got to work. It was fascinating to watch him make his cuts and then to use his ropes and knots to lower branches and pieces of the trunk to the ground. Amazing. We can’t say enough about Treewise and Jacob’s efficiency and attention to his craft.His business also includes pruning, removal, and planting. If you have trees that need to come down and you are looking for a congenial young man who is well skilled and devoted to his work, call Jacob. You can find out more by emailing Treewise at rainisalwaysgood@gmail.com or visit this site at Maine Preservation.

Still Winter

With the last storm, we have been taking advantage of the deep snow and of the days when the sun shines with a brilliance. It has been a great time for strapping on the snowshoes and exploring the woods. Two days ago, we tramped up over the ridge across from the farm. It was late in the day and the deer were just descending from the high ground. We counted 10 in a relatively short time. There were tracks everywhere! We came across many places where the ground had been pawed, signs that the deer are digging their way through the deep snow in search of acorns. A Barred owl swooped through just in front of us and landed on the branches of a giant oak tree. Now is the time we hear them calling back and forth to each other with their classic ” who cooks for you, who cooks for you” call. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtRPYpklhiA Listen here if you’ve never heard the call of the Barred Owl. They do have other calls as well but this is their typical mating call. Very distinct and one we hear often in the woods of Maine. We are hoping that we get a chance this weekend to head into the woods or trek across the lower fields at the farm. I suppose it’s what we need to do when any thoughts of spring have been put on halt. Spring will come, I believe it will, really I do. But for now, it’s still winter.
Let’s end with a poem about winter and snowshoeing by Sidney Beck…

BEFORE SPRING COMES

This valley’s empty blueness
Is filling now with clear sunlight.
Snow clumps tumble from branches
Into man-deep drifts soft bright –
Warmth-rounded, but still chilled.

Big snowshoe-footprints harden
Into pools of blue shadow –
Setting off from a house and garden,
Half-hidden, marked only by the low
Recent prints half-filled.
by Sidney Beck

March Storm

Despite the latest snowstorm, we are setting up for our spring seed starting. The greenhouse will see some action in the next week or so. It’s always a delight to be working in the greenhouse as the weather goes from one season to the next. That big plastic heated space of green growth and soil smells…pure delight! Inside the house, a small area is created for starting the earliest of vegetable seedlings: tomatoes, leeks, peppers, onions, and assortments of annual and perennial flowers. This little growing area inside means rearranging some furniture, moving the couch away from the big windows that face due south, and installing a temporary growing bench. Seeds will be sown, they’ll germinate, get some growth on them, and then be transferred to the big greenhouse. Starting seeds indoors keeps us from firing up the big heater in the greenhouse this early in the year. But, by the end of March, we’ll run out of space in the front room and will need the expanse of the greenhouse benches. At that point, our house will go back to a comfortable living space! We do love having that earthy soil smell wafting through the rooms though!
Outside, it is far too soon to uncover the nursery beds. The snow will have to melt and the ground will have to thaw before we are ready for the task of uncovering. We are always excited about the upcoming season and to unveil all the plants we have propagated and over-wintered. Fun, fun!
So, right now we’re a bit between seasons. A little mud season, a little more winter. A warm spring-like day, then a real chill in the air. A chance to let the fires die down, then a roaring blaze to warm cold hands and cold feet. Back and forth we go here in the northeast, yes? Where do you hail from? Has spring really arrived in your neck of the woods or are you still waiting?