With Hopeful Intention

Helleborus thibetanus

We are here tucked in and staying isolated, no great feat for two very happy homebodies. Truth be told, we have not left the nursery or had anyone on the property for a full three weeks! Of course, much of this has to do with the dreaded virus and wanting to stay healthy and keep others healthy. If the nursery itself is isolated from visitors for an extended period of time, then we can be certain that we are a comfortable and reassuring place to visit come May. We are anticipating a May opening ( and will announce our ‘opening day’ here on the blog and our phone message (207) 589-4726, as we always do… and Instagram!), and if following guidelines, we are considered an essential business. We will do all that we can to bring comfort to visitors coming to Fernwood Nursery to buy plants. By the first week of May, with the effort of all people doing their best to stay distanced and healthy, we will open our gate and sell plants. Perhaps we will limit the number of people walking the aisle at one time. We will write up some careful and helpful guidelines that may also bring comfort and reassurance while shopping…gloves, keeping distance, not handling pots and placing them back into rows, bringing your own boxes for carrying plants out. These are a few thoughts and we welcome any of yours. Suggestions? Let’s hear them! If you are uncomfortable shopping while others are here, you can call ahead with a list of plants you would like to purchase and we will have them ready for you. Feel free to email us with questions and availability. The list is long and we will do our best to spend time on the phone or through email giving you our best suggestions and descriptions. Also, you can call and make an appointment for a private visit here at the nursery. Again, we will do all that we can to keep our gardening friends happy and safe. As we move closer to the month of May, we will certainly know better the circumstances around ‘getting out and about’ to shop for plants! Let’s stay posted, shall we?
The staying home here at the nursery has a silver lining. We are getting so much done! Plants are being potted up and sales ready. New exciting introductions are being nurtured and set out. The greenhouse and hoop house is filling with the tender shoots of green promise. The display gardens are surprising us with spring treasures on a daily basis… delight, delight! The mud is annoying ( did I say that?). I am creating a new display garden just for Epimediums and alpine plants. We are finishing up a new summer kitchen for classes ( so excited about this !). The wood fired bread and pizza oven is ready and has a newly built wooden structure over it. We are puttering along on the new food wagon we bought. What? New food wagon? Yes, the details are saved for another post but somehow I could not resist this little cute wagon we are calling ‘Local-Motion’. Well, we are humming along here at Fernwood Nursery and keeping our sights on promise and better days. We do hope all of you are staying safe and healthy and finding ways to keep your souls and hearts occupied with all good and helpful tasks. We look forward to seeing everyone when we are in the clear and can tend that great urge to get out and dig in our gardens. Be well and blessings to all of you!
P.S. If you need it, here is our email: fernwoodnursery@fairpoint.net

Pollinators…Come hear the buzz!

“My ears filled with the dozy hum of bees and those tiny and odd insect sounds that rise up all around, the sounds mingling in my mind with the good, deep smell of earthy life.” Elisabeth Tova Bailey, in The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating

On Sunday, May 17th, at 2:00 p.m. join us here at Fernwood Nursery along with Amy Campbell to discuss the importance of native pollinators in the garden and landscape. Learn to identify the vast array of pollinators and insects that are so crucial to the ecological well being of our natural world. The discussion will also include plants you may select for your own gardens that will help to encourage a host of pollinators, both native… and non native. We’ll tour the display beds identifying the plants and pollinating visitors that are present in the early spring gardens and woodland. Amy is a life-long home gardener with a particular interest in propagation and growing from seed. As a nature photographer and honey bee keeper she became fascinated by native bees and other insects that visit flowers and has now taken up their cause and advocates for them as a Maine Master Gardener. In addition, Fernwood Nursery will provide a delightful offering of tea and baked goodies. Please visit our classes and more page for any additional information. Space is limited, therefor we do require visitors to pre-register for this class. You are welcome also to call us at (207) 589-4726 or email us at fernwoodnursery@fairpoint.net

“If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.”
E.O. Wilson, Ph.D.

Fire And Ice

Just before we roll ourselves into the month of March and the soon to follow, spring season, we are preparing an end of winter event. If you are looking for an outing that combines both fire and ice…we’ll be offering this gathering on Saturday, February 29th, on pristine Lake St. George.
Only two spots left!
Mid Winter Brunch On Lake St. George
Drive out any winter doldrums and Join us on Saturday, February 29th at 10:30 a.m. for a catered brunch featuring hand crafted cocktails, select appetizers, and a hearty fire- cooked meal ( coffee and hot cider, too!). Stay cozy in the wood heated wilderness tent or sip your cocktail by the campfire. Our ice fishing traps will be set and coals will be hot! Don’t miss the food and fun! Where? Lake St.
George state park. Cost? $25.00 Interested? Contact us here:
fernwoodnursey@fairpoint.net

Brunch And Blooms

Consider visiting Fernwood Nursery this season for our first ‘Brunch and Blooms’ series. When? Sunday, June 23rd from noon to 2:30. Join us for mid-day occasion featuring a farm to table brunch menu using ingredients grown, harvested, and thoughtfully prepared here at Fernwood. Stroll with us through the nursery and gardens as we share with you our own experience as growers, farmers, and stewards. Come see what’s in bloom! The day promises to be a feast for the eyes and the belly. You’ll also leave with a little seasonally crafted gift, an essence of Fernwood for you to take home and enjoy in your own kitchen.
For more info please visit our classes and more page!

Brunch And Blooms

Consider visiting Fernwood Nursery this season for our first ‘Brunch and Blooms’ series. When? Sunday, June 23rd from noon to 2:30. Join us for mid-day occasion featuring a farm to table brunch menu using ingredients grown, harvested, and thoughtfully prepared here at Fernwood. Stroll with us through the nursery and gardens as we share with you our own experience as growers, farmers, and stewards. Come see what’s in bloom! The day promises to be a feast for the eyes and the belly. You’ll also leave with a little seasonally crafted gift, an essence of Fernwood for you to take home and enjoy in your own kitchen.
For more info please visit our classes and more page!

First List Of Classes !

We’re starting to post our class offerings and schedule for the 2019 season here at Fernwood Nursery. Today I’ll share with you what has been slated so far for the month of April, but be sure to visit our classes and more page for additional summer classes and newly posted opportunities ( some are already up!). We are so looking forward to the upcoming season, potting up new plants as well continuing with the old favorites. Lots of great natives for those who are devoted to restoring ecological habitats or for those who simply see the beauty and importance of growing native plants within the landscape. Of course, being ‘plantaholics’ we also carry an extensive collection of unusual plants and rarities from around the globe. Come see! We know spring is coming, the squishy ground beneath our feet and the deep muddy ruts on all of our dirt roads are obvious indicators!
And now, two classes in April that may interest you…

Dull As A Hoe!
Saturday, April 20th, 2019 from 1:00 -3:00
Get those garden tools ready for the season! Join us here at Fernwood Nursery to learn how to sharpen and maintain your garden tools. Whether it’s a trusty hoe, your essential digging spade, or those favorite pruners, come learn how to keep them sharp and at their best. Feel free to bring along your own gardening tools ( limit three, please) to get that hands-on opportunity to sharpen their edges. Sharpening materials will be on-site for your use and instruction will be provided. Complimentary scones and tea will also be available!
Class size is limited to 10, pre-registration and pre-payment required. Visit our classes and more for details.
Please call (207) 589-4726 or email us at fernwoodnursery@fairpoint.net to register

Erythronium ‘ Rose Queen’
Trout Lily

‘Ephemerals and Early Risers’
On Saturday, April 27th, 2019 from 10:00a.m. to noon
Rick and Denise Sawyer of Fernwood Nursery will give a presentation on ‘Ephemerals and Early Risers’. The talk will focus on those plants which are first to emerge in spring within the woodland garden. Come join us for a walk and talk as we identify and enjoy the earliest of plants to bloom and learn how to incorporate them into your own landscape. Discover some of the woodland gems we grow and offer here at Fernwood Nursery…bloodroot, Hepatica, Anemones, and Dutchman’s britches, to name a few!
The program will take place in the gardens and studio of Fernwood Nursery from 10:00 a.m. to 12 noon. Space is limited to 10, so pre-registration and pre-payment are required. Also, dress for the weather…it’s spring and it could be showery. Tea and a light lunch will be served. Visit our classes and more page for details. Sign up by phone or email. Happy Spring! (207)589-4726 or email us at fernwoodnursery@fairpoint.net

The Shift Is Here

The shift from winter to early spring comes quickly here. Not so much in temperature or the landscape, we still have a hefty blanket of snow cover, the woodstoves are still ablaze, and just this morning we were out, once again, shoveling paths and clearing the driveway. Winter still has a grip. The transition and its intensity come from the tasks that are required to be up and ready for a new nursery season when spring truly arrives. The greenhouse is seeing a flurry of activity; seeds are started, soil is being prepared, heat mats are stretched out and tested, plants lists are being scrutinized and revised (oh, the excitement of all the new goodies for the nursery this season!), we’re addressing any repairs on the infrastructure that may have been altered during the winter months ( must fix that hinge on the hoop house door!), we’re writing up our class descriptions for the spring and summer. Oh, boy, the pace is quickening! How delightful though, to feel well rested after a long and quiet winter and to now welcome and embrace the sudden burst in energy and new life emerging…how long before the winter Aconitum start pushing their bold yellow flowers through the snow, who will spot the first fuzzy catkins to open on the willows, and let us not forget the hardiness of the early Hellebores (Lenten Rose) that will flower well before their new leaves emerge? For so many of us, the transition is not simply the physical changes or demands we may experience shifting from winter to spring, but the mental awakening we feel when the sun is higher in the sky, the days are longer, and the ground though still nestled beneath its blanket of snow is sending its earthy fragrance upward. Ahh. I can feel it, I can. Excitement and anticipation. I want to tip my head toward the sun and shout “Welcome and thank you, Mr. Sun, and aren’t you something you big ol’ ball of fire!”
That’s the atmosphere here at Fernwood Nursery right now, a grateful nod of farewell to winter and with hearts and arms opened welcoming the promise of spring.

Snow For Your Valentine

A little more snow, a little more shoveling. We have not tired of it yet, but because the table is now covered with seed catalogs and lists of plants we’ve propagated for the coming season, we are feeling mindful of spring and the promise it brings. Next week, many of the classes we will offer in 2019 will be posted. I know that a hypertufa class will start the season off, I’m thinking April. For those wanting to sculpt some pots and have them cured and ready for planting, this is the class for you!
I have been spending lots of time in the studio, hoping to have some full baskets of handspun yarn to offer knitters this season. And just think, sheep shearing is right around the corner! More wool on its way!
I am including a photo of some socks I made from old sweaters and have now come to the point of needing repair. I really plan on getting the most out of the clothes I wear! Don’t discard…re-make, up-cycle, repair, mend, and patch, I say.

And, why not a poem to celebrate Valentines Day. Enjoy!

To have without holding
BY MARGE PIERCY

Learning to love differently is hard,
love with the hands wide open, love
with the doors banging on their hinges,
the cupboard unlocked, the wind
roaring and whimpering in the rooms
rustling the sheets and snapping the blinds
that thwack like rubber bands
in an open palm.

It hurts to love wide open
stretching the muscles that feel
as if they are made of wet plaster,
then of blunt knives, then
of sharp knives.

It hurts to thwart the reflexes
of grab, of clutch ; to love and let
go again and again. It pesters to remember
the lover who is not in the bed,
to hold back what is owed to the work
that gutters like a candle in a cave
without air, to love consciously,
conscientiously, concretely, constructively.

I can’t do it, you say it’s killing
me, but you thrive, you glow
on the street like a neon raspberry,
You float and sail, a helium balloon
bright bachelor’s button blue and bobbing
on the cold and hot winds of our breath,
as we make and unmake in passionate
diastole and systole the rhythm
of our unbound bonding, to have
and not to hold, to love
with minimized malice, hunger
and anger moment by moment balanced.

Fire And Ice

This past weekend was the annual youth fishing derby at the lake ( St. George). I volunteered to haul over a carload of # 10 cans, several spatulas, and a few crates of dry kindling to help kids learn to build a fire and cook their own food. It was so fun! The ice fishing derby is a great mid-winter event created to encourage kids and their families to get out and ENJOY winter. A whole day of winter fun! Kids (and adults!) could try their hand at drilling a hole through the ice and ice fishing, they could put on a pair of the skates or strap on the snowshoes that were provided, or borrow the sleds to use, or take a ride around the lake on a snowmobile, they could even crawl inside an igloo. My contribution (along with my much-appreciated Fernwood helpers) was to set up a “Hobo cookout’ using # 10 cans as individual stoves and to teach kids how to cook on them. Please picture in your mind a bunch of kids in a large area looking out over the lake scattered with large # 10 cans and small ‘kid constructed’ piles of tinder and dry twigs and boxes of ‘strike anywhere’ matches and plates piled high with hamburgers, hot dogs, and rolls. Now you have an image of how things looked. Here’s the really fun and great thing about teaching kids to build a fire outdoors in the middle of winter and letting them grill their own lunch; All of a sudden, despite any past finicky behavior about food, they will now eat almost anything. They are so proud of this basic skill…make fire, cook meat… that they forget about any picky tendencies. I watched one very slight girl cook and eat 6 hotdogs ( no bun, straight off the stick), I saw several hot dogs roll off the stoves and hit the ground, picking up a slight coating of vegetative matter, only to be quickly wiped off with a wet and grimy mitten for further cooking, then eaten. Many of the cooks charred their dogs to the point of oblivion, no bother, they ate those too. Hamburgers were flipped onto the ground, over-cooked, undercooked, and then happily eaten smothered in ketchup using a wooden shingle as a plate. One boy did touch the top of his stove without wearing his gloves and burned a finger, teared up for a minute, plunged his hand in the snow for relief, and then continued cooking his burger to perfection with the other hand. Bravo! All of this great fun happened because a community recognized the importance of getting outdoors, learning seasonal skills and craft, as well as providing an opportunity to embrace winter here in Maine. The event was also free for everyone… burgers, hot dogs, chili, soup, and baked goods were all donated and also free, all day. The big barn on the property was open and heated with a big wood stove, inside were posters and booklets about fish species, lake habitat, animal tracking guides, and ice fishing rules and regulations. Large pots of hot chocolate, coffee, and tea were on standby for anybody needing a warm drink. Community is essential to all of this. I am so proud to live in a place where we celebrate the beauty and opportunity provided by our landscape and to gather, one and all, to have fun and share knowledge and experience. As you can probably surmise, it was a good day! Oh, and check out some of the beauties kids caught throughout the day ( picture above)…not bad, heh?

Join Us This Holiday Season For Some Elf Magic!!

Join Denise and her friend Sally in the studio at Fernwood Nursery on Saturday, December 22nd, from 1:00 to 4:00 for an afternoon of elf making! Spend a wintry afternoon among friends crafting your own festive Christmas elf. Delightful little creations that are sure to brighten your holiday table! A collection of elf wear and accessories will be on hand for the finishing touches.So fun! Sally and I will provide the materials and instruction, as well as an assortment of holiday goodies and festive drink. Yum, yum! Denise’s handspun yarn and felted creations will also be available for order or purchase. Class size is limited, so please call to reserve your spot. Call (207)589-4726 or email us at fernwoodnursery@fairpoint.net Cost: $50.00 materials included.