In The Village Of Liberty

Please let me describe to you the new little business that is nestled in the village of Liberty, Maine. Liberty Head Arts And Found is the most delightful folk art and antique shop, a place that brings happiness to your soul the minute you step through the door. Lucky for me, Liberty Head Arts And Found is only a ‘stone throw away’ from the nursery and on a day that I need creative nourishment, I mozy down there and feel inspired and delighted with every carefully found, carefully placed, and beautifully created works of art. It’s magic. It is a space of color and texture and beauty. Do you ever walk into a space and feel that your soul is immediately soothed? Walk into Liberty Head Arts And Found, and you will. Not kidding, you will!
In a nutshell, in the heart of Liberty Village, you will step into a shop chock full of folk art and antiques, all thoughtfully and creatively arranged. A feast of delight, a heart-melting experience.
” Fun stuff! Vintage, Old Advertising, Neat and Sweet Smalls. Plus Textile Art, Paintings – Reverse Glass And Mixed Media, Sculpture, photography, Ceramics, Paper Weaving, Jewelry & More!” Read and learn more about the gals and their story here…and make a trip to Liberty Village and indulge yourself! Visit their instragram page here and get a glimpse of their shop! Liberty Head Arts And Found are open Thursday, Friday, Saturday 10-5 and Sunday 10:30 – 5. 56 Main Street liberty, Maine.

Mending

Needles. Thread. Cloth. A favorite old shirt in need of repair. Cozy wool socks with a worn out heel. An heirloom quilt that required some patching. Our mending class was a big hit. Each person brought some beloved fabric to mend and went home with the skills and confidence to do so. We’ll definitely offer this class again!
Learning to make something…a loaf of bread, a pair of knitted socks, a raised bed, are all skills worth passing on.This class reminded me of the great worth and value of learning to repair. That’s a skill too. In this world of great abundance and a tendency to dispose or replace the things we need before considering how to fix them, the skill to repair can honor the maker and allow us to breath new life into things that we may deem obsolete or non-functioning. There is a virtue in repairing the torn or worn. There is satisfaction in fixing a problem or something broken. All of these things require us to look at the design and construction of an item and to recreate or repair the piece that no longer functions or operates. What a great way to sharpen and improve our critical thinking skills! Make. Fix. Repair. Mend. So, gather up all of your holey socks and frayed long johns, take out that favorite shirt from your mending basket, and watch here for posts about our next mending class!

The Month Of April At Fernwood Nursery

It doesn’t matter that after a long day of potting in the greenhouse we sat with cups of tea and looked out at this…We are confident that any emerging plants are hearty enough to weather a little snow falling on them. The ground is warming and many plants are now able to utilize the water that’s being absorbed into the ground. This snow will melt quickly and provide some extra moisture for their new and rapid growth. No worries. It is the potential frigid temperatures we worry about, especially after new growth has started.
As you can tell, our pup Lucky finds that the greenhouse (at 88 degrees) is the perfect place for an afternoon nap. I must admit, that deep warmth does feel awfully good! Some early greens are on hold for just a bit longer before being transplanted into the hoop house. Of course, my favorite early green, tatsoi, will be the first to sink its roots into the warm hoop house soil. I wrote a post about tatsoi last year and you can read about it here if you would like. I can’t wait to be harvesting our very first bunches of this nutrient-rich green. The best!

tatsoi

The onions are coming along and the peppers and tomatoes are developing their first ‘true’ leaves which will provide them with an ability to photosynthesize. As many of you know, the first little leaves to appear are cotyledons or ‘seed leaves’. These are actually part of the seed and they provide a food source for the sprouting seedling.
During this time of year, we use the greenhouse for potting some of the plants that will go into the nursery this season, for sowing seeds that have been in winter storage, and for starting vegetable seedlings. It’s filling fast! Its a precarious time of year. The snow may fall, we are still walking planks that we’ve set down along the paths to the woodshed and the studio to keep from sinking into mud, and on some days all of the windows and doors in the greenhouse must be opened to keep it from getting too hot! April really does have a flavor of at least two seasons mixed into one month! We are so looking forward to our doors opening in the first of May… yet another nursery season! So many great plant selections, old and new. Some great classes scheduled (check here) and some in the works and waiting to be posted. A really fun and skilled based class on mending clothes is scheduled for April 22nd. A fine young textile artist will be on site to teach both traditional and sashiko mending methods. I’ll post this class in the upcoming week! Until then, enjoy this lovely (and somewhat unpredictable) April!