Robin's Outdoors

I know it snows in late March in Maine sometimes but that doesn’t make looking at it better.  Ugh. Enough already.  I do feel a little tropical this morning though. I’m writing to you from the tomato plant jungle.  Note to self: late January might be a little early to start seedlings. They resemble redwoods.  Some don’t fit under the grow lights anymore.  It’s still colder than I’m comfortable with in the gh’s at night so I’m shuffling plants around. They can go outside on 40* days as long as it’s not windy.  The eggplant are fantstic too.  The first batch of peppers are up.

The greenhouse has the “in-between” look.  It’s in between winter and spring crops.  I toasted some endive seedlings yesterday by not paying attention to the temperature. By the time I realized how warm it was outside it was too late inside.  Some of the leaves were crispy.  They hadn’t finished acclimating to the cold over night temps before I let the temp climb to 125*.  Dammit.  I don’t often believe in luck but in this case, I was lucky just a few plants were killed.  They’re still in the soil.  I can afford the time to see if anything grows from the center of the plants.  If not, let’s just call it a mini green manure crop. ;)

We’re going to pick up rockweed tomorrow.  It’s a kind of seaweed.  It’s full of micro nutrients from the ocean. When the snow is gone I’ll spread it on a spot in the garden and let it sit.  When we’ve had four or five dry days in a row in April the weed will become dry and crunchy. It’s easy to rototill in then.  If it’s wet it gets tangled in the tines and results in language I shouldn’t repeat here. I’ll start a big batch of rockweed tea to use in the greenhouse and watering seedlings, mix some into a cold compost pile in the gh, give some to the chickens to scratch in and pile the rest.  When I mention picking up rockweed someone (same guy each time, I delete him without allowing the message through) gets upset and leaves me a nasty message about how picking up weed is illegal and I’m killing a valuable resource.  It’s not illegal to pick up the loose weed on the beach. We can’t gather live weed connected to rocks.  We pick up so little weed over the course of a year that it’s truly insignificant.  And to Martin, in case you’re still reading, don’t bother. You haven’t answered my question to your response last year.

I’m going to seed trays of broccoli and cabbage today. The soil block maker is here.  I’ll find some sand and try it out.  The pepper seedlings I mentioned earlier need to be potted up into six packs or maybe soil blocks. Steve’s going to a Northwoods Mafia meeting tonight.  It’s an informal group of men who work in Maine’s northwoods.  There are contractors, foresters, wood buyers, equipment operators, truck drivers – anyone you can think of involved in the logging industry.  They get together every two or three weeks to relax, have a few drinks and eat good food at someone’s camp. The location changes each time.  Tonight the host is making a New England boiled dinner.  Steve won’t be home til tomorrow morning so I can have a relaxed day of not watching the clock.  Taylor will make supper for us.  I can poke around doing as I please all day as long as I get everything done.  It’s a good thing.

Wonder what kind of hits the blog will get in the next few days.  I’ve talked about weed (those folks are going to be disappointed if they try smoking this weed) and the maffia.

I read that Jan’s ducks are laying.  Mine are not.  “Ok ladies, I know you’re not spring chickens…err...young ducks…but let’s go.  I’m feeding you.  You should be feeding me.” We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

I started seeds for sage, endive and lettuces today.  The tomatoes, sage and eggplant have been potted up into six packs.  They’ll go into 4″ pots and then maybe 6″ pots before being transplanted into the unheated greenhouses.  The seedlings in GH1 are doing well.  Seeds are slow to germinate for some things.  Sunshine would help but instead, we have 7″ of snow coming Thursday.

The raccoons are out of hibernation for mating.  It’s a regular wilderness out here these days.  I have to make sure the doors to the hen house and barn are closed well at night in order to have heads on all the birds in the morning.  The dogs have been eager to tree coons. The secret word is MOFGA.  Steve said they put up a big fuss after I went out last night to get Taylor at the high school.

Maine Vegetable & Fruit School.  I’m meeting Jj there.  Steve looked at the workshops and decided to go with us.  We’ll be at the March 31 session.  We’re interested in all of the topics and I’m excited to meet Vern Grubinger.

Time to close those doors – it was dark an hour ago.