Day 31: Weekend plans

This weekend we'll be pretty busy in The Mayne Garden or at least hope to be if the weather cooperates. There are a number of essential "chores" (or labors of love) that need to be done. Over the past few weeks the Wells area has experienced unusual amounts of rain which prevented adequate servicing of The Garden. This rain washed away the remaining fertilizer we spread several weeks ago... So this weekend our three main goals are to cultivate and fertilize The Garden and then consume a nice juice hamburg on the grill.

Day 29: Carrot Crisis?

Over the weekend we discarded one Eggplant which was unquestionably dead, but  the majority of the other vegetable plants in The Mayne Garden look pretty good. Of course, since we are worrywarts we are concerned about some of Garden plants...We are referring to our Fennel and Carrots. We planted both of these from seed only four weeks ago and they are very small, not good for cool weather vegetables with the summer here.
      When we planted these seeds we knew it was late, but we figured considered this kind of an experiment.  "Let's see what happens", we thought. Regardless of success or failure of these, we decided to sow a second crop of Fennel and Carrots in mid-July for a Fall yield.
      Still, we find the fact that our Turnips are doing well even though they too are a cool weather vegetables like Fennel and Carrots.  

Day 26: The Webhannet River

If the saga of The Mayne Garden was made into a movie the main character would be the Webhannet River. Located on the banks of the river in Wells, the success of The Mayne Garden ebbs and flows with the river itself. If you follow this blog you know the behavior of the river is the major influence on the health and survival of our Garden. All said...it is the unpredictable nature of the Webhannet that makes living (and growing a garden) on its banks so invigorating.
 


Here are some interest facts about the Webhannet River:

1. The Webhannet River is approximately 8.3 miles long and its body lies entirely in the town of Wells, Maine

2. Pope's Creek, Depot Brook and Blacksmith Brook are the three main tributaries of the river.

3. 1,167 acres of river estuary, salt marsh and uplands are protected by the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge

4. US Army Corps of Engineers.built the two jetties located at the mouth of the Webhannet river in 1961. When built the north jetty was 580 feet long and the south 920.

5. In 1963 the north jetty was extended 200 feet. And in 1965 both jetties were extend again, north to 1,225 feet-south to 1,300feet.

Day 24: Assessment

We inspected The Mayne Garden last evening. Some plants look good and others not so good. Here is our quick assessment:

We are pleased with the growth of the peas (planted  from seed), the zucchini and in particular the turnips.

But  right now we are concerned with about half of the eggplants, the bush beans and the half of the tomato plants. It seems the Jet Star variety tomatoes are not doing as well as the Better Boys. We are not sure if this discrepancy is the result of differences in the varieties or because the Jet Star were planted closer to the Webhannet River than the Better Boy.

    There is still little to nothing happening with the gourd seeds (we have no idea why). And the peas that were planted from seedlings look worse each day. The cucumber plants, which were also planted from seedlings, are a little yellowish, but we think they'll make it.

 








 BTW, the lettuce plants are finally coming into their own. 

Day 23: Sunshine

We are finally expecting some warm, sunny weather here in Southern Maine. Forecasters are predicting temperatures in the upper 90 range for both Wednesday and Thursday.

This is good news.

Some of our gardening friends in Massachusetts are "stating" their vegetable plants have grown significantly over the past ten days, unlike The Mayne Gardens' which have grown, but only a little. We keep rationalizing that the difference is the more temperate climate in Mass and the additional sunshine provided in a non-coastal area.

So as the said back in the 1960's... "let the sunshine in".

Day 22: Recap

Flowering Zucchini Plants
 
We started this blog because we wanted to create a record of the events that took place in The Mayne Garden from Memorial Day to Labor Day 2012. We will use this log to guide us in future gardening along the Webhannet River. With this in mind we decided to make this entry a simple list of observations and facts from the past week (June 9-June 16).

1. We find cultivating the garden every third or fourth day very helpful.
2. The Beans and Peas we started from seeds directly in the bed are doing better than the seedlings we purchased.   
3. Once four leaves appeared we thinned our Turnips to one every three inches and they seemed to have taken-off since.
4. Unlike our Turnips, our Fennel and Carrots are growing very slowly.
5. We purchased Brussell Sprout plants on sale from Chase Farm in Wells on June 10 and planted them in the river side of the bed, an area that has been struggling.
6. Twice we planted Gourd Seeds and so far have had little success.
7. We saw our first Zucchini flowers on June 9, no flowers on the Eggplant, or Yellow Squash.

Day 13: Turnips and Beans Break Through

Hey, those are our beans popping through the soil...

And they are looking good!

Hey, those are our Turnips popping through the soil...

       And they are looking good, too!
 

Day 11: Desperate Decision

OK, so we were desperate and desperate people can do, well desperate things.

Last Friday before the heavy rains started in Wells, we checked The Mayne Garden and what we saw concerned us.The tomato plant leaves appeared a little yellow with some black spots. We traveled to a big box store looking for an organic pest control substance. We found nothing we liked.

Confused, concerned and not knowing what to do we bought a container of Sevin (remember, we were desperate). We sprinkled some of the powdery stuff on the tomato leaves and the ground around the plants.








We are guessing the weekend's rain washed most of the Sevin away and with it any protection it might have given.

Fortunately, we found a totally organic pest control product on Sunday.    

Day 10: Follow-up to Day 5

Through my research, I have found two solutions for our pest control issue. One is insecticidal soap which should be safe for use on our types of vegetables. The other is a BT solution. BT is a disease that occurs in insects that can be controlled and used to infect and eliminate other pests. The following is a list of insects that can be affected by BT.

Insects Controlled by BT

Kurstaki strain (Biobit, Dipel, MVP, Steward, Thuricide, etc.):

• Vegetable insects
• Cabbage worm (cabbage looper, imported cabbageworm, diamondback moth, etc.).
• Tomato and tobacco hornworm.
• Field and forage crop insects
• European corn borer (granular formulations have given good control of first generation corn borers).
• Alfalfa caterpillar, alfalfa webworm.
• Fruit crop insects
• Leafroller.
• Achemon sphinx.
• Tree and shrub insects
• Tent caterpillar.
• Fall webworm.
• Leafroller.
• Red-humped caterpillar.
• Spiny elm caterpillar.
• Western spruce budworm.
• Pine budworm.
• Pine butterfly.

Israelensis strains (Vectobac, Mosquito Dunks, Gnatrol, Bactimos, etc.)

• Mosquito.
• Black fly.
• Fungus gnat.

San diego/tenebrionis strains (Trident, M-One, M-Trak, Foil, Novodor, etc.)

• Colorado potato beetle.
• Elm leaf beetle.
• Cottonwood leaf beetle.

Colorado State University Extension entomologist and professor, bioagricultural sciences and pest management.

Day 9: HighER Tide, Again!

Water water everywhere
All the boards did shrink
Water water everywhere
Nor any drop to drink.
             Samuel Coleridge "Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

        Another day,  another night, another high tide...Monday night brought another incredibly high tide on the Webhannet River in Wells. Unfortunately, this time the surge caused more damage than either of the past two.

Water flooded and destroyed six pepper plants and three basil plants that we had  planted in a small portable unit on the side of The Mayne Garden (yikes... and they were hot peppers too, my favorite).

     Yesterday we posted a picture displaying a water-mark on the side of  The Mayne bed about ten inches high. This morning we observed another water-mark from last night's tide closer to 18 inches high.

    When will it end?

Click image to enlarge

Day 6, 7 & 8 Storm Damage

      Heavy rain over the weekend was just one of our problems for The Mayne Garden, but I'll get back to that later.
     First Saturday and Sunday night brought incredibly high tides in Wells. This morning as we traveled along Webhannet Drive we were amazed at the damage caused by the night's pounding surf. The storm even ripped off the front railing on a house along the ocean near Eldridge Rd. We saw debris of all kinds littering the road: a set of metal stairs, lawn chairs, wood and sea rocks just to mention a few. The violent ocean also throw seaweed in heavy amounts on various parts of Webhannet Dr..
       And of course, the storm surge elevated the tide along the Webhannet River. Our eyes couldn't believe it when was saw The Mayne Garden covered with ten inches of water. The extent of damage to our vegetables is unknown at this time.
      Now back to the heavy rain. Since forecaster were predicting bad weather for Saturday we staked and tried our tomato plants for protection Friday evening. The best way to describe Saturday's weather... it poured and poured and the wind blew strong. When we inspected The Mayne Garden on Sunday morning the damage was less than expected. The rain toppled one tomato and two pepper plants. We easily reseated these.

    Unfortunately, there is more to come tonight!
  
 
  The water-mark on The Mayne Garden planting bed shows the incredible height of the tide


 Rain pours out of a neighboring building Saturday

Day 5: The Inevitable Pests

We spent a few hours this morning investigating how to control/eliminate the inevitable pests that will soon be invading The Mayne Garden. The Mayne Garden is our first attempt at vegetable gardening in thirty years, so when it comes to pest control we are admittedly out of touch. Back in the “olden days”, Diazinon was the product of choice for home gardeners. But today, Diazinon is no longer used residentially.

   It is important to us to keep The Mayne Garden organic. We began our search for a pest control product by asking other novice gardeners (like us) what worked for them. The first suggestion came from a friend who uses Neem. Neem “is a vegetable oil pressed from the fruits and seeds of the neem (Azadirachta indica), an evergreen tree which is endemic to the Indian subcontinent” (this explanation came from Wikipedia. We don’t even know what half of it means). 

       Another friend mentioned lime-sulfur as a control substance. Finally, we googled the phase “organic pest control in a vegetable garden. Through this search we found information on Thurcide, Dipel and Pyrethrins.

   We still don’t feel completely comfortable with our choices. It looks like we need a trip to local nursery here in Wells.