Plant of the Week
Pinus strobus from Maine.gov web site
Plant of the Week
The state flower of Maine, voted into existence by those rugged individualistic Down Easters in 1895, is not, botanically or even aesthetically speaking, a flower. It’s the White Pine cone and tassel, and if that’s what they like as a flower, that is what they should have. Pinus strobus is a native tree from Canada down to the Bayou, and it’s a fast-growing evergreen that is home to many insects and birds. Its wood makes good lumber, and it’s easy to ID because of the 5 needles per cluster instead of the 2 or 3 for many other pines. My tree ID skills are meager, so I will try to remember that little nugget of info. Speaking of remembering… Here is the link to the magical nursery in Kennebunk, Snug Harbor Farm, that our daughter made sure we visited (“this is not a drill!”), and she did the right thing.
Guest
Andy Brand of the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens is someone whom I have followed for a while on Instagram, and he was kind enough to chat with me after I had two hours to walk around this impressive site. The only negative about our convo was that it was clear I would need another day or two to really see the gardens well. Ahhh, such are gardens, especially good ones. Started in 2007, this amazing resource has already had to go back to the drawing board in terms of increased visitor amenities (more than two football teams could square off in the new car park, and guess what they did with the old one? Aye-yuh, new gardens). The plants were enough for me, but it would be hard to ignore the 25’ tall trolls created by Thomas Dambo, a recycled art activist. They are currently trolling all visitors, including ones that may not have thought botanical gardens were their thing, about how to protect the environment. Oh, and they may have magically become influencers along the way.
The Play List
Shake some seeds around your garden for more plants. Foxglove, columbine and rose campion are brown and crispy and just asking for distribution help.
Peony foliage—if it’s brown or white from mildew, it sure isn’t photosynthesizing, so do you still have to look at it? Cut it back and feed the tubers with a bit of triple phosphate.
Plant out fall veg such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale, kohlrabi, and mustard.
Start seeds of beets, carrots, lettuce, radish, spinach, and turnips.
Keep in mind that I don’t know much about veg, and I get my info from here. They’re nice to share.
Listen
American singer and songwriter Rusty Gear kindly provides the music for Into the Garden with Leslie, and although I have mentioned him before, we need to talk about his new album, Delivery Man. My podcast music is the instrumental version of “Forgiveness After All,” which I like for its ballad-like sound. Two new favorites of mine on this latest album are “We Know Too Much” and “Gold on the Horizon,” the latter of which has a wholesome romantic video to accompany. Sweet!