And what is so rare...

... as a day in June?
After yesterday evenings storm there was a double rainbow over the meadow. The brighter rainbow shows up best in this image, but there is a fainter one arching to the left. Something about this place lends itself to rainbows, we seen them often in the eastern sky.

Those who live in warmer climates will not be impressed with my garden shot, but it is looking good for a Maine garden in June! In this bed I have garlic, Yukon gold potatoes, bush beans, broccolli, 2 kinds of cabbage, spring lettuce mix, spinach and peas. There is a new, larger garden too. It is filled with tomato, pepper, squash and other plants.

I love the snapping sound of a screen store slapping shut. It reminds me of the million times I flew out the porch door of my childhood home, intent on summer adventures. I have my own screen door now, put up in April or May and taken down, with regret, in the late fall. It is a badge of good weather and welcomes breezes to tickle the lace curtains and make them dance.

Repelling vampires on Halloween....

On a blustry, 39 degree Halloween day I planted garlic. It seemed fitting.


I have wanted to do this for several years, but never quite around to it. Here in Maine, garlic must be planted in late October. The weather at this time of year is not really all that condusive to digging in the dirt. This year I planned ahead. I bought the bulbs from a lovely woman at the Common Ground Fair. 3 different varieties, German White, Russian Red and another, the name of which escapes me. She included specific planting instructions with each purchase.

I bundled up and hoed a long row in my garden. My hands were frozen. Off to the hardware store where I picked up thermal garden gloves and a bale of straw. Once home I dug my row a little deeper. Next I delved into the bottom of the composter for dark, rich, fragrant compost to feed and nurture my precious garlic bulbs.

All year the kitchen waste, some garden clippings, some fall leaves and the occasional bucket of manure from my horse go into the compost bin. I water it from time to time, and give it a weekly stir. When I need it I have beautiful dirt full of happy worms. It never ceases to amaze me that potato peels, coffee grounds and egg shells can make such lovely soil!

Here is one of the garlic bulbs nestled into compost. I then topped the row with soil, followed by a layer of partially decomposed wood shavings from the hen house. I then blanketed the row with deep straw to keep it cozy in the icy winter. It is my hope that today's efforts will be rewarded with pungent, flavorful bulbs of garlic next summer. That would be sweet!

Bloomin'

In Maine they say we have three seasons; snow, mud and bugs. They don't mention the flower season... and they really should. After the long, cold, white winter we are rewarded with a richness of flowers and birdsong. My garden is full of both.
The rosa rugosa perfume the air with a scent that haunts me. The Lupine bloom in riots along the roadside, in meadows, and (unbidden) in my garden. And there are the daisies I planted, dependable and happy. They are all a bright reward after the bleak months that came before.