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From the Greenhouse......Dan's Ramblin'sFebruary 2012
January is about over and February is a short one. Winter may not be over yet, but we got it on the run. Mount Bumpy (the snow pile) has grown, although slowly. I have started hollowing it out making caves and tunnels for this crazy old fool to play in. If the grandkids are good, I may let them play there also! I may be getting older, but I refuse to grow up.
 The greenhouse is alive and warm. I purchased some geraniums seeds from a seed company in California ~ they have arrived and have been planted. The first batch has sprouted, so I guess the flower season of 2012 has begun. The geranium cuttings I did around Christmas have rooted and are slowly being transplanted into bigger pots. The rest of the bigger geraniums that were not cut back earlier are being cut back now and when possible, more cuttings are being taken. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I like geraniums!I found a dried up neglected Jade plant in the greenhouse and decided to play with it. I cut it back  to nothing and repotted it. Its been about 10 days and new growth has begun to show up. Its amazing how some plants refuse to die. I certainly don’t need another Jade plant but they are so much fun to watch. Won’t be too long before I start other seeds as well. Although most will wait until we get home from a visit to my daughters in mid March, I’m sure I’ll find a few that will benefit from the longer grow time. Longer grow time ~ hell, I just like to watch them grow! Been sewing up a storm. (have to get a storm somehow) Have finished this years reversible quilt, front and back, still need to quilt it though. Am working on a project I call “John’s Quilt”. It is a design of a quilt I made for a high school friend that was battling cancer. He has since passed, but I am using the design to make some quilts to sell in the shop. I also am about to start my version of the Mystery Quilt for the class that starts February 29th at the Quilt Inn. The goal is to have mine done by the last of the four sessions of the series. Stay busy, stay warm, keep Quilting! Contact Dan. January 2012
Happy New Year! As the song goes ~ “times, they are a changing”. Many things are changing in my life at this time. As of January 1, 2012 my plumbing business is no longer. I have transferred it over to a contractor and heat technician in the area. My former employee and I will work for him as he grows his business. This frees up my responsibilities as a plumber so that more time can be spent quilting. The plan is that I will have scheduled time to work in the Quilt Shop ~ waiting on customers, designing and building quilts, writing patterns and using the longarm.
Needless to say the greenhouse is currently on the back burner of my life. I’m keeping it warm but haven’t taken the time to get started with the cuttings yet. Most of my available time has been spent sewing. I am currently working on my next reversible quilt. I have tentatively named it “X Marks the Spot”. One side is almost done except for borders and I am well on the way on side two. Sewing may not pay as well as plumbing but I think it can be more rewarding. As we all know, it’s fun to create new quilts, especially when they come from “outside” the box. Contact Dan December 2011
Hard to believe that December is here all ready. Christmas is rapidly approaching. The weather has been extremely mild, don’t really know if we are going to pay later or if we are being rewarded. I guess time will tell. Hopefully some of you took advantage of the coupon that was posted on my rambling page last month. Not much happening gardening wise here at the shop. There has been a lot of cleaning up taking place with the weather being so nice. Many areas have been attended to that have been on the back burner for a long time. The greenhouse is doing fine. I will be starting to take some cuttings on the geraniums real soon but I still need to find the time to get more cleaned up in there before that can happen. I am still struggling to determine what my next quilt project might be. When Bonnie Hunter was here she got me a little more interested in scrappy quilts so may be leaning that way to use up some of the pieces laying around in boxes. It seems that scrappy quilts reflect more of the informal eclectic style of gardening I enjoy. Colors, shapes and textures varying as the eyes move around the landscape. Maybe it’s time more of that shows up in my quilting, less structured and more variety of colors then just 3 or 4. All I know is that it won’t be 30’s reproduction prints ~ did that, used it up and time to move on to something else. Enjoy the Holidays and join me in making a New Year's resolution to complete more quilts. Remember to think outside the box and to challenge yourself to try something new. Contact Dan November 2011
Flower & gardening time is over. I guess I am ready for the ‘S’ word. I really suppose that it doesn’t matter whether I am or not. It has arrived. The greenhouse has been divided in half for the winter (I only heat half of it). Most of the dahlias have been cleaned up and placed in a box of peat, I never got around to digging up the canna lilies so if I have time I may or may just say the heck with them and not deal with them anymore. Several of the geraniums have been cut back but still have a few more to do. The ones that I cut back are filling out again already. Fun to watch them. The new heater is working fine so far. It is basically a wood fired water heater ~ all that I have used so far. It heats the 500 gallon tank of water to about 125-140 degrees. The tank then acts as a big radiator heating the greenhouse. Time will tell if it consumes less wood then the last attempt at a heater. So I guess it’s time to move into quilt production mode to see what gets produced. One can never tell ~ let your imagination run wild.
 October ~ still no plant-killing frost yet. Most of the plants are looking much the worse for wear though. Between the effects of Irene and the normal neglect this time of year, most are tired and ready to be pulled. I guess this means that another season is in the books. My flower gardens did well this year, the vegetable garden not quite as well. The beans and cabbagge did great but powdery mildew decimated the vine crops of pumpkins, zucchini, cucumbers and squash. Once the mildew strikes the plants no longer will set fruit. I have started removing some of the gardens and making changes for next year. The idea is for more low maintenance garden areas (day lilies and perennials), less big expanses of wild garden areas. The concept is to have fewer areas better kept. We’ll see. The greenhouse is full of plants to play with over the coming months. Some are cut back already ~ others waiting for the knife. The time has arrived to fill woodshed end with wood and clean out the rest of the greenhouse. New wood stove water heater due to arrive this week hopefully that will work as planned. I’ll let you know. Enjoy the fall weather, here in the North we’ll be shoveling before you know it.  Well September is here, arriving on the heels of Irene. Although the storm was not as bad here as predicted, it did a number on the gardens. Much of the garden was flattened, it could not stand up to the wet soil and the winds. Greenhouse still standing. Other than a few branches on the ground all seems intact, so I guess I was lucky. Much of the garden will need to be pulled and put to bed early this year, hopefully it gets a good rest. Several areas of the gardens are scheduled to be eliminated before next year anyway so maybe I can get started on that. That’s right ~ more lawn to mow ~ less flowers to tend. With any luck what is left will be better tended so that I have time to do something else. Don’t really know what that something else will be, but I’m sure that I’ll find something to do. I have finally been convinced that the gardens have grown too numerous to be well taken care of. Oh well, I think I had fun while it lasted.
 August, the dog days of summer. Maine Quilt Show is over and summer is on the downhill spiral. The flowers are looking great. All the work is beginning to pay off. Vegetables are beginning to produce eatable results and thoughts of changes to the gardens are beginning to be formulated into doable plans. Carol has finally convinced me to scale down the gardens into something that a sane group of three or four normal people could take care of. I should be able to handle that. I have been called a lot of things but never sane ~ my 9500 +/- piece show quilt will attest to that. Some gardens will be disappearing (and some more probably reappearing), less annuals and more perennial gardens, maybe even a formal garden might appear out of the vegetation, one never can tell. One garden will turn into a compost area ~ the rest who knows. I spend way too much time on the gardens, need to look at less maintenance.
Everyone should know that a gardener is someone that is content to do something every day that no one will ever notice until you stop doing it. (kind of like house cleaning) When the garden is weed free and all deadheaded few seem to understand what is involved to keep it that way. Stop, then everyone notices you have an unkempt garden. That is why I call the garden “What it is.” What it is now is very colorful, relatively weed free and looking great.
The deer ate most of the sunflowers ( I hope they got gas and attracted coyotes with their flatulence!) but I have a couple left that they missed. Have seen one set of twin fawns but not repeatedly. Let’s hope they like the neighbor's smorgasbord better! I have one advantage with my gardens, I over-plant, so hopefully some nibbling by the wildlife doesn’t show too bad. Enjoy the summer, take time to smell the flowers and enjoy the bees, butterflies and hummers ~ they will be gone before you know it.
July 2011
July already! Almost everything is planted. I am about 2 weeks ahead of schedule. Don’t really know why, but it’s a good thing. Most plants have recovered from transplant shock and I can see they are beginning to be happy in their new locations. The lupine were beautiful this year. Still a few there but they are being deadheaded fast. The foxglove have taken over and will control the garden for a couple more weeks. I believe the daisies are next in line. The annuals hopefully will begin to reach blossom stage in a couple more weeks also. Summer is here, I have done my part, it’s time for them to grow dammit!
May 2011
May is here, the calendar is telling us it is Spring. Looking outside is deceiving at times though. Still some snow around the yards, but it is going fast. Greenhouse plants are growing fine. Most of the geraniums have been moved to the wart on the side of the greenhouse. Slightly cooler at that location at night but still above freezing. Have actually had a couple of nights that never went below freezing. That is promising, Summer will eventually get here. First planting of Wave type Petunias (from my seed) are doing very well, no idea what color they will be, but they are growing strong. I have already deadheaded the first petunia from the hanging petunia baskets. I guess I planted them a little early. Will need to sell a few baskets or else I will have a full time job watering and deadheading them! I now have planted a great many trays with seeds and are waiting for them to germinate. Amazing how quickly the tiny plants emerge once they start pushing their heads above the soil. Difficult time deciding when to start them and how many of each variety to transplant. Some trays germinate almost every seed planted, others not so good, still most varieties germinate enough to force me to discard some for lack of space. Most of the plants do not really have a designated spot in the garden, my planting strategy is to bring flats out to the garden and plant them wherever they land, not too scientific but usually looks OK. Planning too much begins to make the whole process appear to be too much like work. I have picked the first cherry tomatoes for Carol’s salad. Never had that this time of year. I have my employee from the plumbing business making and repairing outside decorations. The wind chime made from plumbing pipes has been moved and several copper pinwheels have been added to the yard. I will start soon to clean up winter’s debris and uncover the perennials and the rest of the gardens. June is planting time and it’s coming soon. Fingers crossed for some sunshine and not too much rain....I guess we get what we get.
April 2011
April has arrived! Spring is fighting to make itself known. Snow is trying to melt, I have faith that it will. Have  70-80 geraniums in 6” pots now and still taking cuttings. Have planted several different colors of petunias, both bedding and hanging. Those suckers sure are small when they need to be transplanted! Will be seeding out more and more of the flowers and soon the veggies as well. Spring better win the fight pretty quick. As I write this on the 27th of March at about midnight it is only about 15 degrees outside. The temps need to be a little warmer at night before I can open up the rest of the greenhouse or it will not be warm enough for the new seedlings. It’s a struggle to not get too much planted. A flat of seeds takes up only a small area but as they grow and get transplanted, they begin to take up a lot of space very quickly. I will start  to get my canna lilly bulbs into pots before too long so they can wake up and get a head start, then they can blossom well before the frost. I like a long season out of them so like to get them going early. Trouble is, they like it warm too. Another reason Spring needs to drive Winter away, I need the rest of the greenhouse heated! The tomato that was budded last month is now much bigger and has tomatoes on it. Will need to try even earlier next winter. Oh no! Here I am planning for next winter already! Mount Bumpy is slowly dwindling, still a big pile though. Ideas floating around in my head of things to do for this summer ~ where to plant what and where I can sneak in new gardens. (shh, don’t tell Carol, there aren’t supposed to be any new ones) Would still love to do a “flower bed” ~ you know, bed frame and all. Carol does have a point though, the gardens do seem to take on a life of their own. I could not even begin to estimate the hundreds of hours I spend “playing” in the garden and the greenhouse. From staying up to one or two AM on cold nights all winter, to cutting and splitting the 7-9 cord of wood for the stoves, to the planting of seeds, transplanting of seedlings, to planting them outside, to ground preparation, to weeding, watering etc... I think I’m tired now. Just thinking about it has me thinking about how I need to stop calling it “playing in the garden” and begin to call it “working in the garden” I guess thats ok, I’m not afraid of work. I can curl up beside the biggest project and take a nap. As my granddaughter recently said, “Bumpy likes his naps”. Till May ~ keep thinking spring and keep quilting! Contact me. March 2011
 February must be a shorter month than the rest ‘cause it sure went by fast! The snow pile “Mount Bumpy” created from the clearing of the driveway & parking area has gotten huge. Most snow than I have seen in a long time! Snow removal has become almost a full time job.Have planted a few seeds ~ lupine, hollyhock, convolvulus, campion, couple of zinnias and a flat of hanging petunias. The petunias are so tiny they look like little green dots on the potting soil. Several of the lupine have germinated and I have transplanted the first hollyhocks already! I took a picture of my first buds on a cherry tomato that I planted back in early-mid January. That is all I will plant until we get back from a visit with our daughter and family in Maryland. I have started moving the cut back larger geraniums and mums out to the woodshed end of the greenhouse freeing up space in the main section. It stays about as warm out there as it does in the main section of the “winter” greenhouse. As soon as we get back from Maryland I will begin spring planting in earnest.
I have received my first batch of seeds from an outfit I found online. They’ll have to wait ‘til mid March to get planted. It seems early, and for some plants it is, but for up here you never can tell. If recommended planting time is 10-12 weeks before last frost, starting about now doesn’t really seem that early. Petunias and many perennials won’t hurt to start this early. Plus to be perfectly truthful, I tend to get antsy about the whole process ~ I like growing them in the greenhouse, it's fun! I have no indoor plants other then the greenhouse. It's a challenge to see if greenhouse can be heated. Remember the rules of the game ~ it only needs to get below 32 degrees once to have made the whole process a waste of time. Once plants are dead they are dead, start over. So far the coldest I’ve seen is 39 degrees inside and 20 below outside. Not too shabby for two layers of plastic and a wood stove in Rangeley Maine.
Any questions? Contact Dan February 2011
Another month gone by, slowly we are breaking the back of winter. The coldest month (supposedly) is now over. Have managed to keep greenhouse above 45 degrees even with the coldest temps we have received. The coldest I have seen was -22. The geraniums are doing quite well. I know I am ahead of where I normally am at this time of year. Have started a few seeds of Lupine, Campion and Hollyhocks. The seeds were some I had collected last summer, no germination yet but has not been that long yet either.
I have been enjoying an Angel’s Trumpet in the greenhouse this winter. When I was cleaning up last fall I had broken off the top of one that I had growing over Carol’s little frog pond and not dumped out the pot yet. I saw that it was starting to send out new sprouts so I thought I’d see if it would come back over winter.
 It came back fine, so far I have had 3 blossoms with several more on the way. Fun to see summer flowers blossoming in the middle of January!
Starting to plan what I want to plant where for the upcoming season. Probably much the same as in the past. When the time comes I will probably just start bringing out armloads of seedling flats and start “throwing” them into the ground willy nilly. Some will be planted too close, some will end up being over shadowed by others but in the end there are usually so many that get planted even when the deer start munching it turns out OK. I always think at this point in the season, that planning ahead where what will go where would be a good idea. In the end the whole concept seems to just be too much bother and makes the process seem like work. Much like how I design and build some of my quilts. Make some blocks, throw them on the floor and see what else needs to go where, make some more and “see” what else is needed. With the flower garden it’s a little more difficult because if I didn’t start the seeds, I don’t have the seedlings to set out! Seed catalogs have been arriving. Scary thought, I spend way too much money on seeds. I have a lot that I saved from flowers last year, though always am afraid that they will not germinate , so I buy more, only to find out that mine work as good as the new boughten ones. Will try to not do that this year. We’ll see, kinda like going to the Quilt Shop, with no project in mind, but seeing that new fabric collection that would look great somewhere ~ you just have to get some to try somewhere on something! Until next time....
January 2011 Happy New Year! Do you believe it, 2011 has arrived. Hopefully it will be a good year for gardening ~ only time will tell. I have transplanted 26 geraniums into 6” pots, have started 25-30 more cuttings and still have 4-5 plants waiting to give up their shoots for several more. Just finishing shoveling out from a 18-20” snowstorm. Every year it seems that it is harder to find something enjoyable about moving snow. All I can say is that I am building a rapidly growing “Mount Bumpy”. Thats what we call the snow pile created from blowing all the snow from the parking lot into one big pile. My oldest grandson Evan wanted to know where the door was to go inside the pile. Last year I hollowed out a rather large cave for him and his brother Parker to play in. I don’t know yet if that will happen this year.
My daughters gave me a plant cam for Christmas. I can program it to take pictures at set periods of time so that I can create a movie of a plant or blossom or area of the garden to show what it looks like as it grows. As soon as I figure out how to work it I will post some to let you see how my garden grows. Should be fun. If you have suggestions on how I might use it drop me an e-mail ~ who knows, I may try your suggestion.
December 2010
Not much going on in the greenhouse this time of year. Still taking geranium cuttings, this will continue until spring. Have done approximately 40 so far between regular and hanging ones. Many of the ones that I cut back earlier are almost ready to donate a few shoots, still cutting back others. Most of my time this of year is spent trying to keep the inside of the plastic house warm and the plants from drying up. I shoot for temps in the upper 60’s or higher, not an easy prospect as outside temperatures continue to get colder. Lowest I’ve seen outside so far is low teens, lowest inside has been low 50’s.
Christmas will be here before you know it. Get those gift projects completed and stay warm.  Wow November is here! Can you believe it? I have a hard time believing it. The garden has been put to bed (I guess as much as it is going to be). The back of the greenhouse has been filled with wood and the heating time of year has arrived. This year I am running two types of stoves in the greenhouse ~ one to heat air, the other to heat water. While the water one doesn’t work as well as I would like it, does still heat the water in the center of the greenhouse. The geraniums that I cut back earlier have filled out nicely and are growing well. There are more that need pruning as well. It is fun to watch the new growth “pop” out of the stems and become new shoots. There are a couple of Jade plants that are starting to blossom. Yes! They really do blossom. The leaves accumulate soot from the stoves so I have been spraying them and washing them off. They seem to like it. I have a Christmas cactus that I got from my Aunt Kay when she passed away. Everyone who saw it in the spring said that it was dead. I refused to believe it was and put it outdoors for the summer. When I brought it in it looked a little under the weather but a lot better than in the spring. It’s been inside about a month now and has a few new leaves and I have even noticed a couple of buds forming on the ends of a few branches. Not bad for a dead plant! I have brought into the store a couple of other Christmas cactus and they look great. I know they are a little early, but oh well, better early then never. The one I hung in the showroom has not blossomed for several years (it was my Mother’s and who knows how old it is, Mom died in 1996 and I obtained it then) Will be attempting my first of the season cuttings of geraniums and ivy geraniums soon and look forward to having good luck with them.
September 30, 2010
October is here, still no frost but the season is definitely over. Most of the baskets and containers have either been emptied or moved into the greenhouse. I have started deadheading the flower gardens, though much is still in a hold pattern waiting for frost. I have a real hard time pulling annuals when they still have healthy flowers on them. Others, like my canna lilies and dahlias, need the frost to kill the foliage so the tubers can be dug to store for next year. Now would also be the time to get cleaned up to prepare for next year, but with the late frost and hence slow cleanup, much of that will probably have to wait until spring (unless we have a long fall). It also seems that I am recovering slowly and don’t really have the energy I had before the surgery. Hopefully that changes before spring.From the looks of things I get quite a bit of help some days for cleanup (I think the tractor rides are what is liked the best!)
The greenhouse was cleaned up before plants were brought in.
Now it is filling up with geraniums and begonias for the winter. Several geraniums were dug up and brought in and replanted, as soon as they get re-established in their new pots I will cut them back to begin the stem cutting process and get started making new plants for next summer. Some that were brought in pot and all have all ready been cut back. The annuals have ripened many seeds and the birds are loving them. I have also harvested many different ones to utilize during next spring’s planting. It’s always fun to see if what I gathered for seeds resembles what I harvested them from, sometimes they are not quite the same ~ taller then normal or totally different colors. Part of the fun. The foliage is in full bloom and is a beautiful display this year. 'Til next time enjoy the fall and it’s bounty and beauty and remember every day is brighter if you take time to enjoy a flower.
August 31, 2010
August is gone :-( Summer is almost gone and in many sections of the garden it is time to think about next year. Surgery went well. I am still having a real difficult time with the concept of no pulling, tugging or lifting over 10 pounds! I thought the 50-60 refills of the 2.5 gallon water jug that are needed to water the baskets and containers was a lot. Now that the container was reduced to 1 gallon to get below my 10 pound limit... well lets just say that it’s a good thing that Carol is around to help most of the time! The veggie garden is about gone by, it got out of hand while I could do nothing and now is mostly a weed patch. The cauliflower crop was over abundant, Carol & I have decided that we won’t need to buy it for quite a while, not because we saved any of it but because we’re sick of it!   Carol’s small pond in the Quilt Shop garden (under the fountain) has 1 - 2 frogs within it and the grandkids get a kick out of looking for where they are hiding when they visit. My larger pond behind the greenhouse is real low on water but still has it’s usual crop of frogs within it. The hummingbirds have been abundant of late, not just in the early AM and PM but throughout the day. Fun to watch, but they tend to jump me when they show up at the same basket I am deadheading. A new hummingbird spinner of copper has been added to the garden, picked up on a motorcycle ride earlier this summer.The golden glow has laid over onto the strings that I put up earlier. As I find time & energy, I am trying to get many of the perennials deadheaded to prohibit self-seeding and to clean up the look as well. The black-eyed susan has taken over the landscape as the garden begins to take on the tired look of the yellows and oranges of Fall.
August 10, 2010
Still struggling to keep ahead of the deadheading (loosing battle). The petunia baskets are still looking great, though a little more bedraggled then earlier in the season. Golden glow in full bloom and still standing!  Have been trying to get the greenhouse firewood split, moved and piled before my surgery (about 1/2 done, maybe a little more) on the 19th. Hernia repair #4 ~ looking forward to it like I would a hurricane in August!  Veggie garden growing strong. Have been handing veggies to neighbors etc. depending on the given day and what I picked. I have not reached the point of looking for opened car windows to deposit them, but Carol and I have talked of going to 4 meals a day so we could get rid of more veggies during the extra meal!  I have been receiving many comments on the garden this summer and hopefully the display lasts for another month at least. Some mornings have reached the high 40’s for low temp for the day. Chilly starts for this time of year. Some of the vine crops are beginning to develop powdery mildew from the dry, hot weather. Affected the most so far is one section of my 8 ball zucchini. Once infected, the plant no longer sets fruit so I’ll have to pull them before they spoil all the vine crops. No great loss with the zucchini, although I did discover that they make remarkably good bowling balls and will travel pretty straight and true out the driveway and will break on the other side having gone airborne after hitting the dip on the side of the road. Carol says that I have too much fun and should learn to control myself. I hope she didn’t mean grow up because I don’t ever plan to do that!  Please contact me with any comments or questions! August 1, 2010
Welcome! We are going to be trying something different with my rambling. In conjunction with Threads Galore’s new web page I will try to update my garden ramblings on a more regular basis. Check in often to see what’s going on! I will also be posting pictures of the yard, the many flower gardens and, when appropriate, the greenhouse as well. Part of the idea is to post pictures that were taken from the same locations around the property showing the seasonal changes. Well behaved garden admirer's are always welcome. I only ask that you stay on the paths and refrain from picking anything without asking. Enjoy!! This summer is going by rapidly, the brisk 49 degrees this AM hints that fall is quickly arriving. I don’t think I’m ready to think about losing everything yet. Let’s hope for a late frost!!!
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