A Day at the Coast

Lobster Boats - A Local Maine Food

Vine ripe tomatoes and lobster, what do they have in common? August in Maine! Certainly we can eat tomatoes, even Maine tomatoes (https://www.backyardfarms.com/) and lobster all year. But they don't compare to eating them fresh in Maine in August. Mix that with everyone's need for time off and time away from everyday life and you've got the makings for a wonderful way to spend a day away from it all. Yes, that includes the gardens. The photo above is of a few lobster boats at Five Islands Lobster Pound near Reid State Park. Two absolutely beautiful places along the coast of Maine. They may not be the "most" beautiful places along the coast but they sure come close in my book. They are where I like to spend my coastal time. An hour and a half from home they are about as close as I can get to a real coastal get away that includes a sandy beach and lobster boats.

Back home the gardens need tending; that never changes. But garden tending is like housework; it'll be there for you when you get back from your get away no matter what. So it's important to step away from it all from time to time and enjoy some raw and natural beauty. It's funny how a garden can be a summer's entire entertainment. For me that is what it is. Not only does the garden provide fresh, organic, luscious food but it's also my entertainment for the season. I don't know what I'd do during the summer without gardening. I'd be bored to tears! Everyday I go outside (I just read that outdoor exercise treats depression much more effectively than indoor exercise! Another great reason to garden rather than go to the gym!) into my gardens and voila! Things to do! Lots of things to do, see, and experience. How can you be bored when everyday you're not quite sure what you're going to do and then you go outside and find that there are weeds to pull, seedlings to sprinkle with water, compost to attend to (which I'm really bad at!), beds to compost and mulch, bees to watch, tomatoes to pinch, flowers to pick, herbs to harvest, vegetables to pick.....on and on? That's what gardening is to me.

I've been to the coast several times this week and will be visiting the mountains and Boston next week. So today I need to tend my gardens so that they will withstand my time away, again. Things to do will include more fall plantings of greens and some root veggies and some herbs like cilantro. I may even try some peas. I need to replant those at home and at the community garden. So that means digging up spots where harvested plants were and work in generous amounts of compost. Today I will probably pull up spent bean plants and harvest my shallots and replant them with the above mentioned seeds. Then I'll head over to the community garden to do the same. Johnny's Selected Seeds http://www.johnnyseeds.com/) was very generous in donating seeds for the Soup Kitchen plots at the community garden. There is also enough to give to the community gardeners there as well as the school kids who garden there. Wonderful!! I dug up the potato and greens beds last week and will compost and replant today with greens and roots. Where the potatoes were I'll put the greens. Where the greens were I'll plant the root veggies. Rotating crops is very important for several reasons. One is so that the same plants don't deplete one type of nutrient from the soil. Another reason is so pests that munch on a particular plant isn't given an easy opportunity to find those plants. Mix it up a bit! I'll finally head over to check on my school garden and just make sure it's not overgrown. So I'm assuming weeding and dead heading flowers will be what I do there.

In the mean time here are a few more pics from my trip to the coast. Enjoy!
Five Islands, Maine

Sand Pipers at Reid State Beach Park (I think that's what kind of bird they are!)

A Crab at Low Tide

The Beach at Reid

The Beach at Reid

"Home Base" at Reid

As always, happy gardening and your times away from the gardens too,
Mary