After an unusually warm autumn, temperature are now in the 20s at night here, so garden season 2017 has come to an end in Maine.
This year I had good luck with zinnias, coleus, petunias, pansies, geranium, and nasturtiums. I had three
cherry tomato plants on my deck. In the raised bed, I grew kale, mustard
greens, herbs, rhubarb and Egyptian walking onions. I didn’t plant squash,
beans or peas as in past years due to lack of space and the increasing shade on
my property. And slugs. Hungry, greedy, relentless slugs. If they eat it, I'm not growing it anymore.
I wondered what wild plants would seed in if I didn’t pull them all. So, I let my flower garden do what it may, which led to some nice surprises.
My mature perennials are tightly planted so there weren’t too many volunteers from the wild. But, in the border, a tall mullein plant emerged amongst the day lilies.
In the center of my flower garden, a wild boneset plant grew.
From a packet of seeds, I grew more coleus than I care to count. I have brought some indoors to winter over for next year.
Next year, I’m going to continue to narrow my focus on those plants that thrive here. Flowers do well, herbs, and perennial plants both cultivated and wild.
Elderberry, wild
blueberry, wild blackberry and cultivated strawberries are happy here and I’m
happy to have them.
At the end of October, the remnant of tropical storm Phillippe ended the season with a bang, resulting in the loss of two trees on my land-
a maple and a white pine.
And so with that, garden season 2017 has ended. It's time for winter and thinking ahead to next year.
