Blackrock Farm

Michael Dirr at The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens

2011-10-03T09:56:00.001-04:00

Blackrock Farm is a great place to work for a lot ofreasons, but one that sticks out for me this week is the field trips. As long as you’re a lover of learning andenthusiastic about the subject and destination of the trip, Helene makes sureto get you on board. Last Wednesday sixmembers of Blackrock woke up early and drove to the Coastal Maine BotanicalGardens to attend a “walk and talk” lecture of sorts by tree and shrub rockstar Michael Dirr. You can find more information on him here. For almost fourhours we had the honor of walking the grounds of the CMBG with him, learningwhat makes certain specimens work in the landscape, what makes them remarkable,or simply just the history of their species. If you’re a woody plant fanatic Michael Dirr is a must see and a must read.

We got home to Kennebunkport at around five o’clock,but the day really flew by despite its length.

It’s a lot of fun to get out there and break up the workweekwith a trip like this, but I believe (and I think Helene does too) that part ofwhat allows a little nursery like ours survive is the enthusiasm of theemployees. Grinding out weeks of maintenanceand installations can really take the spirit out of you, but getaways like thisrecharge us and help us to remember why we stick with this work when we’retired and sometimes, I’ll admit, bored.

There was nothing boring about Michael Dirr. His knowledge was vast, but he was neverboring as we walked with him and a few of the curators of the Botanical Gardens. He does not talk at you, but with you, and demands interaction andparticipation. He constantly refers to ‘thequiz’ that will be administered at the end of the walk, but with good humor. He encourages questions and never seems to bestumped by one. Put simply, I wasamazed; I didn’t say much, as I was way out of my league, but as we walked I oftenreflected on the value of seeing and talking with such a knowledgeable memberof our field.

On Sunday afternoon I got a frantic call from Helene, andthrough her excitement she told me Michael Dirr had come by Blackrock to visitthe nursery and walk around a bit. I’llmake sure she posts about it, so I won’t go into details, but his visit markswhat is probably the most important person in the plant industry ever to walkour modest grounds. More to come fromHelene.

A Minute to Complain

2011-09-13T11:39:00.004-04:00

This is a very difficult time to be in the landscaping and nursery business, and i don't just mean because of the economy. Here at Blackrock we hire a lot of college students, and even a few teachers on their summer vacations, during the busy season in order to keep up with the work. Our crew swells to around 15 during the summer months, and while it is a logistical nightmare we certainly have enough hands to get the work we need to do done.

As the season starts to change to fall all these seasonal helpers head back to school and we are left with a skeleton crew. The only problem is the work is still steady. Now the crew is down to three on a good day, with a few able to be salvaged from the vegetable division when they have a minute. Sometimes I make lists and as i get to a second page I start to panic a little bit.

It's like this every year, and I fully realize we'll be able to take care of the work, but it seems like i can never get used to this time of year and the drastic change in the way this business operates.

Colin Lewis at Blackrock Farm

2011-07-28T16:50:00.005-04:00

Colin Lewis is coming to Blackrock Farm on August 11, 2011.

We've been struggling over how to best present this gentleman to our advertising outlets because it just doesn't seem right to put "You Guys Just Don't Realize How Big A Deal This Is" in a newspaper advertisement.

But that's pretty much what we want to say, and the blog is an excellent place for me to be able to be up front like that and get away with it.

The man is a highly acclaimed teacher, artist and writer, and is a consultant for the Lars Anderson Collection of Bonsai at the Arnold Arboretum. The list goes on, but you could visit his website at www.colinlewisbonsai.com to see more about his resume. If what you find there isn't enough to be convinced I don't know what will be.

Colin has recently moved his collection and school to his house just a few minutes drive from Blackrock, and we felt we would be doing our community a disservice if we did not make his work and his move known to the public. Like I said, to both the artistic and landscaping communities, this is a pretty big deal.

His knowledge and calm, focused delivery had me wanting to get involved with this art form the minute i met him, and I know that I will be in attendance on the 11th with the hope of gathering enough information to get started on a Bonsai of my own. It turns out that a some Bonsai start out as heavily cut back shrubs or trees. If they are still producing new growth from the bottom they can be dug up and trained into smaller and smaller containers to become Bonsai. It always saddens me to rip out perfectly good living shrubs, and I hope i can learn to save the promising ones for a second chance at life.

As i understand it, this is one of the ways Colin has made some of his artwork (i'm not entirely sure if the piece pictured above was started that way, but it's gorgeous nonetheless). Obviously, i have a lot to learn, but i'm very excited to have a chance to get my questions answered by a master on the 11th.

Mark your calenders!

Blackrock Farm Open House May 21, 2010

2011-05-17T07:22:00.000-04:00

Blackrock Farm

Open House

May 21, 2011

Come and join us for a day of friends, neighbors, staff and garden nuts from all over. We have some nice food to eat and lots of new things here at the farm. I promise the sun will come out!

293 Goose Rocks Road in Kennebunkport.

Redwinged Blackbirds and the end of winter

2011-03-19T16:14:00.000-04:00

This morning was amazing!

It is Saturday and all the chores that are sometimes carried out by Adam and other people who work here are all mine for the weekend.
And so....I walk out to feed the animals and get to be alone, something that does not happen a lot here at the farm.
Incredibly it has snowed in the early morning. It was 50 something yesterday and sunny and today the earth has been covered with white. This is rare. Usually winter winds down in a rather ungraceful fashion. Mounds of dirty snow, lots of mud and beaten down shrubs and grasses. Things that you forgot to put away in the fall begin to appear and the amount of work facing us seems insurmountable.
But this year we have one last beautiful morning, clean and white and filled with warmth and the spring sounds of birds.
The lovely thing is the sound of the birds. Foolish things that they are, they simply continue with their spring songs even though it looks like winter to me.
I am a bird lover and no time is better to listen to them then in the early spring when they are out there looking for their mates. They sing and sing continually and I sometimes am in awe that a lot of people don't notice.
I mean really! The red winged blackbirds arrive each spring and I have a contest with a friend about who hears them first. (we actually get nervous when we hear them....the winter is over and we will be crazy busy until December) They were here this year on March 12th and now are in full voice up in the trees. Hundreds of them!
How can you not notice? It is deafening once you let yourself listen.

This is a good time to think about how you plant your yards and properties to enable you to protect and provide nesting places and food for all the migrations that pass through and all the birds that stay and help keep our insects in check and spread seeds and for heavens sake.....fill our outdoors with music. You can still see the 'bones' of your gardens and plan for what you need and what you missed this winter. Shrubs like red twigged dogwoods and willows and paper barked maples.

Enough....I am going to prepare for this evening's dusk performance of the American Woodcock! I love this bird! He flies up in the sky at dusk and does a dance to entice his mate and the sound is truly the sound of spring.
My favorite new website is http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Woodcock/sounds If you click on this you will hear the Woodcock and if you search the site you can learn to identify a lot of other songs.
Such fun.
Helene

Tom's of Maine Veggie Post

2011-03-17T09:32:00.003-04:00

Hello everyone,

I was lucky enough to be invited to post on the Tom's of Maine blog recently, and i wanted to share with you what i submitted. As you know Tom's prides itself on being a environmentally conscious company, and, since it was founded in Maine, is somewhat of a standard for small businesses like Blackrock. It was an honor to guest post on their blog.

They asked me to write a post on spring startup of our vegetable gardens, and with help from the staff here, I produced the following little advice column. Naturally, there's much more to talk about, but questions and comments are what this blog is all about, so feel free to contact Blackrock for more answers and discussion.

Here it is:

Vegetable Preparations at Blackrock Farm

The skating rink that was once the driveway to the greenhouses at
Blackrock Farm has largely melted away, we’ve set the clocks forward
and we are beginning to prepare for spring in earnest. Every time I
walk into the office Kevin (our vegetable guy) and Helene (the owner)
are discussing types of radishes, planning space usage of the fields,
discussing crop rotations or hammering out any other of the myriad of
things that need to be figured before the frost leaves the ground.
With the advent of the third greenhouse being used for winter
vegetable growing there are calls to restaurants to be made, community
supported agriculture programs to discuss and, in our freer moments,
summer barbeque menus to plan.
However, all these grand plans must start small and, in a way, we
start the garden anew every year. While our experience grows with
each passing season there are aspects of the vegetable garden that we
must restart each year with the coming of spring, just like any
gardener starting a plot at home.
The first and perhaps most important step is the contacting of our
local cooperative extension for soil testing. After submitting a soil
sample and a short wait these scientists tell us everything we need to
know about the makeup of our soil, which give us a better
understanding of what soil amendments we need to add in order to start
the season with a strong foundation. Blackrock recommends that anyone
starting a vegetable garden submit their soil to be tested and remain
mindful of an organic approach to amending the space, as well as a
change in approach, if necessary, to pest management that excludes
chemicals.
The garden is then thoughtfully plotted, allowing for the rotation of
crops, which means somewhat new plan must be created each year.
Changing the location of your plants, even within a small garden plot,
is necessary because different plants supply and deplete different
nutrients, and attract different opportunistic insects. Rotating your
crops means keeping harmful bugs off balance and allowing the soil in
your garden to perform different tasks. For instance, the planting of
peas fixes nitrogen levels in soil; meanwhile, tomatoes are very heavy
feeders, so flip flopping the spaces you use for peas and tomatoes is
one of our most important rotations.
We select our seeds from reputable dealers like Johnny’s or Fedco, and
even now we have to read the packets to ensure a timely harvest. It
takes a lot of planning, but the results are well worth it. There is
a peace of mind that comes with knowing the vegetables you are eating
come to your table without pesticides, and I know I have gained a
healthy respect for just how much food can come from a small piece of
land with just a little bit of attention. But most of all, the
vegetables are far more delicious than any you can buy at the
supermarket, and because you just picked them, as fresh as can be.
For more answers to any questions you might have I would highly
recommend visiting a location near you that produces vegetables
organically and on a small scale. For instance, Blackrock Farm here
in Kennebunkport, Maine will be conducting several vegetable growing
seminars this year in an attempt to reach out to the local community
through shared learning.

escape

2011-03-01T11:39:00.001-05:00

It’s about this time of the season when I start to really get distracted with my daydreaming. Yesterday, as I stood next to Dee the horse protecting her from Grace, the freezing rain beginning to soak through my jacket and the mixture of melt and manure seeping through my boots my thoughts were on the first tee of Dutch Elm golf course. I’ve put my cigar down and am taking practice swings with The Big Dog, looking down the fairway and feeling the heat of the sun on my shoulders. My hands are cracked and sore from Friday’s work, stained with compost and stone dust over and over so that no amount of scrubbing gets them clean. The garish, somewhat ill-fitting polo I wear unbuttoned and with no undershirt. The triangle of white skin it reveals on my chest looks ridiculous.

Other times its Sunday evening, the farm has been closed for a few hours, and I’m walking in bare feet down through the shrubs and trees to check their water levels on my way to the rows of lettuce and herbs out in the main vegetable garden. Insects buzz in the air. You can see the beams of the setting sun in the dust that is kicked up by my father’s car as he drives up the driveway.

I’ve been thinking this way a lot these days, but I guess I’m happy to have these thoughts and memories to escape to when winter becomes too tiresome.

Reflections

2011-02-23T10:58:00.002-05:00

With March only a week a way, I become tantalized by the on again off again warm weather. Oh the warmth of our longer days! Such a beautiful time of the year. A time to reflect on the beauty of our town. During the summer I scurry back and forth through town negotiating the throngs of cars and pedestrians. Hardly a moment to take your eyes off the road. Now I find myself looking at the beauty of the river, tidal pools, wet lands even our four legged friends that find their way next to our homes munching on our favorite fruit tree! It is all so beautiful. For those of us that have the good fortune to be living here year round what a wonderful gift to wake up in such a pretty quiet world.

With spring now on our doorstep I am full of wonder…what will our spring be like? It can be a very challenging time for growers and gardeners. The news laments over the weather forecast everyday. It never sounds to me like it’s a good time because if it’s sunny today …wait tomorrow will be horrific. Huh? I ask myself as I walk out the door , can’t I just enjoy today?

Eileen

New Office

2011-02-22T15:22:00.003-05:00

We are now in the process of removing a wall and refinishing the upstairs guest bedroom into an office for Helene.

I didn't take any pictures of the upstairs before the removal of the wall, but i will be sure to post before and after pictures of the work as it progresses. So far we have knocked down two walls and removed one section of superfluous ceiling in order to create a more open, spacious area with which to build Helene's new office area. Hopefully she'll be able to pick out a color she likes and a laptop to use before we get into full spring overdrive mode.

I'm also responsible for getting these renovations done in time for her to get a desk and laptop in there. My hope is that this will will be finished in the next few weeks, but I've learned that things always seem to take longer than I think they will.

Check back for some images of the work, hopefully in the next couple of days.

Winter shapes

2011-02-20T14:31:00.000-05:00

There is probably no better time to think of sculpture than winter.
This is the time to look at the shape of the land, to see outcroppings of stone and look at the shapes of trees and evergreens, even to enjoy the shape of your poodle.

We are fortunate here at Blackrock to have some of Albert Raitt's beautiful stone sculptures. There is really no better time to look at them then now. The snow swirls around them and makes unusual shapes and the colors of the stone take on a purity that only winter can provide. These next photos and the photos of chairs that were inadvertently left out for the winter were taken Anne Boginski.

But not only are sculptures important. Some of our cheapest sculptures are the $39.95 shrubs and trees that we bought a few years ago or the fence that was put up to keep in the animals. The snow brings the shapes to life.

Spring-Like

2011-02-18T12:02:00.002-05:00

It's beautiful out there right now, and boy did we need it! The driveway here at the farm has been covered in ice for weeks now, which makes walking out to feed the horses or check on the greenhouses a dangerous trip. Now, with the temperature up around 50 degrees, the icy spots are very slick, but at least in some places the ground is beginning to show through.

I did the chores this morning without a jacket for the first time in months!

The sounds of running water are everywhere, and quietly listening to them along with the rhythmic chomp of the horses on their grain provides a feeling of spring, and a welcome relief from the deep freeze.

Sadly, i hear we're supposed to get more snow in the next few days, and the temperature is supposed to drop again, but as for now the doors to the greenhouses are wide open to keep the temperature down and the China Goose named Ike is patrolling the grounds as if spring were already here. His aggressive behavior and incessant honking are the only things spoiling this beautiful day.

enjoy it while it lasts, and get excited for spring.

Dog Show

2011-02-16T11:00:00.008-05:00

The Scottish Deerhound just won best in show at Westminster. Helene and Eileen obsessively watch the dog show every winter, insisting on stopping work on these two days to oo and ahh over canines. In fact, they even fled the office today for the quiet of Eileen's house to escape the constant barrage of phone calls and visitors we always seem to get. It's certainly a bizarre subculture, but when it's freezing cold outside it's a welcome change of pace to sit in front of the television and listen to that strange narrator inform you that certain dogs "champion fair play", whatever that means. This year it was almost a home-shopping type experience, as Eileen is in the market for a new dog.

Also, it was a year in which the poodle did not make it into the final group. Blackrock Farm is home to two standard poodles, Leo and Magdalena, and one miniature, Sebastien. However, these farm poodles are quite a bit different from the traditional show dogs of Westminster. Here's one now:

Anyway, in honor of the Scottish Deerhound Anne decided to create a greenhouse rendition of the breed. Due to space constraints and fog building on the camera lens in the ultra-humid greenhouse we were only able to provide you with a head on shot:

It's kinda hard to make out, but the magnifying glass is the snout, the rocks the eyes, and the fuzzy potted plant (Upright Club Moss) standing in for the Deerhound's scruffy face. The thin body is made from a wicker chair, and the fuzzy tail and hind legs by one of our many beautiful Upright Black Elephant Ear plants.

Yeah, it's a stretch, but winter at a nursery sometimes leaves us with a bit of free time.

A Poem

2011-02-14T10:40:00.003-05:00

This will be my first time posting under my own name on this blog, and despite our relative obscurity it is still intimidating to be posting my writing to the public. With this in mind, I suppose the best way to go would be to get the most embarrassing notion out of the way first. I am going to post a short poem i wrote several years ago; one that was inspired by this beautiful place and the times i spent here simply growing up and not working. Over time, and as my maturity level has grown, this place has become as much my job as my home, but I wanted to start off my writing on this site with a more pure, idealized, unclouded memory. I'm a poor excuse for a poet, but I hope everyone will hang with me, and that as I write more you will perhaps find a few words of mine to your liking.

A Walk to the Back Field's Bench

Fifty-five steps

In the misty morning,

Over the damp grass,

Barefooted through puddles

Whose mud seeps between my toes.

Across the piled rocks

Slippery from the dew,

Which is our bridge over

The small, slow moving stream.

The trees drip with water

As rain begins falling faster.

In huge drops it falls

The first few making

Their tapping sounds before

It becomes a constant hum

The last ten steps are on a path

Mowed in the fire-weed.

The cut stems stab my feet.

When I reach the bench I sit;

In the downpour, I check

To see if I am bleeding.

Time

2011-02-14T07:44:00.002-05:00

Time.
As you know time is a fleeting thing. I get so busy that I can't seem to find the time to do all the things that I know I should.
I am determined now to keep up our blog and I hope that you will have some renewed faith that I will and share it with some of you friends and please make comments or suggestions about what you want me to write about.
But time is essential when we are talking about starting seeds. They need to be started at the correct time. If we start them too late they won't make it here with our short growing season, start them too early and they get leggy and weak.
Now is the time to start quite a few and if you are doing that yourself we can help with a few ideas.

Japanese Beetle Parasite

2010-07-08T07:55:00.004-04:00

We really don't like Japanese beetles.
That is an understatement.
But there are a few that we should allow to live.
There is a fly called Tachinid fly. Each female fly can deposit up to 100 eggs over a fourteen day period. They deposit them on Japanese beetles. When the eggs hatch they cause the beetle to fall to the ground and borrow into it. The eggs eat the beetle and then the life cycle begins again as they hatch into flies and find new beetles.
Pesticide use stops this from happening. Killing ALL beetles stops this from happening. In Japan, where the beetle is from, they do not have the same problems as we do because they have a natural balance of the fly and the beetle.
And so my friends what to do?
Look carefully at your beetles and any that you see with white dots on them, ( usually on their backs) leave them alone. Let the flies do their thing and multiply.
Use nematodes on your lawn in the spring to help with grub control. Those grubs are baby beetles. The nematodes love to eat them.
Watch for those little white dots.

Planting time

2010-06-20T11:07:00.002-04:00

I have been remiss.
Planting time here at the farm is a wild time. 7 days a week and no let up. Everybody here, almost anyway, is putting in extra hours and working really hard to get everything done.
We do plant a lot of boxes and pots and containers and we like them all done by the Forth of July. We are almost finished.
This year seems different.
We have no excuse about rain days and lost work days. Still, we are not caught up. Not because of tons of huge jobs but because I think the weather and early spring has made it July in June and June in May. The weeds are spectacular! The gardens are requiring more maintainence, the trees more pruning and the plants more watering. We go to a garden and within a few days it really needs us again.
Even here at the farm, lettuce is going by faster, the weeds are already up in the potted plants that we sell, the perennials and shrubs. We are watering every day even if it rains. The heat just makes it harder to manage.
My crew is awesome. We have some new people and they are doing such a good job of learning and asking all the RIGHT questions. They are careful and personable and things get done because of the team work that goes on at Blackrock.
People keep asking if there will be anything left in bloom in August and I keep telling them to cut back everything and we will probably have a wonderful August filled with second blooms on perennials. Keep dead heading the annuals. They will continue to bloom so long as they never get to go to seed.

Guest blogger....Penny Marshall

2010-06-05T08:48:00.002-04:00

I asked Penny if she would write some things for the blog. Penny is a wonderful gardener, writer and friend.
She and I share many of the same interests. Add to my list an ever growing body of books on horses. There is never a need to 'find' something to do. We are busy.....busy. Even if we are sitting down our minds are sorting out garden matters or a host of other interests.
I loved reading her piece on Garden Passions and I think that you will too. Penny gardens in Biddeford Pool, Maine. She has a beautiful piece of property with views of a fresh water pond, loaded with waterlilies and then of the ocean beyond. Can you even imagine that? I will take some photos soon of her place to share with you.
Enjoy.

Periods of Garden Passions by Penny Marshall

2010-06-05T08:23:00.004-04:00

Picasso had a blue period but, not being too up on affaires d’art, I don’t know if he had other ones. As an extremely multifaceted and old individual (meaning lots of consuming interests but no single all-encompassing passion or talent over four score years) I have had many periods in many fields, often being deeply immersed in two at once, or, occasionally in productive, or just as likely, spread thin spells, in even three. With me, just because I’m not still deeply embedded in my “rhodie” period for instance, doesn’t mean I don’t have a good dirty-sneaker-clad foot in it, signifying ongoing curiosity and interest, and an ever-present book buying urge toward it. As someone said to me (somewhat scathingly I thought, c. thirty years ago) “My God, Penny, must you try to specialize in everything AT ONCE?” to which the answer appears to be, yes.

So at the moment I’m deep in an Amelia Peabody mystery period, a health conscious less-meat-is-more one, and I may be moving out of my big-time Trees period into a mixed Trees and stones-in-the-garden one. At the moment, my garden bears the traces of (I think) every one of my garden periods except the first - Sweet peas – one, and now that I think of it, that’s no good at all and must be remedied. Let’s hope Blackrock can help and if they can’t why, I ask you, NOT!/?

My sweet pea period began at c. age 5 when my mother, at my importunate, probably loud, begging, bought me a bunch of those intoxicatingly scented, deliciously colored glories at a Saturday morning Mennonite Farm Market in Hagerstown, MD, c. 1932. It wasn’t until 1937 when I was ten that I was able to plant my own bed of sweet peas, a thoroughly wasted endeavor as the garden plot assigned me by my hogging-the-best-places-for-gardens mother was in the very shady, three dog populated, fenced in dog yard in Fairmont, WV. Nothing even tried to grow or maybe the dogs “watered” them for me.

For my own and possibly Helene’s amusement (and maybe even yours) I’m going to list my garden periods in as close as I can come to the order in which they dawned. I enjoy looking back at my life almost as well as getting on with it, and garden periods (during a definable “period” the main garden budget, book buying/reading, curiosity, plant buying, seeking, learning and planting is focused on the named species) serve as handy pegs for happy memories as well as frustrating ones.

So, sweet peas. (Big skip while I grew up, passed through my sweetheart roses on the bosom and orchids on the wrist social life, and got a garden where I called the shots.) Then roses, peonies, iris, azaleas (hybrid and species), bulbs, woodland wildflowers, groundcovers, rhododendrons, ilex, magnolias, epimedium. Side skip to increasing emphasis on Maine garden as I moved from suburban NY. Then onward with rock gardening, hosta, old roses, coral bells, columbine and geranium (bundled together), lilacs, magnolias – again ( different garden), hydrangeas, variegated/colored foliage, alpines/troughs, shade plants, trees (especially Japanese maples), and (all blended in one and slowly coming up on the outside) stones, ferns, mosses.

Comment. Having a tree period after years of planting things and while enjoying soul satisfying ocean and (separate) pond views you wish to retain is Very Difficult. Think about it!

There is also a part of me that wonders if maturity, both of self and gardening talents, is necessary before moving “up” to trees or do some people come to trees earlier, possibly even start there? A suspicious but canny inner self wonders if it took a larger budget or more assurance that after all those years of growing smaller things I could succeed even with these important and expensive “biggies” that allowed me to move on to trees. Who knows? And, it turns out I don’t really care – I just enjoy speculating about things. Today’s biggest wonder - could I make a success of moss gardening? I’ve suddenly huge healthy patches all over the place, none planted, none planned, all unknown. But beautiful, velvety and (courtesy of changes in climate) thriving and, yes, even invading. Guess who needs a book on mosses to study!

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OPEN HOUSE TODAY...SATURDAY

2010-05-22T07:55:00.002-04:00

Come and visit....looks like a nice day.

Stanley's Pond and Guss's Apple Tree

2010-05-18T07:49:00.003-04:00

This old tree only blooms every other year. It is always a surprise when it does. Sometimes I think it even skips two years.

It's a special tree here at the farm and we love it with the new pond. Stanley would approve.

Don't Forget the Open House Next Weekend!!!!

2010-05-17T07:56:00.003-04:00

Blackrock Farm

293 Goose Rocks Road

Kennebunkport, Maine 04046

207 967-5783

We are one mile inland from the Clock Farm and Route 9.

www.blackrockfarm.net

Spring Celebration Open House

Saturday, May 22, 2010

10-4

Offering classic and innovative landscape design, installation, and maintenance.

Specializing in select annuals and perennials, trees and shrubs, terra cotta pots and garden ornaments.

We invite you to visit our display gardens, stone walls and sculpture, organic vegetable garden and greenhouses.

Penny's True Garden Poem

2010-05-17T07:30:00.003-04:00

My dear friend,Penny Marshall, has written this poem and I know this to be true. Especially at a nursery where tags are so important. My poodles take the tags as well. Gilly is a poodle too. I thought that I would share this with you. Thank you, Penny.

By the way, the picture is NOT of Penny's rather well groomed poodle, Gilly, but of my old Augustus who loved to steal the tags right out of the pots. I have many mystery hostas and daylilies and shrubs, thanks to Augustus.

Penny's Silly but True Poem

As a gardener I’m s’posed to know

The place and name of all I grow

But greed o’ertakes me when I shop

And planting tires me, so I drop

Onto the bed, my wine at hand

And fail to map out as I planned

The earthy home of each new treasure -

(Despite the pains I took to measure

How far they sat from last year’s wonder

Or how many inches of soil they’re under.)

But once they’re labeled I needn’t worry

Or, so I think, till I see Gilly scurry

Happily by me, bent metal in jaw –

Oh, drat that dog, she’s a garden outlaw

Removing my guideposts one by one

(Ears swinging, tail wagging, she’s having fun!)

But I’m left to wonder till end of the season

What I planted where and was there a reason?

Creature comfort

2010-05-15T08:18:00.003-04:00

At least the rhubarb didn't get hurt.

Rabbit Hill Primitives sent me a comment about the frost and so of course I snooped about and found her web site and spent a lovely 5 minutes or so watching the utube Creature Comforts video on gardening that she has on her blog. She also makes really wonderful cloth primitive 'things'. I didn't know about the Creature comfort videos. You all might have seen them a hundred times.
It was fun.....check it out. And thank you, Jenn. I love hearing from other gardeners.

http://rabbithillprimitives.blogspot.com/2010/05/creature-comforts-garden.html

It made me laugh.

The late spring frost

2010-05-13T07:25:00.004-04:00

Ain't fittin, ain't fittin, just ain't fittin!!!

I have been growing here at Blackrock for around thirty years. That's a pretty long time I think.
I have NEVER seen damage like the frost on Monday night did to our plants.
It did not just do damage to the things that we have gotten in at the farm to sell but to trees and perennials that are in the ground!
We knew enough to cover all the new stuff. Plants that might have come from a warmer climate, like our beautiful Japanese Maples, we covered with huge pieces of plastic. The few perennials that we got in that we weren't sure of, we covered. But the things that had been out all winter we did not. How could we? No way that we can cover the whole farm!
We covered all the topiary that was too big to carry back into the already stuffed greenhouses. But plants that had been outside all winter and things that were in the gardens we left alone.

And so....the two Cladestris (yellow wood) that I carefully planted to create shade where the old Elm that we had to take down because of Dutch Elm disease was, had just leafed out. Their leaves are totally shriveled and gone. All the Magnolias that had sent out there new leaves are a mess. The ferns and hostas that were coming up in the gardens are wilted and brown.
Ferns....dead? These are ferns that had been in the garden for years.
I really can't tell you if they will come back. I have never cut back a fern in spring.
The only thing that I can say if that we will learn from this. I think that it is just that the plants had not hardened off yet in a natural way. No frosts for over a month and they all just came out and never got strong. It will be interesting to see what flushes out again and what can't quite manage. We will feed gently with compost and prune and hope for the best.
I knew that I was nervous about this spring. Easter with it's hot weather and dry winds held a bit of fear for me. I like it when things are normal. I don't like an early spring, or a really open winter with no snow or a rainy, rainy, summer. I am more content when it is 5 degrees in February like it should be and April is rainy and cold and May has it's cold nights and warm days.
I don't like to be tricked.
Apparently, neither do the plants.

Blackrock Farm Open House May 22, 2010

2010-04-18T07:11:00.005-04:00

Every year on the weekend before Memorial Day, when the farm is as full of plants as it will ever be, we host an Open House. We send out announcements, work like mad people making the farm beautiful and make some yummy food. Gardeners from all over come and visit. It has become an event that many people come for every year and one that we truly enjoy here at the farm.

Please come and visit. It is a time when new gardeners can rub elbows with experienced ones and the choicest of our plant matter is all here.

We think that you will be surprised at our fabulous vegetable garden and new vegetable greenhouse. Our selection of organic vegetable seedlings are, I think, unsurpassed and all the other trees, shrubs, interesting annuals and perennials will be at their best.

If you have never received an invitation from us, go to the web site, www.blackrockfarm.net , and add your name to our list. We have been sending out postcards for years and some people say that they frame them and some say that they still have the first on that we ever did on their refrigerator.

It is a fun day.

Snow in Buxton.....new filly

2010-04-17T11:08:00.004-04:00

My friend Jenny sent me this photo this morning....85 degrees one day and 20something the next....
Poor little mini filly, a few days old, was cold so Jenny had to get the scissors out and make a little blanket....

Stanley's Pond

2010-04-16T07:04:00.013-04:00

It is time to talk about a birth. The announcement is a little late but I want to talk a little about it anyway.
Last year, with a little help from Maine's Department of Agriculture, we dug a beautiful pond here at the farm. The water from our well had a tendency to get 'salty' right around August when we really needed it the most. Our shrubs in pots, that looked so wonderful in July, would suddenly look like heck even though we knew that our water had tested fine in May. Finally, we smartened up and tested it in August. Sure enough, way too salty and we now know that it fluctuates from month to month.
And so....not this winter but the winter before, we began to dig an irrigation pond.
This was the most amazing landscape project that I have ever taken on. Never mind the imensity of the project but the placement and effect on the landscape did things that you could never possibly anticipate.

First of all, we asked Mark Welch to help us. We had cleared the brush and trees and knew pretty well what the shape would be but when you do a project this big you have to trust the people who know what they are doing. I can't say enough good things about Mark and his sons and crew. This was a wild project! They were patient and competant.
You would think that as a landscaper I would be more relaxed about this whole thing but the opposite was true. What if it looked like it didn't belong? What if the dam didn't work? What if I hated connecting the front fields with their greenhouses and cars to the back field which had always been a peaceful haven? What about the dogs and ice? What about snapping turtles? I think that is what I mean by a birth. All that work to make this pond, all the fears and trepidations, all the worry about the unknown and then......
I will let the pictures tell the story.

First, we had to construct a dam to hold the water and a pump to pump out the ever growing water that was seeping into the pond. This was pretty wild in itself. Rains melted all the snow and a couple of times we really worried about the pumps keeping up with the massive amounts of water. Still, it worked.

You can see that we had to dig down 10 feet to hit clay. The clay was beautiful marine clay that was necessary to hold water. Our sandy soil was excavated and brought to someplace in a near by town and the clay was dug into and spread on the sides of the pond like a huge bowl to hold the water.
It was amazing to watch this process. One huge machine would scoop up the clay and another would grab that and smear it on the side of the pond wall.

Having this pond is like having a living breathing thing. It is already attracting wildlife and new plants. It has affected the light on the farm and the way that the wind blows. It smells and sounds different here at the farm. The ocean noises are closer and the the diamonds that sparkle on it when the sun hits it just right are gifts for all to see.

Happy Easter

2010-04-04T15:11:00.001-04:00

80 degrees here in Kennebunkport.....have a lovely day!

Things are starting to bloom at Blackrock

2010-04-04T07:28:00.008-04:00

I promised that I wouldn't miss spring this year. I am trying to pay attention to every detail. Still, I am looking outside this morning and the grass has gotten green in 2 days. I mean that brilliant spring green that makes you think that it is warm out there even if that isn't quite true.
Although you can drive along at 40 mph and see spring happening; the green grass, the haze of buds on the trees, early spring is a time to concentrate on small things.

The earliest of plants are tiny. Snowdrops, (Galanthus) if you are lucky enough to have them, take a while to establish and the flowers that are so unique are tiny and to really see them you have to either pick them and bring them up to eye level or get down on your hands and knees and look closely at them. There are people out there, Galianthus nuts, who collect all the different little markings on them. They are unique and fleeting but there are hundreds of cultivars and each one is so welcome at this time of year.

Crocuses are still one of my favorites. I stopped planting the white ones in lawns because I think that they look like pieces of tissue on the lawn but the yellows and purples and blues can be all thrown together or grouped according to color. They are so brief and so wonderful to have that 'tasteful' groupings are to me not an issue. I plant the white ones up close to the house in little corners where they can be clearly seen for what they are, not pieces of paper on the not quite raked spring lawn but beautiful little flowers.

My Hamamalis has been in bloom now for almost a month. I have two that are blooming now, Arnold's Promise and Diane The flowers on this shrub are no where near as interesting from a far. But when you cut a branch for the house or get up close to it in the garden it is so fragrant and elegant. I think that it is underused in the garden and one of the honey bee's favorite early sources of food. When nothing else is in bloom it is a star and later on the horizontal shape of this shrub is pleasing in the understory, up against the woods or in those hard to plant places that you would like put some shrubs with flowers that fit in with a more formal planting.

I can't forget the Magnolia. My little Star Magnolia (Magnolia stellata) is getting ready to open. The buds are to me just as beautiful as the flowers. The other magnolias here at the farm are not as far along as the star. Late spring frosts can damage the flowers of these trees but that is no reason not to plant them. I also have heard of people who don't like them because if they are truly successful they make a huge mess when they drop their blossoms. What? A pile of pink or white or yellow on the green grass is ugly? It is a small price to rake a bit for that unbelievable display so early in the spring.

And of course Forsythia. This is a hard shrub to place in the landscape. The next time you drive by a MacDonalds or Walmart's you will undoubtedly see the wrong way to plant them. If you have the space and can let this shrub go and arch it's branches as they should be allowed to do and NOT place it next to a PJ purple Azalea, and if you realize that the bright yellow color is going to last a bit in the landscape, and realize too that your Forsythia is going to bloom right along with and complete aggressively with that wonderful Magnolia that you have been waiting for,then..... plant it please. It is the most wonderful spring color and you will have the added benefit of not having to stop on the highway or in other people's yards to steal branches to force in the wintertime.

Psychopsis ....The butterfly orchid

2010-03-13T07:39:00.003-05:00

When I was doing wedding flowers, I would be at the Boston Flower Market and occasionally a man from New Hampshire would arrive with a box of orchids for sale. They were not the typical orchids that most florists used for corsages, but an assortment of flowers that looked just like bugs! I could not believe them!
They were amazing and still are one of my favorite ones to grow.
This orchid sends out a long stem, about 2 1/2 feet long, and on the end of that is this amazing butterfly.
I mean really, tell me that doesn't look just like a butterfly!
This one is called Psychopsis mendenhall'Hildos'

Portland Flower Show

2010-03-11T08:11:00.002-05:00

Just a reminder that Blackrock will be doing a lecture at the Portland Flower Show on Vegetables. It's at 4:30.
Hope to see you there.

Red Winged Blackbirds

2010-03-09T07:45:00.002-05:00

Sunday, March 7th, the red winged blackbirds returned.

This has significance.

There is a big tree that hangs over our stream and suddenly, as if they have never left, there they are. Usually around fifty of them, up there singing their little heads off. At first, I don't even notice and then all of a sudden it hits me. I look up, dazed, and a little disappointed. The slower pace of winter is over. I look down at my hands. Clean.

Not for long.

They're back! The red winged blackbirds.

It means..........IT'S STARTING!

Spring. The busiest time of the year on a farm. The craziness that I call my life is about to begin.

There are plenty of signs that it is about to happen.

The horses are shedding like mad, the eggs are rolling out the hen house, the days are long, the plants are really growing, and pretty soon we will be out straight.

But it's those darn Red Winged Blackbirds that give the wake up call........

We're off!

Portland Flower Show

2010-03-08T08:07:00.003-05:00

This Thursday, March 11th, 4:30 to 5:30 I will be speaking at the Portland, Maine flower show.
The lecture will be on Vegetable Gardening and should be a lot of fun. I always like to do these talks and especially on vegetables.

It's a subject near and dear to me especially in these times when we are all trying to save a little money.
But not only that.
I am constantly amazed that people don't grow at least some lettuce and tomatoes and a few cucumbers! Not only for themselves but so that their kids can see how it is to grow things, and maybe have a little appreciation of what food should taste like. Can you imagine basing whether or not you like peas from frozen ones? There is nothing like a pea off the vine! And don't even start me on tomatoes.
So for those of you interested, we will be at the show on Thursday and probably have a few workshops here at the farm as well a little later in the spring. Come and join us.

Ray Hunt Memorial in Fort Worth, Texas

2010-03-05T19:00:00.009-05:00

This last week I went to Fort Worth, Texas to honor Ray Hunt at the Ray Hunt Memorial. Ray Hunt, for those of you who don't know a thing about horses, was the master of the type of horsemanship that they tried to depict in the movie, The Horse Whisperer, with Robert Redford. There isn't a single worth while 'natural horsemanship' clinician in the world who wouldn't give Ray Hunt and his mentors Tom and Bill Dorrance credit for their teachings about horses. Ray Hunt and Caroline Hunt, his wife, did what Tom and Bill Dorrance didn't feel comfortable doing.

They shook the world of horsemanship.

He died last year.

For those of you who know something about horses, you probably already know who Ray Hunt is. If you don't know who he is and you have horses, you have missed the best. Look him up on the Internet. I'm so sorry that you missed him. This link tells a little about what he did.

http://www.mikethomashorsemen.com/uncommon-horse-sense/back-at-the-beginning-with-ray-hunt

The first time that I ever saw Ray Hunt was in Pennsylvania years ago. He would sit on his horse and talk to us. The other horses that were loose in the arena would just want to be with him. It was like they needed to be touched by him. Sometimes he would wave them away but sometimes he would reach his hand out and just invite them to be scratched. There is not enough room on this blog to talk about him so that those of you who don't know about him would understand. He is very missed and the people who were at the memorial, from all over the world, both spectators and clinicians, are trying hard to follow what he made look so easy and what is so hard to master.

Twenty people drew twenty horses out of a hat and had 45 minutes on one day and 45 minutes on the next day to get their horses halter broken and saddled and ridden. These horses were 2 year olds who were brought right in from the range, hadn't been handled at all and were just as wild as an untouched horse can be.
This was not a competition. They were asked to think of Ray while they worked with their colts and have him sort of on their shoulder as they worked through the problems with each colt.
All these horsepeople tried to implement the teachings of Ray Hunt in their approaches. It was a wonderful thing to see.

By the end of the second day, all the horses were being ridden together. These cowboys had ropes flying around and people laughing and the colts looked for all the world like they were content with what was going on. It was a really nice thing to see.

I was lucky enough to travel with five women , including Terry McClare, who carries on Ray's practices here in Maine and has helped me out with my horse, Grace. She is a extraordinary horsewoman who helps people with their horses. She lives in Brownfield, Maine. All these women were so much fun to be with and so serious about their horses that it was a pleasure....and a blast!

To say that it was a wonderful and memorable weekend is an understatement. It was sad and hopeful and emotional. It was a once in a lifetime chance to see some of the best horsepeople in the world. Buck Brannaman and Buster McClaury and Martin Black to name just a few.

Although most of what you will find on this blog will be about plants and landscapes, I can't let you forget that the whole reason for me to be here in the first place has to do with the horse.
My heartfelt thanks to Ray and Caroline Hunt for making my horse's lives better.

Victoria Magazine

2010-03-05T18:16:00.002-05:00

Well.....I have to tell you that I love the magazine article. We have had things done before about the farm but I really think that Victoria and Emelie Tolley did such a nice job.
Thank you to them both and go get the magazine. It's so much different than the web site. Really pretty.

Victoria Magazine

2010-02-21T14:49:00.002-05:00

For those of you who still love to read magazines, we are in Victoria Magazine this month. ( http://www.victoriamag.com/ )
Emilie Tolley, who wrote the beautiful book, Herbs by Emelie Tolley and Chris Mead wrote a nice article for the magazine and the photographers came out here to the farm last summer to photograph.
Always fun to have that kind of notoriety.
Thank you so much Emelie and Victoria.
I must say though that we had hoped that our new website would be up and of course it is not yet....should be in a few weeks but I wish that it was ready now.
People are emailing me through the old web site and it would be nice if they could see the new one.
Hmmmmm....
Just too many things to do here on the farm in the winter.
So many people ask us what we do all winter. We never stop. So much to take care of in the 'off' season.
Off season just means that we spend money and don't make any...that's all. We still work pretty much as hard as in the summer.
Anyway, please go buy a Victoria and look at the article.

Hibiscus schizopetalus

2010-02-17T08:02:00.002-05:00

This is a hibiscus. If you really look at it you can tell that it is but it's not like the common ones that we usually have. It is not a really prolific bloomer either but it's so beautiful that we wait for the blooms and spend a lot of time moving it around the greenhouse from place to place so that we can look at it. Pretty special I think.

2010-02-10T18:39:00.003-05:00

I am looking out at my landscape, IN Maine, with very little snow. This while the Washington DC area and the whole mid Atlantic coast is being pummeled by the white stuff.
Wow. Usually my friend Lynn, who moved to Virginia 12 years or so ago, is calling me up and taunting me about her good weather. Not this year. I think that she is about to get even more snow down there. She has lost the top of her beautiful magnolia and is apparently out there at all hours of the day and night, like a mad woman, with a broom, knocking the snow off the branches of her surprised shrubs. Now, Lynn is a very funny woman and the picture that I conjure up in my head has me just laughing.
Do you have a friend who you can talk endlessly to about the passions in your life? I can't think of a greater gift. Lynn worked here on the farm for years. Mostly when her son was very little. Now he's 25. So there is some history here.
But she and I have been talking plant trash for all these years. I always know that I can call her and yak about conifers or shrubs or trees. You name it. We talk about other things as well but the plant conversations....well,we can spend hours on the phone just talking about things that grow.
We sit with books on our laps.... talking. Looking things up that one of us hasn't heard about, comparing notes and making comments like, "I ripped all those out last year....just couldn't stand them anymore!" and tips like...."Just get the 'saws all', that's how I've started dividing grasses"
And so...this day when the February temperature is around 37 and things are looking spring like (although don't think for one minute that I believe that)I really think that you should move back to Maine, Lynn. Where we don't get nearly the storms that you get in Virginia. And even if we do, we have snowplows.

Orchids

2010-02-06T11:44:00.003-05:00

I am crazy for orchids. I am collecting like mad and loving every bit of it.
I thought that I would share one of the ones called Laelia albida that bloomed this week. It's just wonderful.

Winter gardens

2010-02-04T07:50:00.007-05:00

From where I sit right now, I can look outside at the greenhouse and the nursery part of the farm.
I don't mind the stark qualities of winter.
This is the time to evaluate the 'bones' of a garden. This is when in large landscapes you can see the shape of the land, look far into the woods and sometimes see hints of the stream or the marsh or the ocean. It is a time forgotten by many people when they landscape. I drove by a house the other day that had covered up all the bushes near the house with boxes and burlap. I just can't do that. I simply want to enjoy what I look at all year not just for a few months.

Now, occasionally I will cover a tree or shrub for it's first winter just so that it gets established but I really think that you should be planting things that 'can make it' up here. Yes, we will always push the envelope a bit, a Japanese maple here and there or a magnolia that might not be quite hardy in our zone but the majority of plants should be planted so that they will look beautiful against the snow or with ice hanging off their branches. They should provide some structure in the garden that lasts all year and sort of boxes in the messiness of summer opulence.

This is the time for birches and red twigged dogwood and willows. The colors of their branches range from yellows to bright reds, sometimes on the same tree. I remember Michael Dirr, the guru of tree and shrub lovers, showing a slide at one of his lectures that I went to. It was a Winter Flame dogwood, next to a rock, next to a pond in the snow. That did it for me. I have been dropping them into landscapes ever since. It nearly took my breath away.

This is when the papery bark of Acer Grisium, the paperbark maple, just sends you right over the edge, especially if it is planted with the low winter sun back lighting the branches. Microbiata, a low growing shrub that looks similar to juniper but is softer and lacier has beautiful red winter foliage that is the perfect under planting for the paperbark. The colors play off one another and make the land seem warmer.
This is when that Chamaecyparis 'Repens' you planted next to a boulder or nice rock shows up poking through the snow a bit and nestling the rock into the land.
But here also is the time when you see your mistakes and think about back hoes and moving trees and giggle as you buy a 14 inch conifer that will not reach mature height for 15 years.
Oh well, that is for another post.

If you don't like the weather......

2010-01-29T18:47:00.002-05:00

And so much for warmth....awful out there....horrible winds and 5 degrees.

Night feeding

2010-01-28T18:17:00.004-05:00

It is amazingly beautiful out there tonight.
I love to feed in the dark. I have three horses who live outside in a run in shed. They have the freedom to come in and out at will. They are furry and delighted to see me at feeding time in the winter. I whistle and they greet me in the darkness with soft grunts and fluttering nostrils...occasionally neighing to make me hurry. A childhood dream, I'm still amazed that they live here with me.
Sometimes when the days are really short I have to 'feel around' in the dark to find their food tubs. I can hear them and feel their closeness but I can't see them at all. Sometimes I catch a glimpse of my Paint's white markings but sometimes it's too dark even for that. Not the smartest thing I suppose but I know them so well and they know the routine so well that I don't worry.
I just stand there and listen to them eating and smell the smells of horses and grain and fresh hay.
Tonight the moon is huge and it's warm for January. A little snow has made the pastures much less icy for their feet and mine. It's like daylight out there with long shadows. I can hear the ocean and hear them eating and I feel like I can stay with them for a while.
I do.
Then I take a lovely walk around the pond and look back at the house all lit up and warm.
A gift in January.

Winter Contrasts

2010-01-27T11:52:00.003-05:00

Winter is not an easy time of year in New England. Other than the temporary beauty of newly fallen snow it is a hard time, and while we try to capture this beauty in photographs here at The Farm it seems worth mentioning the opposite side of the coin when it comes to our off-season. A look out the door of the house shows a sparse and hard view of the nursery. It is cold and windy, the rain of a few nights ago having washed off a lot of the snow, but leaving the reminder of more snowfall to come. Things are overturned, covered and muted.

Our oldest greenhouse (recently renovated with radiant heat and new walls) is a welcome retreat from the cold in these winter months. Its so green, humid and hot inside it not only feels like another season but another continent entirely, one much closer to the equator. Depending on who's inside you'll hear anything from country to classical to books on tape. Water drips from the supports, adding to the sweat you'll probably start to accumulate the minute you walk inside in your winter coat.
Everyone should be so lucky as to have a place this hot, green, peaceful and beautiful to remind them of spring and summer to come, but for those of you far from a public greenhouse: enjoy

Textures

2010-01-26T14:45:00.000-05:00

One of our favorite aspects of the array of plants in our greenhouse are the textures of their foliage.

The beautiful subtlety of the plants in our greenhouses becomes more intense the closer one looks.

Click on any of these images for an even closer look at what so many people never have the chance or never take the time to examine.

A Story To Tell

2010-01-20T08:18:00.001-05:00

My father used to hang onto the straps in the subways of New York. He commuted most days of his life on the Long Island Railroad and then the subways to Wall Street. I know how it was because I did the same thing for a while as well. Above our heads, on banners, were ads for cigarettes, mouthwashes, whatever.Very often they used some bucolic scene with distant snow covered mountains and fresh clean pine woods on pristine glistening lakes. Far from the smells and sounds of a New York subway, it gave him peace in his mind for a little while. He told me that he would pretend to be in a boat in that lake, or sitting on a rock looking out at the mountains. I, of course, pretended to be riding the horse in the cigarette ads.

I don't take for granted one minute of living where I do. It is because of my family that I came to love Maine. It is because of my father, with his love of nature and my mother, with her love of gardening.
When I first saw this farm, I was desperate to live here and take care of it. I rented it for very little money from a man who was thinking of burning it down as a firefighter exercise. I begged him not to do that and he finally agreed. I always remember him asking me, "How much courage do you have?'

We needed a lot. Through the years we have replaced almost every part of this house. The field grew right up to the door, there was no heat, no water, broken windows, falling down porches and ......I loved it. We were lucky enough to buy this farm about 11 years ago. Shortly after that we opened the nursery here at Blackrock.

This farm has a story to tell. I hope that you will follow along a bit through this blog. Maybe find a little time during your commute to take part in the life of a farm. Come and visit when you have time and inclination and just close your eyes and breath in the ocean air and wonderful smells of a Maine Farm.