busy weekend

A dry and busy weekend, with a lot of the time spent with the two South Portland granddaughters visiting.

So busy and so tiring that I did not watch the Red Sox at all, and listened on the radio only occasionally while driving or working in the garden, which was a good thing. Much of the driving was with 13-year-old granddaughter Brighid (new spelling, preferred by her, and I am complying) and we listened to WJBQ instead of sports. As I said, a good thing

Saturday afternoon Maeve and I picked our first carrots of the season. As an experiment, in the spring I had dug out a 6-inch-deep trench, getting rid of all the stones, put in a lot of compost from our bins scattered carrot seed with now rows in the hopes of straight rather than rock-deformed carrots. That worked. We picked about a quarter of the crop, had enough for five larger servings. Now that I know the method works, I will plant more next year

Nine-year-old Maeve – more of a gardener than Brighid – also helped me pick raspberries, which are slowing down. But we have picked about 25 pints, frozen a lot of them, and will get some more over the next couple of weeks. But the big rush of busy picking is over.

I always accidentally leave behind potatoes during the potatoe harvest. That results in volunteer potato plants growing through the garden. I let them grow, figuring those are our early-season new potatoes. About a week ago I started digging up the volunteer potato plants, and finished the task Sunday. We got about a 5 gallon pail of potatoes overall, have eaten and given away a lot of them.

Nancy and I visited most of the Cape Eizabeth sites of the Locavore tour Saturday morning. It was an interesting trip, seeeing some places in Cape Elizabeth I had not seen before. And it is always interesting to look at different gardening styles. I had a wedding in Biddeford to go to with Brighid and Maeve at 2 p.m., so we rushed – skipping the Sullivan garden and Wm. Jordan Farm, which we have seen many times and the Gull Crest Community Garden, which I have seen several times. But it was great to see how other people grow leeks, or tomatoes or just about anything. And the views were wonderful. I declare the Locavore Tour a success.

And I also declare my weekend a success. It is so nice not to have the rain to deal with.

Sunday's column was one of my personal favorites of the year, on esplanade gardens.