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Tom Atwell's blog

Falling in

My outdoor work has not involved much in the way of plants, lately.

Harvesting and clearing

We have been working – except for a week in Arizona – on clearing out our garden before the really cold weather gets here.

winding down

The vegetable garden is close to over.

Fantastic fall

Despite all the rain in late spring and early summer, the gardens are parched now.

Heleniums' heyday

This is the season when Nancy and I do a lot of digging and dividing and otherwise doing large improvements on gardens.

Seranade of sedums

Nancy and I were sitting around over the Labor Day weekend, drinking some red wine while grilling some burgers – served with potatoes and summer squash from the garden – and Nancy said

Not to gloat

I almost hate to report this – because it might seem egotistical and could cause our luck to turn – but our vegetable garden is beginning to produce tomatoes.

Breaking down

I broke down and watered the vegetable garden today.

Producing produce

We got our first red tomatoes over the weekend.

busy weekend

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

Tom Atwell has written the Maine Gardener column in the Maine Sunday Telegram since the spring of 2004. He has worked at the Press Herald/Sunday Telegram since 1974, about the same time he started gardening with any seriousness.

He gardens with his wife, Nancy. She not only is the better gardener of the pair, but also knows the botanical names of plants. They have two grown children and three grandchildren.

Tom was born in Skowhegan, grew up in Farmington and graduated from the University of Maine with a BA in journalism. His goal each year is to have continuous compost from his three compost bins, continuous bloom in his low-maintenance garden and more fruits and vegetables on his family table than the garden pests eat in the field.

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