Spring Comes Slowly

Spring comes slowly in Maine. As I take my son to preschool, we drive along a bit of ridge that goes by Sennebec Lake. This gives us a panoramic view of the hills and fields and, if I look over the treetops, I can watch the color change almost daily. It's like someone has taken a paintbrush and, ever so gently, tipped the tree branches with color.

The Swamp Maple are usually the first to show color with their branch tips then flowers hinting of a burgundy color against the sky. The next are the Popple perhaps as much as a month later with a flourish of iridescent lime on their tree tops closely followed by the rest of the Maples with more burgundy. One or two of the trees together would be hardly noticeable but acres of trees together on a hillside create a spring patchwork of color.

Mother's Day comes next weekend. An event we, in the midcoast region relish not for celebrating mom, but for the official arrival of the blackfly season. According to Wikipedia, there are over 1800 different species of blackfly and I'm willing to bet we have most of them here. Many of the blackfly species rely on blood as do mosquitos. Blackflies being smaller and sneakier than mosquitos are harder to squash; they are often gone when you feel their bite. So, the semi-enjoyable tradeoff of being bitten and splattering their little blood-filled bodies against your extremeties just isn't there.

The people that blackflies are attracted to often fall into two categories; those that are bothered and those that react. I am a member of the former. While the little buggers often annoy me by occasionally biting, they pose more of a nuisance by flying up my nose or into my eyes. My 6 year old daughter, poor kid, is a member of the latter. They come looking for her in droves, bite her everywhere and she reacts to their bites. These bites end up looking like chicken pox as the bites swell into welts and make her itch like crazy for over a week. We easily go through a bottle of calamine lotion for her each spring. They say you build a tolerance to their bites and for her sake I certainly hope so.

As spring progresses, so does the migration of the birds. The first noticeable spring visitors are the red-wing blackbirds. A few arrive early, followed by the hoards that sit in tree tops noisily chattering to each other. The robins trickle in slowly as do the blue jays. As I work out in our forest, I can follow the migration of spring by listening to the increasing diversity of their songs. Each spring, I am treated to visits by a mating pair of cardinals. I'm also acutely aware of the woodpeckers that bounce from tree to tree. We are lucky enough to have a pair of pileated woodpeckers that I hear and even see from time to time. The most annoying winged songsters by far are the killdeer. They lay their eggs in field areas on the ground and then spend the next 6-8 weeks squalking and fluttering on the ground everytime they sense a threat (which seems to be almost 24 hours of the day). Our only reprieve comes when their hatchlings leave the nest or their eggs get squished by the horses in the pasture next door.

The ground thawed early this year, it really never had a chance to freeze deeply. So, the ground dried out and I tilled the garden earlier this year. I've inherited my dad's old Troy Bilt rototiller that has got to be at least 30 years old. It had been left by my folks garden, right where it quit, a few years ago. I've been tinkering with it for almost two years now; they built those original tillers to last forever. This poor thing needs a bit of rescue work done. I seem to get it going just long enough each year to till the garden once each spring and then it stops, waiting for me to take it completely apart once again. Lately, it's been the ignition system. I can't seem to find a way to keep the condenser wire from eventually getting sucked into the flywheel. This is a big problem because they don't make condensers for this engine anymore and there are only so many times I can rescue this tiny little device with shrink tubing and electrical tape. I will put off the expense of a new engine as long as I am able to tinker.

Our first planting of peas are up. The kids and I have planted a few varieties this year. We're opting for mostly shelling peas this go round and even trying some tall pole peas this year. Our pole beans last year were prolific and I'm hoping this pole pea variety follows suit. I built a small green house this year, nothing fancy but more space to work and set out plants to harden in the spring. It's take-a-part-able so I can maybe move it and add a chicken coop to the backside later on.

The garden has been rearranged this year into mostly straight rows. Initially I was artsy fartsy with my garden layout but it was impractical when it came to laying out the irrigation. We are lucky enough to get regular rain in the summer here where we live. There are occasional times when a bit of extra water helps. I am a big fan of drip irrigation and mulch. I've experimented with just about everything over the years and I've settled on T-tape as being the most cost-effective solution for getting the right amount of water where it's needed. That and grass clippings (fertilizer and pesticide-free) for mulch around my plants. This year, I'll be planting a green manure crop (red clover) between my rows to both squelch weeds and add nitrogen and biomass to the soil.

We're still getting the occasional night below freezing which is ok by me. The cold nights tend to squelch the blackfly population and I can get work done early in the day out in our forest. The cool nights also favor the plants that enjoy cooler weather (like peas this time of year). The days are warm enough without becoming hot and uncomfortable. As much as I'm looking forward to summer, I do enjoy the cooler days of spring.