Visiting the Ag Extension at Cumberland County Fair

What is the Ag Extension you ask? Well, let me tell you!

The Cumberland County Agricultural Extension is a branch of the University of Maine which provides educational programs, publications and events to its residents.  They use unbiased, scientific research & resources to share their expertise and answer questions about growing! And they are simply wonderful!

Every year at the Cumberland County Fair, you can find their booth in the Horticultural Building staffed with informative volunteers ready to share some agricultural information and answer your questions.

This year’s concept is centered around Extending the Garden Season, and the Ag Extension an amazing display, including this homemade “yankee” cold frame constructed from common leftovers found in your garage. Not only is this antique, vintage-inspired cold frame fully functional, but it’s incredibly appealing to any decorators eye too!

When visiting the booth, you can see how the Master Gardener Volunteers make a difference in their local communities, and how to become one yourself.

And learn about the many ways you can Extend Your Growing Season … It’s easier than you think!

And this year the Agricultural Extension partnered with the Cumberland County Soil and Water Conservation District, which incorporated how to Cook Your Harvest and emphasized the importance of Soil Testing.

When you stop by you can even pick up your own Soil Test Kit, and try it out!

Hope to see you there!

Cumberland County Fair: Garden Season Extension

I am so excited to share what I’ve been working on over the past month!

I’ve been working on a project for Maine’s Cumberland County Agricultural Extension (partnered with the Cumberland County Soil and Water Conservation District) depicting gardening techniques for season extension.

Many of these season extenders are easy to do, and often can be made out of items laying around the house!

For Raised Beds, just some 2×4′s and hardware can make gardening so much easier – especially if you live on rock ledges and don’t have much soil. Instead of only having a few inches of dirt, you can add half a foot to a couple of feet of soil and have the ability to grow more plants and reach them easier!

So if you don’t have glass cloches, you easily make some out of old 2-Liter soda bottles.  Just clean the bottle thoroughly and cut the bottom off and viola!  Homemade garden cloche!

Plastic mulch is such a great way to get your soil to warm faster and bonus it takes care of most of your weeding!

I love row covers for season extension because they so versatile.  And once you have your hoops (which can be made out of PVC piping, electrical conduit or anything similar found around the house) you can use them forever!  Just rotate the covering depending on whether you need to maintain a temperature (cover with horticultural fleece) or keep pests and animals away (cover with plastic netting or chicken wire).

The wall of water is a new one for most people, but is an excellent way to get ahead of the planting curve! You can buy the pre-made season extender or make your own out of cleaned soda bottles (also for cloches).  Just clean the bottles thoroughly, tape together (I use duct tape) in a circle and you have your own!

It can also be helpful to paint the outside of the bottles black to increase the water temperature!

We’ve all seen the mini greenhouses made of plastic in your local hardware stores, and they are just wonderful! Its an easy way to start your seeds in the winter. And if you don’t want to spend the money, you can pick up those aluminum cake pans super cheaply, fill with soil and make little rows and plant into them!

But there are some more tools that can make indoor seed starting even easier!  Heat mats and grow lights!

Heat mats really help your little seeds germinate, since you can set the heat to the optimum soil temperature for the seeds, and you will see your seeds germinate and grow significantly faster. This will also ensure that more of your seeds germinate than would if they were just sown outdoors!

And those fancy grow lights are great, but you can make your own affordable grow lights by visiting any local hardware store. You can buy the long ‘shop lamps’ and select the bulb that gives off the appropriate light to get your seeds sprouting quicker!

Cold Frames can be built next to an existing structure or house, or on their own.  It should be face south for the maximum sun exposure and a 10% angle is ideal for the additional sunlight. Western sun exposure is alright if you can’t get a south facing site.

For some additional heat you can use old square milk jugs (cleaned of course) filled with water to line the back wall of your cold frame. And if you paint them black, the water will be even hotter!

Again, the importance of low tunnels can not be emphasized enough! And it’s such an easy and affordable tool.

Just imagine all the lovely fruits and veggies that you can enjoy later in the season!

It is such a wonderful way to keep your food local, sustainable ….

… and yummy!

So try one of theses techniques for season extension, you will be so happy you did!

Impromptu Newborn Photography: Baby Avery

I just love this shot of mommy and daddy’s hands holding Avery.

Babies always look so soft and dreamy when they sleep

I cannot get over how sweet he is … totally at peace!

Avery’s adorable outfits are from Spain, his Aunt Candy brought them home for him … She has such great taste!

Mommy and Daddy kissing their baby, I just love this one!

Fast asleep ….

Newborns are so tiny and Avery is such a beautiful baby, I just want to gobble him up! And that’s not just because he is my nephew!

I just loved getting an opportunity to shoot Baby Avery, especially since I usually focus on botanical plants and flowers. I wish I had all of my gear, lighting and props so I could get more shots, but I am so glad I got these!

Hope you all enjoy the photographs as much as I enjoyed taking them!

P.S.  I’ve been hard at work on my new Vintage Botanical Collection and since I’m usually so bad at keeping things secret I will be sharing a peek next week!  Stayed tuned!

Hurricane Irene’s Visit to Maine

The Day Before the Hurricane Arrived:

The fog was so thick.

I may be a little late on the blogging about Hurricane Irene’s Visit to Maine, but that’s because I’ve been busy working on my new collection of Botanical Prints!  I am so excited to share them once the entire collection is ready.

The ducks were in packs (or is it herds? or is it called something else?) preparing together.

The Morning of the Storm I made my husband take me out to catch a few photos:

It was dark and wet … but I LOVED it!

I brought a plastic bag to cover my camera, but I still had to wipe down my lens a few dozen times.

And the sea was definitely talking!

And the Day After the Storm was … Beautiful!

What a clear day!

The surfers were out in mass trying to catch the great waves.

Can you see the two surfers on the left waiting for a big one?

Look at all that green water … and you know what green water means?!

Even though the hurricane was down graded to a tropical storm by the time it reached us here in Maine, the ocean was certainly rolling!

The waves crashing at Two Lights.

Isn’t it amazing that after such dark days that within hours of the storm leaving, the sky is clear as a bell?!

I hope everyone stayed safe and dry and got a chance to go out and take in the beauty after the storm!

~

Hurricane Irene’s Visit to Maine

I may be a little late on the blogging about Hurricane Irene’s Visit to Maine, but that’s because I’ve been busy working on my new collection of Botanical Prints!  I am so excited to share them once the entire collection is ready.

But enough of that for now, I was going to let my Irene pictures hang out on my hard drive, but decided they were just too cool not to share!

So today’s blog is more of a slideshow of images, starting with …

The Day Before the Hurricane Arrived:

The fog was so thick.

The ducks were in packs (or is it herds? or is it called something else?) preparing together.

The Morning of the Storm I made my husband take me out to catch a few photos:

It was dark and wet … but I LOVED it!

I brought a plastic bag to cover my camera, but I still had to wipe down my lens a few dozen times.

And the sea was definitely talking!

And the Day After the Storm was … Beautiful!

What a clear day!

The surfers were out in mass trying to catch the great waves.

Can you see the two surfers on the left waiting for a big one?

Look at all that green water … and you know what green water means?!

Even though the hurricane was down graded to a tropical storm by the time it reached us here in Maine, the ocean was certainly rolling!

The waves crashing at Two Lights.

Isn’t it amazing that after such dark days that within hours of the storm leaving, the sky is clear as a bell?!

I hope everyone stayed safe and dry and got a chance to go out and take in the beauty after the storm!

~