LallyLuckFarm @ LallyLuckFarm @beehaw.org

Small scale permaculture nursery in Maine, education enthusiast, and usuall

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Our town library's plant and bake sale happened on Saturday, and we raised over 1200 dollars for the programs they put on - a 107% increase in donations from last year!

I've basically run out of small pots for bringing plants to market, but choose to see it as proof that my seed starting has gotten much more consistent. I do need to find more though, because I have something like 300 seedlings that need more space. Sent some texts and emails and also metaphorically begged for them during the plant sale so hopefully folks come through, since I refuse to commission the creation of more plastic.

Please give him some of it! And some pats and a "whosagoodboy" because he is

Hi Petey! Even your serious face is very smile inducing

That's what she said! (About the plant)

Some fun facts:

• The root ball is about 4 feet / 1.3m across
• I stopped counting at 40 crowns
• It's been nice knowing you all 😅

Absolutely lovely, and a great photo to boot!

Please don't feel like you have to answer this, but out of curiosity: how were their prices? I've seen some places charge ridiculous amounts for serviceberries (and other plants). Still, that sounds right up my alley and I'll have to make a visit the next time I'm out that way

Don't beat yourself up! It can be very difficult to sprout seeds in spaces that aren't cultivated or prepped for them, and planting them in competitive spaces, while rewarding, ups the difficulty. If there's a garden center that you like, go and ask them if they're willing to give you some of their plug trays. Some distributors take those back but not many, so they might be more than willing to give you some for your starts. Then you can transplant those plugs of yours and get a leg up on your garden plans 💕

Always happy to help!

Boo less time to garden, but I'm so glad you're seeing positive results for what you have had the time for (also hoping you've had positive results from the things that have been eating your gardening time)

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. To me, that looks more like lemon balm than Joe Pye. For comparison, from our gardens:

Lemon balm:

Joe Pye:

For another exotic cane fruit, consider Goji Berry (Lyceum barbarum). It has purple flowers instead of the pale yellow gooseberry flowers, no thorns, and it does admirably where we are in Maine. I think the berries taste better when they're dried.

A different exotic fruit bush would be Haskaps (Lonicera caeruleae). Pale yellow flowers give way to long-ish sweet/tart blue berries that ripen around the time of early strawberries, before blueberries ripen. Bumblebees and mason bees seem to love the flowers, and the birds in our area haven't caught on to how tasty they are yet. Another exotic worth considering is Goumi berry (Eleagnus multiflora), which will perform anywhere that autumn olive does. I keep expecting the state to call it invasive but it seems to behave better than its cousins.

For rarer native fruits, I'd probably recommend looking at Amelanchier and Viburnum family plants. A. laevis is more tree shaped, but A. alnifolia is more bush-y. A. canadensis is sort of in between, being a multi stemmed shrub that can get up around 26 feet tall if you let it. V. lentago (nannyberry), V. cassinoides (wild northern raisin), and V. trilobum (highbush cranberry) are each wonderful in their own right.

If delicious and decorative is the goal, we always get comments about our purple flowering raspberries (Rubus oderatus) and they're naturally thornless. They will send up new plants in a radius from their original spot - I've seen some coming up some six feet away - but I wouldn't consider them aggressive spreaders. They just like to make sure the space gets filled

Oh jeez! I hope those thirty are super industrious

When you're ready I've got some other berry producing plants to suggest for you, but if you're set on hurting yourself harvesting there's always blackberries. 'Nelson' is a particularly thorny cultivar

I hate to spoil your plan but gooseberries are a listed invasive here in Maine due to them being a vector for white pine blister rust. That's not to say you can't get them, but you won't get them from someone playing by the rules. The rest of the plan sounds great!

We're almost to our daughter's 9th month of life. We're both overtired and feeling overworked, with precious little of the time we used to spend on hobbies or couple-time. That said, while there's been a shift towards an expectation culture in the house (vs an ask culture) we haven't had the sort of challenges listed in that first paragraph.

Some things probably working for us:

• We've been together for over a decade and in our home for 9 years
• Our communication style is productive even during arguments ("I feel" statements are much more positive than "you" statements)
• We're majority wfh so we have the capacity to buffer each others' needs as parents throughout the day, rather than leaving everything to one person or having additional financial stresses with childcare

Some things definitely working for us:

• Calling each other out for awesome parenting, because very few others will and it's amazing to feel that validation
• Proactively taking something off of each other's plates, whether that's cleaning or laundry, dishes or bottles, whatever task is getting done is one that doesn't have to be done later
• Knowing about spoon theory and being sensitive to how much bandwidth each other has left. It's way harder to recharge from past depleted, so being flexible and recognizing when I or my partner are reaching that point and stepping in or voicing a need for support goes a long way for both of us

How do you find the mental fortitude to ignore the stupid bs your partner does or says?

I mean, we're both sleep deprived so I'm sure there's stupid coming out of my mouth too. I think it's much healthier to laugh or work to improve the condition causing stress than it is to feed a negative cycle. If either of us are escalating we missed a chance to bolster each other.

How would you describe love to your partner a year after having a baby?

Gratitude. I feel incredibly fortunate to have a partner who puts in the effort and has put in the effort to help build the communication style that's worked so well for us.

Is there any way to know if you and your partner are going to make it and remain a couple after having a child?

It really helps to have a relationship built on respect, and knowing enough about yourselves to approach challenges constructively. Build a good foundation with each other, learn to communicate positively, and do your best.

The people who lived next door to my first home had some amazing apples - very climbable trees for a kid and delicious apples. They used to give me a quarter for each apple I picked (this was decades ago and I was maybe ten, it felt like a lot).

Several years ago I was working for the landscaping crew of a nearby resale nursery and we were helping to clean up an elderly couple's garden. They had a beautiful Kousa dogwood in the middle of their yard, loaded with hundreds of fruits within reach and more towards the top. When we hit our lunch break that day I asked the couple if I could have a few of the fruits (they're small mouthfuls of yum) and when they agreed I picked some and popped the skinned fruit into my mouth - right when one of the owners came around the corner. He started freaking out about eating strange fruits until I showed him multiple foraging guides for them. Ended up getting him, the rest of the work crew, and the couple to try them. Before we left the lady was gathering more because she had found a jame recipe and wanted to make it.

Here is a landscape video of part of it

and

Here is a portrait video of part of it depending on your viewing preferences. Sound removed because the kiddo was freaking out about seeing snakes for the first time.

This whole post should be marked MSFW (milksnakes found wuv)

Haha same!

Yes. It should work with just about any fern clump. Be sure to sharpen and disinfect your shovel/tools for the best results