MAINE GROWS
Garden Club Federation of Maine
Sample Issue 2024
Rethinking the Lawn… and the Garden
President’s Message
Welcome to this sample issue of Maine Grows, the members-
only horticultural publication of the Garden Club Federation of
Maine (GCFM) where our very talented and knowledgeable
members share their knowledge about all aspects of gardening.
It’s a treasure trove of information you can immediately use in
your garden and expand your horizons on topics you never
thought about. As a garden club member, it comes directly to
your email box seven times a year – no special subscription is
needed! We hope you enjoy these articles from past issues.
Find a garden club in your area and become a member!
Karen Rea
President of the Garden Club Federation of Maine
KarenRea1948@gmail.com
Editor’s Note
Maine Grows offers valuable gardening advice and delves
into the personal impact of gardens on our lives. We discuss
motivations for gardening, the influence of creativity on our
gardens, and how our gardens reflect who we are.
We hope you decide to join us. See page 4 for details.
May your life be filled with fun, flowers, and plants!
Thank you for reading Maine Grows.
Lisa Colburn
Editor, Maine Grows
LisaColburn@yahoo.com
Maine Grows
President’s Message
Karen Rea
2
Editor’s Note
Lisa Colburn
2
Features:
www.MaineGardenClubs.org
Garden Club Federation of Maine
Maine Grows is an online publication for members of The Garden Club
Federation of Maine (GCFM), distributed seven times per year by email.
When you join a garden club, you can access all previous issues of Maine
Grows in the member resources section of our website, which is protected by
a password. https://www.mainegardenclubs.org/
Who’s Who?
Karen Rea, President
Becky Gallery, 1st Vice President
Lisa Freeman, 2nd Vice President
Joan Toy, Recording Secretary
Margaret Curran, Treasurer
Cindi Kimball, Assistant Treasurer
Lisa Colburn, Editor
GCFM is a member of New England Garden
Clubs, Inc. and National Garden Clubs, Inc.
Sample Issue
Each article in Maine Grows is identified
with the work's author and may not be
reproduced without express written
permission. Authors have provided their own
photos, or they were provided by editor, Lisa
Colburn. All other photos have been properly
attributed to the photographer or company
providing them. We do not use photos that
are “found” on the web.
About This Issue
Words of Wisdom
Helping Birds
The King of Vegetables
Supporting Actors
Fluttering Beauties
Rhubarb Muffins
Native Plants for Maine Gardens
Finally
~
Harriet Robinson
Jan McIntyre
Tom Atwell
~
Karen Rea
Lisa Colburn
Jean Potuchek
~
4
5
6
8
10
12
15
16
19
Maine Grows, has quickly grown into the Garden Club
Federation of Maine’s premier gardening publication. Our
readers turn to Maine Grows for the most comprehensive
information on:
• plants that grow well in Maine – zones 3b to 7a
• sustainable garden design
• environmental education
• local gardening events and tours
• monthly garden tips, tricks, and techniques
• the latest information about garden trends
• ideas about how to design their yards
Maine Grows is read by gardeners of all levels – from new residents just learning about gardening to
casual, experienced, or master gardeners. Many belong to multiple garden clubs and plant societies.
Our members include professional gardeners and landscapers.
Maine Grows is an e-newsletter produced 7 months per year. It’s sent to over 2,000 subscribers who
belong to the garden clubs that are part of the Garden Club Federation of Maine (GCFM). Each
newsletter is displayed as a flip book as well as a PDF file.
If you’re interested in receiving Maine Grows for the latest gardening news and information and
interested in participating in all GCFM activities…
1. Check our Garden Club Directory to locate a garden club near you.
2. If there is no club in your area, we encourage you to consider starting a new garden club so you
can enjoy sharing the joys of gardening with others in your area.
3. Or apply to the GCFM to become a “member at large” by filling out the form on this page.
Annual dues are $15, and you’ll be contacted regarding payment.
Excerpt from June 2022
Prey Garden
A pre2y garden means taking care of flowers as soon as
they finish blooming. I deadhead regularly all season
long. I also pull off brown leaves. In June I want to
deadhead the peonies before their petals spill
everywhere in a thick mess. Most of my peonies have
two rounds of flowers so cuEng the blooms that are
done allows the later peony blooms to look their best
without distracFon.
It's not necessary to deadhead lilacs to get flowers the
next year, but I have a lilac hedge that forms a backdrop
to a perennial border, and I want that border to look its
best. This means that I deadhead lilacs, especially the
white ones that look parFcularly una2racFve when they
turn brown. At the same Fme, I prune the lilacs by
cuEng several of the oldest trunks right to the ground.
Right aKer bloom is the best Fme to prune the spring
flowering shrubs. The forsythia needs a2enFon each spring
because I want to be sure that the Fps of its branches aren’t
reaching the ground and trying to root to form a bigger
forsythia clump. Forsythia creates work, but I like what it does
when it blooms, and it came from my mother’s garden, so, I
keep it. Isn’t that the way it is? There are well behaved plants
that keep maintenance lower. Other plants have memories
a2ached or are so beauFful that they’re worth the work!
Anyway, gardening isn’t work. It’s an outside pasFme that
strengthens our bodies, is creaFve and saFsfies scienFfic
curiosity.
Harriet Robinson is the former president of GCFM and current president of the Foothills Garden Club.
She wrote about her large garden in the first 18 issues of Maine Grows. harrietlewisrobinson@gmail.com
Words of Wisdom
For a
Table of Contents
Winter
Cold…
With help, our feathered friends have a better
chance of surviving the frigid temperatures that
are common here in the Northeast. By
providing foods such as seeds and suet and
dense conifers for proper cover, birds can
deposit a fat layer during the day, then have a
protected place to sleep during the night when
temperatures dip to 32°F or below. It’s been
found that chickadees who don’t migrate and
are present all winter, actually enter a state of
torpor during times of dwindling food supplies
or when the nights are unusually cold. Torpor is
a heat-conserving strategy whereby the body
temperature of the chickadee is lowered at
night.
During the day, the normal active body
temperature is 107.6°F and with adequate
sources of food, fat is deposited continually. If
the nights are not too cold chickadees can
maintain that 107.6°F body temperature just by
shivering the whole time while sound asleep.
However, if the night temps fall to 32°F or
lower, the fat reserves built up during the day
are not enough to get them through the night if
they continue to regulate the same normal
daytime body temp.
It was discovered at Cornell University that during
these very frigid nights, the chickadees survived
by lowering their body temperature to
approximately 86°F. Along with constant
shivering, this enabled them to get through the
night with the fat reserves they accumulated
during the day.
If a severe blizzard were to occur during the night
and into the next day to prevent adequate food
intake, even with a lowered body temperature, the
fat reserves were not adequate to get them
through. But by finding a secure spot out of the
wind, such as a tight cavity (birdhouses left out in
the garden, etc.), or in dense conifers, then
considerable energy could be conserved. A
chickadee, with its very dense plumage, can fluff
out and tuck its head under its shoulder feathers to
protect the eye and bill area where most of the
heat loss occurs, thus increasing its chance of
survival.
Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapilla)
No machine-readable author provided. CC BY-SA 3.0 via
Wikimedia Commons
Robert Taylor from Stirling, ON, Canada, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Table of Contents
Jan McIntyre
Excerpt from February 2022
I like to make a birdie pudding in
the winter, which is very high in
fat and helps the birds in
depositing extra body fat. Fat has
more than twice the caloric
content per unit weight than
carbohydrates, and birdie pudding
with lard and peanut butter,
supplies that fat. Spread it on a
tree trunk, on pinecones that can
hang on a tree, or in a suet holder.
The birds will relish it and enable
them to survive those cold,
blustery winter nights.
Birdie Pudding
1 lb. lard
1 cup crunchy peanut butter
2 cups quick oatmeal
2 cups cornmeal
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
Melt a 1 lb. box of lard over low heat in a saucepan.
Remove from heat and add 1 cup peanut butter (I
prefer crunchy). Stir until melted and immediately
add 2 cups of quick oatmeal, 2 cups of cornmeal,
1/3 cup of sugar and 1/3 cup of flour. Pour into a
container and let cool, stirring a few times to keep
ingredients mixed while it cools. Keep at room
temperature if you want it to remain spreadable.
I like to line a 9 x 5 loaf pan with parchment paper,
pour the mixture into it and let it cool. Once cool,
turn over and the loaf will come right out. Pull off
the paper, then slice it to fit into black metal suet
holders. Store the remainder in the freezer until
needed.
What can you do?
• Feed birds high-fat, high-protein
foods.
• Provide protection from cold and
wind with dense conifers like
arborvitae, spruce, and junipers.
• Plant native plants with winter fruit,
berries, and seeds.
• Leave birdhouses up through the
winter.
• Allow dead trees with cavities to
stand.
• Use a birdbath heater to provide a
water source during freezing weather.
Jan McIntyre is a member of the Bar Harbor
Garden Club jancmcintyre@gmail.com
Table of Contents
!e King of Vegeta)es
Asparagus
Asparagus is a May vegetable, one that is
planted once and provides delicious spears for
decades to come. In our garden, it can be
harvested beginning in early May, and we
usually have enough for a full meal by mid-
May. In northern Maine, harvesting will be a
bit later.
May also is a good time for planting the
vegetable. Most people start asparagus beds
by planting one-year-old crowns, which is
what the root system is called. They can be
bought from some garden centers or ordered
by mail.
To plant asparagus, dig a trench about a foot
wide and six inches deep, leaving the soil at
the side of the trench. Pick a spot with full-to-
part sun. Remember, you’re planting
something that will be in the same location for
thirty years or longer.
Asparagus wants a lot of organic matter in the soil. When
we planted our bed, I created mounds of dehydrated cow
manure about a foot apart at the bottom of the trench,
spreading the roots of the crown over the mound of dried
cow manure. Then, just barely cover the crowns with the
soil you left on the side of the trench, mixing in some
compost with that soil. Water the trench and wait.
When small asparagus shoots sprout, cover them with a
thin layer of soil. Continue this until the soil in the trench
is level with or a couple of inches above ground level (it
will pack down as the season goes along.
T" Atwe(
Petar Milošević, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Although it will be tempting, don’t cut or eat any of the
asparagus during the first year. You really shouldn’t cut
any the second year, either, but I took a couple shoots
from ours the second year.
Table of Contents
Excer& fr) May 2022
In the third year, you can harvest most of
the shoots, stopping the harvest about mid-
June.
Asparagus is a heavy feeder. It should be
fertilized each spring in early to mid-April,
and again in mid-summer after harvesting
has ended. Another option is to grow
asparagus from seed, but for that you would
have to start the seeds indoors during
February.
Asparagus also self-seeds – unless you have
planted a seedless variety. One of our most
productive asparagus plants is a volunteer
about 10 yards from the original bed.
Asparagus can be grown as a large ornamental plant in the back of a border and its
foliage makes a delicate, wispy addition to floral arrangements.
Asparagus Beetle
Luc hoogenstein, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
As the growing season continues, keep the
weeds out of your asparagus row and watch
for asparagus beetles. Keep the row
watered, not soggy, but watered when dry.
If you see the beetles, hand pick them and
drown them in soapy water.
Asparagus can be eaten
raw, boiled, baked, roa5ed,
gri6ed, or 5eamed.
Tom Atwell is freelance writer who specializes in gardening.
He’s a member of the Cape Elizabeth Garden Club.
Contact Tom @ tomatwell@me.com
Table of Contents
Peony
Supporting
Actors
Who doesn’t love big, beau3ful peonies? The
“King of Flowers” – adds an impressive pop of
color to the late spring and early summer garden.
But… some3mes aEer a heavy dew or a light rain,
those huge, blousy blooms can become too
heavy for their stems. No one wants a
disappoin3ng flop on center stage.
Learn about some of the strategies our
experienced garden writers use to make these
beau3es stand at aKen3on!
From Sabrina Warner:
I like peony hoops because:
*The metal is sturdier and thicker than twine
which may cause the stems to bend and break.
*The type with the grids in the top help
separate the stems for a better show.
*They can be left up through the winter and
you don’t take a chance piercing a root
reinstalling the next spring.
*There are no pointed ends that might poke
you as you are doing garden chores.
*Easy to store if you do take them up in the
fall.
I guess an advantage to stakes and twine is that
if you use straight branches/twigs cut from the
yard everything can be gathered up and
composted at the end of the season.
Sabrina Warner is Horticulture Chair for the Garden
Club Federation of Maine, and a member of St. Mary’s
Garden Club sabrinaw@maine.rr.com
From Jan McIntyre:
As far as the peonies, I use what I have - a couple of
the metal rings, but when those run out, I use 4 sticks
per plant, crisscrossing twine inside to make an X.
Jan McIntyre is a member of the Bar Harbor Garden Club
jancmcintyre@gmail.com
From Katy Gannon-Janelle:
I use peony hoops, or more often half-hoops on
stakes because they always seem to lean just one way
for me, so half a hoop does it. I sometimes layer the
half hoops, so that one is lower about six inches in
front of the other higher one, and the higher one
catches the longest stems from the back.
Works for me!
Katy Gannon-Janelle, lives in Falmouth and is a member of St.
Mary’s Garden Club, Katy@janelle.com
https://www.arusticgarden.com
Table of Contents