Articles by Reeser Manley
REESER MANLEY
The merry month of May in the vegetable garden
It was a cold weekend to be bound to the garden and yet by Sunday evening the asparagus crowns were in the ground as well as the onion and leek transplants that arrived Saturday by mail. Spinach seeds also were sown with hopes of a warming trend. All of this ...
REESER MANLEY
Garden advice for May
Guided by soil temperature rather than the calendar or phase of the moon, here is a bit of gardening advice for the month of May. These ideas, plus many more, can be found in my upcoming book, “The New England Gardener’s Year, a Month-by-Month Guide for Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, ...
REESER MANLEY
Put a mailbox in your garden
The gardening season is under way with perfect timing, a week off from teaching and nothing to keep me out of the garden. The shadblow serviceberry in Marjorie’s Garden has burst into bloom on the heels of the native honeysuckle and the soil temperature reached 53 degrees by midweek. I ...
REESER MANLEY
Include edible flowers in the vegetable garden
There is a fuzzy line between edibles and ornamentals in Marjorie’s garden. Take as an example the self-sown calendulas that pop up each year among the garden peas. They do double duty, their flowers adding a spot of color to the garden as well as to our summer meals. When ...
Tips on direct sowing seeds in the vegetable garden
Many vegetable crops are best started by sowing their seeds directly into well-prepared soil. Root crops such as carrots, beets, radishes and turnips are good examples. Their seedling tap roots are too easily damaged by transplanting seedlings grown indoors. Most gardeners direct sow beans, peas and corn, although I know ...
An April garden checklist
Framed by uncertainties of weather, here are a few garden tips for April. They were gleaned from my upcoming book, “The New England Gardener’s Year, a Month-by-Month Guide for Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Upstate New York,” to be published later this year by Cadent Publishing. ...
REESER MANLEY
Growing sweet corn in the small garden
When Lynne was around 10 years old, she grew a small patch of sweet corn in the garden as a 4-H project. When all was said and done, in response to the prompt on the project report form asking what she’d learned, she wrote, “I learned that raccoons really like ...
REESER MANLEY
Will pollinators be there when you need them?
Whether this will be your first vegetable gardening season or your 50th, your success with many crops will depend on the timely presence of pollinators. Cucurbits, including cucumbers, squash and melons, are pollinated by bees carrying pollen from male flowers to female flowers. Tomatoes, eggplants and peppers are also bee-pollinated. ...
REESER MANLEY
The cultivation of June-bearing strawberries through the year
This is the last of three columns devoted to the cultivation of June-bearing strawberries. The first two columns, “Getting started with June-bearing strawberries” and “Recommended varieties of June-bearing strawberries” can be found online by Googling my name and these titles. We think of strawberries as a perennial crop, at least ...
REESER MANLEY
Recommended varieties of June-bearing strawberries
If you are interested in growing strawberries, specifically the June-bearing varieties, last week’s column got you started in terms of site selection and preparation, as well as planting. Perhaps you have already ordered your dormant crowns for planting in April. If not, I can offer the following variety recommendations from ...
REESER MANLEY
A new gardener’s guide to choosing vegetable varieties
What is the best summer squash variety for a Maine garden? While there are lists of recommended varieties of every vegetable that can be grown in Maine, if I really want to know which variety will grow trouble-free in my garden or which variety has real flavor, I rely on ...
Include heirloom vegetables in your garden this year
The new year brings catalogs by snail mail and email invitations to online catalogs, each sender hankering for a fraction of my seed money for 2012. I know something about the business of selling garden seeds. My first paying job in horticulture was with the George W. Park Seed Co. ...
REESER MANLEY
Managing garden herbivores, Part 3: cutworms and aphids
Cutworms, the larval (caterpillar) stage of several species of night-flying moths, are a major herbivore in Marjorie’s Garden each spring, cutting down unprotected young transplants at or below the soil surface and devouring seedlings before they break through the soil. As with all garden herbivores, understanding the life cycle of ...
REESER MANLEY
Managing garden herbivores, Part 2: Japanese beetles
Second in a series for new gardeners on managing herbivores in the garden, this week’s column focuses on the Japanese beetle, a non-native leaf-munching insect that is here to stay. Some gardening seasons, such as the one just passed, will be worse than others in terms of sheer numbers of ...
REESER MANLEY
Here’s the latest word from gardeners in the slug wars
This column, the first of a series on managing herbivores in the chemical-free garden, is part of a larger series of columns devoted to helping new gardeners. This seems a fitting task for the winter months, allowing the novice gardener time to gather ideas and materials. In June 2009, a ...
REESER MANLEY
A vegetable crop planting guide for new gardeners
On Oct. 5, I cut the garden’s last three summer squash. They came from a small bed of plants sown in early August, plants that produced double handfuls of yellow crooknecks in late September, enough for the family with extra to give away. A hard frost hit that early October ...
REESER MANLEY
Planning what to grow in your first vegetable garden
I sit in front of the wood stove on many snowy January evenings and browse the seed catalogs that come in the mail that time of year — Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Comstock Garden Seeds, Johnny’s Selected Seeds and so many others — and I want to grow ten times ...
REESER MANLEY
Looking ahead: Tips on planning your first vegetable garden
For gardeners throughout Maine, the long wait begins. Garden tools lean against the basement wall as seed catalogs pile up on the writing table. Thoughts turn to the year ahead and, for some, to starting their first vegetable garden. As a would-be vegetable gardener, the first decision is where to ...
REESER MANLEY
Can growing vegetables really save you money?
Can I lower my food costs by growing vegetables in a home garden? This is a simple question with anything but a simple answer. Before bringing in all of the complicating factors, we can look at this question in its simplest form: Will organic vegetables grown in a home garden ...
REESER MANLEY
A nutrient management primer for gardeners, part two
The organic gardener’s goal is to provide plants with sustainable levels of essential elements needed for healthy growth. We accomplish this goal by adding organic matter to the soil, digging in composted manure and mulching with shredded leaves or compost. Microbial decomposition of the organic matter releases nutrients in a ...
Police seeking tips about pickup truck possibly connected to Glenburn teen’s disappearance
Since 1971, seven Maine children reported missing have not been found
Apartment squeeze in Portland: Single renters, immigrants, poor hardest hit
A better way to help people escape welfare
A letter to Michelle Obama in light of military sex assault epidemic
Five steps to remedy IRS wrongs
Manchester 15-year-old off to impressive start for Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports
Houlton council, community still concerned about costly Millar Civic Center
Bangor’s Marcus Davis hopes to counter opponent’s height, reach advantage in Lewiston MMA main event
Kitchen Nightmares meltdown or: How to lose an argument online
Farmers markets embracing food stamps with the help of USDA
Arguments over gun control and abortion will never be settled
For those who are too fat for Abercrombie and Fitch
A spot of tea, a spread of treats, at Camden’s Fromviandoux