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Going Native Establishing a Native Plant Nursery

  You can start hundreds of native plants in a small area to create your own nursery. Heather McCargo photo By Heather McCargo The traditional nursery industry has been following an ecologically destructive trajectory similar to the path of conventional agriculture. Most plants are mass produced using an arsenal of synthetic chemicals; many varieties are

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Garden Tips

My source of water is city water, which can be expensive if watering a large garden. I have a sump pit in my basement, so I set up a rain barrel and attached a sump hose from the pit outlet pipe to the rain barrel through an opening I cut in the rain barrel cover.

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Permaculture Takes Root in Maine

By Stowell Watters Do yourself a small disservice sometime and type the words “permaculture definition” into an Internet search for a refreshing check-in with your college brain. Can you still absorb painful block-text paragraphs and talking-head quotes ranging from the vapidly vague to the searingly specific? Can you mentally digest a hurricane of exposition and

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Harvest Kitchen Summer Cookout

Toki Oshima drawing By Roberta Bailey     In the pre-dawn hours of a bitter cold February morning, we had a house fire. It is an absolutely surreal process to move through getting everyone out safely, to call 911, to grab coats and a drawer of photographs, a spinning wheel, a computer, then to look around

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Summer Eating in Maine Mussels

Toki Oshima drawing By Cheryl Wixson Archaeologists say that humans have been eating mussels for more than 20,000 years, and with good reasons. This edible bivalve of the marine family Mytilidae is an incredibly nutrient-dense seafood choice. The methods for both harvesting wild mussels and farming cultivated mussels are also environmentally sound, making them a

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Strawberries Revisited

Strawberry runners transplanted in August. Roberta Bailey photo A thick patch of strawberry plants at the end of the second summer, ready to be tilled under as weeds are encroaching. Roberta Bailey photo By Roberta Bailey We all want to grow strawberries. Who can resist the allure of a basket brimming with fat, red, juicy

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Onions That Fit

‘Shaker’ is one of the largest, most vigorous top-setting onions. Will Bonsall photo By Will Bonsall I want to have fresh onions all year, but there’s a window in late spring-early summer when any bulb onions left in the cellar are sprouted or rotten and the new crop has yet to come in. Moreover there

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Recreational Tillage

By Eric Sideman, Ph.D. The rototiller has gotten a bad rap in recent decades. Perhaps it deserves it, perhaps not; in any case it is important to avoid its misuse in order to preserve soil. Temptation to use this power tool is worst in the early spring, when cabin fever or perhaps simply being anxious

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Go with Green

Swiss chard is among the greens that are great for braising. These bunches were being sold at the Belfast Farmers’ Market by New Beat Farm. English photo. By Cheryl Wixson Spring is the start of my favorite season of eating. I love the shift from eating root vegetables to just-picked, seasonal and local food. After

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Organic Sweet Corn

Sweet corn can not only lure customers to your farm stand but can be profitable, as well. USDA photo. Organic sweet corn has profit potential for farms and is a great draw to farm stands and farmers’ markets – if grown well. David Handley, UMaine Cooperative Extension vegetable and small fruit specialist, and Jack Manix

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