With both our son and daughter busy on Father's Day, I spent the weekend with Nancy and the weeds.

The strawberry patch, which has mostly gone by I am sad to say, had become filled with weeds, and Nancy went through it thoroughly. We now need to add some compost so we have better and more berries next year. We only got about 15 quarts this year, not enough for jam and only a few treats of shortcake.

I weeded through the other vegetables, dug up some lupine that was threatening to take over the garden, fought with a woodchuck family that one of our neighbors – whose vegetable garden abuts ours – saw running through his tomatoes.

I had seen some damage on our peas, beans and kohlrabi. I tracked three woodchuck holes at a third neighbors yard, filled them with soil and ammonia and am simply trying to make them uncomfortable enough that they go away. I am also keeping an eye on

the area under my shed, just in case they try to go back to the home they – or their cousins – had a few years ago.

I had expected to have some peas over the weekend, but fouond only a few.

But they are coming and we should have a good bunch of them the weekend coming up.

We bought three blueberry bushes, as well. We have had five bushes in our back yard, but a neighbor on that side is letting some maples grow, and the blueberries are getting shaded out. The new ones – an unnamed low-bush/high-bush hybrid and two high-bush berries (Bluecrop and Northland if I remember correctly) will go in the sunnier front of the house.

Now for the photos. Here are the lupine before I removed them. They were covered with aphids and beginning to go buy. We'll still have plenty for next year.

Next we have an old-fashioned coral bells, or heuchera, grown for the blossoms rather than the foliage. It is a good looking plant with a bright color, although the blossoms are small.

My column Sunday is about an open house at the Gnome Landscaping gardens in Falmouth. The opne house is Saturday, and the gardens are worth seeing.

About the Author

Tom Atwell has written the Maine Gardener column in the Maine Sunday Telegram since the spring of 2004. He has worked at the Press Herald/Sunday Telegram since 1974, about the same time he started gardening with any seriousness.

He gardens with his wife, Nancy. She not only is the better gardener of the pair, but also knows the botanical names of plants. They have two grown children and four grandchildren.

Tom was born in Skowhegan, grew up in Farmington and graduated from the University of Maine with a BA in journalism. His goal each year is to have continuous compost from his three compost bins, continuous bloom in his low-maintenance garden and more fruits and vegetables on his family table than the garden pests eat in the field.

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