a magical maine weekend + my favorite gardening books for kids
will I ever get the garden fully planted this year? only time will tell.
"You must do something to make the world more beautiful." - Ms. Rumphius
Last weekend, we kicked off summer vacation with a family trip to Boothbay Harbor, Maine —a trip I’d been plotting for a few years now, ever since moving back to the east coast. I’m a sucker for a botanical garden, and Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens is always at the top of the list of must-visit spots. So after being up on Westport Island last summer with two dear friends and realizing we were merely 20 minutes away from the gardens, I knew I had to plan a trip this summer with the whole family.
I figure the earlier we start indoctrinating our kids into “when we travel, we visit local gardens”, the better! They’re already budding eco-warriors, so it isn’t a tough sell at all thankfully.
Naturally, we had to to stretch our legs mid-road trip and grab a lobster roll from Sprague’s in Wiscasset (Red’s is across the street and delicious but I refuse to wait in line for anything except a dahlia tuber sale these days).
The weather was decidedly New England spring —chilly and rainy Saturday, followed by sunny and hot Sunday —so we opted to stick around the resort and head into downtown Boothbay Harbor on Saturday, and save the gardens for Sunday. We stayed at Linekin Bay Resort and it was a phenomenal spot to stay with young kids —lots to do on site, big heated saltwater pool right on the ocean, and a restaurant on site for easy meals. I randomly learned about the resort on TikTok, so who said social media rots your brain!?
Now, for my SuperBowl. 325 acres of curated gardens, natural woods, and coastal waterfront —and magnificent giant troll sculptures:
Thomas Dambo is considered the world’s leading recycled-materials artist, famous for his troll sculptures. Dambo’s pieces are staggering, and each sculpture simultaneously invites seekers into the depths of our woodlands while telling a story of conservation.
Per Dambo, “The project becomes an open-ended fuse that initiates wonder,” inspiring people to see the natural world through a whimsically different lens. Since Dambo’s work uses recycled materials, it reinforces the value of using what we have to create something new, while also pulling together people of many skills and backgrounds from throughout our community.
We only managed to see three of them, as we had young adventurers with tiny legs accompanying us. But boy, were they incredible. I’m already scheming about another visit next summer to see the rest of the gardens.
Until next (pizza) Friday,
Amy
LOLs of the Week
New on the Blog: Gardening Books for Kids
My motto in life is: you can never have enough books! Ever since our first child was born, I've loved diving into the world of children's books, more specifically nature, gardening, and environment ones. Kids are such little sponges and it's never too early to start indoctrinating them into becoming budding environmentalists and gardeners — the world needs more of them! At the time of publishing this list of my favorite gardening books for kids, my children are soon-to-be-three and just-turned-five, so this list runs the gamut from some baby board books to longer books for older children.
June Garden Tour
It was a rare time when A) our back neighbor wasn’t leaf blowing, weed whacking, or lawn mowing and B) our kids were napping. Let’s garden and yap!
Reading
Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas (I flew through Throne of Glass while we were in Maine and was in agony because I didn’t think to bring the next book in the series!)
The Good Life: Helen and Scott Nearing's Sixty Years of Self-Sufficient Living by Scott Nearing and Helen Nearing
Toxic Childhood: How The Modern World Is Damaging Our Children And What We Can Do About It by Sue Palmer
Listening
Growing
Well, two weeks ago I told myself I would direct sow all of my warm weather veggies, but that most assuredly did not happen. This is the most behind I’ve ever felt in the garden in my 10+ years of growing, and it’s a strange feeling —partly, I’m telling myself that it’s ok and that plants will catch up, but the other half of my brain is having FOMO seeing people already harvesting tomatoes and zucchinis. But it’s all good! I’m carving some time out today and this weekend to actually, really, finally plant:
beans
corn
cucumber
watermelons
pumpkins
sunflowers
summer squash
winter squash
The radishes are still growing enthusiastically, though some are starting to bolt. The peonies seemingly have come and gone in a flash, unfortunately —a mixture of heavy rain, heavy winds, and a heat wave made them a little unhappy. But the dianthus is growing like gangbusters, irises are showing off, and pansies are seemingly everywhere.
We’re still enjoying oodles of lettuce, Swiss chard, and kale, which is great news considering now is *not* a great time to be buying bagged lettuce.
Know what else is thriving? Weeds. But I’m trying to practice what I preach and embrace “good enough” gardening this year!
Making
We were out of town for 4 days on a little family vacation in Maine, so not a ton of cooking and baking this week! But whipped up a few things.
A pasta salad coming to the blog next week —I brought it to our friends’ house for a swimming/BBQ playdate and it got rave reviews!
Grilled pizza (gotta make it once more then it’ll be on the blog soon, pinky promise)
InstantPot pulled salsa chicken for burrito bowls Tuesday night
Loving
Sleeping on a millet pillow. I recently influenced one of my best friends to give a millet pillow a try after she was complaining about nagging neck pain every morning. I, too, experienced this last year and was flummoxed as to what was causing it —surely not my $10 bargain bin Target pillow?! So I set to researching the best pillow for side sleepers, and nearly impulse bought a stupidly expensive Purple Pillow after watching too many TikToks, but cooler heads prevailed. I didn’t want to spend $200+ dollars to sleep with my face in synthetic materials, so I set my husband (my secret research weapon —the man can find the best of literally any item, it’s a superpower I swear) on the hunt to find me a good pillow. He ordered me a pillow from this wonderfully obscure early 2000s looking website, Brett’s Natural Health, because I really like trying to buy small and/or local whenever possible. I got the “stornetta blue” pattern and bring it with me when I travel anywhere by car because one time I didn’t, and my neck was aching the next morning. I lovingly call it my “millow”!
The weighted vest I use on walks. Another Kristian-vetted product that I was waffling over for months and months. I was using a backpack with textbooks in it to go for walks, but eventually it started making my back and shoulders a little sore. I was going to get a cheapo weighted vest on Facebook marketplace, but all the designs I found seemed like they’d be uncomfortable for women with larger chests. I guess most weighted vests must be geared towards men? So I went to him with my plight and he was off to the races. He found a USA-made weighted vest, specifically for women, and got it as a Mother’s Day present. It was pricier than the cheap versions I found, but if I’m buying something, I try to adhere to BIFL a.k.a Buy It For Life. This vest has a lifetime warrantee —something you’d never find on a random Amazon vest, ya know? PS: I started off with 20# and my body was angry at me, so I had to put my ego aside and start with 5# —but now I’m up to 7#!
Baby chicks! I mentioned in the last newsletter that we were eagerly waiting on a couple of broody hens to hatch babies, and we now have four new little fluffy butts that we welcomed to the flock.
Link Roundup
The Effervescent History of Seltzer, From the Early Days of Home Delivery to Today’s Trendy Cans [Smithsonian Magazine]
Ancient pollen reveals stories about Earth’s history, from the asteroid strike that killed the dinosaurs to the Mayan collapse [The Conversation]
Is it better to neglect your garden? [BBC]
The Debate That American Conservationists Should Be Having [The Atlantic]
You might accidentally be killing hummingbirds [Vox]
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I had been dreaming of going to see those gardens, but I didn't know about the trolls. Wow! Now my travel dream is turning into an action plan ... Thank you so much for those images!
Some really great recs this week! I’ll be looking into the “millow”. Recently realized that these cheapy IKEA pillows we’ve been sleeping on have been in our lives for far too long 🫣