
Finch+Folly Blog
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Hi! I'm Allison. Here I'll chat about all things gardening, everything herbal, seasonal eating, natural living and living the simple life here in the woods of Maine. After 25 years of gardening, my philosophy today is to "Grow with the Flow"- finding fulfillment in your garden that goes way beyond your harvest. Basically, my goal here is to feed your soul, as well as your belly.
Finch+Folly Blog
3d ago
While January seemed to take a year to get through, February is zipping past fast. A little too fast…as the season for seed starting is finally here and I probably should start washing all those seedling containers I promised myself I would wash last spring ..read more
Finch+Folly Blog
3d ago
The most important piece of garden advice I can share in regard to growing peas is…grow them! Grow lots of them! Grow more than you think because suddenly you’ll find yourself eating them all right there in the garden. The probability of a pea harvest actually physically making it into the house is very low ..read more
Finch+Folly Blog
1w ago
Hello February! This seemingly quiet month heralds the official start of seed sowing season here in zone 5b. In just a mere week, ‘tis the season to get sowin’! But until then, here’s a little lore and more to kick-off your February ..read more
Finch+Folly Blog
2w ago
Why hello there! It’s me, your friendly ghosting gardener Allison. It’s been a while. I’ve missed you all and I’m looking forward to catching up. I hope you each have been well over this past year ..read more
Finch+Folly Blog
1y ago
Trellises, archways and arbors…oh my! The day I decided to grow up (literally), was the day my garden changed. Adding a few trellises to my landscape, instantly transformed my garden from a veggie producing patch to a wondrous new world. Aside from allowing me to live out my Secret Garden fantasy, vertical gardening also allows me to produce a lot more vegetables, flowers, and herbs without having to add in more growing space.
The material you choose to use for your trellises really sets the mood for your garden. I love to use branches, not only because I live in the woods and they’re plenti ..read more
Finch+Folly Blog
1y ago
If you build it, they will come…A little over a decade ago, I started transitioning my garden from a place where I grew things, into my own field of dreams. I wanted my gardens to be the place to bee (wink wink).
So I began to create an environment that beckoned to birds, bees, butterflies, frogs, snakes and every other critter and creature about our woods. Slowly, one-by-one, they began to come. With each passing year, as my gardens grew in size and lure, more and more visitors came. Today, our woods are so alive and vibrant with so much activity from all our creatures great and small, that ..read more
Finch+Folly Blog
1y ago
Save time, money and seeds this new growing season!
January 3rd…the holiday season is officially over and the seed starting extravaganza has officially begun!
Has anyone else noticed that much like everything else as of late, seed packet prices have skyrocketed? So much so, that I’ve had to excerpt much more will power than I usually do on my annual purchases. But that’s more than okay because I have plenty of seed stock carried over from previous years. And because the cost of electricity, potting soil and all the other seed starting support items have also seen increases, I’m ..read more
Finch+Folly Blog
1y ago
Happy New Year!! I’m so thrilled to welcome in 2023. Sending out all the best wishes for a brilliant, prosperous, joyous year ahead.
Over the past year, I made an effort to study and research more and more about how different cultures welcome the changing months and seasons, especially those which place Nature as their focus. So without any further ado, I happily kick off this new year, new month, with some of my favorite lore that celebrates everything January.
• January’s is named after Janu, who was the Roman god of beginnings and protector of entryways.
• January’s birthston ..read more
Finch+Folly Blog
1y ago
How it all began. The first impromptu (hence my stylish ensemble) fire pit and sit from back in February.
What began on a whim one brisk February day, quickly became a most cherished activity that changed my year in all the best of ways.
My husband had lugged one of our chicken coops down the hill, and in its wake, left a cluster of boulders whose original purpose was to be moved elsewhere on our property. That is until I walked out of my studio one January day and saw that that cluster of boulders would make the ideal fire pit. Anyways, how much easier it would be to be able to keep them whe ..read more
Finch+Folly Blog
1y ago
You know all those seeds that have written on their packet to be “directly sown in early spring as soon as soil can be worked”…well, those have always been pretty tricky ones for me here in my garden to swing.
In Maine, early spring still means snow, and usually still a good amount. Then there’s the whole waiting for the soil to be able to be worked, well some years that’s not until mid-May. And if I wait until then, many of these kind of seeds (which are primarily flowers), will not fair well as they don’t want to go from newly sown to summer temps as many of these seeds require a period of ..read more