welcome to Maine. I once use to live in Colorado, too. I do miss not knowing my directions as I do when I lived in COlorado...West was the mountains...so many trees here in Maine that I cant tell directions LOL...but I love it here all the same.
Best of luck in your move and job search. Are you looking for garden work, wasnt sure what you were implying if any type of work.

We would love to work in the gardening feild, but retail is probably more realistic. We want to live in a rural area but want to make sure there are year round jobs available. We have family in Bucksport and would like to live within about 30 miles or so from them.

What is the growing season like where you are at? How early in the year can you plant your garden?

Thanks for your responce, we appreciate the info and the welcome! :)

Koppasetic,

Welcome to Maine. This is just our third year here in Maine. We moved from St. Louis to stay here with our daughter, son-in-law, and darling grandaughter. Here in the Augusta area we are over an hour south of you, but I think our gardening season is pretty similar. Our "safe" last frost date is about Memorial day. Frequently the last killing frost here is about the middle of May. Most of our plants end their productive season toward the last of September.

Despite those limitations, we have had some of our most productive gardens here in Maine. I extend our gardening season by starting a lot of seedlings early inside under overdriven fluorescent lights. I started our onions from seed in January, and set large onion plants out early in May. Our peppers already had some pickable peppers when we set them out a couple of days ago.

Maine's cold climate helps control some insect pests. Squash bugs have been practically non-existent here, so our summer squash and zucchini have grown very well. Previously we gardened in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, and Missouri, and we fought a losing battle against squash bugs in all of those states.

Although we are technically in the city limits of Manchester, we are living kind of "out in the country" in a very wooded area that has abundant wildlife. Our first year here we planted several successions of sweet corn. The local wildlife, primarily squirrels with help from chipmunks, woodchucks, and raccoons, totally wiped out our corn by eating it a few days before it was ready to pick for us. The devastation was so complete that we haven't attempted to raise sweet corn since.

We abandoned bush beans in favor of pole beans. Despite the short growing season, the summer days are quite long, which can make things grow nicely.

MM

Speak for yourself about the squash bugs, MM!

Kopasetic, welcome to Maine. Most years we are able to work in our perennial gardens by early April, after the snow has melted and the ground has thawed. Cool-season vegetable seeds can go in at this time, although it will be quite a while before things warm up enough for any production. I live by the philosophy of getting everything done that I possibly can during the shoulder seasons before summer really begins. Along the southern coast, our last frost date is mid-May, in a good year most warm-weather crops can go in then. But for the past few years we have had curiously cold and damp Mays, and I just planted my tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers last week.

After the first frost, early- to mid-Oct, there is still a lot to do in the garden (dividing perennials, fall planting, clean-up, amending soil, bulbs, etc.), and many cold-weather crops will continue into Nov. Late Dec. seems to be the absolute end of growing even the hardiest vegetables, even in a cold frame. At least in my yard, but you should look into Eliot Coleman's books if you are interested in extending the season even more.

Welcome to Maine. You certainly can garden here. It's how I make my living. With season extension you can start growing in April and continue into December.

It sounds like you've never been here. You're in for a nice surprise.

Thank you all for your timely and friendly responses : )
Now about the job market lol, what areas would any of you suggest around Bucksport or Bangor within a reasonable proximity to find a relatively mundane job to support our family and our gardening habits. Mind you we are simple people and donÂt need a lot of money to survive, we will primarily hunt and fish for our food, also have a cow for our milk and chickens for eggs. We really only needs jobs that would acquire us enough money to pay utilities and taxes, car ins. etc. Anymore input would be greatly appreciated!

Veilchen,

"Speak for yourself about the squash bugs, MM!"

I take it that you do have a squash bug problem. That's worrisome. I'll keep my eyes open for them. I killed four striped cucumber beetles on our eggplants this afternoon (and at least one escaped by flying away.)

Oddly, none were on our cucumbers, but that will probably change. Our cucumbers are rather young and haven't even started to vine yet. With the cucumber beetle threat starting this soon, chances of these cucumbers getting bacterial wilt are rather high. I think I'll plant seeds to start a second wave of cucumbers in a week or two.

MM

Bangor is a BIG place, Koppasetic, and you are very likely to find something in retail there. They have the Bangor Mall and Home Depot and Target and many restaurants. And I think Bangor is within 30 miles of Bucksport. Bucksport is a pretty little town, though surely does not have the retail jobs that Bangor has.

Good luck with your move and gardening. I don't have to comment on gardening since others have done so well. I grow lots of perennials and some vegetables. It's been a "funny" season so far this year with lots of rain and clouds.

Joanie D

Bangor is just across the river and down the road a little from Bucksport. I have a friend who lives in Orrington. Nice little town. She has llamas, sheep and horses so I'm sure Orrington allows livestock. It's the town next to Bucksport. Brewer has two farmers markets and support from the community for the farmers.

Finding jobs in the Bangor/Brewer area should be fairly easy. The Penobscot River divides the cities. My dad is in Corinth. It's outside Bangor on Rt 15 (Broadway), convenient to most everything, small town, quiet, farm country.

I grew up in Veazie, one of Bangor's suburbs. You're moving to a nice area.

MM, squash bug AND cuke beetle problem. Every year, from the first time I planted a squash (You plant it, they will come. . .) I just put in my seeds last week, they are still very small, but I'm confident the bugs/beetles will come as they always do pretty soon.

Before I see the first sign of them, I am going to try Surround (see the veg. forum).

I live in Bucksport and we could use a good greenhouse here!Sell vegatable garden seedlings and some nice basic annuals not planted too early so they are bloomed out when you buy them and bet you could do well. Don't get me wrong, there are several nice greenhouses in neighboring towns, but Bucksport doesn't have their own right now. Middle to the end of May is last frost date and first frost is usually at the end of September. This whole area is nice so am sure you will find a good place to live.

Maine man I use to garden in Duncan Oklahoma, Abilene and wichita Falls Tx, Aurora Colorado, Cheyenne, Wyo and Omaha, Ne. My dad garden in KC. I like it much better here in Maine myself for gardening.
Now it looks like I may be gardening in the sonora dessert in Arizona during winters ( My DH has never lived anywhere but in Maine and Mass so he fell in love with the desert in Arizona!)

Maineman, what was your harvest on the shittakes this Spring? I only got 3 good size mushrooms. I still keep the logs outside, do you move the logs outside for the summer and winter...I just get jealous when I here you are harvesting so much mushrooms by bringing them into the greenhouse...I think I may try that this fall. Also how old are the innoculated logs. Mine are only 1.5 years old and was wondering if Ishould allow some of the mushrooms to stay long enough to release the spores to get back into the log?

Sue,

"I use to garden in Duncan Oklahoma, Abilene and wichita Falls Tx, Aurora Colorado, Cheyenne, Wyo and Omaha, Ne. My dad garden in KC. I like it much better here in Maine myself for gardening. Now it looks like I may be gardening in the sonora dessert in Arizona during winters ( My DH has never lived anywhere but in Maine and Mass so he fell in love with the desert in Arizona!)"

I think you have gardened in a much wider variety of places than I have. I started as a kid gardening in the Enid, Oklahoma area, followed by Norman, Okla, followed by Fort Worth TX, followed by Wichita KS, followed by the St. Louis area, and now here in Manchester Maine. I never really felt that I "mastered" any of those gardening challenges, although I probably came closest in Fort Worth, where I gardened for about 18 years. I am really making an effort here in Maine.

Will you be dividing your time between Arizona in the winter and Maine in the summer? That should be interesting.

"Maineman, what was your harvest on the shittakes this Spring?"

I think you meant to address that question to someone else. I haven't been growing Shitakes or any other mushroom. At least, not intentionally. Some of my compost mulch has been producing a wealth of toadstools, so I am going to research how to prevent that.

MM

Veilchen,

"Speak for yourself about the squash bugs, MM!"

Well, you have been proven right. Today I picked and killed 8 adult squash bugs from my squash plants -- 3 females and 5 males. It looks like the battle is joined here in Maine.

I hope to do better with the squash bugs than I did with the cucumber beetles. Despite my agressive picking of the CBs, they won -- both of my cucumber vines are dead with bacterial wilt. Funny, I never found a cucumber beetle on either plant. But apparently when I wasn't looking, one or more took a bite and infected both plants.

MM

Sorry about the squash bugs and cuke beetles, MM. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything :)

I remember one day last summer, my two squash plants were still quite small and had just started to grow new leaves. I looked at them and found them both swarming with squash bugs and cuke beetles, plus a squash vine borer moth hovering over them all. I was amazed. Like the plants had suddenly screamed "come eat me!" I dusted them with Seven, which I had never used before, and probably wouldn't have if they had blossoms (wouldn't want to poison the bees or the fruit). Temporarily took care of the problem until the Sevin wore off, and by that time they were blossoming. Back to hand-picking. I purchased a long needle-nose tweezers that helps me catch them. Squash bugs are easy but the cuke beetles are smarter and faster. The SVB moth is very smart, I've never been able to catch one.

Veilchen,

"I purchased a long needle-nose tweezers that helps me catch them. Squash bugs are easy but the cuke beetles are smarter and faster."

That sounds like an idea I may try. I was also thinking about an inspection mirror with a long handle to look under leaves without stooping down and disturbing the plant. Some cucumber beetles seem poised for take off, and do so if you even approach them. But I had a lot of success getting them in the wet weather, when they seemed to be trying to dry off preparatory to flying. I also got a bit stealthier with my approach.

MM

Inspection mirror! Let me know if/where you find one in a size suitable for finding bugs/eggs in the garden, MM.

Veilchen,

"Let me know if/where you find one in a size suitable for finding bugs/eggs in the garden."

Will do.

MM

Sorry to have gotten you confused, (embarrassed) 8-(

Arizona is my husbands dream, I moved to Maine because believe it or not...I love snow and the beautiful 4 seasons which Maine provides ( hold your tongues fellow Maineards....)
And yes. we will be splitting our time in both places...weird to be thinking about nut trees and growing citrus an figs and cactus, mesquite, etc...while I am battling with the slugs in a new garden bed that I havent been able to give much attention.

My choice is here in Maine!

Weel we finally made it to Maine. We have bought an acre of land in Frankfort. We LOVE it here so far. Haven't had much of a chance to garden yet but did have the lovley experience of pulling a huge tic off our dog today! We also are getting used to all the granit in the ground when we built our fence! Fun stuff. I am hoping that it will come in handy when I start building my flower beds next year.

Hope to learn more about gardening here and make some new friends!

Welcome to Maine, Koppasetic. And yes, the soil surely is rocky here. I have to amend the soil everywhere I put a plant. Dig soil, remove most of it, add promix, compost, plant the plant. Quite a process. It would have been easier to have loads of loam brought in but now it's not convenient to do that the way things are laid out. Oh well.

Happy gardening!

I see from the webpage at the link below that Frankfort used to be much larger than it was. Parts of it were used to make or enlarge the towns of Prospect, Hampden, Swanville, Winterport and Monroe.

Joanie D.

Here is a link that might be useful: Frankfort Maine

I think you should explore the area and towns around penobscot - orland - brooksville - blue hill peninsula etc. We live outside Castine which is a beautiful town but a bit isolated in winter. We love it but it isn't for everyone. Many of the small towns in this area are closer to the main drag (rte 1) which makes access to Bangor or Ellsworth much easier. Housing prices also vary quite a bit by town so check around.

When we relocated a few years ago we found we had to plan more carefully for trips because you can't just run out for errands - it seems to take about 40 minutes to get anywhere and by the time a bit of shopping is done there goes the whole afternoon. 4 wheel drive is essential if you drive in winter. By the way, a generator in the garage is a really good idea.

Our garden is great, from artichokes to zucchini, I think the closer you are to the water the longer your season will be.

If you are used to rural living you really should check out this area it is beautiful and it's easier to choose a town you love then see how you can make it work financially. Good luck!

Stupid me - that will teach me to ALWAYS read all the way through the postings before I shoot off my mouth. Good luck with your garden and home in Frankfort!

Hey Koopasetic,

How's things going in Frankfort? Have you found work there yet? I've lived in Claremont New Hampshire since 1999 and my full time hobby is gardening over a 1/2 acre mostly flowers but some veggies and messing around with our two man made ponds we put in. Before that I lived in Deer Park Washington for 10 years and did lots of flower and veggie gardening there. Before that I lived in Ft. Collins Colorado for 4 years and Vail for 4 years before that. I gardened a little in both places in Colorado and found it very difficult because of the cold evenings throughout the summer, and very early killing frost, and erractic changes in the weather all the time. I grew up in Newburgh Maine from 1960 until 1978, and my parents raised 7 kids and we had a huge veggie garden they grew every year and it supplied us with most of the veggies we ate year round, until we all moved away. My mother's best friend lives in Frankfort, and has always had a very nice veggie garden every since I can remember. After all the gardening I've done in several different area's of the country I find the New England area to be a very enjoyable area to garden. I have had the longest growing seasons here where I live and I live in a high zone 4. I'd freeze out everywhere else easily and most years by the middle of September. I hardly ever got ripe tomatoes before I moved here. My sister lives in Durango Colorado, and it's very hard for her to garden there.Here in Claremont I now live on a hill side that faces north, and have sandy soil up by the house, and clay wet soil below the house, and some ledge, but the variety enables me to try so many different things. This summer we had 32 tons of rock and ledge hauled in and put in one of the two ponds we have, and also put in a huge flower bed, and fire pit and seating area. I don't live up in your area anymore, but I know the area pretty good, and I think compared to Colorado your in a pretty nice gardening area. I just hope you like the winters here. The only thing I miss about Colorado is the fairly mild winters they have. Where did you live in Colorado? Anyways if you have any questions about the area maybe I can help.
Hope all goes well for you.

Sue in Claremont

Midcoastmainer, if you are still out there:
Can you tell us how you got your artichokes to produce? When did you start your seeds? Did you use season extenders, cold frames?
Thanks
Martha