Sprout Farm Newsletter May 23, 2026 sproutfarm.net open 9-5 daily

This is memorial Day weekend and we give special thanks for those who have served our country with their lives and their sacred honor. I helped with the signs at the Mashpee Rotary.

Jay wrote quite a sale section this week. Special this week; finally a Proven Winner sale. 41/2” pots on sale for 2/$10 however this does not include the following varieties:Lantana - all and Begonia double ups. These 2 varieties will be on sale while they last 2/$11.00. To get them off to a good start, our selection of Coast of Maine composts, 1 cu ft $11.99 for the next week will be on sale for $9.00.

One of the most time consuming chores is to take all those plants we have grown in the greenhouses and get them outdoors and onto the benches. Jay says we just don't have time to get the second planting of sunpatiens out to the benches so they are still in green house #4 and a few of you have found them. So now it's time for those of you who are still looking for sunpatiens to get in and get them out of the greenhouse. Would you believe it is almost time to pot up fall mums. I still need to get the bag of ice melt off the deck. We're sorry that some of your favorite veggies were not on the benches but they are in the seeding house and just breaking the soil in their cells and pots. We will continue to seed them up every few days but there are certain times of the year when we just don't have the space to keep up with the demand. We sill be planting cukes and squash for the next six to eight weeks. So if you think you missed the official window in which you must put your transplants into the ground, relax, you have plenty of time and the warmer days and nights will make the seedlings happier to grow.  This morning it was 43 degrees.  Warm weather plants sulk with those temps.

An old menace has returned. I was gazing over the garden one evening when I saw a creature eating the lettuce seedlings. Oh no, That's not a cat. It was a woodchuck. According to my father who went deer hunting in Maine but never saw a deer, woodchucks taste like chicken. Why would he know that? The first stage of removal was observation and realizing he had burrowed under the pallets that held the last of the winter wood supply. So we spent a lot of down time on the deck just watching the garden. That crafty marmot will be the challenge of the week. James stacked the wood in the basement, upended the pallets and found the hole in the sand. Wood chucks can tunnel up to 45 feet so there's no telling where the other entrance is. I can't remember seeing the house without a stack of wood under the deck. It looks naked. We'll spend some YouTube time gathering the wisdom of the gardeners and see if we can find a way to remove him before he does any more damage. I have no desire to test out my father's assertion on the taste of woodchucks. I'll stick to Stop & Shop, thank you.

The first flush of weeds is up and they spread over everything like a carpet. I'm keeping up with them so far which is why you don't see me out front very often. This week I have to get the weeds out of the greenhouses. There aren't very many now but they tend to grow big if left near drip irrigation plus fertilizer. Now if only the woodchuck would eat the weeds and leave the veggies alone.

My favorite tool is still the Husky hoe at Home Depot for $29.99. It is severely overlooked probably because people don't understand the advantages of a triangle shaped hoe with four very sharp sides and a point that can slice through any tough weed root clump. I wish it didn't come from China but the US version was good but not that good. My second favorite tool is the bamboo double loop. I build it with a wide loop for cleaning up areas of 4” and a narrow loop of about 1.5” All the better to remove weeds from in between beets and onions while standing up.

That's all the news from the farm for now. Stop by and see what we have growing for you.

Jay and Phyllis Sprout