LINCOLNVILLE — Finally, garden season is in full swing. Casual conversation at checkout counters, between dog walkers on the road, or while pumping gas almost always includes a reference to the garden: “we sure need this rain” or “got your tomatoes in, yet?” or “damn flea beetles are destroying my radishes.” Does everyone in this town have a garden? Probably, since a garden is in the mind of the gardener; it could be a quarter acre of vegetables including every edible thing that grows here to a couple of pots of herbs and a patio tomato or two.

It doesn’t matter what you’re growing, it’s the tending that matters. There’s the weeding, watering, pruning, the worrying that make the gardener, not the size of the plot. Right now, gardeners are in optimistic mode: the seeds coming up in neat rows bring visions of overflowing baskets, rows of canned goods, a bounty come harvest.

Three, four weeks from now, spirits will sink as hearty weeds (any plant more vigorous than the ones we planted) begin to crowd out those carrots, beans and tender lettuces. June’s promise turns to July’s reality. But hold on. Come August even a weed-choked row will yield more beans than one family can eat. The zucchinis are relentless producers, and if the corn survives the raccoons, the weeds won’t matter. Finally, squash and pumpkins show up when frost finally takes down vines and weeds alike.

Gardening produces as many dreamers as it does produce. Plants, by their very nature, are quiet; we can hear our selves think while we’re among them. As a gardener now in her later years, I have to find a comfortable position to spend any time pulling weeds or thinning carrots, generally sitting on the ground and scootching myself along the row. Down close to the earth this way, with only little plants for company the mind wanders down paths of its own.

My long-gone father often visits with me at those times. Like me, he was always happiest in his garden. June, the gardener’s most hopeful month, also held his birthday, and fittingly, Father’s Day.

Send me your own gardening ruminations and photos to use in this column.

Perhaps you’re a gardener who likes more order to your efforts than your own yard provides. Everywhere you look something needs to be done, until you throw up your hands and let it all go wild. Maybe you’d enjoy having a small plot all your own, one bounded by granite pavers, no more than a few square feet. There are some 20 such beds at Lincolnville Beach, various sizes and shapes, but all a manageable size. Several have been adopted, but many still need someone to take them over. Here’s longtime Beach gardener Lee Cronin’s report:

“Tuesday morning Kathleen [Oliver] went to town on her assigned beds which are in front of the post office. Marge Olsen tends in front of the former Thor building. My neighbor, Mariette takes care of the two that are located as you pull out of the parking lot on the southern end. I tend the boat, under the sign plus the two gardens as you cross the street to the Beach Store and the large one next to the boat. Catherine Lippman does in front of Spouter Inn and the Mills. Water is available at Dick's on the northern side of the [Lobster Pound] and Dwight Wass has water on the north side of his building [Lincolnville Fine Art Gallery] so people don't have to carry water to the Beach.

“Spending time at the Beach is full of surprises. This past week I received a $25 donation from the Women's Club so I could replace some of the flowers that didn't winter. Then two gentlemen who share their time between Florida and the Duck Trap Condos commented on how nice the Beach looks, and gave me $50 to purchase more flowers.

“Besides decorating the tree at the Beach for Christmas, the Lincolnville Improvement Association purchases the flowers annually for the boat. The town buys the flowers for the barrels on the bridge.”

Contact Lee, croninredsox@aol.com, if you’d like to take over tending one of these Beach beds. The bed that runs along the seawall south of the kiosk is meant to be a long bed of roses. The ones that the Department of Transportation planted several years ago have all died, and are slowly being replaced with rugosas. A couple (or a couple of friends) could take this one on and make a real impact if they could get this garden bed healthy and thriving.

Meanwhile, out at the Center Petunia Pump is once again blooming with its namesake flowers, thanks to neighbor Sally Laite. Sally and another neighbor, Joan Richardson, sort of take turns, every few years, planting, watering and generally keeping P.P. looking good.

Town meeting this past Thursday was blessedly peaceful after last year’s contentious battle over the police department. Hope resident Tom Ford, long-time moderator in that town, took over for our meeting, since our regular moderator, Ric McKitterick was out of town. The one item that might have caused argument was the fireworks ordinance, but it had been settled two days earlier by written ballot, passing by a mere five votes, about the same margin as last year’s police vote. The major objection to this new ordinance is apparently the difficulty in enforcing it. Hmmmmm.

Steve Nystrom, from the Applied Academics Department at CHRHS, will be the speaker at Thursday’s L.I.A. meeting, talking about his woodcraft students who are making the painted barn quilts we’ll see appearing on Lincolnville barns this summer. More about those barn quilts next week. I spotted my first one today on a neighbor’s barn over on Ducktrap Road.

If you have items for the Women’s Club Indoor Yard Sale, Lolly Clayton says: “please bring them to the L.I.A. building on Friday, June 20, between 3 and 7 p.m. No TVs, electronics, appliances, or very large items, please. Looking for nice, clean items and if you wish to price them ahead, that's very helpful! Thank you so much for your support.”

Proceeds of this sale, held the next day, Saturday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., go to the Hazel Peabody Scholarship Fund.

Note that Saturday there are two indoor markets to visit. Besides the Women’s Club sale, there’s the monthly Lincolnville Center Indoor Flea Market, sponsored by United Christian Church and held at the Community Building in the Center. Doors open there at 8 a.m. with a variety of vendors offering collectibles, antiques, handcrafts, and some special items offered by church members. Both sales promise good stuff!

Now that Randy Fein’s Arts at the Center (6 Heal Road, aka Grampa Hall’s) is officially open, classes and summer workshops are starting. One of the first is a four-day class for kids, ages 8-12, called Mermaid Magic, June 23-27. Using slab, coil and pinch techniques children will build ships, fish, mermaids, and sea monsters. Three other four-day workshops for kids will be offered throughout the summer on a rotating schedule. The complete schedule, including adult classes, is at artsathecenter.com.

The new Senior (55+) Slow Pitch Softball team gets underway this week, Thursday, June 19, at 6 p.m. at the LCS ball fields. Wayfarer has loaned some equipment, so the team can get started. Contact Leslie Devoe at 763-4239 for more information, or just show up with your glove. You do have a glove, right?

The opening reception reception for "The Solstice Exhibition" of prints, paintings, and drawings by Tim Higbee of Hope Editions will be held at the Community Building this Sunday, featuring not just Tim’s artwork, but music by Belfast pianist Clayton Clemetson. Tim’s artwork can be seen on Sunday mornings, at the July 12 Strawberry Festival, and by chance or appointment until July 17.  For more information, call 785-3521. The sponsor of these art shows is United Christian Church.

An item in a travel article in the Washington Post last week caught the eye of fans of Andrew’s Beer: "We made lobster rolls, ice cream and the locally brewed Andrew’s English Pale Ale our daily midday meal and tried to burn off some of the calories with woodsy climbs in Camden Hills State Park and walks along the blueberry fields of Beech Hill Preserve."

Read the whole article to learn about the huge spiders said to live up island on Islesboro.

Although I often complain about the dearth of interesting birds here in Sleepy Hollow — no cardinals, no orioles, never an indigo bunting or rose breasted grosbeak, and not a single blue bird, we do have a colony of ravens, or more accurately, a pair of ravens nesting on Frohock Mountain. They make daily forays over our place, often perching on the topmost branch of a huge, dead oak. In the winter they spend their mornings on the ground in the chicken yard eating corn side by side with the hens.

Ravens make a distinct croaking, underwater sound when they spot us outside, almost as if they’re acknowledging our presence way down on the ground. This afternoon I glanced up when I heard raven shrieks overhead, just in time to see our two driving off a bald eagle, scolding and croaking at him, sending him off directly away from Frohock Mountain. No bluebird ever managed that….

To be included in This Week in Lincolnville, contact Diane, ragrugs@midcoast.com with events, family milestones, wildlife sightings, anything to do with our town.