Category: Outdoors

Starting from seeds

It’s time to get ready!

I love starting seedlings indoors when it’s still cold and raw outside. It makes me dream of summer and the first red tomato. For me, it is still too early to plant most things, and I certainly don’t want to have to baby my seedlings along for 12 weeks or more. But if you haven’t ever set up grow lights and don’t have all the equipment for indoor growing, now is the time to get everything you need before the stores sell out.

First, some basics: You need lights over your seedlings in order to get good plants. Yes, I know some people grow things on a bright windowsill for a few weeks, but getting sturdy tomato plants or zesty zinnias requires supplemental lighting.

Second, you can’t use garden soil to grow your seedlings. Ordinary garden soil is too heavy and gets compacted with watering, and it may harbor fungal diseases. You need to purchase potting soil.

Last, you need a place that is at least 60 degrees but no more than 70 degrees. Cooler temps at night are good. Electric heat mats placed under your seedlings will help get quick, even germination but are not required.

There are several types of lights for growing seedlings. For years I used fluorescent lights: 4-footers with fat T-12 tubes. These work but now have been replaced with more energy-efficient, slimmer, T-8 tubes. There are also LED grow lights of various sorts that use even less energy, though those can be very expensive.

Sold as shop lights, T-8 two-tube fixtures should cost around $20 each, plus the fluorescent tubes, which cost around $8 each. But do not, I repeat, DO NOT spend the money to buy full-spectrum tubes, which cost upward of $35 each. You are not raising plants for sale, and for the short time they will spend in your basement, regular cool white tubes are fine. Or mix cool and warm white to get a broader light spectrum.

If you have a warm basement, I’d suggest that the easiest approach for starting a few things would be to use a card table and 4-foot fluorescent fixtures hanging from the ceiling. Put plastic over the table to protect it from water spills.

You can also go to my website, gardening-guy.com, and search for “Building a Plant Stand.” That will give step-by-step directions for building an inexpensive A-frame plant stand that will hold six flats, and have room below it for four to six more flats on the floor.

Your hardware store can sell you something called “jack-chain” that will allow you to adjust the height of your lights as your plants grow. Ideally, your lights will hang about 6 inches above the top of your plants. Two 4-foot fixtures, each with two tubes, hanging a few inches apart will illuminate four flats (or trays) of seedlings. When you buy your flats, be sure to get those that do not have holes in the bottom, as some do. The flimsy “six-packs” that fit into the flats come in various sizes, but I always look for the biggest, deepest cells. So, yes, you can get tiny cells that will allow you to plant 48 or even 72 plants in a flat, but there is not much room for roots.

The flimsy six-packs tend to self-destruct easily, particularly if you try to wash them out for re-use. But there are heavy-duty planting trays and cells that will last many years. Gardener’s Supply sells them, along with clear domes to go over them. They cost more but will last forever, and some have self-watering features.

What about the soil mix for growing? Buy good-quality “seed starting mix” labeled as such. I mix it with high-quality compost in a 50-50 ratio. Sometimes I make my own starting mix using peat moss, perlite, vermiculite, compost and a slow-release organic bagged fertilizer. I start about 10 flats of plants each year, so there are cost savings for making my own mix.

Seeds are very susceptible to drying out, which can be lethal. One way to keep that from happening is to check on them often. Once a day is fine. Or, if you have a busy schedule, buy clear plastic covers that fit over each flat. These, like the flats, are reusable. They will steam up and rain the moisture back onto your plants, just like a tropical jungle. Remove them when most cells have plants that have germinated.

How deep should you plant your seeds? About three times the length of the seed. Tiny seeds need just a thin sprinkling of soil mix over them. Bigger things like pumpkin seeds can be covered with half an inch of soil mix. Press down lightly with your fingers after covering the seeds so the soil mix is in good contact with the seed.

Lastly, water them. I like a soda bottle for watering, as it can deliver a nice slow trickle. Water the soil mix before planting, because if it is too dry, it is resistant to absorbing water.

The bottom line is that starting seeds is fun. And it lets you choose plants you might not find at the garden center. So get your materials and set up your lights. I start tomatoes and other frost-sensitive plants six to eight weeks before I would put them in the garden.

Dream Big

Make a wish list of trees you want

I was recently thumbing through my first book, Notes from the Garden, looking for inspiration for yet another winter article. In it I read that I had planted my Merrill magnolia in 2001. I had forgotten that I planted it just 20 years ago this spring — it feels like it has always been there!

Looking out the window at that handsome tree that blooms each April with a thousand large, lightly fragrant double white blossoms made me think: How many of us plant a tree with a vision of what it will be like in 20 years? I had mainly hoped it would survive to bloom modestly, but it has been a magnificent tree for a decade or more.

I invite you to draw up a wish list this winter. Think of big, majestic trees that you wish to have and figure out where you could plant them. Dream of flowering trees. Think of native trees that will feed the baby birds with the thousands of barely noticeable caterpillars that feed on their leaves. Imagine a recliner in the shade of a tree you have planted. Picture grandchildren playing in its shade.

I think it’s important to realize that trees get to be of a good size fairly quickly. Most grow two to three feet per year, some even more than that. So what if you are 60 or 70 or 80 years old? Even if you never live to see it bloom or drop nuts on the lawn, you are improving the environment, now and in years to come.

Years ago I visited author, illustrator, eccentric and well-known recluse Tasha Tudor at her home in southern Vermont. She was in her late 80s at the time but still was planting trees. She asked me if I could help her find two specific crabapple varieties that she had planted 30 years before but was unable to find anywhere.

One variety I found at EC Brown’s nursery in Thetford, Vermont. The other I could not find, so I asked her where she had purchased it. She told me that she bought it at Weston Nurseries, and I called them. The woman who answered the phone remembered her, and the fact that she traveled with a rooster under her arm. Amazingly, she also remembered the fellow who waited on her that day; he still worked there, and he was brought to the phone. He explained that the variety was no longer in production. End of story.

Actually, it was not. I saw Wayne Mezitt, the owner of Weston Nurseries, at a trade show, and told him the story of his people remembering Tasha. He said he would make her some of the trees she wanted by grafting branches onto root stock. And he did. Three years later, Wayne and I met and presented Tasha with the trees she wanted. By then she was past 90 but still planting trees. Did she ever get to see them blossom? Unlikely, but I love the idea of someone her age planting trees. I hope to do the same.

If you plant trees over a long period of time it is hard to keep track of when you planted them,and the variety planted. Keeping track takes real discipline. In my experience, tags are fine for a few years, but eventually they get lost or the writing fades until it is unreadable.

If you are linked closely to your phone or tablet, that might be one way to keep track of what you plant — until the phone dies or gets replaced. I don’t have a cell phone, so I cannot advise how to keep records on it. But I do take lots of photos and they are in my computer by date, so I should be able to find most anything I plant — so long as I label well — and the computer doesn’t eat things, which mine does from time to time.

I like writing things down, using a real pen, sometimes even using my trusty fountain pen. Years ago I bought a 10-year Gardener’s Journal from Lee Valley Tool Co. They still sell them, and at about the same price: $32.90. It is hard-covered and durable. The only thing it lacks is a search function. It has a page for every day of the year, and 10 sections per page — a few lines for every day. In principle I would write the weather, what I planted or pruned or dug out every day. But life gets in the way of even the best of intentions.

I like old-fashioned “3×5” cards for making lists: to-do lists, grocery lists. They fit nicely in a pocket and good ones are quite sturdy. My Winter Resolution (like a New Year’s resolution, but made after Groundhog Day) is this: I will fill in a note card every time I plant something. I have an old-fashioned wooden box designed for 3×5 cards, and I will use it to keep track of my plantings this year.

So what will go on the cards? First I have to decide if I will use common names or scientific names for alphabetizing the plants. I will use the scientific names, as that is how I think of most of my plants. But I will also include common names. Date planted, source of the plant, where planted, perhaps soil amendments added or any other details that might be useful. If plants die, I will keep the card, but place a black dot on the upper right corner of the card.

Last fall I wrote up a list of woody plants I have planted here in Cornish Flat since I bought my house in 1970. I listed nearly 80 species or varieties. I think I’ll fill in a card for each tree on the next raw, gray, wet day.

Featured Photo: Wayne Mezitt presents Tasha Tudor a White Weeper crab apple. Photo courtesy of Henry Homeyer.

Build a garden library

Basic books to get you started

I know that many people, especially gardeners under the age of 40, use the internet to find the answers to their questions. That is fine, but the internet is full of “fake news” and spurious assertions. I do use the web, but if I want to learn about something in depth, I reach for a book. People who write books generally write about things they know. Garden books are written by gardeners.

Some years ago I taught a class in sustainable gardening at Granite State College, part of the University of New Hampshire system. I asked my students to buy The Garden Primer by Barbara Damrosch. This paperback is a compact 800 pages of readable, educational information about nearly every aspect of gardening. It came in out on 2008, but is still in print. Everyone could benefit by owning it.

For a book on vegetable gardening there is none better than Vermont’s own Ed Smith’s The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible. With more than a million copies sold, this book goes into detail on every veggie you could grow — when and how to plant, how long seeds last, when to harvest, and much more.

Are you interested in flower gardening? My first choice of books would be Tracy DiSabato-Aust’s book, The Well-Tended Perennial Garden: Planting & Pruning Techniques. She is obviously a well-experienced gardener and designer, and one who has learned to get her flowers to re-bloom, or bloom at a shorter height, and who knows how much sun and water each needs. Staking? Dividing plants? It’s all there and more.

For the serious flower gardener or landscape professional I would recommend a 1,100-page book by Allan M. Armitage: Herbaceous Perennial Plants: A Treatise on their Identification, Culture, and Garden Attributes. This book came out in 1989 and it is now its fourth edition, which came out in 2020. My goal for the winter is to read it, or the relevant parts, cover to cover. Why? Because I can learn from a man who is not only a Ph.D. professor but a hands-on gardener of many decades.

There are plants in the book that I absolutely lust for. Unusual plants that will fill niches in my diverse garden beds. It also tells me why some plants I have tried have died out. It informs me about named varieties to look for that have special attributes.

Dr. Armitage is opinionated and often funny. I like that. It has some photos, but certainly not one for every flower mentioned. This is not a coffee table book, but a book for plant collectors, landscapers — and fanatics. At just under $80, I think it’s a bargain.

Trees? The most prolific and best informed expert, in my opinion, is Michael Dirr. I use his Manual of Woody Landscape Plants: Their Identification, Ornamental Characteristics, Culture, Propagation and Uses every week of the year. It has informed me about any tree or shrub I want to know about. Now in its sixth edition, it sells new for $81.80, but it is available used for much less (usually earlier editions).

Professor Dirr also has written many other books, several of them with terrific color photos (in contrast to his Manual, described above, which has only drawings). I spent one winter going through his Dirr’s Encyclopedia of Trees and Shrubs with its descriptions of 3,700 species and cultivars and 3,500 photos.

Pruning is key to keeping your woody plants looking good. My favorite pruning book is by Lee Reich, The Pruning Book. With both diagrams and photographs, this book covers many species and their specific needs. His book Grow Fruit Naturally is another excellent book you might want.

Soil is the key to good gardening but a topic that is usually boring and scientifically described. Want an easy explanation of how it works? Try a book by Dianne Miessler, Grow Your Soil: Harness the Power of the Soil Food Web to Create Your Best Garden Ever. It explains very well how soils work, what soil test results mean, and how to correct deficiencies. You don’t need to be a scientist to read this one ($16.95 in paper).

Stone is a key element in many gardens, part of the “bones” of a garden. Dan Snow, a Vermont dry stonewaller and stone artist, has written a number of fine books on using stone. Listening to Stone and In the Company of Stone both offer practical and philosophical advice and share many fine photos of his projects.

Gordon Hayward, a Vermont landscape designer and prolific author, also has an excellent book on how to use stone, Stone in the Garden: Inspiring Designs and Practical Projects. Want to build a stone path or a retaining wall? Hayward simplifies the process. As with Dan Snow’s books, great photographs full of ideas.

Sydney Eddison is another prolific garden writer with many fine titles. Her The Gardener’s Palette: Creating Color in the Garden taught me a lot about the use of colors in the garden. Her advice is always practical and nicely explained.

So invest in some books this winter, curl up in a comfy place and see what you can learn that will help you, come spring.

Featured Photo: Two fine books on perennial flowers. Courtesy photo.

Sweaters for the history books

Manchester museum displays Pandora Sweaters exhibit

Between 1940 and 1990, a bold neon sign that read “Home of Pandora Sweaters” sat on top of the Pandora Mill building at 88 Commericial St. in Manchester. This March, some of these letters will make an appearance at the Manchester Historic Association’s Millyard Museum as part of a special exhibit, “Pandora by Design: Sweaters from the Millyard.”
The exhibit is scheduled to open on March 9 and will run through August in the museum’s Henry M. Fuller State Theatre Gallery.

The fashion-focused exhibit will take a look at the history of Pandora Industries starting when they first came to Manchester as Brookshire Knitting Mills, according to Jeff Barraclough, the Millyard Museum’s director of operations and the exhibit’s assistant curator.

“It’s a fun exhibit that really looks at the design of Pandora and the different sweaters and materials that they produced over the years,” he said.

Not to be confused with the modern-day Pandora jewelry, Pandora Industries made textile products, such as knitwear and sportswear; the company produced as many as 60,000 sweaters per week, according to the Millyard Museum website, and its specialty was women’s sweaters. Pandora relocated from New York to Manchester’s millyard in 1940 and became a great source of employment for the city, employing as many as 1,000 individuals at a time. It was also one of the last places to manufacture textiles in the millyard.

According to Barraclough, the sweater company was owned by Saul and May Sidore, who later became May Gruber. Gruber was a pioneer in Manchester’s business industry, during a time when few women held positions of power, he said. The exhibit will feature a video that talks about Gruber’s life and influence.

The centerpiece of the “Pandora by Design” exhibit will be part of the neon sign that was once atop the Pandora building. In all its glory, the sign read “Home of Pandora Sweaters.” On display will be the fully restored “Sweaters” piece of the sign. When the Manchester Historic Association announced the sign restoration project in a press release last summer, it noted that the “Pandora” piece of the sign was beyond repair, and that when the sign was removed from the building in the early 2000s some of the letters disappeared. One of those missing letters was returned last year, allowing the Historic Association to move forward with the restoration.

“It’s a really cool centerpiece of the exhibit,” Barraclough said.

The exhibit will also feature a large collection of Pandora sweaters and advertisements from the 1970s and ’80s. These pieces were donated by one of Pandora’s former designers. The sweaters will be displayed on mannequins throughout the exhibit. Additionally, photographs will be displayed showing workers in Pandora’s factories. Barraclough called it “the production piece” of the exhibit.

Barraclough said he hopes that visitors will leave the special exhibit with a sense of nostalgia, whether they’re residents of Manchester who have family members who worked in the millyard, people who worked in the mills themselves, “or even just people who remember buying and wearing Pandora sweaters,” he said.

The Millyard Museum has Covid safety precautions in place, and this exhibit will adhere to the protocols without exception. Masks and social distancing are required, and only 30 guests are allowed in the museum at one time. – By Sadie Burgess

Pandora by Design: Sweaters from the Millyard
When: March 9 through August 2021
Where: Manchester Historic Association’s Millyard Museum, 200 Bedford St., Manchester
More info: manchesterhistoric.org/events

Featured photo: Vintage Pandora ad. Photo courtesy of Jeff Barraclough.

Make your houseplants happy

Mid-winter care for sad indoor plants

Are you suffering from the mid-winter blahs? More importantly, are your houseplants? We can’t be in our gardens outside now — except for a few stalwarts who are pruning, I suppose — but we can take good care of our houseplants.

Although I have not the passion for houseplants that I do for plants outdoors, my friends seem to think it is all right to dump tired or depressed houseplants on me — I mean, they gift me houseplants that need a little extra care. This winter I ended up with around 50 houseplants, including a banana tree, cacti of various sorts, a gardenia and much, much more. That’s fine. I will re-gift some in the spring or summer, and move the rest outdoors.

One of the best things you can do for your houseplants is to be judicious in watering. More is not better! Roots will rot, especially if the soil mix has gotten compacted over the years (as organic matter has been depleted).

That said, as February transitions to March, the sun is stronger than it was in January, and the plants are waking up for spring. Their roots are growing and seeking moisture. Instead of watering once a week, twice a week is better for some. Leaves are growing and need more water.

Rosemary plants, which do well in dry climates like California or the Mediterranean coast, do not survive if their roots become totally dry. Outdoors there, their roots go down deep to a soil layer that is slightly moist all year. But in a pot? It’s easy to let them dry out.

If you see the leaves start to wilt, water immediately! Sadly, if you miss a watering and the plant is in a sunny window, your plant may die. And then, no matter how much you water your dead rosemary, it will not come back to life. I know, I’ve tried. Just harvest the leaves and use them in the kitchen.

I keep a woodstove chugging along day and night, all winter. I keep a kettle on it to add a little moisture to the air, but that is not nearly enough to keep most houseplants happy. The best thing you can do if you have a warm, dry house is to buy a humidifier. This will make you more comfortable, too.

I have a small humidifier in the bedroom that will deliver a gallon of water to the air in 12 hours, but that is a drop in the bucket for an entire house. So I also have a cabinet-style humidifier that will deliver 5 gallons of water to the house in 12 hours. It wicks up water and then blows air over the wick to evaporate it. Since I have an open-plan home, this helps throughout the downstairs. Still, it is a struggle to keep the house at 40 percent relative humidity, my goal. It would be easier to do if I kept it running 24/7, but I don’t like the sound of the fan all day, and mainly run it at night. I fill the humidifier with a watering can from the garden that I fill in the bathtub.

Last fall Cindy asked if I knew a greenhouse that would keep a client’s gardenia for the winter. She said she’d been told they were fussy, needed high humidity and were aphid-prone. I asked one greenhouse, and was told $5,000 would be about right for caring for one for four or five months. Huh. So I decided to do it — for free, and for the challenge of it.

The gardenia was loaded with flower buds when it came to the house in October. So far, we have had two flowers blossom, but most dried up and fell off. Still, getting any blossoms is a victory, I think. So how did I do it? I’d like to say it is aphid-free because I washed the leaves and growing medium carefully before bringing it in the house. That’s what I would recommend. But life was busy, and it’s a 4-foot-tall tree in a 50-pound pot, so I just lugged it in — frost was predicted.

I carried it upstairs to our cool, sunny laundry room. I filled a 12-inch plant saucer with small stones, and kept the saucer full of water. The gardenia sat on the stones and breathed in the evaporated moisture. I also sprayed the gardenia with a special plant misting device made by Florasol. This sprays a very fine spray with an easy squeeze and is the best of the sprayers I’ve tried.

Still, it was not happy. Buds dried and dropped. I moved it into a bathroom where the shower is used twice a day, morning and evening. Everyone was asked to spray anytime they were in the bathroom. But there was not enough sunshine, and still no blossoms opening up.

Finally I hauled it back down the spiral staircase (losing buds along the way) and set it next to my desk and computer, the warmest place in the house. I set up that big humidifier nearby and keep the hand sprayer handy. It is in a bright, west-facing window and is in flower now. And no signs of aphids!

In March I will start to help some dormant plants to wake up. I’ve had a fig tree and a crape myrtle in pots in our dark basement at 40 degrees all winter. They’ve dropped all leaves, and I only water them every six weeks or so, and lightly. But I will bring them up into the house and give them a taste of liquid fertilizer — just a light dilution. I like Neptune’s Harvest fish and seaweed formula. That worked fine last winter.

So keep an eye on your houseplants, and if they get dusty you can take one in the shower with you and give it a good spray.

Featured Photo: Gardenias are fussy and hard to get to bloom indoors. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

The year of pets

The tales of puppies, sugar gliders, a potbelly pig and other animals that found new homes in the last year

With limited opportunities for human socialization over the past year, many New Hampshire residents have turned to companionship of the furry, feathered and scaly variety. Meet some of the animals who found their forever-homes during the pandemic.

Beauty and Beast

Beauty and Beast are two nearly one-year-old sugar gliders, mammals native to Australia that look like a cross between a small racoon and a flying squirrel. Sheila Sanville of Londonderry adopted the pair last September from the Raymond-based Our Sugar Gliders of New Hampshire, soon after moving into her new home.

Sanville had owned two other sugar gliders, named Tink and Simba, around a decade ago. In captivity, she said, they tend to live up to 10 to 12 years.

“My mother-in-law had a co-worker who needed a home for her sugar gliders, which is how I first got Tink and Simba. I had never heard of them before and I said I would love to know what they are all about,” she said.

She found Beauty and Beast (then known as Bambi and Thumper) from the Raymond rescue and sanctuary through Facebook.

“I work at a school and we were remote at the time,” she said. “I knew that I could give them more time and attention than I ever could have … to just make that bond with me.”

Sugar gliders can make good pets, just as long as you do your research. According to Sanville, they are nocturnal and have different diets depending on their age. State laws vary in the legality of keeping them as pets, although it is legal in most, including New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

“In the wild, you’ll find them at the tops of trees,” Sanville said. “They have skin under their arms and legs that helps them ‘glide’ from tree to tree.”

Coco

Derry couple Michael Pereira and Amy Wales had fostered several dogs from Second Chance Ranch Rescue in New Boston prior to adopting one themselves. After Solomon and Sadie, two dogs they had fostered who respectively were adopted into new homes in late 2019 and June 2020, Pereira and Wales met Coco (previously Vera), a 3- to 4-year-old black Lab pitbull mix who was introduced to them by Second Chance Ranch owner and founder Kristin Morrissey. “Kristin’s goal is really to find the right home that’s a good match for the dogs,” Pereira said. “We recently took guardianship of my wife’s cousin, who has special needs, and Coco has done incredibly well with her. … She’s also great with our kids.”

Vera, he said, was renamed Coco after the 2017 Disney film of the same name.

“From what we understand, she was a sweet caring and nurturing mother,” he said. “She loves hugs and will cuddle with anyone.”

Herbie

Ryan Moran never thought he’d get a pet bearded dragon. But when his sister Nicole, who works at the Manchester Animal Shelter, sent him a post on a dragon named Jackie Chan that was looking for a new home, he was intrigued.

“I thought he looked cool … [and] I’ve always been drawn to an animal with a funny name,” he said.

Moran had always had dogs in his family growing up. But with his landlord not allowing dogs in his apartment, and with Moran working from home more often during the pandemic, he became interested in the prospect of owning a new pet reptile. Jackie Chan was eventually renamed Herbie — Moran plays the piano and named him after pianist Herbie Hancock. Through online research and a visit with the veterinarian, he worked to educate himself on Herbie’s enclosure habitat, behavioral patterns and diet.

“Bearded dragons are omnivorous, so they’ll eat mostly leafy greens and different proteins,” Moran said. “He’s actually encouraged me to eat a little healthier and expand my own horizons.” Dragons, he said, also love natural sunlight and are drawn to windows.

“The cool thing is that he’ll change color,” he said. “Most of the time he’s a lighter tan color, [but] he turns a darker color to absorb more heat and he turns totally white when he’s sleeping.”

Iceberg Lettuce

Iceberg Lettuce, also known as Iceberg or “Icy” for short, is a 2-year-old female parakeet with light green feathers and a yellow head and tail. Thirteen-year-old Doc Willoya of Manchester received Iceberg as a birthday present last November from the MSPCA adoption center at Nevins Farm in Methuen, Mass.

Due to the pandemic, according to Willoya’s mother, Constance Spencer, they were required to make an appointment ahead of time to meet Iceberg.

“When we got there, we had to wait to be let in … and they escorted us straight to the bird room,” Spencer said.

Though Iceberg is currently recovering from an upper respiratory infection, she is a very musical bird.

“She just loves to chirp all day,” said Willoya, who also has another parakeet and a green-cheeked conure.

Also known as budgies, parakeets like Iceberg live for around 15 years and have a diet that includes pellets, seeds and chopped up vegetables.

JoeE

Katie Hall, her husband Chris and daughters Olivia and Lucy adopted this adorable 4-month-old Lab mix puppy late last month from Second Chance Ranch Rescue in New Boston. JoeE (pronounced “joey”) is named after the street the shelter is located on (Joe English Road) and is also short for Joe English Hill in New Boston, near where Chris’s parents still live. After the Hall family dog, Maple, passed away last fall at the age of 10, Katie said, searches for a new pup were made online via Petfinder to no avail.

“It was pretty limited in the midst of the pandemic,” she said. “It was hard to get a timely response from anyone.”

The Halls eventually learned of opportunities available at Second Chance Ranch Rescue, and met with potential adoptees in an outdoor fenced area on the property while masked up. JoeE was one of at least three littermates the family visited.

“Part of our inspiration to get a puppy was for the kids to have those childhood memories and adventures,” Hall said.

JoeE has adapted to his new home very quickly — you just can’t leave him unsupervised, Hall said, or he’ll try to chew on a glove, mitten or shoe.

Kane

Kane is a 2-year-old medically needy American Staffordshire terrier who found his new home in late January. Chris Garceau of Windham came across an online post about Kane from the Animal Rescue League of New Hampshire in Bedford.

A pet owner for three decades, Garceau has adopted several other animals with medical conditions in the past. He most recently had a 13-year-old springer spaniel with canine cognitive dysfunction named Lexi; she passed away last September.

“I didn’t want to see a dog like Kane end up with a family that couldn’t afford his care,” said Garceau, who noted that Kane is on multiple medications for food and skin allergies.

Garceau also has two cats, Dezzy and Tyna, who came from Pope Memorial SPCA in Concord, and reports that Kane has settled in with his new furry housemates seamlessly.

Oakley

Oakley is a sweet 12-week-old female Lab mix who came all the way from Puerto Rico. Melissa Magee of Sandown and her family adopted Oakley in late January from The Student Rescue Project, a Vermont-based volunteer-run organization that rescues stray and abandoned dogs from the U.S. territory. Once she received her vet clearances, she was to be flown into Boston to be picked up by the rescue.

“Covid caused so many delays and forced schedule changes so the flights had to be rebooked more than once,” Magee said in an email. “Because of this, Oakley and the rest of the dogs with her ultimately traveled for two days from Puerto Rico to Baltimore, New York City and Philadelphia before being driven to Connecticut, and finally to Vermont.”

The pandemic, she said, also made the pickup process very quick and informal.

“We had to stay in our vehicle, with masks on, and have our puppy brought out to us,” she said. “There was a quick handoff, details about receiving her paperwork, and then we were off.” Despite the initial scheduling hiccups, Magee said the young pup has quickly acclimated to her new home and bonded with the family’s 2- and 4-year-old sons and their other rescue dog, an English shepherd and Great Pyrenees mix named Pooh Bear.

Scarlett

Christine Kay of Merrimack brought this 9-year-old senior cat home earlier this month. A retired teacher, Kay had another cat that passed away about three years ago and had thought about adopting again.

“I came across Scarlett online and really liked her,” she said. “I had no other pets, just me, and now of course we can’t travel … so I thought she might be a good fit.”

Kay said she was so excited to meet Scarlett that she drove to the Animal Rescue League of New Hampshire in Bedford in a snowstorm. Scarlett, in turn, jumped on her lap almost immediately. “[The Rescue League’s] website says you can take the animal home the same day, and I left the little carrying cases outside the room hoping that that would happen,” she said.

In addition to some upper respiratory challenges, Scarlett has had several of her teeth removed and is a very fussy eater, oftentimes not touching her food in the morning.

“They were very up front about everything that needed to be done,” Kay said, “and I thought, ‘you know what, I can handle this.’ I don’t mind, because she’s worth it.”

Zazu

Named after the character from The Lion King, Zazu is a 3- or 4-month-old black and white domestic shorthair kitten. Londonderry native and University of New Hampshire student Saba Awan had gone fully remote with her classes and wanted a new pet kitten. She found Zazu late last year.

“I had nothing to do and we were all home anyway, so we knew he was always going to have somebody around,” Awan said. “He settled in pretty much immediately. … He could fit in my hand when we first got him. He’s a little bit bigger now but not by much.”

Banana

Kim Caddle of Stratham adopted 2-year-old male pup Banana from the New Hampshire SPCA last June.

“We had fostered a few dogs for the last couple of years and knew it was time for our family to get a forever dog again,” she said.

When the NHSPCA first brought Banana out to meet Caddle and her family, he was “smiling from ear to ear,” she said, and the connection was instant.

“As soon as he approached my 8-year-old son, he reached up and covered his face in kisses,” she said. “That sealed the deal.”

Caddle said Banana is “the friendliest goofball” who is full of energy but also loves downtime with lots of cuddles.

During the pandemic he has made friends with the neighborhood kids and has become the “mascot,” Caddle said, for the pod classroom of third-graders who meet at her home.

“Everyone on Zoom knows who he is,” she said.

Jimmy

Wife and husband Alison and Mark Langlois of Goshen had been looking for a companion pig to join the other rescue pigs and animals on their hobby farm, so when 8-year-old potbellied pig Jimmy became available at the New Hampshire SPCA, they applied right away.

“One look at his photo online stole my heart, but even more so when I arrived and saw him basking in the sun next to his duck friends,” Alison Langlois said. “He was pure joy from the first moment.”

When they brought Jimmy home from the New Hampshire SPCA a few weeks ago — a two-hour car ride in an SUV — they tried to have him ride in the back of the hatchback trunk, but he was “having none of that,” Langlois said.

“[He] opted instead to climb up next to me in the back seat and ride the rest of the way like a human,” she said.

In the short time that Jimmy has been at his new home, Langlois said he fits right in and has already made friends with one of the sheep on the farm.

“It’s heartwarming to watch these beloved animals interact,” she said.

Bennie and Charlie

Wife and husband Lisa and Scott Hunt of Hillsborough already had two hound rescues and weren’t planning to adopt any more dogs, but when they saw a post on Facebook featuring 12-year-old puggle pair Ben and Charlie, who had been left at the Manchester Animal Shelter, they found it hard to look away.

“We knew we had to go meet them,” Lisa Hunt said. “The minute we met them, it was love at first sight. … We [applied] and prayed that we would be chosen to give these boys the best last years of their lives.”

Charlie is “Mr. Personality,” Hunt said — very vocal and loves to play with his toys and roll around on the floor — while Bennie is “cooler than the other side of the pillow” and loves his nap times.

“They are both sweet, funny, loving and just pure goodness,” she said. “They are both very spunky too. You would never know they are little old men.”

Their favorite part of the day, Hunt said, is their morning Dunkin run.

“We pile [all the dogs] into the car … [to get] our iced coffees and their doughnuts,” she said. “Everyone [at Dunks] knows them, and they love the attention from their doughnut friends.”

Hunt said the dogs have brought her family “instant peace and feelings of love” throughout the pandemic.

“I think about how lucky our family is to have these sweet boys by our side during the toughest times we have ever faced,” she said. “Who is luckier, us or them?”

Baby

Having lived her first year as a feral dog on the streets of Georgia, Baby was in need of a foster home with another dog who could help her learn how to live domestically. Wife and husband Shannon and Nate Sprague of Pelham, who heard about Baby through a post on the Greater Derry Humane Society’s Facebook page, felt that they and their dog George would be able to fulfill that need, but then something happened that they did not expect.

“We took her in to foster … and she never left,” Shannon Sprague said. “We fell in love with her … and couldn’t imagine living without her.”

Baby has come a long way since they made the adoption official last March, Sprague said. At first Baby was petrified of people and wouldn’t step outside of her crate or let anyone touch her. Now she loves snuggling, hiking and going for car rides with the family.

“George took her under his wing and truly taught her how to live in a home with people and other animals,” Sprague said. “She has transformed into a completely different dog. … We can hardly believe it.”

Sprague said Baby has been a source of comfort for the family during the pandemic, especially for Sprague’s 15-year-old daughter, Gwyneth.

“Gwyn is an extremely social teenager and has been hit hard emotionally at times due to the pandemic,” Sprague said. “Baby has rescued her as much as she rescued Baby. They are smitten with each other.”

Sugar

Katie LeBeau works at the Nashua Humane Society for Greater Nashua. It was there that she first met Sugar, a 13-year-old cat who was up for adoption.

“It was love at first sight,” LeBeau said. “I would care for her every day, and we developed a bond while she was waiting to be adopted.”

LeBeau said she thought about adopting Sugar every day but was hesitant because she had another cat at home and wasn’t sure how the two would get along. One day LeBeau came in to work to find that Sugar had been adopted.

“I was happy she had found a home, but heartbroken at the same time,” she said.

The adoption did not work out, however, and Sugar returned to the shelter shortly after. This time LeBeau didn’t hesitate.

“I just knew I could not let her go again, so I adopted her as soon as I could,” she said.

Fortunately, LeBeau said, Sugar and LeBeau’s other cat, Simba, get along great.

“They are very happy together,” she said. “They act like they have lived together their whole lives.”

Rue

Last December, Heather Mills of Nashua agreed to foster Rue, a 3-month-old Chihuahua mix up for adoption at the Humane Society for Greater Nashua, while the puppy was being medicated for anaplasma, a tick-borne disease.

“The shelter felt it would be best for her to go into a home setting instead of sitting in a shelter while on the medication to receive socialization that is so important at a young age,” Mills said.

Mills, who had just adopted a kitten a month before, had no intention of adopting another animal, but when Rue and the kitten “fell in love right away,” she started to reconsider.

“As the month went on I kept telling myself, ‘No, I don’t want a puppy,’” she said. “In the end I just could not part with her. … It was just meant to be.”

Mills said Rue is affectionate, loves people and is “the ideal lap dog,” and has been a comfort to Mills’ daughter, who was a college student when the pandemic hit.

“She is going through some depression like so many other young adults,” Mills said, “but [Rue] just brings a light into our home [and] brings both myself and my daughter so much joy.”

Juneau

Wife and husband Donna and Eric Long of Bradford had been considering getting a dog after their 14-year-old Labrador retriever died in 2019. When the pandemic hit, they decided to not put it off any longer.

“My husband and I were both working from home, [so] we figured it would be a good time to train a puppy,” Donna Long said.

In September they adopted Juneau, a 9-week-old Siberian husky, Labrador retriever and boxer mix, from Pope Memorial SPCA in Concord.

“We put in an application for a puppy, and we were matched up with her,” Long said. “We visited with her for a bit … and she stole our heart immediately.”

Long said they are always looking for ways for Juneau to engage with other people and dogs in hopes of preventing separation anxiety if and when the couple returns to working outside of the home.

Juneau has even had the unique opportunity of getting to know her biological siblings thanks to the owner of one of the siblings, who proposed that they all keep in touch. The group has connected eight out of the 10 adopted puppies from Juneau’s litter, occasionally getting together for playdates, sharing pics and keeping each other updated on the pups’ weights and developing personality traits.

“It usually takes a few moments [for the puppies] to remember who they are [during the playdates], but then they are so happy to play together,” Long said. “It is fun to watch all the siblings grow up together.”

Prosecco

Katie Boyden met 9-year-old cat Prosecco at the Humane Society for Greater Nashua, where she works as the director of community engagement.

“I would visit her kennel and she would meow and come right up to me,” Boyden said. “I knew from the moment I met her that our personalities were meant to be.”

Boyden said she had no intention of adopting an animal during the pandemic, but after seeing a promotional video the Humane Society made with Prosecco giving a “shelter tour,” she couldn’t resist.

“It stole my heart. … I fell in love immediately,” she said. “When I saw she was still available the next day, I adopted her.”

Prosecco loves snuggles, french fries and accompanying Boyden to work in her “adventure backpack,” Boyden said, but most of all she loves to be the center of attention, especially on Zoom calls.

“She sits front and center in front of the camera whenever I Zoom,” she said. “She has become well-known around Greater Nashua; anyone who has Zoomed with me has gotten to know my beautiful cat.”

Featured photo: (left to right) Beauty and Beast. Photo courtesy of Sheila Sanville. Coco. Photo courtesy of Michael Pereira and Amy Wales. Herbie. Photo courtesy of Ryan Moran. Icy. Photo courtesy of Doc Willoya and Constance Spencer. JoeE. Photo courtesy of Katie Hall. Kane. Photo courtesy of Chris Garceau. Oakley (right) and Pooh Bear. Photo courtesy of Melissa Magee. Scarlett. Photo courtesy of Christine Kay. Zazu. Photo courtesy of Saba Awan. Banana. Photo courtesy of Kim Caddle. Jimmy. Photo courtesy of Alison and Mark Langlois. Bennie and Charlie. Photo courtesy of Lisa and Scott Hunt. Baby. Photo courtesy of Shannon and Nate Sprague. Sugar. Photo courtesy of Katie LeBeau. Rue. Photo courtesy of Heather Mills. Juneau. Photo courtesy of Donna and Eric Long. Prosecco. Photo courtesy of Katie Boyden.

Stay in the loop!

Get FREE weekly briefs on local food, music,

arts, and more across southern New Hampshire!