DEAR SUN SPOTS: With good intentions I bought 100 percent natural forest product black mulch to put under my future squash vines. Could you please check if the black colorant would be undesirable in the vegetable garden? Thanking you in advance for your assistance. — No Name, Turner

ANSWER: Sun Spots doesn’t think the fact that the mulch is black is important. It might retain a bit more heat than red or brown, but that shouldn’t be a problem.

However, Sun Spots has always been told not to use wood mulch or pine needles in her vegetable garden because they are acidic and leach into the soil. 

Some websites said that that acidity is not a significant factor in many gardens. It might depend on your garden. You can test your soil (self-testers are available in garden and hardware stores) and see where your garden’s pH stands. 

Different vegetables have ideal preferences, but 6 to 6.5 pH are usually advised. (Asparagus likes an alkaline soil, at least 7.) If your soil is already below 6, then you might not want to risk the additional acidity. 

Many gardening experts, including Eileen Adams, who writes the Sun Journal’s gardening column, recommend mulching with newspapers, cardboard old carpet remnants, straw, old leaves or grass clippings. You can also use plastic, but keep in mind that it will warm the soil underneath considerably and keep rain out.

Sun Spots never seems to get her garden mulched, because you’re supposed to have the soil weed-free first, and she has not yet obtained that goal.

DEAR SUN SPOTS: In regard to the potato trains (May 15), it is quite possibly a reference to a settlement of indigent people from the Lewiston area in the area where the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes narrow gauge railroad passed through Dallas Plantation near the present Redington Pond road in the early 1900s.

Probably the Rangeley Historical Society could provide more information. — Charles Tobie, Hebron, cetobie@icloud.com

ANSWER: The following reader did indeed hear details of the story from the Rangeley Historical Society, but without the potatoes.

DEAR SUN SPOTS: Regarding the question about the potato trains, I heard the story from Shirley Adams at the Rangeley Historical Society about 10 years ago. The story was exactly the same except no mention of potatoes.

Rangeley was the end of the train line until the Androscoggin River railroad bridge was taken out in the flood of 1936 and never rebuilt. She further expanded on the theme by telling of the Bubier clan sent north to Rangeley.

They settled at the end of a woods road now known as the Boobyville area. It was a cold-water section of tar-paper shacks and little contact with outsiders. The Greene Bubiers are descended from this family.

I would like to connect with the writer of your inquiry if possible.— Local Expert via email

ANSWER: Sun Spots talked to Don Palmer at the Rangeley Lakes Historical Society. He said he’d never heard about the potatoes, but did know about the relocation of the Bubiers.

Shirley Adams has moved to New Hampshire. Don provided the address, so Sun Spots emailed her but never heard back.

As for contacting the original letter writer, Sun Spots cannot print her email without her permission, and you didn’t want yours in the column, so she is stymied unless the original reader responds with her contact information and permission to use it.

This column is for you, our readers. It is for your questions and comments. There are only two rules: You must write to the column and sign your name (we won’t use it if you ask us not to). Please include your phone number. Letters will not be returned or answered by mail, and telephone calls will not be accepted. Your letters will appear as quickly as space allows. Address them to Sun Spots, P.O. Box 4400, Lewiston, ME 04243-4400. Inquiries can also be emailed to sunspots@sunjournal.com.

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