Garden Wonders

The rain held last evening, so Nora was able to snap some additional photos of the various flowers in bloom around the house.  She's been wonderful about documenting all of my flower beds throughout the growing season, which aids in identifying gaps, determining which plants need to be relocated, where I need early bloomers, etc.  My goal is to have gardens that are in bloom from early spring through the first frost in October.

Some lilies that survived the Edith and Archie massacre

Artistic shot of split rail peaking through the Japanese Willow and Heliopsis helianthoides in the circle garden

Astilbe and dianthus.  The dianthus was planted last evening.

Stella D'oro day lilies in front yard island

Obviously I have a yellow obsession.  Mix of heliopsis and potentilla.  The tall plants in the back left are garden phlox and will produce beautiful purple blossoms in another couple of weeks.  I also planted some purple lupine and baptista in behind the potentilla (still small this year) that will bloom in late spring.  The front of the bed is lined with recently planted purple and yellow pansies and petunias.  They will fill out in another week or so.

A sole peony bloom.  I just planted the tubers last year, so the plants are still small.  Next year should bring a spectacular array of beautiful peonies - whites, pinks and reds -- planted in multiple garden beds.

New this year and I love it!  It's called trailing bellflower (also called campanula blue waterfall).  It's a low growing flower that spreads like ground phlox, but blooms in early summer.  Gorgeous.  I planted it along the edge of the butterfly garden.

A "Typical" Morning at the Farm

If there is such a thing.

This morning began at 4:45 a.m. when our oldest, and loudest, dog, Ruby, woke me up by her excited "let's greet the morning" noises.  I cracked open my eyes, and said "really?" and that set off a chorus of tail thwapping by Magnolia and Wilma who were also in the room, at the foot of the bed, waiting for me to rise.

After the morning ritual of letting dogs out and in and turning on the coffee, I donned my boots and hoodie (used not for warmth on this balmy morning, but rather as a layer between me and the mosquitoes) and headed out to the main coop.  The ladies begin chatting as soon as they see me outside their windows, and I get plenty of "buk-buks" as they each exit the coop in single-file.  I check water and food, and throw them some seed and it's off to the sheep.

The first morning visit to the sheep involves a stop in the garden area to fill a 5 gallon bucket of water, which I then carry out to the barn.  The 3 lambs are always standing at the doors when I open them in the morning.  We exchange good morning's and then I give them some hay.  This generally sets Tallulah off, who begins to baa ceaselessly until they get their morning ration of sweet feed.  I then empty out the usually filthy water trough and replace with clean water.  They pay no attention as I leave, closing them in the run, while they busily eat their feed.

Then it's back to the house with a stop at the garden and berry area to see how things are progressing (and take notes for Nora's daily to-do list :) ).  Lots of strawberries ready to be picked, so I made a mental note to do so after coffee.

Nora is usually up by the time I get back to the house, so it's safe to bring Made It and Daisy2 out to their area (Ruby likes to scream when she sees them - a sound Nora doesn't appreciate waking up to).  Once they are safely closed in their area, water and feed checked, I walk back to the house for my morning cup of coffee.  I like to take a quick walk through the flower gardens in the back to see what new flowers have bloomed.

Jackmanii clematis in bloom on the arbor

Light pink Astilbe near the gazebo

Shasta daisies in the circle garden

After coffee, feeding the dogs, letting Louie out of his room to run around the house, and morning chatter with Nora, I headed out to pick the strawberries and do a little spot weeding.  Pulled in quite a pile this morning, which I cleaned and prepped for jam making later this evening or tomorrow (I have several bags already in the freezer so more than enough for my first summer batch of jam).

Then it was time for my last chore of the morning before heading out to work, so back out to the sheep barn.   I open the run gate and top off the hay before leaving my little cuties for the day.

Tallulah greeting me at the gate

Yeah!! We're free!!

Then back to the house, with one last look at the sheepies and my very overgrown pasture.  I ordered a custom-made scythe from a small company in Maine to cut the grass, and hopefully it will arrive soon.  In the meantime, our neighbor down the road said he would brush hog it, but the wet weather has been a deterrent.

Off to work I go.

His name is now PITA

The rabbit, formerly known as Archie, has been a naughty and busy little man. In a previous post(don't fence me in) I talked about a new garden fence. Jim worked diligently to craft it all out of cedar. He finished it the other day and it looks great. Apparently PITA ( stands for Pain in the A$@!) thought it best to lend a hand in the process by serving as the Q A specialist. For those of you unfamiliar with the role, their job, put simply, is to try and break things.

The other morning Lynn and I received the results of his test.

Almost a perfect square. Kudos.
This enterprising young man made the decision to expand his QA skills to some of the plants. The purpose of this test was to measure the heartiness of young edamame plants post-decimation as pictured here:

The results of this exercise will take weeks. We are hoping for a positive outcome. While we appreciate his initiative, we are looking at re-assignment tasks for PITA that may involve a relocation.

History in the making

It is amazing to see the change people can spur. I am stunned, relieved, validated, and overjoyed. For the first time in my 47 years, I feel like a full American citizen. Thank you United States for remembering who(the country) we are at the core, and for recognizing me and others like me.

Supreme Court strikes down Defense of Marriage Act

Beat the heat

Hen style. I feel for the ladies, and the sheep too. It is 82 degrees and humid and only 11:00 a.m. it's only going to get worse. ugh. I wish I could bring them all inside. Not sure Lynn would appreciate it. Anyhow, here is how the hens handle it. Daisy2 and MadeIt are nestled is the tall grass and dirt bed and the other hens are under the coop. I may go out later and spray them with the hose. At first they are not very appreciative, but seem to feel relief.

The many colors of early summer

I find it difficult to capture the grounds in a meaningful way so little snippets here and there will have to do. Hopefully you will get some of the flavor of Lynn's work on the gardens. And speaking of Lynn, once in a blue moon she actually stands still long enough to take a picture. The second one is hers. Kudos shark lady. (some sharks die if they don't keep moving)

Ya just can't make this stuff up

So as I posted earlier, I saved a baby robin from certain doom via our dogs, Ruby specifically. While I was sitting on the screened in porch on the side of our house I happen to see one of the rabbits right near the road. I thought to myself, "are you kidding me?" "Now I have to watch out for you too?" I watch as he hopped closer to the road within 2 feet from the bike lane. WHOOSH, a car goes by and scares him back into the yard. Thank goodness he is afraid of them and darted back in. So I go back into the house more relaxed. But I do decide to check on him a little bit later. I walk over to one of our front windows to see him. I hear a little tussle at the front door. I thought "It must be Lynn putting the key in the lock". Nope. Guess who it was?

Can you believe it? Neither could I. I slowly grabbed my camera and got this shot. She is literally on our front doorstep. Then she flew onto the rail of our steps. This girl like rails. Lynn pulls in the driveway and I caution her to walk slowly because the rabbit is still close enough to the road(don't want her to spook him) and the baby is on the rail. Her face lit up as I was telling her the story. As we are standing there determining our next course of action, none other than Hosta appears out from the lilies, also way too close to the road. For real people? Holy crap! sticky situations popping up all over. One quick move and someone could get hurt. So we decided that Lynn would get on the other side of the road fence and scare the rabbit back into the yard. Success. Off he went well into the yard at this point. What's that in the sky? A hawk? What's next? A tiger gonna come at us? Man. We waited until the hawk left the area before we encouraged Hosta to move. Now what to do about baby?
Lynn guided her towards the other side of the yard, opposite the dog area. She hopped onto the split rail where her mom joined her. I was able to witness mom feeding her. Very cool. I was too far to get a pic. I had to keep moving back in order for mom to approach. But I got this shot at least.

And now I need a drink, so I'm gonna bounce.