Category Archives: Wild Flowers

Fall is in the Air

Bees, Black-eyed-susan, Chickens, Fall, Nature, Reflections, Ruby, Sunflowers, The Farm, Wild Flowers, Wildlife, , , ,

Fall is in the air but the temperatures this week were more like summer.

We’ve seen a lot of skies that look like this lately – deep blue with fluffy white clouds. How about joining me for a walk at the farm?

Ruby will join us, but since she likes to move faster than we do she will probably lap us a couple of times. Don’t worry if you hear something rustling in the weeds or the woods behind us it’s probably her.

I love these Black-eyed Susans that we planted along the fence two years ago.

Such a brilliant splash of fall color.

It was tempting to cut down this thistle, but the flower is so pretty. Maybe I’ll cut it just before it goes to seed.

Some of the chickens are enjoying their day foraging near the pond.

Maple trees are beginning to show their fall colors.

There are lots of bees in the golden rod.

Asters are beginning to bloom

The white ones as well as the purple.

And purple loosestrife is still in bloom.

This butterfly posed for a couple pictures then fluttered nearby as we walked the back field.

The oak trees are loaded with acorns this year.

Some have begun to fall.

The hickory trees have fewer nuts this year than last but still enough to feed some squirrels.

This Norway spruce is loaded with pinecones.

I wonder what kind of pinecone craft I can come up with. Do you have any ideas?

Oh my gosh! Elderberries! I’ll come back and pick these after we finish our walk. This is my first year picking elderberries. The first few years after we planted them I would wait for the berries to ripen but before they were ripe the birds would eat them all. I then discovered that the elder flowers are as good or better than the berries for making syrup or tincture, so I began harvesting the flowers in the spring. This year I forgot to harvest the flowers and while there are not a lot of berries here there are enough to make a small batch of tincture. 🙂

We’ve already seen a lot of the bees are foraging in the goldenrod and I’m sure some are in the sunflowers as well. One thing that you might notice, if the wind is just right, is the smell of honey drifting from the hive. This time of year, when the bees are in the goldenrod, is the only time that we smell honey while at the farm.

We still have a lot of sunflowers in bloom.

Some are so tall they are having a hard time holding their heads up.

Colby Jack (above) and Bernard (below) are waiting for some treats.

Should we give them some apples?

Somebody grabbed my camera while I wasn’t looking (and took my picture). You wouldn’t do something like that – would you?

Colby Jack and Bernard say, “Thank You for the apples”

I hope you enjoyed your time on the farm. Thank you for joining me.

A Spring Walk at the Farm

Birds, Cherries, Cherry Tree, garden, garlic scapes,, Killdeer, Nature, potatoes, Prayer Garrden, Primrose, Reflections, Roses, Strawberries, The Farm, Wild Flowers, Windmill, , , ,

Hello and welcome! It’s a beautiful morning and I thought you might like to join me for a walk at the farm.

We are seeing new blossoms every day.

The white phlox that we added to the prayer garden last year are flowering.

The primrose are beginning to bloom.

and the roses are blooming.

Our peony has only a single flower this year, but it sure is a beautiful one.

We will be picking strawberries later.

But we won’t be cutting garlic scapes for about a week. The scape is the light colored, curved shoot in the middle. They are just beginning to form.

The wild roses are in full bloom. They are very fragrant – in fact you might have smelled their lovely scent before you saw the blossoms.

Daisies scattered here and there.

A flowering shrub that I have not identified. It does have a light pleasant fragrance.

A short stroll through the woods is shady and lush.

Beyond the woods the sun shines on the neighbor’s yard.

Mixed among the grasses you might notice wild plants such as selfheal (the purple flowers) and black medic (the yellow flowers). Both are edible and medicinal.

Fleabane is a common daisy-like wildflower in our area.

Our gardens are doing well so far. Some of the tomatoes have blossoms already.

Potatoes are also doing well.

Cabbage is coming along nicely. There are also green beans, eggplant and a few other things in this patch.

Our apple trees are loaded with apples this year. It’s looking like a we may have a bumper crop this fall.

Ripe cherries on one of our new trees. I harvest three wonderful, sweet cherries from this tree. Hoping for a bigger harvest next year.

The killdeer quadruplets are still running around. They are nearly as big as the parents so I expect they will be flying off soon.

But in about a week this killdeer and its mate, who decided to nest in the middle of our driveway (forcing us to detour around the area) should have four more babies running around.

And about a week after that these four killdeer eggs, that are being incubated in an unused area of the garden, should be hatching.

In the back field we see clover,

and these yellow flowers birdsfoot trefoil.

Butter cups under the spruce tree.

And look at those pinecones.

We have a large patch of milkweed in the back field. I have seen a couple of monarch butterflies in the area, so they likely have laid eggs as their caterpillars feed on milkweed leaves once they hatch.

Milkweed.

I believe this yellow flower is called common cat’s ear. It is scattered throughout the field.

More wild roses in the wood line. Enjoy their lovely fragrance.

When we arrive back by the prayer garden my husband points out the nest that some birds (sparrows I think) have built in the top of the windmill. That was not there two days ago. Fortunately, it does not interfere with the operations of the windmill.

Thanks for joining me for a spring walk at the farm. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

As a special treat for spending this time with me I am sharing this rare glimpse of the mourning dove who is nesting in the maple tree above our deck. It has been there about two weeks now and I have tried taking pictures many times but mostly I can’t see it through the leaves. I finally got a good photo. I have not seen its mate around, but I read that mourning doves take turns sitting on the nest with males usually there during the daytime and females on the nest at night.

Welcome To August

Black-eyed-susan, Flowers, Hibiscus, Prayer Garrden, Reflections, Wild Flowers

Garden Work

In the past month we spent many hours working our way through the prayer jungle garden. The work included weeding, deadheading, pruning, thinning and even relocating some plants. Some areas even got a top dressing of mulch to finish it off.

It looks so much better but as we finished it up we made note that it was time to start weeding again because weeds had started to pop up again in the end where we started. A never-ending battle! Our next project is to put a small wire fence around it to keep chickens from scratching the mulch out. Chickens have no boundaries!

Mom Smiled At Me

Last Saturday, August 10 was my mom’s birthday. She would have been 79 this year. She was on my mind a lot that day especially when I was working in the Prayer Garden and saw the beautiful hibiscus in bloom.

Two years ago, on August 10th, I was having a rough day. I was really missing mom, so I went to my favorite greenhouse to buy something to plant in her memory. I bought a hibiscus. I wasn’t sure what color or variety it was because it was from the previous year’s stock and wasn’t labeled. It didn’t matter. I planted it in the prayer garden. It didn’t blossom that year, but I was thrilled when it blossomed last year – a beautiful pink but a different variety from those I already had.

It had a lot of buds last Saturday but none had opened. I was just thankful for the others that had.

Sunday morning when we arrived at the farm to finish up work on the prayer garden that hibiscus was blossoming. It felt like mom was smiling at me. 🙂 I will now look forward to seeing flowers on that bush each year around mom’s birthday.

Flowers Gone Wild

Last year I decided that panting black-eyed Susan’s along the fence might be a good idea. They are very prolific, compete well with other weeds and wildlife (deer and rabbits) don’t eat them. They spread through their underground rhizomes and by self-seeding and are often included in wildflower seed mixes. They are also beautiful and large patches can have a stunning effect.

This is the patch that I planted last year. They have really filled in that corner. I planted another area along the fence this year and may continue propagating them until the whole fence is lined with them. 🙂

Thanks for visiting.

Catching Up-Farm Update

Apples, Blueberries, Chickens, Chicks, Flowers, garden, Gardening, Grapes, Pond, Reflections, The Farm, Wild Flowers

To get caught up on my posts I’ll start with a look around the farm These pictures were actually from last week so I’m still a bit behind. 🙂

Chickens

Our youngest chick hatched on June 29th.

My husband named her or him (it’s still too early to tell if this is a hen or rooster) Strawberry because when he took the flock some strawberry tops that I had trimmed she grabbed one and gobbled it up. Strawberry was probably less than two weeks old at the time. He or she still sticks close to momma, not necessarily because it is still being trained or cared for by momma, but it doesn’t have anyone its own age to hang out with.

These are 2 of the chicks that hatched on May 12. They are beginning to look more like adult chickens and we are certain that one is a rooster. My husband even heard him try to crow one day.

Rex is our roo from last year. He is the daddy of all the chicks that hatched this year. He is a bit of an odd bird. He does the normal crowing sound of a rooster (Ur Ur Ur Ur URRRRR!) but also makes a loud cawing sound (Arrrr!) that I have never heard a rooster (or any chicken) make before.

What’s Blooming

Hibiscus in bloom.

Cosmos.

Wild flowers

The Pond

On some of these hot days I’ve found a dip in the pond quite refreshing and a pleasant way to get in a workout.

Garden News

Keeping the gardens alive has been a huge challenge this year. The weather has not been kind. Both June and July were very wet and all of the plants have been stressed at best. My husband has spent many hours weeding and fertilizing. Doing anything he could think of to keep things alive and growing.

I think he’s done an amazing job. I really thought we would have more crop loss than we have.

Acorn Squash

Another type of winter squash.

Sweet corn and Melons

Tomatoes (they may be small but they taste great!)

Sunflowers

Cucumbers and Eggplant

Green beans and Beets

Fruits

We had an amazing blueberry crop this year. We began picking in June and just finished picking last week. I lost track of how many we harvested as we were eating them fresh, freezing some and having friends and family pick and take what they wanted.

We have some apples that are looking good and if we can keep the birds away, we should have a decent harvest.

We also have a lot of grapes that are looking good.

We have put netting over them to try to save as many as possible for us. Homemade grape juice is one of our favorites!

Thanks for visiting.

July 2023 Recap

Birds, Blueberries, Cucumbers, Dragon Flies, Flowers, garden, Mosquitoes, Pickles, Rain, Reflections, The Farm, Weather, Wild Flowers

I feel like I just wrote my review of June and already we are more than a week into August. July 2023 is history but let’s take a look back to some July stuff.

Weather

Our July weather was anything but typical. While we didn’t suffer the extreme heat that much of the country did, we had a very wet month. Typically, we spend a lot of time watering the gardens in July but this year there was no need for that. In fact, we had much more rain than we needed for some of our plants to thrive. My husband saw a report that our area had over eight inches of rain fall in July. Our average rainfall far the month is less than four inches. We were blessed though that we didn’t get any of the large hail or damaging winds/tornadoes or power outages that areas around us had.

Gardens

Blueberries have been our superstar crop this year. I mentioned picking blueberries in a couple of my previous posts and we have continued to pick them into August. I told my husband that since we pray for God to provide for our needs, I assume that God is telling us that we need to eat lots of blueberries.

We have also been picking green beans and cucumbers. Some of the green beans went into the freezer but most we enjoyed with our dinners.

So far we’ve had enough cucumbers for me to make 6 pints of bread-and-butter pickles which makes my husband happy because we only had one jar left in the pantry from last year.

All of the cauliflower died and much of the cabbage either died or is struggling so I was surprised to see that broccoli plants forming crowns.

I would be delighted to pick a few bunches of broccoli this year.

Our squash and pumpkin plants seem to be faring well so far.

We are seeing small squash and pumpkins on many of the plants and even some cantaloupes starting to form fruit.

Colors

The colors this year are beautiful – lush greens and bold colored flowers.

The lavender continued to blossom and was heavily foraged by bumble bees and honeybees throughout July and well into August.

I was surprised to see that this cosmos that came up voluntarily from seeds that were dropped last year is white while all of cosmos last year were all pink. I not sure how to explain that – likely is has something to do with the plant’s genetics. I’m now waiting for others to blossom to see what color they are.

It was the very end of July when the hibiscus began to blossom.

Purple coneflower in a patch of wildflowers.

Early in July I decided to dig up some Black-eyed Susans that were outgrowing their designated spot at the house and plant them at the farm. I wanted them in the front corner of the fence where I can’t get to with the riding mower. My husband planted them for me and for several weeks we’ve been waiting for them to bloom. Now they are. Black-eyed Susans spread through underground rhizomes and by seeds that they drop so my hope is that they will not only fill in this corner but spread some along the fence as well.

Mosquitoes

The wet weather has been ideal for mosquitoes. Did you know there are more than 3000 species of mosquitoes worldwide? Around 60 species in Michigan alone. I found this very interesting article that explains about different types and where and when we might expect them to hatch, grow and live.

The mosquitoes that we are currently plagued with would be categorized as floodwater mosquitoes – these eggs are laid in depressions in the ground that flood or hold water when conditions are right. The eggs may remain viable for up to seven years.

While dragonflies, frogs, toads and many of the bird species that live on, or visit, the farm are known to dine on mosquitoes, apparently there are more than enough to go around because more often than not a trip to the farm means dousing ourselves with that horrible bug spray in order to prevent being eaten alive by these vicious blood suckers. Sadly, I’ve not spent as much time outside as I normally would because I try to avoid the use of chemicals as much as possible.

Birds

Sometime during the last week of July our green herons returned.

Each year the pair shows up in late summer and spends several weeks with us. Since we have never seen their nests or their young, I assume that by this time they have raised their young and then stop at our pond for some fine dining before they migrate south for the winter.

They seem to be pretty comfortable with us, flying up from the edge of the pond to the windmill and waiting there until we passed by.

You might remember this post from July where I showed you the life ring that had become a bluebird house. Well, we have since learned that there are baby bluebirds being raised there. (I tried to get a picture of them but it just looked like a black hole.) We are enjoying seeing the bluebirds coming and going as they care for the young. When doing some reading, I learned that bluebirds commonly raise three broods per season. I also found interesting that sometimes the babies from the earlier brood will stay around and help feed the next group of chicks.

We do plan on getting some new life rings next spring. I think we will also be buying or building bluebird houses.

Thanks for visiting and I you enjoy the rest of August.