Tag Archives: Gardening

The Week in Pictures

Birds, Daffodils, Flowers, garden, Gardening, Reflections, Roses, Ruby, Strawberries, Weeding, Wild Flowers, Wildlife, , , ,

Well, I’ve got some catching up to do, so some of these pictures actually go back a couple of weeks.

Gardening

My husband has finished all of the planting for this year, and most things are coming up. Most of these photos are a week or two old and with the warm summerlike weather and rain that we have had everything seems to be growing in leaps and bounds.

Potato patch

Cabbage patch

Pole Beans. The strings are for them to climb on.

Tomato Patch just a few day after they were planted. Some are now getting blossoms.

The new strawberry patch. Yesterday my husband spent several hours weeding and removing the flowers and berries that were forming. It is best to remove the flowers the first year, so the plants put energy in developing a strong root system. It will make for healthier plants. Next year we will hopefully get a good harvest.

I spent about 12-15 hours over the course of several days weeding our old strawberry bed that had been taken over by weeds. In the photo above I am almost finished. Only another hour or two and I was done.

On Saturday, about a week after I finished weeding, we picked about a quart of berries. My husband picked about another quart on Sunday.

The Prayer Garden

After I finished weeding in the strawberry patch, I went to work taming the prayer garden.

In addition to weeding, I cut down all of the daffodil leaves and stems.

I’m afraid I might have cut them down to soon and that we will have less flowers next year, but it looks so much neater with them out of there.

A few days after I finished, it exploded with color.

The primrose began to blossom. I just love their brilliant color. I am sure I need to thin them because they spread very quickly and will take over everything, but I will wait until they are finished blossoming.

The roses also began blossoming. I love the red roses with the yellow primrose.

In the Wild

Last week the wild roses were in full bloom. We have wild rose bushes scattered throughout the property. I have featured two of the largest. The one above is a least 15 ft (4,57 meters) wide and 8 ft. (2.43 meters) tall. I can’t even begin to guess how deep it goes back among the other trees.

A close up of the rose blossoms. You might notice some wild grape leaves in the photo. Apparently there in a grape vine growing with the rose bush. What you don’t notice in the photo is the wonderful fragrance of the roses, – sweet but a bit spicey. Every now and then I would catch a whiff of it in the breeze. I love this time of year! Definitely worth taking time to smell the roses!

The second one that I am featuring climbs up the oak tree at our picnic area. We do keep it pruned a bit, otherwise it will reach out and grab someone as they are walking by, or in my case riding by on the mower while cutting the grass around the tree.

It probably reaches up 20 ft (6.09 meters) into the tree.

Feathered Friends

I sat quietly in front of the barn and snuck a picture while this blue jay ate chicken scratch near the coop.

We have a pair of ducks that have become regular visitors. Sometimes it’s just the male and other times the male and female are together. Not only do they swim in the pond, but my husband has also seen them eating chicken scratch with the chickens. If Ruby spots them, and she usually does, she is quick to chase them off. We actually encourage her to chase the off because duck dropping in the pond can bring bacteria and parasites that could affect human and aquatic health. we don’t want that.

Thanks for visiting.

Catching Up

Chickens, Daffodils, Dandelions, Family, Gardening, Grandchildren, Reflections, Sewing, The Farm, , , , ,

Hello and welcome. It’s been pretty quiet here on the blog lately so it’s time to do a bit of catching up.

Sewing Projects

I spent a lot of February and March sewing for Jackson and Addie. The first three photos are things I made for Jackson. (I apologize it some of the photos are a bit blurry. Sometimes my hands are not as steady as I’d like them to be.)

T-shirt for Jacksom
Spiderman shorts
Spiderman Hoodie

Jackson loves Spiderman. My sister had sent me some Spiderman fabrics that she wasn’t going to use, since her grandkids have outgrown the Spiderman phase.

On Easter, when I gave Jackson and Addie their outfits, Jackson looked at the things I made for him, then looked at me and said, “You are the girl!” I construed this to mean, “Thank you Grandma. I love them!” 🙂

My sister also had some extra cat fabrics. Addie loves cats!

Cat Nap Pajamas

The patterns on the fabric are difficult to make out in the photos, so I added close-ups of the fabric.

Close-up of fabric
Pants for Addie
Close up of fabric

I also made myself a summer turtleneck.

Turtleneck I made for myself.

I love the way it turned out, and my husband complimented it several times when I was wearing it.

Farm Views

We’ve had a lot of rain this month and much of it came last week but on the nice days I’ve been getting out to enjoy the weather. I love watching the world come alive in spring and each day we’re seeing more and more – flowers opening, plants sprouting, leaves unfurling.

These photos were taken early last week.

Since then, we have a hen or two that are sitting on eggs, so, you’ll likely be seeing chick photos in a couple weeks. Also, dandelions are blossoming and the fruit trees are beginning to flower, so the bees have plenty to forage.

Plantings

Each year since 2019 I have potted up pansies to display in the bed alongside our deck. In past years my husband was able to get them from the greenhouse where he worked in 2019. They are a wholesale business but allowed him to come and purchase a couple of flats.

This year, in March, when he tried to call them, he was only able to leave a message, and he never got a return call. I was disappointed but ready to accept that we would not have pansies this year. My husband didn’t give up so easy. He began calling around to other local greenhouses to see if they had pansies. Mostly they were not open yet for the season. Eventually he got a message back from one of the greenhouse owners that they thought they could help him. Several phone calls and about three weeks later he picked up a flat of pansies.

I couldn’t be happier!

My husband also picked up a package of pansy seeds so we can start our own plants next year.

I did have them set out along the deck but brought them in for a couple of nights when we had the temperature dipped down below freezing. Hopefully we are past that now.

My husband started some cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower plants in March. They are now big enough to be planted in the garden, and we are hoping things dry up enough this week that we can get them planted. We also have some potato seedlings that we will plant as soon as the soil is ready.

Other News

This is so exciting!

It was the last week in March when I received my preview copies of the book my story in being published in, Chicken Soup for the Soul, I Can’t Stop Laughing. The book goes on sale next week, on 4-27-26, and I will be doing a separate post about the book and about the process of being published in this book.

One of the benefits of having a story in the book was that I received 10 free preview copies. When I told my family that I would be getting them and that I would be giving them out, they decided they need to hold a book signing event. I was honored.

On April 4th we met at a local coffee shop for lunch, and I signed and passed out copies of the book. (That’s me at the far end of the table.)

As a congratulations gift my family gave me this beautiful garden statue. It says, “The Garden is my Happy Place.” 🙂 You all know that is true.

Thanks for visiting and Happy Spring!!!

It Looks Like Spring is Springing – Finally – I Think

Bees, Chickens, Daffodils, Dogs, Flowers, Reflections, spring, , , ,

After a brutally cold winter and a March that has seemed to be one step forward two steps back it looks like spring is springing. Monday and Tuesday were both t-shirt days (only the second and third ones we’ve had this year) so my husband and I got a few little outside jobs done at the farm.

Join me for some of our sights of spring.

The crocuses, our first spring flowers are blooming. 🙂

White one too!

Our mini daffodils began blossoming on Tuesday.

The rest of the daffodils are up but no flowers yet.

The garlic is up but seems slow. We had rain in the forecast for Tuesday, so I gave the garlic a dose of fertilizer on Monday. We did get some rain/storms Tuesday, but at least it wasn’t an all-day rain.

The chickens were out enjoying the weather. This hen actually stopped and posed for me. They have been laying good since the middle of February and some of them are starting to act broody. We will likely let a couple of them brood some chicks later this year.

The bees were out in full force. My husband mentioned seeing that they were carrying pollen back to the hive.

My best guess is that they are gathering pollen from the poplar trees

or the maple trees. Perhaps both.

Believe it or not we spotted our beagle fish on Monday. LOL. I thought it might be a bit early in the season for that.

Ruby didn’t do the full body plunge that Ranger did, but she was in far enough to get her belly wet. I’m looking forward to spending time in the pond too but not until it warms up A LOT!

Thanks for visiting. Has spring found you?

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.

Garden Goodness

Apple Trees, Apples, Bees, Fermenting, Flowers, garden, garlic, Hibiscus, Peach Tree, Pollinators, Reflections, Sauerkraut, Sunflowers, The Farm, Tomatoes, , , ,

Hello and welcome. Despite having very dry weather, and doing our best to keep things watered, our gardens have flourished.

Blooming Beauties

Right now our hibiscus bushes are the star of the show.

Their large, showy flowers are stunning.

I don’t like to play favorites, but if I had to pick a favorite flower, it would probably be the hibiscus.

This hibiscus that I planted three years ago on my mom’s birthday was just beginning to open on Sunday, August 10, which would have been my mom’s 80th birthday.

Today it was in full bloom. 🙂

Several weeks ago we decided that we needed to rework the memorial garden the we planted this spring. This garden memorializes our parents who have all passed away. The beautiful lupine plants that were planted on either side of the rock were struggling, apparently not getting enough sun. My husband dug them up and planted them in the very sunny prayer garden and they have since developed new growth.

On Saturday, August 9, I visited my sister who wanted to thin her flower beds. My husband and I decided the shade loving hostas would do well in the memorial garden. My sister had just what we were looking for. She was very generous, selecting the large beautiful plants, instead of the ones the deer had eaten. The two light green hostas were one that my husband split before planting. I also brought home a lungwort plant that my husband split and planted (the dark green wilted plants). It looks sad after being transplanted but I read that it will develop new growth and should be fine.

Veggies

Our garden situation is changing daily and some of these photos are about two weeks old. I’ve just fallen behind in my blogging.

The honeybees that moved into our empty hive seem to be doing well.

Bees love squash and pumpkin blossoms.

And this is what can happen when a pumpkin or squash blossom is pollinated. 🙂

A basket of fresh garden goodness. My husband has been bringing home this basket full of veggies every day.

Eggplant, sweet corn, beets, green beans, tomatoes, banana peppers and cucumber were the haul on that day. Many of these vegetables are being eaten fresh. Others are being canned or frozen.

I made four pints of dill relish last week.

On Wednesday my husband and I made a trip to the orchard so I could can some peaches. On Thursday I canned 23 pints of peaches and had a dozen left over for eating fresh. Sunday, I made peach cobbler with five of the fresh ones.

One of our peach trees produced two peaches.

One for my husband and one for me. They were perfectly ripe when I picked them yesterday and so delicious. The orchard peaches, that were picked before they were ripe, were not as sweet as these.

They are not ready yet, but it looks like we will have a great apple crop.

The other thing the bees are enjoying right now are the sunflowers.

But who doesn’t love sunflowers.

This week’s projects include canning tomato juice (I did 6 quarts yesterday), making sauerkraut (I started it fermenting today), and cleaning garlic (tomorrow or Thursday).

Thanks for visiting.