In the Garden--2010

Lavender--

I was selling bunches, but they don't work as well as just breaking up the lavender into pieces and using as potpourri. So when you visit, you can buy potpourri made from stawflowers and lavender--pretty in a bowl and smells good, too.

This is the latest visitor here--a groundhog. I took this through the glass door in the office. He was enjoying the red clover. I know he could become a garden pest, but so far--not much chomped on!

Chubby little bubba isn't he?

Here's one of the fairy houses by the small stream into the pond in front of the barn.

If you stop in, walk over and check them out. They're pretty realistic! I also have some "gnome house doors" that light up at night and some fairy solar bells lining the stream. In the late fall when it gets dark early, you'll be able to see it all glowing. And, of course, the fairies will decorate for the fall and Christmas season!

The Reed Hollow Hens and Two Roosters

The ten chickens when they first arrived--April 21, 2010

Here are the babies in their cardboard box--They lived in the downstairs bathroom--the only room we could block off from the cat!

The babies have moved to their new home in a large plywood box that Scott built--April 29, 2010

They outgrew the cardboard box very quickly! Now we have to have them in our bedroom...

Finally, into the coop--May 16, 2010

They love the coop that Scott built!

Two roosters--June 5, 2010

Here are the babies--about six and a half weeks old

This morning they were treated to minute rice with some honey and instant oatmeal with maple sugar. They, of course, get their regular chicken food which they eat plenty of. Certainly seem happy and healthy! Two of them were running around my feet when this picture was shot.

One of the roosters--July 2, 2010 (Picture of a hen follows.)

They love to scratch around in the fenced in area outside their covered fenced area looking for bugs. They also LOVE red clover leaves as well as CORN-ON-THE_COB! and rice and oatmeal. But, of course, we still feed them the correct chicken feed that they eat up, too!

The chickens are now nine weeks old or so and probably full-grown.

Here's the red fox that we hear around dusk. It's running up the hill just off the Barn's office.

If you've never heard a fox--they make a noise like a pterodactyl (the dinosaur--not that I've heard one in real life, but how I 've heard them in the movies!).

A snapper that walked up from the swamp to lay her eggs. This was snapped (pardon the pun!) over by the chicken coop.

I discovered this Cecropia Moth the other evening in the chicken coop.

According to my identification book, this is the largest North American moth. It was huge! at least six inches wide! I don't know how it got into the coop, but I carefully removed it. The next morning it had flown away. Wow. Never saw one of these before!

Here's a beautiful bluebird sitting on the coop before the chicken wire was placed over the hoops.

Here's a young deer that has been visiting lately. She/(he?)'s not very shy. I would guess that this deer was born last year and its mother has a new fawn so this one was forced to leave Mom. I actually saw the deer following the big cat that comes around here as if it thought the cat was its mother!

I don't know if you can tell a male from a female when deer are young--not until the horns grow.

White Tail Dragonfly on cattails in pond

You'll see these dragonflies buzzing over the pond if you visit. The tail actually looks very blue, not white. A ;picture of the nymph case follows. A dragonfly lays eggs in water. From the egg, hatches a nymph or baby that lives in the water happily eating water bugs and mosquito larvae. When the adult is ready to emerge, the nymph climbs out of the water and the dragonfly unfolds itself from the case--sort of like a lobster or snake.

Dragonfly nymph case--check out the cattails next time you visit and you'll see these cases attached to the leaves.

How about that, a five-leaf clover and a four-leaf clover!

Here's the Chicken coop as of 5/7/10. Beside the fence, I planted sunflowers and wildflower seeds. The sunflowers I started in cups in the office because for the last two years some critter has eaten all of the seeds that I planted. I also planted about 70 sunflowers between the ornamental pear trees to greet you as you drive up to the Barn.

Can you spot the little visitor that's climbed up on the cattails? Check out who else spotted him in the next picture! (Picture taken by the pond in front of Barn.)

If you look closely to the right of the little turtle, you will see a snake's head peeking out of the water. I don't think he'd eat the turtle, but unfortunately the next reptile would...(See next photo.)

I don't know if this is the same Black Racer as last year. He has a huge appetite. Last summer, he ate every frog that hopped into the pond. I'm going to try and remove him from the pond and put him into the reservoir down behind us.

Hopefully this will become an interesting pumpkin patch...(Picture taken 5/7/10)

In the past, any pumpkins or winter squash we planted were seriously invaded by vine borers and squash bugs that literally do in the plants. I read that if you surround the pumpkin plant with onions, the bugs are fooled. Here, I've dug 40 holes, took out the larger rocks, and added aged cow manure. I transplanted all the onions that I left growing in the raised beds in front of the Barn and have begun to plant in each hole...
**two corn seeds (either Indian Corn or Ruby Red)
**two string bean seeds
**two pumpkin seeds (either Jack-be-Littles or carving pumpkins)
**five onion bulbs
**at least one onion plant from last year's crop
Now, this is intensive planting in a small area, but if the plants are kept fed, they should grow fine (knock on wood). The string beans will grow up the corn stalks, plus they fixate nitrogen into the ground for the other plants to use. The onions are supposed to fool the squash bugs, and the pumpkins have plenty of room to sprawl. Only Time and Mother Nature will tell!

72 Holes--Looks like a gopher has visited. I'll be planting the holes in the next couple of weeks. (Picture taken 4/22/10)

Here's my plan for planting tomatoes and peppers this year. I dug these holes into which will be inserted pots with their bottoms cut off. I'll add some compost into the pot soil and that's where each plant will be planted. With the pots, it makes for exact watering and it wards off cutworms. We've used this method before and it works well. I've started the seeds of Burpee's Big Boy and Early Girl tomatoes, as well as Sweet 100's (cherry tomatoes), California Wonder peppers, and pepper--Carnival Mix of five sweet colorful bells. The last few years I've planted nursery bought plants, but they just don't seem to do as well as plants that I start by seed. Let's hope it proves true this year, also! I think I'll plant two kidnew beans in each also. The bean plants won't bother the tomato plants and they will fixate Nitrogen into the ground for the tomato plants.

And here's the potato raised beds--I planted Yukon Gold, Kennebec, and Katahdins (I think). I don't really care what kind I grow. I just love to dig up potatoes. It's like finding buried treasure! (picture taken 5/7/10)

Potatoes as of 5/25/10

Time to spread straw around them!

Lupine

A couple of years ago I threw lots of wildflower seeds out on the ground over by the new chicken coop. Each year surprises me with more different plants. If you've visited Maine, you've seen lupine lining the highways (it's actually considered invasive in some areas of Maine). We seem to have a few nice lupine coming up this year. They have a lovely flower--like towering purple pea flowers.