Stormy Weather

from the back door-

Where Gardens Grow There Might Be....

Cedar Apple Rust! Host plants being Juniper and usually Apple, but also others in the Rose family, we definitely have a nice sized guest bed for this fungal disease.

The Growing Garden

The new garden continues to grow, a little faster than we can manage! Here's a glimpse of new plantings...

tomatoes and sugar snap peas in pots

multiflora rose and houseplants (orchid cactus?)

clematis...

blueberries!

strawberries...

wee lettuce

chives

allium

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

We had two sections of fence built in some prime locations in the garden. One spot was behind the house where we had taken out all of the large overgrown shrubbery/vines/trees. The other spot was between the vegetable garden and the street. The fences are all cedar. They made a pretty big impact right away...

taking out the existing chainlink...

bringing in the new...6' stockade

for the front we got 5' spaced stockade

our resident catbird watches the fences go up. he's hard to see- all gray- right in the middle. though he's hard to spot, he's easy to hear.

Horseshoe Mating Season at Wollaston Beach

The smaller, lighter colored one is the male. During new and full moons the horseshoe crabs come up onto the beach to mate. More info about horseshoe crab reproduction here.

What's Blooming, May 2010

Unleashing the VIBRANT colors of spring. We discover what exactly is growing in our garden... azaleas in pink and red

flowering dogwood, Cornus florida

common lilac, Syringa vulgaris

white azalea

invasive olive (Elaeagnus umbellata)

lily of the valley, Convallaria majalis

bridal wreath spirea

more azaleas...

This goldenchain tree, Laburnum x watereri, is unfortunately not on our property, but is on the next street over.

beautybush, Kolkwitzia amabilis

red roses, pink spirea and purple irises

on the top is spirea, on the bottom, gas plant

spiderwort...

Homesteading: planting the farm

a little more demo and hole digging had to happen before the new plants were delivered.

taking out one of many chokecherries

trying to dig holes where the wall of shrubbery was the day before.

more brush removal

soil left over from starting the raised veggie beds

plant delivery with a fancy crane

new plant locations: two new pears flank the assembled fire pit (our old boiler). on the left is a d'anjou pear, on the right is a red bartlett.

d'anjou

red bartlett

two highbush blueberry bushes (in soil amended with peat even though we have pretty acidic soil)- on the left is patriot, on the right is chippewa.

wee hollyhock seedlings look on from inside

the veggie garden

some things are already up! sugar snap peas, onions, broccoli, lettuce, radishes, scallions...in the front right bed are plants transplanted from ithaca- walking onion, chives, sage, thyme and garlic planted last fall from our friends in ithaca.

a stanley plum

the ornamental onion bed

summer sweet clethra

Amelanchier laevis, serviceberry, or shadbush

serviceberry 'autumn brilliance'

the old boiler. though no pictures were taken during its assembly know this: just the middle section weighs hundreds of pounds! we couldn't take any pictures because we were both on duty the whole time. think pulley system with a winch and ladder, plus a car jack, 2x4s and bricks.