by Susan | Aug 3, 2012 | Garden, On the Farm
My garden is finally yielding goodies! We’ve had lettuce and peas, but everything else is finally taking off. We picked our first green beans today. It seems that my green beans are sustaining others as well. In the ten minutes it took me to pick these beans, I...
by Susan | Jul 15, 2012 | Garden, On the Farm
After a long day of working outdoors tending gardens, looking after critters, and landscaping, I spent an inordinate amount of time photographing these busy bees in my lavender. There were dozens of bumble bees randomly buzzing here there. (Click on the pics for a...
by Susan | Jun 9, 2012 | Garden, On the Farm
It was a busy day in the garden today. The sunshine and blooms brought out the butterfies, birds, and bees! Click thumbnail for larger...
by Susan | May 7, 2012 | Garden, On the Farm
Instead of tackling my mile-long work “to do”? list I opted for a little garden therapy today. I don’t often play hooky from my desk when there’s work to be done, but sunny and sixty with a forecast of a rainy week ahead lured me outdoors. I...
by Susan | Sep 3, 2011 | Garden
Garlic is a staple in our kitchen – even Hannah likes it. That’s why I increased our crop planting to 100 cloves last fall – up from 60 the year before. I spent an enjoyable afternoon sitting in the dooryard cleaning garlic. For the past few weeks...
by Susan | Jul 23, 2011 | Ducks, Garden
Meet our ducklings! Today I harvested half of my garlic crop. In the empty space I erected a temporary enclosure for the ducks and covered it with deer netting so they would be safe from hawks. Now that they are out of the brooder we noticed that Dilly’s legs...
by Susan | Jul 15, 2011 | Garden
These days when you step out onto the porch, you smell a burst of lavender. My lavender, both pink and purple, is in full bloom. It’s an old-fashioned smell that will always remind me of summer. More flower posts: 19 June 2011: In My Lavender Today 25 July 2010:...
by Susan | Jul 2, 2011 | Garden
I put my garlic loving Hannah to work today snipping the scapes off the garlic. She helped to plant this batch of garlic in the fall. I seem to recall plantint 97 cloves, but came up with only 91 scapes.
by Susan | Jul 1, 2011 | Garden
I planted my one year old asparagus crowns a month ago. When nothing happened right away I despaired that they would never sprout (they sat in the box for three weeks before the asparagus bed was ready). In fact, I was gearing up to plant some potatoes in their place...
by Susan | Jun 19, 2011 | Garden
My lavender is on the cusp of blooming. Some other creatures are enjoying the lavender too – like this stripped ladybug. These baby grasshoppers. I thought this was a leaf and was trying to pluck it out of the lavender. I pulled the leaves aside and discovered a...
by Susan | Jun 11, 2011 | Garden
I became sidetracked during coop construction today when I saw this beautiful butterfly fluttering about my lilacs. Turns out that it is a Canadian Tiger Swallowtail. The lupine I planted last fall is in bloom; it’s the most beautiful peachy-pink shade....
by Susan | May 30, 2011 | Garden
Today’s project was building a hybrid raised bed for my garden. A couple of years ago Paul made a cold frame out of pvc for me. Using the last bit of our miscellaneous wood, we built a raised bed the perfect size to go with that cold frame. Thankfully we had the...
by Susan | May 29, 2011 | Garden
It’s been a very productive weekend here. Last week, Paul finished fixing the tractor. This is a project that started in the fall – it needed a new clutch. The whole thing had to be split in two – twice! Of course things are never as simple as they...
by Susan | May 22, 2011 | Garden
Today is Paul’s birthday. I told him that I was gifting him with a sunny day. The overcast morning did not show a lot of promise of obliging me. However, living along the Maine coast means a lot of fog, so I was hopeful. I puttered in the garden a bit and...
by Susan | May 21, 2011 | Garden
My garden has only one cluster of tulips – these lovely Angeliques by the front door. They opened only a couple of days ago and are almost spent with this incessant rain we’ve had. Still, they are the most amazing delicate pink color. Worthy of a photo or...
by Susan | May 17, 2011 | Garden
It seems that we have been inundated with rain lately. Despite the wet weather, the early spring veggies we planted a couple of weeks ago are doing okay – and the snow peas are thriving! I think our raised beds might help – their feet don’t sit in...
by Susan | May 7, 2011 | Garden
I found this BIG bumble bee in my violas this morning. “A bee is never as busy as it seems; it’s just that it can’t buzz any slower.” ~Kin Hubbard
by Susan | May 1, 2011 | 2011 Garden Journal
Last Sunday, on April 24 I started three trays of seedlings in my little Burpee greenhouse. Each tray has twelve cells. Burpee Pepper Carnival Mix Burpee’s Big boy Hybrid Tomato Burpee Tomato Roma This morning, the tomato sprouts were just breaking through the...
by Susan | May 1, 2011 | 2011 Garden Journal
May 1st seemed like a good time to start my outdoors vegetable garden. I’m really not certain what “early spring” means when it comes to planting – especially for Maine. I guess we’ll find out in a few weeks when we see how what...
by Susan | May 1, 2011 | Garden
Today is May 1st and it’s a glorious spring day with temperatures in the upper 50s. My hyacinths and daffodils are in full bloom. I’ve got a volunteer viola that’s taken root. The wild flower seed I threw over my septic field last summer has some new...
