The color of the forest garden in August is Yellow and purple. The pollinator garden is in all its glory right now.
It is time to harvest some mint.
The jewel weed is attracting a lot of hummingbirds right now.
I am going to try grinding some of the curly dock into flour this fall.
I ate our first apple off of the trees today. They still need a little ripening.
HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?
CORYOPSIS
DAY LILY
DAY LILY
CHIVES
BISHOP’S WEED
MARIGOLDS
JALEPENO
FLEA BANE
WILD BUTTERCUP
PAINTBRUSH
MULLEIN
CHAMOMILE
GERANIUM
FRENCH ROSE
This is a season of babies at The Vicarage. My daughter, Melanie, is getting ready to give birth at the end of the month. The whole Vicarage is filling with new life.
Baby strawberries
Baby apples
Baby bunny
Yesterday was any day off which means it was my gardening day. I am finding I need at least one whole day a week to be in the garden and then several parts of several other days to keep it going and that is outside of the daily chores of animal care and cleaning.
Yesterday I gave a lesson to my granddaughters on planting tomatoes and peppers. I think we are finally clear of the frost so it’s time to get the rest of the vegetable garden in!
I started with a morning walk around the garden, while my son-in-law tried to break up some really big rocks that critters have made their home underneath. We began planting. Here are some things blooming right now even as we get the seeds and seedlings planted.
The Siberian iris are lovely this year.
The Korean lilac is soooo fragrant.
Paintbrush in the lawn.
Greater calendine growing by the rock wall.
Here are some annuals I picked up. They will go into our newest garden bed along with some hardy lavenders and some coleus.
By the end of the day the girls and I had put in several tomatoes, some pumpkins and a winter squash. We noted the summer squash had sprouted. I finished out the afternoon with some mowing and some work on the newest chicken coop.
Aside from the burning and the fence building and the lawn mowing I am trying to get too, we have three projects which are time sensitive at the Vicarage and at least one of them is going to have to be a group project.
This is a rendering our new chicken run for the flock once the black austrolorps are ready to be out in the world. It stand about 7 feet tall so it is going to take a couple of us to get the roof up.
I am also thinking of repurposing the original chicken house we had for the old chickens the first year and then adding another small box to the mix.
BUT before that I have to plant the carrots in their boxes and get the potato towers built.
DO YOU HAVE A SPRING PROJECT YOU ARE WORKING ON?
Those of you who have been following along know that as Spring breaks around us in all of its glory, here in New England, the projects are beginning. One of the many projects at the Vicarage is burning up a rather large pile of brush. Actually it is more like four large piles that are connected across the yard into one immense pile.
Anyway my son-in-law, James and I have been whittling away at it for the last couple of weeks. Neither of us ever has a full day we can give to cutting or burning. We each have an hour here or an hour there, so we do what we can when we can.
Yesterday, James was able to spend about an hour cutting up the brush into smaller piles so I could get at it and unburying some of these larger logs for burning.
And this morning I was able to take about an hour and a half and burn up some of the wood that he dug out.
We make a good team!
It’s officially Spring. This week has been up in the 70’s and even into the 80’s and that has caused everything to begin popping up.
The daffodils along the side of my sister’s driveway in the front garden are up.
The day lilies and even a few irises have started poking their heads through in the front garden, too.
the day lilies and the garlic are both pushing through in the circle garden by my driveway.
All that said our spate of good weather is almost over. By Saturday we are plunging back into the 30’s and 40’s and there is even a possibility of snow overnight, on Sunday, as the temperatures will once again plunge beneath freezing.
SPRING IN NEW ENGLAND!
WHAT’S THE WEATHER LIKE WHERE YOU LIVE?
Last week I posted about trying to burn brush in the rain and how frustrating that was.
This week, the weather has turned and I have been able to burn two days this week so far.
The three piles I have to burn will probably take me most of the summer to burn, but at least I have gotten a start
Spring cleaning has begun!
Notes From the Vicarage 