View from the farm

August 13, 2010 Chesapeake and Sunflowers

Good evening…from the farm.

Yesterday, the road in front of my house – which rarely sees two of three cars and hour – saw a number of semis and tanker trucks heading down the road to the Chesapeake site.  It would be hard for me to photograph, but I can actually see where it is from the driveway directly in front of my house.  (Through the trees, of course.)  From the dirt road at the bottom of my property, you have a slightly better view.

I’m really going to have to go check it out again.  It’s just there is no good vantage point once you get close to the well. …

On another topic, on the way to the Blaisure site I happened to glance up and to the left.  I only wish I had noticed it earlier in the summer when it was in full bloom.

That could cheer you up in the middle of winter!

Later.

July 26, 2010 The Ruth Stout Method

Good morning...from the farm.

When I was growing up, for some reason I remember reading a book called "The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Book".  The basic premise was to heavily mulch your garden with spoiled hay to prevent weeds.  So this year, I've been trying it.  I am also leaving lots of room around my plants - something I rarely did in the past.  I can see why it helps.  Check out my yellow squash.  (I wanted zucchini but couldn't find it when I was looking.)

Both of these pictures were taken after the rain, and after more weeds sprouted, but I have since added another layer of mulch.

Later. 

LaRue Produce

I was out driving around, distracting myself this afternoon.  I ended up on the section of SR 706 between the East Rush Road turnoff and the Elk Lake Road turnoff.  We hardly seem to travel that stretch of road, but I'm glad I did today.  I stopped at a great little produce stand and picked up some squash and some corn straight from the fields.  Check it out.

Of course I didn't get a picture of the actual stand - but I will at a later date.  Then I'll insert it here.

Now this is what a vegetable garden should look like.  Next time I'm by, I want to talk to them about the "bags" in which the plants are growing.

 
 
This is the other side of the road, and only part of their cornfield.  Thanks folks.  I'll be coming back for more veggies. 

On July 13, we went back for more veggies.  Here is the front of the store.

*****

June 26, 2010 Garden Work

Good morning...from the farm.

I looks like it's going to be a good weekend for working outside.  Yesterday, while I was out, I took the chance to stop at my favorite Taylor Rental place.  Yes, the Honda weedeater had just come back.  Give them a chance to clean it up and it was mine for the weekend.

OK.  I had been wanting to try PJs Cafe for a while, so I stopped over there for lunch.  Well, bar with a small dining room is more like it, but I have to say the Ruben sandwich was excellent.  Best I've had in a long long time.

I was able to get some hand weeding done in what will be my perennial garden.  I wasn't sure that much survived, but I have a hugh bunch of Matricaria (I forget what it is - little white pom pom flowers.)  Also the Veronica came up, and the dasies (Rubeckia, I think.)  The thing that pleased me most, a bunch of bee balm came up.  I love those weird red flowers!  Take a look.

Later.

My Aunt's Garden

The garden around my Aunt's apartment looks particularly good this year.  I know a variety of my cousins had a hand in all of it.  I was particularly impressed with the "irrigation" system they constructed to make it easy for her to keep everything watered.  Take a tour through her garden.

 

 

By the way, isn’t that a really interesting pepper plant?  It’s called a Black Pearl, and the edible pods are supposed to be very hot.

 

I like how they fixed the glads so that they all stand upright.

Those are some beautiful lilies.

 
These are about to be Stella D'Oro lilies.  Won't this spot look gorgeous with the red and yellow lilies? 

Before I go, a line from a poem popped into my head - one of the benefits of a traditional Catholic education.  Hope you enjoy it.

 

My Garden

Thomas Edward Brown

 

A Garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!
  Rose plot,
  Fringed pool,
  Ferned grot,
The veriest school of Peace; and yet the fool contends that God is not—
Not God! in Gardens! when the eve is cool?
Nay, but I have a sign:
’T is very sure God walks in mine.

 

*****

May 12, 2010 In the garden

Although the temperature was only in the 40s today, with all the rain everything is vibrantly green.  Some of the spring flowers are actually starting to bloom.

April 8, 2010 A Storm Coming

Good evening...from the farm.

Spent a lot of the day keeping an eye on the pregnant does.  My daughter is convinced that three of them are very close to kidding.  About every hour, one of us was out checking on them.

I tried doing some gardening, but by the afternoon it was very frustrating.  A stiff breeze blew up, and I'd try to rake, and the wind would blow the leaves away.  That didn't last long.  More flowers are suddenly blooming.

The forsythia is still looking good, and I found some little yellow daisy like flowers growing near it.

My daughter was amused by a forsythia that decided to grow in a crevice in the rock cliff on the side of the house.

Spilling down the cliff is a little river of purple flowers.  I don't know what they are but they look similar to a violet.  Maybe one of the Master Gardeners can tell me.  They make a cheerful spill down the front of the cliff.

They're a much prettier blue than the picture shows.

While I'm at it, I'd like to know the name of this weed.  It's all over my flower bed, and I know I didn't plant it.  It has a tap root that is about three times as deep as it is tall.

We're were supposed to have a thunderstorm later this evening, so I wandered around the property getting everything under cover that could blow away.  It was supposed to show up at 9 PM, and of course, the lightning and thunder started at 7:30.  Most of it blew over, but my rain gauge has about 1/4 inch of rain in it.

Later.

   

 

Hanging Baskets

Last summer I helped my daughter run a Flower Tent for the nine days before Easter, and Mother"s Day to the end of June.  I never had a chance to play with flowers before, and I loved it.  I just came across this picture that reminded me.  We bought a bunch of flowers the last day when they mark the price down dramatically.  It really was fun to have flowers everywhere.  I guess I'm becoming a gardener.

(Five times I tried to upload ONE photo, and five times the computer locked up.  By that I mean the hourglass symbol started fluttering like a demented butterfly.  It never stops.  You have to give it the old three finger salute, and restart your internet.  I thought it was our old computer, but lately, I've started to wonder about Frontier...As soon as I can get it to cooperate, I'll upload the picture.)