Wortcunning

CREEPY bugs

2011-05-03T08:50:00.004-05:00

UPDATED to reflect change in identification by Dr. Art Evans :) entomologist extraordinaire. He has a regular segment on the local radio and is the author of National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Insects and Spiders & Related Species of North America. Thanks Dr. Evans!

These things recently landed on our doorstep- quite literally!

It is called a Fishfly, from the Chauliodes genus. From the photos on the link Dr. Art Evans sent me, it looks like the Spring Fishfly.
They are HUGE. Oh and you can click on the pictures for nice BIG detailed versions!

Which makes it rather creepy to open the door and see them. Not sure why they are there, I shall have to research them.

They seem to be attracted to lights, and for some reason hang around our back door well into the morning. Weird things!
The kids are fascinated (7 year old daughter) and repelled (11 year old son) by them. But I am pretty sure that this covered nature study this week ;)

Guest Garden- Williamsburg

2011-03-10T15:39:00.000-05:00

I meant to post this garden last year, when I visited it. Actually I visit the garden regularly, because Williamsburg is just not that far from here and this is one of my favourite gardens!

A stroll along Duke of Gloucester Street (known affectionately as "DoG Street"), Williamsburg will show you some of the most stunning gardens in Virginia. This is a graphics intensive post, so be patient!

This particular garden, sits outside a tiny white house, close to the entrance to Colonial Williamsburg. I have long been fascinated with it's beautiful shaped beds and brick pathways. The hedges surrounding the property are usually well groomed too, though not ornate in nature.

You can see the little house here. Most of the garden is given over to herbs, and a pleasant buzzing of bees can be heard once they bloom.

My favourite garden, however, is a little further down. This 'DoG Street Garden' also has a tiny garden centre, where seeds and plants, as well as colonial style decorations can be bought.
The costumed 'interpreter' for the garden, is a gentleman who is as knowledgeable about gardening as he is about the time period in question. He grows food year round (inspirationally) without much diffculty!

To the left, in this shot, is a living fence. A woven lattice of limbs! You can't see it though, because the peas hide it. In the centre, I believe we have some squash being grown vertically, while on the right are some melons growing on the ground. All the plants grown here are heirloom varieties thought to have been around at the time of the Colonial capital's heyday.

Onions, strawberries and peas. You can tell it is already getting a little warm for peas by the end of May (this is from May 31st) because they are yellowing.

As I said, they sell plants here. This picture appears to have a small pomegranate tree growing in a pot, with a couple of eggplants/aubergines beside it in other pots.

They extend the season with cold frames and hot beds. There is a lot of manure around, and the gardener uses it under the coldframe (buried deeply) to warm the bed up for early starts to beans, squash and peas while winter is still hanging around.

The cold frames are insulated with a layer of pine needles or straw.

Bell peppers have been transplanted outside at this point too. Here in Virginia, and early start with tomatoes and bell peppers will get us crops beginning in June.

I am always fascinated with the garden structures used for support in the colonial gardens. The rickety bamboo trellis here will probably house a vining green bean- they can get quite prolific in summer, and are often one of the first vegetables to produce, despite going into the ground from seed.

The whole garden is not all vegetables. Herbs and flowers grace it too- which means plenty of butterflies and hummingbirds.

I often get overwhelmed just looking at the garden- there is SO MUCH to see! This is the path leading past the herbs and flowers...

It really is a riot of colour, and the buzzing of bees is very prevalent.

The pleurisy root/milkweed is there for the monarchs too.

The herb bed. There are all sorts of herbs there, and more interesting, is learning the herbs considered important by the Colonists.

Full, and beautiful herbs! Chamomile... mint... Feverfew... yarrow.... the list goes on.

This woven grapevine is wonderful isn't it?

You can see here that it was very busy there... despite being rather early in the season. You can see the canopied area where they sell things straight ahead.

And a different view of the flowerbed. You can see Bruton Parish Church right opposite the garden too.

I am not sure what these are, but they are pretty!

Another fun garden structure there on the left... a woven fence. I am not sure what the circle is for, but I am guessing more squash, this looks like the traditional squash mounds. Then there is the metal thing holding the onions with their fabulous heads... I love those!

Here is a closeup of the fence!

I think this is a cardoon. So many of the veggies grown here are out of style I don't always remember what they are!

These rain barrels are the main source of water for the garden. They use old colonial style watering cans to water the garden, the ones with the gravity feed. You can also see some of the tip and pour style here too.

Three stages in the garden- ready to harvest, seedlings and the empty patch where either it has JUST been planted or is waiting to be planted.

Potatoes in the shady spot in the garden. Just as well really because it can get a little warm in the later part of the growing season.

Protection, colonial style. This is a thin, waxed canvas and NOT plastic, but it follows the same principals as the poly-tunnels.

Colonial style tools abound.

You often see them using one or another of the tools. I admit, I really liked the wheelbarrows!

Beans and onions.

Beets and parsnips. If you look to the top left you can see bell jars- another form of colonial protection for the crops.

The colours here were amazing. And not just the flowers either!

Here you can see the living fence I mentioned- interlaced branches of what looks to be willow :) I am not sure about that though- even though I remember when he was weaving them I actually asked him about them!

The two pomegranate trees. I have not done them justice in the photo because the blooms are quite spectacular. I love them- and this is where my one came from!

The garden centre itself is a lot of fun. Lots of plants, heirloom seeds... and at Christmas, decorations for you to make your own 'Williamsburg Decorations'.

And hats and bird houses and gravity feed watering cans... all sorts of colonial style fun!
I went round the garden again to see more!
I hope you enjoyed your tour around the Colonial Garden on DoG Street, Williamsburg!

Another Year, another Spring

2011-03-10T14:46:00.000-05:00

Last summer was not a particularly fun one.
Long and hot and dry, my plants suffered.
It started in June. The first week of June we were in the 90's (that is degrees Fahrenheit) and it pretty much stayed there all summer!
My plants whithered, or were eaten... and the hosepipe bans took their toll.
I am hopeful this year will be better!!

My seeds are purchased (well the early spring ones anyway) and the beds tilled over. And if the rains stops, I can start to plant the seeds!

I thought that, in the meantime, I'd share some photos from some different gardens from last year!

coming up next... Williamsburg, May 2010

Garden Update

2010-05-31T20:39:00.000-05:00

I keep meaning to update about my garden, but forgetting (although I have been taking the photos)... so here it is after a couple of weeks ;) I hope to have another guest garden post (or two) coming up too, so keep your eyes peeled!

First up- "salad fixin's" ... quite lovely. You'll notice the broccoli is gone- cabbage white butterflies infested them- and flour did NOT dessicate them and kill them. They even got into the florets so no broccoli again this year. I have to change the way I do broccoli if I am to grow it again.

You can see here my Jalapeno Peppers from last week. They were big enough to pick this week, and they are now on my counter ready to use in a recipe for stuffed jalapeno peppers.

See? Beautiful aren't they? I love the way peppers look :)

I have given my tomatoes new and very lovely, colourful cages :) The idea is to stop them falling over..

This week I have some good looking tomatoes...

Both kinds of tomatoes are doing well- they seem to like the pots!

The other peppers- the poblanos...

-Which are really growing well here as you can see-

And the bell peppers, are coming along. This was the decapitated plant remember? Look - it has blooms :)

I am hoping for peppers soon ;)

Then there is the glorious pomegranate... with the neighbour's tree being cut down, it gets a lot more morning sunlight, and all of a sudden there are bunches of buds all over it :)

They look kind of like this before bursting into flower like the one below.

A colour that is just not captured well on camera! Still, they are quite lovely to see :)

Another lovely (and delicious) red fruit in the garden, would be my raspberries...

The bushes are LOADED with them! I need to pick them and use them... but for what? Decisions... decisions...

Their neighbours the elderberries and blueberries are growing too... but something keeps eating my blueberries. I suspect the little brown rabbit we have seen in the garden at least twice this weekend!

These blueberries are from LAST week- this week they are gone :(.
There are a few pawpaws too... Not as many as I would like, although I suspect there are more than I can see easily ;)

The corn is also growing like mad... I like to brag that mine is the best looking corn around here ;)

It is almost 4 foot tall, and looking good :)
And my beans... they are flowering!

These are the Lima beans :)

And here are the green beans :)

Beautiful visitors come to the garden too- this is a Zebra Swallowtail on my pleurisy root.

And a Tiger Swallowtail on the same ;) The pleurisy root is immensely popular- it is a relative of milkweed, so you know the monarchs like it too.

Some visitors are not so pretty- DD holds her 'friend' which she calls "Toady". Toady visits us a lot- so often in fact that he has no problems with being held ;)

So that's the garden this week... more later!

Like peas in a pod!

2010-05-17T11:36:00.001-05:00

Like peas in a pod!
Originally uploaded by Spinneretta

We've been harvesting! The peas are just ripening and are picked as they do- and eaten as they are :)
It is considered a treat here- I never manage to grow enough to satisfy the kids (or me for that matter).
Note for next time: plant at least two rows of squares...

Mother's Day Garden

2010-05-10T11:24:00.001-05:00

Mother's day in the garden is always fun! There is so much growing here in Central Virginia! The air is sweetly scented with honeysuckle and roses, and the birds are washing in the fountain!
My pomegranate has a bloom...

Just the one so far. My neighbour has spoken about cutting down the trees- especially after one of them broke off in the gales this weekend!
My daughter loves these chive blossoms- you can pick them and use them to make a pink chive vinegar!

My potatoes are getting huge- so I added a lot of mulch around them. After I watered them a LOT because the wind had dried out the ground so badly. I also transplanted one of the zucchinis I was growing into this bed.

The other one remains in the pot I planted them in:


Black Beauty Zucchini

My broccoli is beginning to flower too!

See the tiny little floret in the middle there? Just the first three I planted are blooming yet- but I suspect the others will soon too.
You can also see that my lettuce and spinach are doing great too...

I mulched around the broccoli because it'll help the roots to stay cooler, hopefully preventing it from bolting!
Something is munching on my spinach- but I am not sure what it is.
There are other triumphs occurring...

PEAS! Yes, large numbers of pods have been spotted on my pea vines!

These are a shelling variety- so I have to wait for the pods to fatten up before I get to pick them.

I also have baby tomatoes.

These are the sungold ones, so not much longer until I can actually eat them ;) And they are not the only ones...

The other tomato is blooming!

And so is the other pepper!!

And in the best news of all- the decapitated pepper has sprung back:

Look at all those new leaves!
My beans are growing like the proverbial weed. I nicely used a yardstick so you could see that ;)

As are their cousins the lima beans:

Those I did not measure for you!
Speaking of beans, take a look at these blackeyed peas...

They were part of my daughter's science experiment- she chose to grow blackeyed peas from the jar of them we had for cooking. She is quite proud of their progress- and I am amazed at how well they are doing.
I have a couple of swiss chard plants too. Here is one. Yes, I have picked a couple of leaves from the chard, spinach and lettuce. They make great salads!

And in the square next to this one, I transplated the other of my straightneck yellow squash- whose sibling can be seen in it's original pot below...

The carrots are also doing well. The wind dried out the soil terrible though and it seems kind of rocky.

Finally the showpiece- corn with roses! Yes I measured that for you too...

Guest Garden: Agecroft Hall

2010-05-09T23:43:00.002-05:00

Agecroft Hall is a 15th century English manor house. It was transported from England to Virginia back in the early part of the 20th century, after it's original location in the heart of coal mining territory, meant that the house had become unstable.
It is a truly beautiful house, rescued but not rebuilt exactly to the original plans. The wealthy philanthropist who rescued it had willed it to become a museum after his wife no longer lived there. She and the people in control of the trust decided to make it a museum representing late renaissance and Tudor/Stuart life in England.
It is beautifully decorated with period pieces, but the gardens are of course, what interest us :)
Coming out of the courtyard of the house you can choose to go down hidden garden paths and into a sunken garden- designed to be like that at Hampton Court Palace in London.

It leads out to more secluded pathways, and you might find yourself at an outdoor banquetting hall- the docent told me that people would eat their desserts there after a banquet in the house. Below the hall is a still-room- where herbal preparations were made by the ladies of the house.

Banquetting Hall

If you turn around, you can look out over the rolling hills and down to the James river. It is astonishingly like the land it originally came from in Northern England.

Coming out of the banquetting hall, you might sneak through another opening in the hedge, and find yourself overlooking extensive formal gardens.

Pass through a wrought iron gate...

The first is a herb garden- outfitted with all the culinary and medicinal herbs of the time- plus a few bee skeps!

Up the steps and you arrive in the Tradescantia garden.

Here are representatives of the numerous flora discovered by John Tradescant the elder and his son John Tradescant the Younger. In fact- they have the spiderwort you can see in my garden!

Up a second series of steps and you arrive in a knot garden. Knot gardens were very fashionable in Tudor times- tiny hedges of herbs were clipped into intricate patterns. It is NOT easy to do- we tried it once :) Establishing the plants into an even hedge would be the most difficult part- since typically one or two plants will die on you!

If you walk back through the formal gardens and out, you'll come to the rolling hills again, and be beneath that banquet hall.

A magnificent magnolia dominates the hillside- the air was redolent with that sweet scent.

Further up the hill and you meet the maze! It's a grass maze- nothing spectacular- but mazes were hugely popluar back then too. I wonder if they did that because of Hampton Court too- because if so, they got it wrong! Hampton Court had HUGE 6 foot tall hedges. I heard they got rid of it though!

If you go off of the terrace on the back of the house, you find a rose walk- where modern roses bloom effusively and scent the air.

Terrace

I recognised this one- it is the crazy one in my front garden- the 1939 New Dawn rose. I'm thinking that I need to do this across the driveway though!

There are more plants I did not get to photograph- people were all over the place! I managed to get the highlights though!

Next door, is another English transplant- the Virginia House, which was once a priory.

It has some nice gardens too- my everlasting memory from there is treading the paths to the smell of mint- a closer look revealed corsican mint between the pavers on that path! I can only show you outside though, because it was closed!

If you get to visit Richmond, Virginia, then take a look at these two magnificent homes!

Guest Garden: Bacon's Castle

2010-05-09T23:03:00.001-05:00

Bacon's Castle is a Jacobean house situated in Surry, Virginia. The tour guides tell me it is the oldest High Jacobean brick house in America - I can assure you it is definitely a beautiful one!

The original structure is the one with the peaked roof on the left- the other two were built a couple of centuries later. Yes, here in America is a house whose history is measured in centuries rather than decades!
Isn't it pretty?
The gardens are legendary. The original owner (a wealthy English settler) imported English loam just so he could grow the things he was used to... and when the house finally came into the hands of Preservation Virginia (otherwise known as the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities) the gardens were long gone. Lucky for them, a previous owner had drawn a plan and they finally found them...
Nowdays, they are taken care of by volunteers- so of the six original beds, two are farmed and four remain as lawns.

You can see here two of the lawns- and in the distance, two of the farmed beds.
The beds surrounding the area are still cultivated... espaliered trees, cold frames... (the white fence thing on the right is an espaliered tree).

Herbs and veggies and medicinal plants...

The corn poppy (Papaver rhoeas) was a frequently used medicinal herb- it contains a much smaller amount of the alkaloids found in the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) and can be used in much the same way- as a pain killer, sleep aid etc...

It's not the only herb either. Sage and the other culinary herbs were well represented- after all, it was a kitchen garden.

This is a South facing wall. It blocks the winter winds from the North, and is heated by the sun. That means that plants get an earlier start and it has a micro-climate that will often allow for tropicals to grow in otherwise inhospitable regions. Probably not here in Virginia though :) You'll be able to up your zone a notch or two- which in the case of England (whence this idea came) puts you into tropical territory. Here in Virginia, it allows you to garden year round ;) It is a fine example of a traditional English garden in fact- especially since it was most likely designed by the original (English) owner. Note the strategic placement of the cold frame. I'd bet that cool season crops can grow all winter long here- we are almost at sea level, which tends to extend the season ANYWAY (according to the wonderful Duke of Gloucester Street gardener in Williamsburg).

In fact, the leeks have been pulled from here, while other, warm season, crops are grown. At the far end (top right) are raspberry canes. This is quite a long way from the warm southern wall and so they are just about the same development as my own canes- which have their own micro-climate because they are at the top of a hill :)

I spotted some familiar faces- this fig had grown into a huge tree. With LOADS of figs! There was a strawberry that had so many fruits I was tempted to pick- and what I think is a pomegranate. I am not sure though- the day was windy with gusts going up to 40mph plus. It does not allow for close inspection- and my photos wanted to come out blurry- I was lucky to get what I did!

I would wait until the wind calmed a little before taking photos- but it means I sometimes forgot to read the labels :o. I forget what these are, but they are pretty! (And are next to onions from the look of it!).

It was so windy in fact- that this picture ended up being taken while the wind blew (it was gradually getting worse- and at this point did not calm down anymore). I was amazed it looked so good- the humble foxglove. I wonder if they used it medicinally!

The house is out in the middle of nowhere- it is after all, an old plantation. Yes, it had slaves at one point and was a tobacco farm. Nowdays it is in the middle of wheat fields- not quite amber waves of grain, but close! Stunning views all round!
If you ever find yourself in the region of Surry or Smithfield Virginia, then don't forget a visit to Bacon's Castle!

Why is it called that, you ask? Well Nathaniel Bacon rebelled against the then governor of Virginia, William Berkeley. There were a lot of raids by the native American Indians at the time, and there were a lot of policies that the people of Virginia disliked- so they complained to the governor. Who did not listen. He lived in the city of Williamsburg and did not have to suffer as much as the people. In protest, a young man called Nathaniel Bacon started a rebellion- which had an encampment here for a night. They pretty much trashed the place and decimated the owner (Arthur Allen's) wine cellar. Bacon died from some kind of infection a few days later, and is thought to have never actually visited there- but the moniker stuck!
This is a very brief retelling of the history, you'll have to read up on it for the best retelling!

May in the Square Foot Potager

2010-05-03T13:03:00.000-05:00

I like to refer to the garden as a Potager. Because it has beautiful blooms, and it has veggies and herbs too! I do keep them somewhat separate. Sort of. That is to say the kitchen garden is near the kitchen. The roses are all over, the irises invade various spaces and the herbs squish into wherever I can fit them. The herbs are really my favourites. So are the roses. And the vegetables. OK I don't have favourites!!

This is the herb garden. Well, it is the square foot garden I set aside for herbs. You can see some of my new aquisitions there- top left- Chamomile. Just above that is Greek Oregano (I love oregano) and borage just above that. That big thing in the middle is, I think, Tansy. It's a volunteer. As is the teeny tomato plant next to it- right behind the almost blooming chives! Ignore the weeds please, I forgot this garden yesterday!
The rest are basil, with a small appearance from the kid's strawberries on the far right.

Meet straightneck yellow squash. We planted the seeds last week. There they are sprouting. Yes, they are in a pot. They are in a pot because I ran out of room in my vegetable garden and because squash and zucchini kind of go mad in the garden. Since only I and my daughter eat them, I have one of each. I will also have a pink winter squash once some of the spring veggies make room. Which might be a little sooner than I'd like- the warmer weather is not helping!

That's zucchini there. I bought heirloom varieties of these because I knew that growing them from seed would let me :) I am hoping to have somewhat resistant plants because those horrid squash bugs try to get my plants every year.

Meanwhile, the peas are blooming. I love their flowers! We should shortly be seeing pods- so I am excited. I am hoping for a second pea crop later this year- it will be my first year trying for an autumn crop, so we'll see how it goes. I might give up when summer comes- it gets overwhelming here in the humid South! (Particularly if you are English born and bred).

The cool crops are looking rather nice. There are the lettuces and spinach, ready to pick a few leaves. The shallots are looking good, and the garlic there at the end- well they look pitiful but never mind them- look at the broccoli!!
The plants in the other bed are producing flowers, I hope to harvest some soon!

See what I mean about the lettuce?
Yes, the bright green (volunteer) lettuce is in the spinach bed...

No flowers on these ones yet...

Here are the green beans. They have really taken off all of a sudden! I guess they liked the hot weather!
You can see the new sage hiding there on the right between the beans and the carrots.

There it is again- with the carrots in the top right.
I usually end up feeding the carrots to our rabbit- and M'Lady who loves them.

Limas look good too. The white things are rose petals- we've had a lot of wind lately.

Which also explains their presence in the corn too. There is also a rose limb in the corn- because the rose wants to go there. Actually the rose is next to the corn and one stray, blooming limb likes it in the corn bed. It'll be dealt with once it stops blooming ;)
Meanwhile the corn keeps growing, even when the new neighbour puppy comes to visit and tramples on it! You can't see that one...

Oh look- the new rosemary and some Swiss chard!

The advantage of buying my peppers, is that someone else, with a greehouse, can give them the start they need. EARLY enough :) So now they are blooming. There are three varieties- a bell, a poblano and a jalapeno. One of each, in separate pots. I think this is the poblano.

Here it is, full length- next to the new peppermint. Also conveniently contained in a pot. I will not let it go free to run in the garden- the lemon balm, motherwort and apple mint are already having too much fun!

The sungold in a pretty pot near the ugly tiki torch :) I love the tiki torches... they work pretty well if you don't accidentally tap the gnats inside the area you are in!

The other tomato, the bell pepper I accidentally decapitated and the jalapeno pepper. Oh, and the squash :)
Don't worry, the decapitated pepper is growing new shoots, so I still hope for some yummy bells from it!

Potatoes. I need to bring the soil level up a little.
Well actually I am thinking more of mulching up some, but I still need to do it ;)

Blooming comfrey- going a little wild :)

The white bloom there is valerian!

Pineapple sage (also new) and a wormwood (yes, it is new too).
You can't see the new lemon verbena I planted- because I have yet to photograph it!!

Look at the lovely peonies! They smell wonderful too!

And the third of our irises- the blue and the yellow are still going strong.
(That's a sow thistle behind it- these run along the ditch and it is really hard to get rid of those and the grasses with them!).

See- told you the blue was looking good!

Happy gardening!

The Rose Garden

2010-05-03T12:27:00.000-05:00

Our weekend was HOT. As in 90* temperature hot!
It was kind of nice though. We spent the day in the garden again and worked on it some- and enjoyed the wonderful roses, which just bloomed! In addition, were the plants I bought just over a week ago at the annual herb festival... so here is my update.

First up- last weekend, was the annual herb festival, Herbs Galore at Maymont Park in Richmond, VA. Vendors from numerous states come, selling their wares- herbs, herb related things and vegetables. I usually buy my tomatoes and peppers from there, but this year got my tomatoes from the local garden centre. I picked up three peppers and several new herbs for my gardens ;)

We also put in a fire-pit. We had been using an old trash can for burning garden debris (old limbs etc.) but it was all holey! I actually cooked over the firepit yesterday too- that was kind of fun, if a little too warm ;)
The burgers were delicious though ;)
The blocks are ones from Lowes, the circle is about 3 foot in diameter and sits just off of the patio. On a cool day we'll be able to warm ourselves around it.
On a hot day we have to avoid that side of the patio- it was about 90* while I cooked over it- I felt very colonial ;)

The entrance to the garden is currently stunning. Our old garden rose (highly fragrant) is tumbling over it. There it is- the one on the right is about as tall as they are supposed to get. You can see how much taller the left one is. And oh the fragrance- it is the 'tea rose' fragrance you get in perfumes! This is the fabled 'Tudor Rose'...

The Tudor rose is said to be a cross between the roses of York and Lancaster. This, the Lancaster rose, is also known as the Apothecary rose. It too is highly fragrant and beautiful. Reds apparently don't like either my camera or my monitor much, because they never look right on my screen :/ But I guess that means I need to draw it ;)
This is the one you can use for all your cooking needs... and medicinal!

This is the other rose that is said to be the parent of the Tudor rose- the White Rose of York. It too is highly fragrant and so pretty... this year the rose is looking wonderful- we had a bad few years when we were unable to take care of them, and they are finally looking good again!

Here it is in all its glory! A stunning rose, providing a nice little shade for the patio :)

This rose is extra special. It is the Jacobite Rose after which my main blog is named. It is also a survivour- we thought we'd killed it when we tried to move it about 8 years ago. It got a little better, then the spot we had it in started to get less light (another neighbour tree). So we had to move it again. This time it came apart into two, one part survived, and the other died. The survivour was hit by falling roof tiles when we had to re-do our roof. This year, it has finally gotten back to its former beauty- what a stunner!

Yes, it is fragrant. Yes, those are fully double blooms...

See?

We have other roses in bloom too. This is the Tudor rose again...

This is a miniature rose called the Leda rose. We were sent it by accident!

The New Dawn rose- this is a more modern rose. it climbs. It attacks the car. And it really needs to be moved!! But I love it :)

Rosa centifolia - parvifolia. That means the small cabbage rose. We have the original too, but that has yet to bloom :)

Rosa alba- regalis.
Or 'Great Maiden's Blush'. This bloomed just this morning.

Two other roses have bloomed- the Betty Prior and the Rosa damascena bifera. I think. I forget its name LOL. You can see the Betty Prior in the background with the firepit, but since they are both red, the flower close-ups came out funny on my monitor :/

This last photo is the Tudor Rose cascading over the arbour- just this morning :)

But I have other things to show you so I will stop with the roses for now, and get a nice edible garden post ready for you later!

The Edible Garden- and flowers

2010-04-23T10:55:00.007-05:00

If you haven't yet decided to participate in Good Life {Eats} 'GrowCookEat' then you should head on over to the blog to see all the wonderful gardening posts :) And maybe participate in her Mother's Day Giveaways!

But on to my garden, and how it is fairing :) It was a good week for eating the garden- the kids got their first strawberries :) I am fairly sure this is the first time they have picked strawberries and eaten them straight from our garden :)

I decided that this was a fairly momentous occasion, so I managed to get the kids to post with their strawberries just before they picked them!

The verdict? "Delicious!", "Sweet!", "Juicy!".

Is it usual for us to get such early strawberries? Well usually not quite this early- but remember these ones came from the garden centre with some flowers already! However, the next strawberries will be ones that grew here. From the already started plants. Oh well, maybe I can't say they are all ours this year, but next...

You can also see some of my herbs in the pictures. Next to my son you can just spot the chives- I used those a couple of times this week as a garnish... once for a baked potato and another time for soup. Cheddar Potato soup to be precise... it is absolutely delicious!

There are some more chives next to my daughter- those are garlic chives. I have yet to do anything with those this year- I want them to recover after their being transplanted! You can also see the basil I am growing- I LOVE basil in the summer. Especially with tomatoes and mozarella cheese... mmmmm!

Speaking of tomatoes...

I always buy my tomatoes as plants- I just do not have the spot to grow them as seeds.
Plus I need at most, two plants. Only my daughter and I eat them anyway... and I have no space for storage of canned tomatoes. Although that is something to consider...
I digress. These are my sungold tomatoes- they are the best tasting cherry tomato EVER! I had to buy the hugest tomato plant because the small ones were already sold out! But that is OK. I got them- and they are already blooming!
I'll tell you a secret though- I have babies cropping up all over the garden from last year's plants ;) I planted one in the herb garden just to see if it would grow.

The tomatoes are blooming before the peas!! But the peas are doing well- since the weather cooled down. I added some extra string to my trellis so the peas could grow- and you can see the Swiss Chard coming up next to them too :)

This will eventually be given over to a later summer crop- perhaps of squash, (winter) or something that grows fast!

Maybe cucumbers!

The rain we had earlier this week has done some good though- look, Limas!
I planted these especially for my husband, who is a huge fan of them. They really don't produce much though- like peas you have to plant a lot to get a decent crop. I never seem to plant enough (and in case you wonder, I pretty much empty the pea packet!).

They are not the only beans sprouting in the garden though... you can also see blue lake green beans...

Yes, they look very much alike at this stage. However they are in totally different square foot gardens and I marked them so as to not forget which I planted where ;)

These ones are in the same garden I planted my carrots in- which are also doing well :)

As you can see. They are baby carrots, so I am hoping it wont get too hot for them too soon. I am always so happy to see them. Unfortunately, so are the swallowtails!

The bed next door is now sprouting corn. They are tiny yet, but there they are.
I need to thin them out this weekend...

The rainbow beets are taking off...

...as are the lettuces and spinaches. For some reason I forgot to photograph the spinach. I think I'll be able to harvest some lettuce leaves soon though ;)

You can just about see two spinach plants growing in the second square from the back on the left. Those grassy things are my shallots. A couple did not come up, and I am considering planting my garlic in those spots if I still see no signs of life...
The garlic is stuff from the fridge that sprouted. I put it in some water and it took off!

Raspberry season is just around the corner- and you can see my raspberries are ready to go :) Look closer and you can see the berry part. I think they bloomed when I wasn't looking! These plants were given to me by a dear friend, and they produce twice a year- isn't that a great gift? :)

They sit next to this lady, who was also a gift :) This is an Elderberry- and look she is getting ready to flower. I am thinking of moving her over some so she can have a bit more room.
The raspberries have gotten quite thick, and I think they could use a trellis :)

Lest you think the garden is ALL food, I wanted to share some of the other wonders in it- like the flowering comfrey. I know, I know, I really shouldn't let the herbs flower... but I love the flowers on comfrey, and I love the bumblebees guarding it!!

This blue beauty was the first of the irises to bloom. It used to be in my Mother-in-Law's garden, but my husband took it after she died. It sits in the bed with some other irises we rescued :) I also have one from a friend in there, but I am not sure which it is or what colour it is, so theoretically this might be it anyway :)

These yellow ones were also rescued from my Mother-in-Law's garden. They stand in front of some peonies (we also have some of those from MIL's garden, but not these ones) and an heirloom rose. Far in the background you can see the wonderful robin-egg blue pot that my tomato is in :) It sits under the pawpaw for now :)

I have no idea what this iris is. We planted it ages ago and forgot about it- it has a stunning triple bloom- very pretty!

It sits amongst the creeping phlox in the fountain garden- where the spiderwort is now blooming :)

The roses are starting to bloom. This is Rosa damascena versicolor- otherwise known as the Tudor Rose. It has the most wonderful fragrance, and is supposed to get about 5 foot tall. At MOST. This one is about 12 feet tall- and I could not reach this rose to smell it, I had to reach my arms up to get the photo- and the rose is not at the top of the plant!

The periwinkle or Vinca major is also in bloom- a carpet of green leaves studded with blue flowers. They were originally supposed to grow around the mailbox, but they no longer do, because we moved the mailbox. They have spread so far though, that I am sure they'll get back to it soon :) These were gifts from my Mother-in-Law's garden :)

With all the flowers, it is to be expected that there will be a visitor or two to them.
I saw the first hummingbird at our feeder in the last week. He was pitifully thin from his long trip, but there he was.
I had had my feeder up for a good week or so already, so I was prepared- unlike last year when he kept hovering around the window trying to tell us to supply his food ;)

They are not alone in the garden either. In fact, the garden has been harbouring a thief!

The other day, I came out to find one of my square foot garden grids all messed up... and I blamed the kids or a dog, not thinking too much about it. The grids are made of string this year, and before I bought my skewers to use as stakes, I had used some plant tags...
The following day, my daughter asked me "what is that in the tree?".
There was a robin, trying to get some string- and not just any string, but some from my garden!! She had managed to get it stuck in the tree- and if you look in the lower half of the photo- dead centre, you can see the plant tag hanging from the barely visible string. Sorry about the photo quality, but it was a rainy day! She kept attacking the string and trying to take it up to her nest- but to no avail.
I suspect she was a first timer, because about 30 minutes later, her nest fell out of the tree!

Here you can see it on the ground- complete with pieces of string and pine needles. She had not finished it yet, so at least there were no eggs!
There is also a piece of wool from my spinning stash. I still wonder how that got outside...

Well that's the garden so far :) Happy Gardening everyone!

GrowCookEat

2010-04-08T14:26:00.000-05:00

Over on the Goodlife (Eats) blog, Katie has started a weekly 'GrowCookEat' post- which every kitchen gardener, might just want to participate in :).

I started my garden a few weeks back- back when it was cold and I thought the weather would never warm up ;) It has warmed since, and promises to stay pretty much that way, although they have changed our forecast since this morning :)
So I thought I would do a last minute post about my garden, and then try to keep up with weekly posts. It is always interesting to see what is happening where anyway!

On to the garden!

FRUIT: I have plenty of fruit in the garden growing, whether or not I get to eat it is another matter entirely! Closest to the house, and housed in a pot, is my fig tree.

Right now it is little more than twig-stems and these tiny leaves. I was thrilled, because last year I had a cold snap that just sent it back to the ground. I can't say that I have had any decent fruit yet- this will be my third year, but I do indeed get figs :) Tiny figs! I am hoping for something better this year...

I have two blueberry bushes. It is debatable whether I will get much out of them this year as I JUST bought one and the other has yet to flower much. But I live in hope :) You met the pawpaw (again) in my previous post, so next up are the raspberries...

Just getting ready to flower! These were a delightful gift from my friend Molly- and now they are going wild! I must have dozens of new canes shooting up just these past few weeks! I love that (shame the ants like the raspberries too!).

As a companion, there are my (or the kids' rather) new strawberry plants...

They share a bed with my chives (also seen in a previous post) and the future herbs I hope to host in this same bed. I am waiting for our herbs galore festival, but I already have a list! The kids are quite excited to see these berries already!

Further over on the hill, the Trifoliate Orange is beginning to show its fruit. I showed the flowers from just last week, the heat made them last just a few days!

And now on to the vegetables! I showed the broccoli and potatoes earlier- nothing spectacular about the broccoli, but the potatoes are really doing well! I hope I get lots of potatoes- I get very mixed luck with them! (It is dependant on weather).

But there is almost a bed full of them and I am always hopeful!

Here is one of the onions... well shallots actually :) These are pretty experimental for me... a new thing to my garden (at least in that I managed to plant them on time, I think I might have tried them once before...) They are tiny, taking up a very small portion of the square foot they were in.

You can see how big it is :) There are several shallots in each square, I think 4, so they should all be coming up soon!

Swiss chard seedlings. I have 4 squares, each with 1 allocated plant. This one of course is waiting to be thinned :)

Carrots. Also waiting to be thinned ;) I am waiting for the second set of leaves on my seedlings, by the way, before I thin much!

Spinach. Three squares with spinach. I am hoping these do well, I love fresh spinach! especially with strawberries!

Lettuce- another three squares with lettuce. In both cases there are about 4 plants to each square, and I have planted them in a spot which will eventually have shade as the weather warms and the pawpaw grows leaves :) This is important to these cool weather crops which get bitter with heat and tend to bolt. You can see this lettuce mix is one with a red tint- heirloom variety!

Beet seedlings. They look almost identical to Swiss Chard seedlings (so I might have my pictures mixed up LOL) because chard is essentially beet leaves! I thinned these after taking the photo!

In the next couple of weeks I will be getting ready to plant corn, beans and limas... and of course, my herbs :)
I also hope to pick up 2 tomato plants, indeterminate, one cherry and one large! Keep watching!

Spring-Summer-Spring-Summer

2010-04-08T10:25:00.000-05:00

Back on the rollercoaster rider of a Virginian spring- today in the 80's, tomorrow the 60's, 70's the next day, then back up to the 80's. I am still a little worried about my seeds- cool weather crops don't like warm weather much. I really should know this by now!

The peas are really growing now... it's just about time for me to go appropriate their trellis and put it up for them to grow up :) I am beginning to regret this variety, I should have gone for the more heat tolerant one again. I do have some of those ready for a autumn crop...

My potatoes and broccoli are really coming along. I have yet to get the bed set up with the new sides here, but you can see how the broccoli (back row) and potatoes (all the other squares) look.... I am hoping the hot weather is going to dissipate and let them all grow a nice crop of little potatoes :)

I have shown pawpaws on my blog before- this is the annual flower shot :) The bottom one is newer than the top- and we now have three pawpaw trees in bloom. I am not happy about the third- it is in a BAD spot! They are extremely difficult to re-locate though.

The lilacs are already blooming- just stunning. I love their scent. And they are such pretty flowers, I am thinking of drawing them :)

Even the roses are getting ready to bloom! Typically these roses are May or June bloomers, so to have buds in early April is a little early! But that's the weather for you.

Right now though, everything is coated in a sticky layer of pollen. There are several culprits, but here are the two main ones in my garden...

White Pine. The flowers are quite something aren't they? These are wind pollinated trees, so the stuff is blown hither and yon all around the neighbourhood. It is truly unfortunate for us that there are two right in our front yard- they are not especially nice trees!

The other culprit is a birch- in this case a paperbark birch. These 'catkins' are the birch flowers- another wind born pollen bearer! I am not as upset with this one- because I truly love birches- and the 'paperbark' is fascinating. Wonder if it makes for a good canvas...

There are signs of my lettuce, beet, chard and onions popping up, and I believe I saw a carrot or two this morning as well. I also found two 'wild' lettuce and chard plants growing in my beds- volunteers from other years. I wont complain though, I love these little visitors! I'll save posting pictures of those until another day :)

Spring- or Summer...

2010-04-06T14:20:00.000-05:00

It is currently 90* outside- yes on the 6th April. No, that is not normal, but then neither is it atypical for Virginia, where our spring weather is a roller coaster of up-and-down temperatures. The weather forecast is for 64* on Friday, so you can see the change!

The only problem with prolongued periods of warm weather in spring, is that the pollen count goes WAY up, and then the family starts coughing and sneezing until the offending tree (our white pines) stop production.
We do have some GOOD things though... for instance, the 'helicopter' seed of the red maple is a lot of fun...

These were sitting in my kitchen, courtesy of one of the kids!

Then there are the spring flowers... amazingly beautiful and stunning in colour. From violets (above) to peach blossoms (below)...

There are the trifoliate orange blossoms...

And my pea seedlings...

And then there is the garden itself... its prettiest time of year!

Speaking of Square Foot Gardens

2010-04-01T08:37:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to share a resource a friend shared a few weeks back, that I really must pass on.
You might have noticed the lovely Square Foot Garden logo on the sidebar...

THAT will link you to THIS site... which is a pot pourri of information and resources for you to use with your square foot garden!

Definitely take a trawl through the site, you will find so much to offer!!

A Peek at My Square Foot Garden

2010-03-30T11:23:00.001-05:00

I suppose I should share some of what is going on in my garden- we have managed to get out there the last few weekends- despite the fact that we have had a year's worth of rain in the last few months!! The local weather man says that since November, we've had 60% of the yearly total, and should we have had it all as snow it would be 300 inches deep!
But I digress, back to the garden :)

About 2 weeks ago, I repurposed an old mailbox we had sitting under the back porch. We just replaced the mailbox post out front, and now we had the old one, kind of feeble, but still useful. We have been using the old box for years, so it seemed quite logical when my son suggested putting it outside of the garden, to do just as he suggested.

I painted the mailbox beautiful bright colours :) Because I think they are pretty and because I wanted it to obviously NOT be a mailbox in use for mail ;)

Inside are stored garden tools- the small ones- and the kids' gloves for gardening. Plant labels, twine... you know the kinds of things!

Here is the working garden. Through the arbour, down the path- you are in the middle of my square foot garden. Not all have grids yet- I need to work on those!

This one in the front has the new raised bed frame around it. Eventually they will all be like this. Those are peas in the front there, and the recently added soil is covering Swiss Chard :)
The back one has 4 squares shallots, 3 square lettuce, 3 squares spinach, 3 squares beets... and 3 spare squares.

The grid in this bed is actually a tomato tower. It is a great temporary grid! Those 4 squares are carrots. Behind it are potatoes and broccoli and the one in front will eventually house beans.

The yearly Easter garden sits in front of newly planted strawberries and transplanted garlic chives. I need to clean up our gravel some though...

So there it is, a sneak peek at what is happening in my central Virginia garden :) How is your garden growing?

Signs of Spring Outdoor Hour

2010-03-27T09:40:00.005-05:00

I was excited when I saw Barb's challenge last week was 'Signs of Spring'. Because- well because we'd been watching them ourselves!! Somewhere in the house, the kids have journalled their signs of spring.
Unfortunately I think they might have had their work appropriated for display!

First sign of spring in our garden (apart from weeds) is always my sorrel:
It has a tart lemony flavour, and one day I will find a recipe that is great to use it for LOL One of my first plants of the year is my first edible too :)

The hyacinths were next to appear. This is a bulb which has been in the garden a few years- which is why it doesn't look as full as normal ones. Typically hyacinths do this. Still smells good though!

Speedwell and it's cultivated cousin, this particular Veronica sp. are frequently the first bloomers in the garden. I like the colours of the cultivated one better- the flower near the top on the right is in front of one of the wild ones, so you can see the contrast :)

I have never planted daffodils- we transplanted these from some wild ones growing down our hill. I love them for what they mean- it's spring!!

If you look back in my files, you'll see other photos of our Vinca major from years past... it always blooms early :)
The Bradford pear blossoms are beautiful- but they really don't smell very nice! Still, they look good on camera ;)

My kids HAD to have some strawberry plants. I think they are hoping for a crop- well they'll definitely get a couple of berries if nothing else :)
The best part about the first few days of spring, is that it finally gets warm enough to sit outside and draw.

And I actually have things to draw!! You can see I have actually drawn some of the things I photographed :)
I can tell you now, we also have grape hyacinths and a few peach blossoms. Photos to come later!!

P.S. Yes, there is a new look to the blog, I am still working on it though, so it might well change :)
Blogger has allowed new template adjustments, so I am messing with them ;)

Signs of Spring

2010-03-12T11:43:00.002-05:00

Signs of Spring
Originally uploaded by Spinneretta

It happened suddenly. The weather hopped up 10 degrees, maybe as much as 15 degrees between one day and the next, and spring arrived.
The first week of March was cool- in the 40's and 50's (that's between 4 and 12 degrees C). By the second week we were hitting the mid 60's (17C) to low 70's (22C).
Spring is here. We'll ride the rollercoaster of temperatures between the mid 50's to mid 70's over the next month, before gradually evening out into our summer temps by the end of April, but in the meantime, we are going to enjoy the progress of spring.

I have already seen my first crocus- hidden down in the woods and discovered by the kids. In some parts of the neighbourhood, daffodils are blooming- while they remain stubby leaves in my beds right now. My Hyacinths are ready to put forth flowers, though they will never be the showy blooms we got that first year (apparently that is perfectly normal, though I do wonder why).
So on a warm, but overcast day, I sat outside and drew some signs of spring.
I do it every year now.
A year ago, the crocus and daffodils were out and our neighbour's Bradford Pear was in blossom I have the pictures to prove it.
2 years ago I have pictures of me doing the gardening :) I didn't have a scanner then, so I have to actually look at my journals :) According to those, we first got into the garden in mid February and by this time in March, the trees were all blossoming and the henbit was out. So you can tell we have had a longer winter this year!!
In my picture, you can see the wild speedwell (the cultivated is not yet blossoming), purple deadnettle (Lamium purpureum), daffodil leaves and Pennsylvania Bittercress (Cardamine pensylvanica).

Cowbirds

2010-03-11T09:21:00.002-05:00

Cowbirds
Originally uploaded by Spinneretta

With the arrival of warmer weather, we took the opportunity to put our solar powered fountain back out. This has always been a huge draw for the birds, and sure enough we were inundated with them.
Even when I am outdoors, sitting at the patio table, the birds will happily come and drink from the fountain just a few feet away from me!
So while in the garden one day, I decide to draw the fountain and any birds that visited.
Of course THAT day, the kids stayed near me and no birds would visit while they wriggled around, so I drew the pair of brown-headed cowbirds that had visited the day before :)

I can't say that cowbirds are my favourite bird, they are notorious for their bad behavior- they are the cuckoos of North America!! The females lay their eggs in other birds nests, usually at the expense of the other bird's own offspring!

seeds

2010-03-10T09:15:00.002-05:00

seeds
Originally uploaded by Spinneretta

I was thrilled when the weather forecasters told us what the weather would be like this week. Sunday was about 60 degrees F (about 15 degrees C) which is warmer than it has been for AGES. An unusual cold winter for us- normally we see warm patches here and there, but not this year.
Today they say it will reach 74F (23C).
So it is not too surprising that I got out my seed packets and planted some seeds- in peat pellets inside :) Truth be told, most of these could probably go outside too, BUT my square foot beds are not quite ready- the snow covering them and the rain after just made this happen a lot later than normal!

The kids helped me plant the seeds- DD was especially excited because she is looking forward to eating them all ;)

Moon Pillar

2010-03-03T20:16:00.002-05:00

Moon Pillar
Originally uploaded by Spinneretta

The other day, we were out and about after the full moon had risen. It was a beautiful moon- but most astonishingly, it had a shaft of light above and below it- rather than the usual corona.
I asked my weather expert (yes he is 10, but he is really into this LOL) and he tells me it is called a "Moon Pillar".
I was not able to draw it on site or take photos (we were never stopped in a place where it was visible :( ), but I had my memory- and I used it (and my watercolour pencils) to record it when I got home :)

First Signs of Spring

2010-03-02T18:13:00.004-05:00

The weekend just gone by, was finally warm enough to get some yard work done. Usually we've been able to do this work during January- on the one or two warm weekends then, or earlier in February. This year it was almost March, and I was beginning to despair of ever being able to get the garden beds ready in time. I am still not sure they will be ready, but it wont be because *I* didn't try!
I took the opportunity the following day, to record my hard work with some new watercolour pencils. I am not absolutely familiar with them yet, but I shall enjoy learning to use them ;)

First I drew the garden beds I had so lovingly prepared. They are 4' by 4' square beds. Eventually I hope to have a taller and thinner frame so I can nail my grids to them, because yes, I am planning on another square foot garden :)
The beds were originally 4' by 4' squares, then I merged them into two long beds. Now I have taken them back to 4' x 4' squares because I just liked them that way, and my husband said it was a more useful shape :) We'll see!
That right hand square on the lower right is one I am planning to use for salad stuff- it gets shady in the summer allowing me to keep the produce going longer.

I have yet to make the back bed into the two 4' by 4' squares. I am hoping to get to that this coming weekend :)

March begins a very vibrant time of year in the Virginia garden. We can already see hyacinths, daffodils, crocuses and irises popping up- and in a few weeks they will be blooming. Right now, the maple trees are the main thing blooming. You can see a haze of red buds surrounding the limbs of the trees- and one might be able to imagine them to be like cherry blossom. They aren't of course, but in a way they are just as beautiful. For when you see them, you know spring is not too far behind!

The birds are beginning to pair up, and birdsong has been very familiar in the garden the last few days. In fact, I heard one particular bird that sounded a whole lot like my daughter- screaming! I have yet to see whether it is a natural call of a jay or something, or a mockingbird, mocking a certain someone who screams a little too often...

Paper Bark Birch

2010-02-22T12:22:00.003-05:00

Yesterday the weather finally warmed up- it was the warmest day we'd seen since January 28th- which was warmer :o None the less, it FELT warm after days of temperatures in the 40's and lower!
So we all went outside to wash the car (all that salt and snow dirt) and I had hoped to do some gardening, but parts of the garden beds I wanted to clear were still covered in snow.

Instead I settled in the front garden and drew a picture of our paperbark birch. A friendly mockingbird stopped by for a short visit and I draw him in ;)

The bark on this tree peels off, and was once popular with European Hornets, although we have not seen them for the last couple of years. I think I blogged about them before :)

Red Winged Blackbird

2010-02-18T09:43:00.002-05:00

Red Winged Blackbird
Originally uploaded by Spinneretta

I had to get some more photos of birds recently- so many of my others were not quite good enough- the bird was not in a good position or there was snow in the way... so yesterday, when this fellow appeared, I grabbed my camera and got a few good shots.
He has not got his summer plumage yet- his 'epaulette' is still kind of yellowy, with just a flash of red at the top.
Since it was warmer, he is not as puffed up as my other birds, and his glossy plumage was certainly challenging to capture :)
A mockingbird and some starlings accompanied him on the feeder- although I like the mockingbird, I was not too thrilled with the others (or the squirrel that seems to think I have provided him with a free lunch).
I am definitely looking forward to some spring!!

Pine Warbler

2010-02-12T15:51:00.002-05:00

Anniversary Pine Warbler
Originally uploaded by Spinneretta

This is not a certain identification of the bird by any means- but this bird and the previous one are new visitors to our feeder. This one actually comes every winter, and was initially mistaken for a goldfinch because of it's bright yellow colouration.
we eventually figured out that it was not a goldfinch changing it's feathers, but something else- and it was at the suggestion of someone else that I think it is a warbler. I keep mis-calling it a 'siskin' but checking it in my book it most definitely is NOT!

Myrtle Warbler (Feeder bird #3)

2010-02-10T21:38:00.002-05:00

Myrtle Warbler (Feeder bird #3)
Originally uploaded by Spinneretta

Or at least that is what I have tentatively identified it as. It and the pine warbler are not regular visitors to the feeder under usual circumstances, but what with the snow recently, these two are seen somewhat regularly!

Cardinal

2010-02-08T15:45:00.002-05:00

Cardinal
Originally uploaded by Spinneretta

I am planning a series of pictures of birds at our feeder in the snow... this is the second bird- the cardinal was below the feeder.
I have seen quite a few new birds with our recent snows. Two warblers (a Pine Warbler and a Myrtle Warbler) are not common feeder visitors at all!!
I have plans to draw them too :)

Bluebird

2010-02-06T10:17:00.002-05:00

Bluebird
Originally uploaded by Spinneretta

It's that time of year again- the bluebirds are house hunting!
Two males visited our feeder this week- and were unable to get the food in our 'squirrel proof' feeders. I was upset- the place we bought the feeder from had assured me that the bluebirds would fit. Not so people!!
So I adjusted the feeder a little, and in the meantime got a number of photos of the birds- allowing me to draw them :)

We have had quite a bit of snow this winter- which means my bird photos have been quite good- I'll be back later to share some :)

Nature Journalling...

2009-09-15T10:24:00.006-05:00

You know, sometimes I forget to update this blog, even though I am still recording nature in so many ways :) So I thought that I'd use this opportunity to show off some nature pictures, and some new resources I ran across :)

These little frogs are all over our garden- I think this one was a tree frog- we found it on an old stump and it's feet looked like tree frog feet :) I know next to nothing about North American Amphibians though...

it's windfall time of year here- raspberries are out for the second shot and pawpaws are falling from the tree- WITHOUT being pushed by squirrels!! They are actually delicious! I recommend growing them (two or more) in your garden :)

These caterpillars are mildly poisonous- the side spines sting like mad! I have a photo of him too ;)
There you go- he is only about an inch long, and he is eating a persimmon leaf. Apparently they like orchard fruits :)

I should really learn to make jam with these- there are so many!

and I actually got a number of these this year too :)

Now for some new resources:
An excellent nature notebook resource, the Nature Sketchers blog is a great addition to the Flickr group. I highly recommend checking out the individual artists on there too- most have their own blogs.
In fact, Elizabeth Smith just started her own nature art blog, and it looks to be a fantastic place to find a nature journal :)

Flowering Gardens...

2009-05-11T11:06:00.006-05:00

Yes it is that time of year again - when the garden is in full bloom, and the spring sights are indeed wonderful to behold :) So once again, a few snapshots from recently :)

Yorkshire rose in bloom. Photo by my husband.

Rosa alba semi-plena or the Yorkshire Rose.

I believe this is the Tudor rose, Rosa damascena versicolor. Photo by my husband.

Close-up of the Tudor rose :)

Sunset over the parking lot :) This was such an amazing sunset, I disregarded the location!

Spiderwort.

"Mama, take a picture of me! Take a picture of me smelling the iris!". So I did.

Rosa Damascena 'Bifera' or Quatre Saisons rose (Autum damask)

Those who read my art blog will recognise the pinks- I drew those recently LOL

Peony just opening.

Peony...

and again- they are very photogenic!

Rosa alba 'maxima' OR the Jacobite rose- yes the one my blog is named after :)

Iris.

A flowering grass from the garden...

A sneak peek into the garden :)

Mama duck and ducklings!

Baby Opossum

2009-04-22T10:57:00.002-05:00

We found a baby Opossum in our garden yesterday- I shared the story over on my main blog if you are interested (with photos ;))

The Story of Pinky Part I
The Story of Pinky Part II

Spring has Sprung!

2009-03-27T08:57:00.003-05:00

Spring is here, and there are so many different places that are now giving advice on vegetable gardening.
Ok people- *I* would have loved this YEARS ago (I believe I have been trying this for 5 years or so at least- my blog being 3 years old this January past - you can SEE that it's been going a while :)
Anyway, I wanted to share some things I run across, and thought I would.
PLUS I want to share what I am doing and WHEN for those new to gardening ;)

Here we are in Zone 7a. That means relatively mild winters. I say relatively because there are LOTS of places in the USA with colder, and a few with milder winters.
Virginia is one of those 'middle' states, with the worst of both worlds. Our winters are just cold enough, and our summers hot and humid. That means we have a tough time growing a lot of things because our climate is just not cut out for it.
Peas (English) have a tough time. It gets hot fairly early on, which means peas tend to die off early. IF you are smart, you will have already planted your peas (about 2-3 weeks ago). They will take a while to germinate in the cold soil BUT as soon as the weather is right, up they come. Last year my peas were excellent :) If only I had planted more...
In the ground now, should be peas, lettuce and spinach, brassicas and some of the cole (Kale etc) crops.
I am a bit late on most of these because the weather decided to rain buckets right at the time I needed to plant. And my soil has a tendency to compact when worked in the rain. I need to work on the compost this year...

Now on to the sharing :)

Two new books:

The Backyard Homestead:

Lots of lovely information about vegetables for gardening AND preserving. Also includes some livestock information :) Love the garden plans- but then I am a garden plan junkie...

The Complete Compost Gardening Guide

A lovely book to supplement the Rodale compost book you should have on your shelf :) Nice pictures- they really illustrate concepts you have previously heard of but probably not seen, a few great (and economical) ideas- some are original, others not so :) I really like the trash can composter idea- great way to test the barrel composters without the cost. THAT one I am going to try :)

Keep an eye open- this year promises to be big on vegetable gardening- about 2 years behind England on the resurgance of this passtime :) That means there should be new books and all sorts out. In the meantime, enjoy the following links :) (I'll add to these as I find them).

The Green Thumb Family

Charles Dowding

(Not So) Urban Hennery

Granny Miller

Free Herb Magazine

2009-03-22T20:22:00.003-05:00

The Essential Herbal magazine is offering a free copy of its sold out edition concerning vegetable gardens :)
dig for victory here and get your own copy!

You might also like to know that Mother Earth News has a "Grow Your Own Food" guide out as well- worth getting :)
Those of us who have been doing this for years are loving the new trend... :D

Nature Notes 19th March

2009-03-19T12:19:00.002-05:00

Signs of Spring in my Garden
Orginally uploaded by Spinneretta
Click to enlarge picture

I have been doing numerous nature journal entries, which you can see over on my Main Blog. I thought you might like to see it her :D
This is today's offering- signs of spring in my garden :)

Awesome Idea

2009-03-16T19:06:00.001-05:00

Well you can tell I like my kids to get outside... and THIS idea is so great!
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article5308533.ece

You have to read this ;)

SNOW!!

2009-03-06T11:03:00.010-05:00

After 7 years, we finally got a decent snowfall. It would have been much better if it had NOT knocked out our power on the two record breaking coldest nights in March ever!!! (9.3 degrees F and 13 degrees F respectively). Thank goodness for Kerosene heaters!
Anyway, I thought I'd share some pictures of our 8 inches or so. You can click on the pictures for a closer look :)

The birds were attacking the feeder with a vengeance- we actually saw birds at them that we rarely see... including a pine warbler and the blue jays. It was definitely a plus point because with the power out, there was not much else to do but watch them and read books... not that I mind either of those ;)

This one above is the pine warbler (female).

The back garden was covered. When I went out, I discovered my Doc Martens were inadequate- too low!! I resolved to tread in my husband's footprint. His boots were a little higher! M'Lady's boots were way too short while Rebel's wellies were fine. Good job it wasn't super cold though!!

The views from upstairs were amazing... they always are though :) My biggest regret was that certain neighbours thought it was fun to go up and down the road in ATVs and Dirt bikes- and a few in trucks which they liked to try and get stuck in the snow in. Most were too young to have driven in the snow before- like I said, this is the biggest snow in 7 years for us. Locals tell me that we used to get these snows every year, plus a bigger one and a smaller one. If all snows kncocked out power, I say thank goodness for 'climate change' ;)

It really was a rubbishy snow. Powdery and dry, you couldn't sledge, or have snowball fights or build snowmen (though a few people managed the latter by using wetter snow). M'lady tried her sledge, but moved only a few feet. 2 days later the sledging was great- I used our hill and had fun, the kids did a few slides in the front and chickened out from sliding down the hill.

The icicles on the roof were cool. They started out pretty small, but as the days passed and the snow melted only to re-freeze at night, they changed...

...becoming these amazing icicles which dangled long and low enough to see from the living room and front bedroom windows. I found them fascinating- falling on the ice one time as I stared, and watching them melt out of the window. They are ridged and fascinating to see!

And when one fell off yesterday, Rebel grabbed it and brought it in to look at. You can see that they are really quite large! I was not the only one fascinated by them!

The way the snow clung to the trees interested me too...

The front lawn became quite beautiful...

...And the setting sun tinted the snow on the trees pink. That's probably the last of the snow we'll see for at least a year... but given that it has been 4 years since our last snow big enough to play in, and 7 years since a sleddable snow... who knows?

AMAZING!

2009-01-30T18:05:00.003-05:00

No, I don't mean the fact this is the second of two posts in just two days!!
I just found a book I have been after for AGES online...

Leechdom, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England

So why would I want this book, let alone post about it on my nature blog?
Did you notice the name of this book? And the name of my blog? That should give you a clue as to why- not to mention how LONG I have been wanting to read it *grin* (this blog is now 3 years old I believe!)

But I digress- I love old herbals. I have a passion for old herbals. I can't afford them, but I really love them. I still regret the chance we had to get one, once, long ago, that we passed up (it was Theatrum Botanicum by John Parkinson I think. I STILL really regret that!).

You can see some images from a copy here.

The book I have been wanting to read is another such reference- to the old herbal ways :) I just thought I should share ;)

Ice Storm

2009-01-28T12:31:00.003-05:00

I don't know that you can really call it a storm though. It was more of a steady rain, or drizzle at times. Although disappointing that it was not snow, ice can be just as captivatingly beautiful!

When I got up this morning, it was dark. It shouldn't have been- it was well after the time it is normally light. The sight outside was beautiful- iced trees glistening through the fog. It is not a sight you normally see in England, so ice-storms are one of those American things I enjoy as a novelty- like the huge thunderstorms we get in summer.

I stepped outside to try and get some photos- but it was so dark, my flash kept going off, and the beautiful shots I made were ruined by the light. Suddenly the pale air, and crystalline shine of the ice was reduced to water.

This one above is artificially lightened just to show kind of what it looked like.

I ran out later to take a few, but much of the ice had already melted. the air was filled with the sounds of birds singing, and water dripping off of the trees in a constant stream. It's the sound of a thaw- a sound most gardeners anticipate because it is often the first herald of spring.

This early in the year, I don't think it is a true thaw- just the ice from the freezing rain thawing. None the less, the birds are excited- we refilled the feeders for them, so they have plenty. Now if only I could find my suet cage...

I managed second time around to get a few decent shots of the ice-rimmed plants, especially of the red limbed Rosa virginiana. This is one spectacular winter plant with its red limbs and red hips :) Sounds almost like I am describing a person :D.

The sweetgums in the garden, are forever dropping their gumballs into the garden, this one landed in the middle of the rose bush- I am considering painting it for the latest EDM challenge (#208- draw something out of place).

"Ice
on the earth, bitter
black frost, and a winding sheet of snow
upon her withered breast, and
deep within me, dread
and ice."
- Jessica MacBeth, excerpt from "Initiation"- Winter Poems

How Time Does Fly...

2008-11-03T14:31:00.005-05:00

Especially when you are having fun. I always seem to get lost on this blog when the summer comes- too much to do, not enough pictures, you name it :)
I thought instead, that I might just share some photos :)

My pomegranates, grown in my garden :)

Pineapple Sage.

Homegrown peanuts.

Homegrown fig.

A bee digging holes to lay their eggs in... you can see the beginning of a former test hole on the left :)

Milkweed fluff.

The three stages of an Eastern Blue Swallowtail Butterfly.

Lavender.

Rosehips from the garden.

Our Halloween pumpkin... face designed by Rebel :)

New Fertiliser

2008-07-11T08:55:00.004-05:00

With the tomatoes coming in and many issues with the garden (too much rain at once, not enough over all- weeds- you name it!), it seems just as well that we have a new fertiliser!

Meet Mocha, the newest member of the family- a 9 week old rabbit, that M'Lady and Rebel already love. Mocha was M'Lady's choice of name for the rabbit- she was trying to make up a word, but actually came up with a real one LOL. It suited his dark hair and we went with it. I had liked Hagrid and Sooty- but I never get to name the pets any more ;)

Isn't he sweet? Actually we don't know whether Mocha is a boy or a girl, but it doesn't matter. It is a sweet natured bunny- and ALL bunnies have droppings, which are the best fertiliser. I hope the rabbit bandit in the garden doesn't mess with him!

In the Garden again

2008-06-26T10:36:00.003-05:00

After a hot start to the month, the weather cooled a little and was merely 10 degrees F too hot, rather than 25 or so!
I am still waiting for my tomatoes to ripen (it will be soon!!), and watching those pomegranates. They look promising, but at least one has been pulled off by the unknown fruit bandit.

There are pawpaws high up in a tree... I am still hoping to get those! I should draw them for posterity though...

And a fig on my new fig tree... amazing because I had not expected it! I DID draw that when I found it!

We got some potatoes this last weekend... delightful because I harvested them, added them to the ones I got at the market last Saturday and sauteed them with a little Olive oil and butter, lightly seasoning with Mrs. Dash.

The birds have been visiting the feeders... and the new fountain we got.
They treat it like a birdbath, which is good because that is what I wanted! It has such a nice soothing sound!

We caught sight of a bald cardinal at the feeder the other day. I suspect it is in the middle of a summer moult... cardinals seem brightest in the winter, and I often see them looking kind of threadbare in the summer!
My beebalm just bloomed, and I have hopes that the hummingbirds will come for a visit! I'll let you know when they do... and when the tomatoes are in ;)

First Harvest

2008-06-01T18:10:00.002-05:00

It's that time again! Lettuces have been picked, peas and radishes have produced, and the first tomatoes are on the vine!!

Last Thursday, we picked our English peas. Virginia is a pretty hot summer climate, so we really only get a couple of weeks tops of peas being produced in the springtime. This year, I got about a week's worth :o Never mind... I shared the joy of picking these with the kids:

And shelling them into these:

Which we ate raw because they are so SWEET! YUMMY! Their life is pretty much over now, what with the weather getting into the upper 80's and 90's (from around 28 through 34 degrees C). Peas find it hard to tolerate that range!

Our garden is abounding in roses, and has been the entire month :)

This is the Virginia rose, discovered in the 17th century by the colonists. It has a sweet, very light fragrance, and the bumblebees were going mad over it this morning!

These small things were popping up all over our circle recently... ladies and gentlemen, we have here a Shirley Poppy. They are relatives of the red corn poppy you see... same poppy, new cultivar. Quite beautiful!
I am hoping to see the monarch caterpillars soon. Our milkweed relative, Pleurisy root, is blooming.

This is a stunning, firey orange. I planted this from a root many years ago, and it still pops up every year. Sometimes the monarchs find it. Sometimes they dont!

This fellow, at about 1 3/4 inches long, was a scary find on the side of our house a few weeks back. The photo is not great because in direct sun I can barely see the screen to tell, but I can tell you that he is a "Big eyed Click Beetle".

They are not really eyes of course, just markings on the thorax. He was quite alarming at first, but when we found out that the adults apparently eat very little, we decided to like him :)

Finally, my pride and joy.

This absolutely stunning, intense orange bloom is a pomegranate. I got hold of a pomegranate bush some years back, at colonial Williamsburg. I wanted one because they had one... in spring it was covered with blooms this colour. In autumn it is covered with fruit this colour. I don't know if mine will make it to the fruit bearing stage... local wildlife will insist on denuding our trees of fruit, BUT I really liked it for the blooms anyway :) If I get a fruit, thats just an added bonus!
This is the very first year it has bloomed for me, so I am extra excited about it!

I added a few things to the garden recently... some basil and dill, and some parsley. Today I pulled up a 'weed' from our peonies, before realising it was a volunteer squash. I transplanted it in the hope it would survive ;)
My green beans just suddenly sprouted, and one or two navy beans did too. (Those were an experiment ;)).
Lots of things are growing, though not as many as I would have hoped, but you win some, you lose some! I had a terrible time with the pumpkins... all of which did not want to come up. I may try once more, and hope for the best!

Happy Gardening!

Caught in the Act!

2008-05-08T09:26:00.003-05:00

We had a visitor this morning. I suspect he might just be a vegetable thief... but he has apparently made a home in the hole on our hillside!

Each of the kids has requested that we capture him and keep him as a pet, or let him roam wild and keep him as a 'pet wild rabbit'. I told them wild rabbits don't make good pets!
It does make me wonder if the horrid cat down the road did kill a baby rabbit... I saw it with SOMETHING in its mouth the other day!

Some garden pictures

2008-04-27T20:01:00.002-05:00

From the garden.

I gave up on the seed I was growing... between getting fried and just not thriving (I suspect my potting soil and the time in the sun under the plastic did this) I decided to fork out for some plants from my local Herb Festival this weekend :)

Swiss Chard and Lettuce in front, peas growing up the trellis in back :)

Cilantro... just for Dana ;)

The kids' garden, wherein they have planted garlic. I added seeds for pumpkins (one orange and one white), Marigolds and Chamomile.

Tomatoes and Peppers, plus sage in the background.

The perfect rose.

First Harvest

2008-04-25T12:31:00.003-05:00

Leastwise, the first one we got around to actually EATING ;) Technically we could have harvested Swiss Chard over a month ago and Sorrel two or more months ago!

The first harvest consisted of some lettuce and spinach leaves picked to make a wrap.

Since rebel is not so fond of lettuce, I gave him the spinach.

Mum, stop taking photos of me!!

Despite the look, he actually loved the wrap :) Which is a huge success, he is almost as picky as his Dad. He was very excited to have very fresh spinach ;)

M'Lady said the sauce was "too ficy" (too spicy), but she enjoyed the fresh harvest!

This is the lunch itself... a wrap, consisting of chickpea patties with a curry sauce and lettuce.
The patties and sauce recipes are found at the Taste of Home site (it is a subscriber only recipe unfortunately), although I used sour cream instead of yoghurt, as I was out of the latter.

Green Hour 9 (cont.) and 10

2008-04-25T09:49:00.000-05:00

So I managed to get the kids out of the house today. We were out ALL morning at a local park for our nature club outing :) That was a very pleasant day, and the wellie boots I insisted the kids took, came in very handy!
We ate a picnic sitting in a gazebo at the top of a hill, overlooking an area of buttercups and dandelions. I wish I had thought to stop stuffing my gob and actually take a picture of the kids perched on the walls or down in the flowers! But I didn't. I did take a picture of the inside of a tree and some pictures of flowers, but I spent most of the time chasing after the kids :D We identified a number of flowers which we added to our list, to much excitement from the kids!

This afternoon, Rebel did his square. I decided to let him take charge of the situation, and I placed the camera in his hand. So the pictures you see below are his :)

First he chose a spot down our hill. It's swampy there after the recent rains, so he chose to wear his wellies... and stomp in the mud ;)

There was a lot of moss in the square:

and some of the Japanese knotweed we have been desperately trying to get rid of, as well as some of the grass we have been seeding for the last few weeks ;)

The Indian Strawberry is a common weed here, but entirely inedible!

Which is a shame because the berries look nice! You can see another one below with a dandelion.

Rebel picked up a fallen catkin from some nearby tree (probably one of the pines in the front garden), and desperately (but unsuccessfully) tried to get some photos of an orange bug and some small ants.

He admired the white clovers, which I suggest everyone take a smell of, since they are quite fragrant!

And he looked at this baby tree. We think it might be a birch tree as there are several around.

Notice also the maple seeds? The kids have great fun throwing these 'helicopter' seeds into the air to watch them whirl! Rebel found a very large one, which went into his nature box.
If you take a look above the square, you will see this:

Which Rebel correctly identified as a Tulip Poplar... this just so happens to be what is left of 'Scenery Mr. Climby' . He did not keep his attention on the square ALL the time. He photographed this Tiger Beetle next to his 'mine'. It's really just a hole where he is allowed to dig LOL.

While Rebel was studying his plot (he tells me he is not finished BTW), M'Lady was picking caterpillars. From ALL over!

She amassed quite a collection, I think there were 7 in the jar at this point. They were tent caterpillars, so not really a favourite of mine!

But the day was lovely and I took it in and drew some things ;)
Today I plan on a picnic lunch outside (not really a treat since we do this quite often LOL) so I can take some pictures to put up on Green Hour 10!

N.B. I wrote this yesterday just before the scheduled power outage at Blogger, and so did not get it up until this morning!

While I was Cooking...

2008-04-23T13:41:00.002-05:00

...I watched the birds outside my kitchen window, and I saw:

A red bellied woodpecker (female) pecking at the suet. You can't see her, but there is also a little female goldfinch behind her ;)

Then along came the male goldfinch, and chasing off the female and another goldfinch, he eats his seed.

Then there was a downy... first a male (above) then a female. At one point the two woodpeckers (downy and red bellied) were on the suet at the same time.

And finally, just as I was about to put the camera away, along comes a recent addition to our regulars, a mockingbird. This friend is another suet eater, and is constantly looking around. Probably for the neighbour's cat, whom I caught chasing birds yesterday!

Green Hour #9

2008-04-21T09:53:00.004-05:00

I had it all planned. We'd do a little gardening, and while we did that, the kids would pick a square foot (just like Barb describes) and study it.

It didn't work out that way at all! You see, this weekend, we had one nice sunny day and one wet, rainy day. The sunny day was Saturday, errand day. Go to the store and get stuff day. And it rained on Sunday.

So, we did not get to do the square foot thing (which I was sure made a wonderful 'occupation' activity). I knew I should have done it on Friday!
Instead we built a Teepee and watched this fearsome spider!

Never mind, the kids did experience some outdoor time on Saturday.

First we watched a Red bellied Woodpecker build a nest in an OLD maple at the far end of our garden. That was a little too far away to catch on camera... but then we saw an old friend!
Toady came back for a visit! I know I have blogged him before. Here is at least one post where we met him (before he was identified as a TOAD and not a frog!)

I induced M'Lady to touch him and stroke him. She actually rather enjoyed it, and was most upset to be called in just a little later.

And we investigated the new flowers (which will be added to Rebel's list very soon!).

This pretty little flower is on some kind of grass. I think it is in the flax family, but I can't remember :-o

I bought this spiderwort at the Herb Festival last year. We have two kinds now ;)

This is the famous Tudor Rose (Rosa damascena versicolor). Some people think the Tudor Rose was the Rosa mundi rose, but those in the know have decided that this is the offspring of the White Rose of York and the Red Rose of Lancaster. (~~I think I got those right!~~ I know I got them right because I checked... and at first I got them wrong ;))

This is Rosa pendulina a new addition to the garden just this year... and we already have a bloom!
Now, if the rain manages to let up over the next two days, we'll try to squeeze out some square time and maybe we will read this book:

(One Small Square) Backyard by Donald M. Silver

Weekend Gardener

2008-04-14T11:36:00.002-05:00

My husband and I do a lot of our gardening on the weekend. It's just easier that way! This week though, because of predictions for rain (which never appeared) on Sunday AND Saturday, and promised 80 degrees plus (which DID appear) on Friday, Jacobite took the day off and gave himself a long weekend.
It was lovely, although not really restful, we did get a lot done in the garden!

It was a warm day on Friday. Sunny- enough so to burn me despite my wearing sunblock. But this meant that the bugs were out. I have a few mosquito bites on my leg, and these photos to prove it!

An Eastern Tailed Blue Butterfly... next to a maple seed.

M'Lady spent a good deal of time, patiently watching the butterflies (there were about three of them at any one time) and then she decided she wanted to hold one. When one finally crawled onto her fingertip, she was ecstatic!

M'Lady holds an Eastern Tailed Blue.

Meantime, I was making a trellis. I got DH to cut the CPVC pipes for me, and to bang the rebar stakes into the ground. The design comes straight out of Mel Bartholomew's Square foot Gardening, although I used string and not netting for the middle.

My Pea Trellis.

On Saturday, we grew fed up of being scratched to death by the roses around our path, and invested in an arbour.

Before the arbour.

This decision has only been three years in the making, the last two years we put it off and regretted it. This year we did it and are VERY happy with the results!

After the arbour! No more scratches!

The kids got in nature study too... watching a green snake, the butterflies, the ants... and planting garlic :D (yes I know these are best planted in autumn!)

For our butterfly identification, I used this PDF File.

Want More Nature Crafts?

2008-04-10T20:03:00.001-05:00

I discovered these wonderful nature diaries on the Crafty Crow this morning! Enjoy!

A Day in Nature (Green Hour Assignment #8)

2008-04-10T15:42:00.003-05:00

After what seems to be weeks of rain and cold and clouds, we finally get a break. It's not supposed to last very long, just a few days, but it is enough to send spring springing on its way!

So out the kids went. Back they came for binoculars. Out they went. Back they came again and again with things for their nature boxes and more things for the nature table. Out I went with my camera... and back again for the blog :)

Our Nature table (there are more things in the boxes ;)). It is inspired by the one linked in my sidebar over there---->
Ours is not quite so exciting... we have a dead hornet, not a dead wasp. I am supposed to be mailing it on though ;)

A peek inside Rebel's recently finished box. :)

Rebel's observations: "I saw my first dragonfly of the year!", "Look, how much would this lichen cost if I sold it?" (he wanted to sell it as a dyestuff). "These violets are beautiful!"

M'Lady: "Wook!" **waving a large old stick at me**

A pine 'flower'. These things produce copious amounts of pollen, which make the cars very yellow at this time of year. Later the centre part will turn into a pinecone.

Then there were the unspoken observations... does shaking the pine tree to make the pollen fall off all over them count? Or using their binoculars to find more lichen? :) It was an informal week for nature study, and if we can find the booklet, the 3 dragonflies and other things will be noted!

There is the robins nest we watched being built:
And as we watched later, a crow tore through it, looking futilely for eggs.

Or perhaps my rapidly growing peas:
Which don't quite make up for the loss of at least one of the giant pumpkins. I planted two more seeds in the hope that they will sprout, only this time I put them OUTSIDE in the ground.

Along with onions.

And carrots and radishes planted from seed.
The kids watched as I hilled over some sprouted potatoes. Not the small one you normally get, but ones I bought to eat which sprouted :)

There are the budding roses:
Getting ready to bloom next month. Or our beautiful lilacs, or the creeping phlox in our circle.

There is the fig tree which is leafing out.

I have hopes of seeing fruit this year. I suspect they are futile, but I hope anyway :D

And there are the insects, our favourite helper bugs are reflected in my daughter's chosen rainwear:
I'll have to show you her raincoat another time :) There were pollen-speckled periwinkles:
Which are quite dusty with pine pollen in their habitat around the mailbox. The local dogs fertilize them regularly for us (since urine is almost pure nitrogen, these plants often get quite a lot of it!).

Indeed, there was a lot to see in our garden today, and the kids loved it. Even if they were coated with pollen.

So our Green Hour for the week went. I make a note to buy a few magnifying glasses. OK they have only been on my list for a couple of months now, but perhaps I'll get them this time!

Enjoy your time in the garden this week :)

Green Hour Assignment 7

2008-04-08T09:31:00.003-05:00

Oh no... we're behind again! And all because the weather has been SO bad. O.K. Maybe not BAD. Just WET!
In our one day last week we managed to get out, we read about dandelions and looked closely at one.
Rebel was going to be watching the dandelion everyday... but when the weather is dull and dreary (really... it is JUST like England in the summer, I SWEAR!!) all the time those dandelions just DON'T want to come out!
Instead, we planned some garden stuff.
I planted out the giant pumpkins with M'Lady, because the things kept wilting. I don't know if they liked it or not because it is too wet!
We watched the birds some. In fact, we watched a robin building her nest. I am not sure if she has plans of staying there... it seemed somewhat open to me, but it was great fun watching her!
We took a walk in the drizzle. Needless to say, if it is wet, there are no pictures, but we looked around. Saw a few things blooming... like the tulips and the Vinca major (periwinkle) and an unidentified plant in someone's garden.
We watched the power company ~~butcher~~ chop down a tree.
We bought sunflower seeds to make a sunflower garden, a few dipping gourd seeds for use this autumn, and some other seeds and onion sets, ready to plant out when it dries a little.

And that was our nature study last week!

This week, Rebel made his nature box... and hopefully it will stay dry long enough to get some gardening done. In the meantime, I will think about how to make our own field guide. Or just how to display our pressed flowers!

Nature Boxes

2008-03-26T09:31:00.002-05:00

I said Barb's suggestion had inspired me... so here it is: our very own "Nature Box".

Instructions for making one are on my main blog, but this shows the box in action on the nature table.

Green Hour Assignments 5 and 6

2008-03-21T14:58:00.005-05:00

Somewhere along the line, between the cold weather and the wind and rain, my little band got left behind at Green Assignment number 5.

Not to worry though, we decided to combine them, because on a sunny spring day, why not let the kids out into the back garden and roam.

This was an easy pair of assignments to combine…

The kids ran around hunting flowers, while I wrote down their names, locations and other things of interest.

Then I let Rebel collect a sample of each, for us to press.

I had hope to build a flower press in the next few days, but that was not really soon enough for us, so we… pressed a dictionary into use! :)

I have an idea in the back of my head, to follow a suggestion of Barb’s… a nature box.

This would indeed be a useful place to put our pinecones, the bone Rebel found at the park, and a selection of shells and rocks gathered.

Later I hope to include either a series of cards with our pressed flowers, or maybe a book :) I already have on of my own from YEARS ago ;)

In a few days, I hope to add the Henbits we pressed a few weeks ago, to our newly started Herbarium, ready for their fellow pressed comrades ;)

In the meantime. I am going to encourage the kids to use the tiny little booklets I made, to make some observations about the chosen flowers we studied today… the Daffodil and the Violet.

I'll come by and update the post with what we find!

ETA: Some Journal Pages

I made Rebel and M'Lady a tiny notebook each, with a few sheets of paper, trimmed in half, then folded in half to make a quarter sized notebook.

The daffodil page...

And the Violet page :) Both drawn on site, in our back garden!

Springtime Happenings...

2008-03-13T17:11:00.003-05:00

at our house. These are springtime views from our garden and just across the road!
First... seeds. They are sprouting!!

Lettuce seedlings...

and pea seedlings.
Our flowers look good too! M'Lady investigates the Veronica sp.

We saw our first butterfly of the year today.

It was investigating these beautiful, but stinky Bradford Pear blossoms.

This Magnolia virginiana is infinitely more appealing in it's scent.

The Irises are sprouting too... reminding us of the 'green spikes' Mary finds in the Secret Garden.

While the peach blossoms are out, and enlivening the garden with their beauty.

Wild flowers, like this Henbit, abound.

It, and it's cousin the Purple Deadnettle are loved by our kids. They call them Gobbaloon flowers. A name Rebel gave them many years ago!

and where you find Purple Deadnettle, you find Pennsylvania Bittercress. It has a rosette of leaves at the base.

This inedible Indian Strawberry is a native to our garden. It hides away in shady spots.

Dandelions are propagated by our children playing with the Dandelion clocks! This one sports the first bee we saw this year. Rebel later spotted a bumblebee... also the first of the year.

But not all nature study is about flowers! Rebel is digging a 'mine'. A hole at the bottom of our hill, where he tells me he is being a 'geologist'. :)

Inside the house, an experiment lingers. Three days ago, we spread cress seeds across a damp napkin. Already today we have LEAVES. We hope to eat an egg and cress sandwich in a week ;)

I hope you have enjoyed this round of spring at our house... until next time... from Sunny central Virginia!

Green Hour Assignment IV

2008-03-13T10:47:00.002-05:00

Once more, we are embarked upon our latest Challenge from Barb at The Heart of Harmony.

The weather being rather nice, we have once again been spending time outside, including a daily walk with Jacobite in the evening :) The kids love taking a walk with Daddy :)

We decided (or rather I did), that flowers would be our focus area for nature study. With the arrival of spring, we can hardly avoid the subject, and with the new books that I have acquired, we have set to with a will. The kids seek out the flowers on our walk, and are able to identify them well.

I introduced them to the lost art of the ‘Violet Duel’, which involves hooking the two violets around each other and pulling until one of the blooms is removed :)

I mentioned the other day, that we pressed some of our flowers… we will be using them in some kind of activity.

Perhaps we will start our own herbarium!

As ever, the children did indeed produce a nice nature journal entry, apiece.

Rebel (8) painted some more daffodils, both yellow and white varieties and a dandelion.

M’Lady (4) tells me that this is “a picture of moss… the green parts are moss!”

And my own playing around… A picture of the flowering trees! I realized afterwards that I could have improved the background on it, but the aim was to inspire the kids :)

We'll be outside again later today, and perhaps we will press or paint more flowers :)

Bring Back the Nature Table!

2008-03-09T10:41:00.002-05:00

Country Living British Edition has issued a challenge to Bring Back the Nature Table... you can read all about it in my sidebar... which is complete with links :)

Planning and Planting My Garden

2008-03-05T19:44:00.004-05:00

Gardening in Hardiness Zone 7a, Heat Zone 7, Sunset Zone 32.

I promised you a progress report on my garden this year. So far… so good!
The springtime weather pattern has started here. That is to say that the weather is fluctuating between warm and COLD.
I have noticed that March is nearly always like this… and who knows where the “In like a lion, out like a lamb” idea came from? It never seems to work here in Central Va!

But on to the garden stuff.

A few weeks back, I started with the first warm weekend, and joined each of the 2, 4’ x 4’ beds into one long bed. So now they are approximately 4’ x 9.5’!

You can see what it used to look like below!

I carefully added some peat moss and some bagged manure/compost mix, and forked over the bed.
Unfortunately, the builder who built the house added some clay-like topsoil to our normally sandy yard, and I noticed clumps of the clay appearing in my beds. Not to worry, the weather should take care of that, right? Sure… if you have the right weather! Yesterday’s storms were our very first instance of the right weather :o

I let the beds sit a couple of weeks (oh and I transplanted the two Swiss Chards next to each other. They survive the winter here).
Last Sunday, I planted a packet of seeds and about a dozen lettuce seeds right into the bed. I know it is early enough because I keep finding volunteer lettuces around the garden! I also planted about 8 spinach plants and a similar number of cilantro seeds. I hope they all come up!

I also added a fig tree (in a pot) and repotted my Chrysanthemum (which is coming to life too).

Inside, I have planted (about 2 weeks ago) 4 Brandywine Tomatoes, 4 Sungold Tomatoes, 4 Big Jim Chili Peppers and 4 California Wonder Sweet Bell Peppers. I also planted 2 Parsley and 2 Sensitive plants.
This weekend I added 4 Citrus basil and 6 Giant Leaved Basil. I love basil and never get enough of it ;)

The indoor seeds have been spending quite some time outside with the nice weather, and already most of my tomatoes have sprouted (they were up in a couple of days), and today I spotted basil, parsley and pepper plants!

Already blooming in the garden, are the Lobelia (Veronica sp.) and one of my phlox plants. My daffodil and several tulips are showing, and a few iris shoots are up too. All the maple trees are blooming, the neighbour’s Bradford pears, the neighbour across the street’s Magnolia virginiana and the weeds: speedwell, Pennsylvania bittercress, Henbit, Purple Deadnettle and Dandelions. The Chickweed is almost in bloom…

And that, is my garden for the first week of March 2008 :)

Green Hour Assignment III

2008-03-04T14:45:00.008-05:00

Spring has Sprung! And Barb from over at the Heart of Harmony, has another Green Hour Assignment for us! This time it is journalling the walk we took. Not something the kids had much trouble with... in fact I did not even need to prompt Rebel, who grabbed up the pencils and set too with a will! (click on pictures for a larger one to see ;))

Two days in a row of wonderful weather… yesterday we sat outside for a few hours. Well I sat. The kids played ;) They worked together on an Easter garden for this year.

The kids build an Easter garden

And the finished monument, without the decoration (that will come a little later!).

The Easter Tomb completed, but undecorated.

They examined the daffodils in our flower beds (not yet in bloom)…

Daffodils in the garden

And the lobelia (a cultivated speedwell, a lot darker than it’s wild cousin that grows abundantly in our yard!)…

Lobelia, a Veronica spp.

And generally just played!

Taking advantage of the fact that our weather is nice and warm today, we headed outside at the first opportunity, and repeated the walk we had done last week in the rain!

Getting the kids to be silent was hard… well impossible in fact, but they did learn that when you are quiet you hear things that you would not otherwise ;)

Daffodils on the walk

Spring has sprung in our neck of the woods, the happily chirping birds and the blooming flowers paid testament to that fact!

Blooming Forsythia

Once home, Rebel worked very hard on a wonderful page inspired by the daffodils we saw (and also partly inspired by the Wordsworth poem I recited for them ;)) ...

Rebel's "Golden Daffodils" (note one is REAL gold ;)) Notice also the hats rolling at the tops of the picture :)

...while M’Lady drew a plan of our trip!

A plan or map of the walk, including the "cutter cutting limbs on a tree", the kids running back to the house and a "colourful" M'Lady!

The trip ended in hilarity as the wind blew M’Lady’s hat off, then as we chased it rolling down the road, it blew mine off and Rebel caught it!

An, as yet, unidentified flowering tree.

Back at the house, I suggested we pick some Henbit, which we are now pressing between the pages of a rather large dictionary :) In a few weeks, we might use those for another nature themed treat ;)

Birding... and Gardening

2008-02-01T15:34:00.000-05:00

The birds have been attacking the feeder today... probably because it has been pouring with rain. I drew a quick sketch of a downy woodpecker, who had come to our suet block to feed. She was quite confrontational earlier, seeing off a cardinal on the black sunflower seed feeder. I was surprised, until now, I had only ever seen the downies on the suet!

In the meantime, I have been garden dreaming. I have plans for my garden this year...I want to provide myself with the vegetables I use. Unfortunately I have no idea HOW to do this ;) I eat most vegetables. So does DD, while DH and DS prefer beans and corn. And potatoes. I have the secret weapon though... John Jeavon's intensive garden plan. I have yet to use the double dig method, and I own that the thought of it terrifies me! But I really want to accomplish this!

Gardening in Virginia

2008-01-29T16:36:00.000-05:00

My Square foot Potager in June 2007. The corn and everything look great here... unfortunately, the lack of water and the fact we had to conserve killed the corn. OK I admit it, we have never really had much success with the corn... I think I need another variety! (It was Silver Queen)

How frustrating is it to be a gardener in Virginia.

We don’t quite fit in anywhere… our winters are colder than those in the Deep South. Our winters and summers are warmer than those further North. And the winters just DON’T compare with the Upper Mid-West!

See… we get quite a few sub-freezing temperatures. In fact, it is very common for the temperatures to go below freezing at night (unlike the Deep South), while hovering in the mid 40’s during the day (all temperatures are in degrees Fahrenheit). THAT is typical winter weather for us. Then there are the atypical days in January or February, where the temperatures might get up into the 80’s or never get beyond the 20’s.

Then there is summer. Summer here is HOT. But not just hot. Mostly that is the way it feels because it is HUMID. I am told it is not as hot or humid as the deep South, but it is far hotter and more humid than anything I ever experienced before. Of course, as an Englishwoman that is not too hard… but I have been to the Mediterranean!

Anyway… consider then, the frustration of a gardener without the benefit of life-long experience of the weather here in Virginia. Or without the books that help me garden in my climate.

The harvest from July 2007. We actually started out quite well last year! As you can see, in one day I have picked a load of beans (a mess DH calls it), some onions and some chard. There may be some turnips in there too ;)

For instance, I KNOW I could do four season gardening… I see it down at Colonial Williamsburg all the time. But I would like a book about it ;) one that told me how to do it! Or at least a gardening neighbour… but they are few and far between. Where do I begin? When should I plant seeds? Should I sow my seeds indoors? When do I plant the seedlings out?

When I browse the web, people talk flowers and plants. I love them, sure, but my real passion is growing food. Well that and herbs ;) I think it is exciting to go out and PICK the food, and then COOK the food right away. (Or cook WITH them in the case of herbs). I don’t suppose that is particularly surprising to those who know how I love to cook :D

The back garden in August 2007. Not doing so great because water was scarce... but this was a nice foggy day ;) EARLY. I always like this view off of the back porch. No, there is no current inhabitant of the rabbit hutch... we're looking for a good (i.e. not hairy) candidate. (Angoras are LOVELY, but their fur makes me sneeze :-( )

But just in case there are others who can (as in there are no neighbourhood restrictions) or want to do some Kitchen Gardening in the Mid-Atlantic/Upper South region (USDA zone 7) (and other areas are more than welcome to share their wisdom), then I am aiming to push this blog towards doing JUST that, right here. And maybe have some information handy to those who want to try too!

Join me?

P.S. I added some lists to the sidebars, links for books, websites and blogs I like!

The Bird Feeder

2008-01-25T15:17:00.000-05:00

This weekend, I took the advice of some friends and went out to purchase some different bird seed… I picked up a mesh sock of nyjer seed and some Harvest bird seed mix. I also got a small, new tube feeder to put the latter in!

I was amazed, the birds quickly found the feeder… and quickly decimated the food supply! I have to refill the feeder once a day at present!
This morning, the feeder (which I filled yesterday) had a bunch of seed.

A couple of hours later, the thing was almost empty! You can see it towards the top of the picture ;) (see the goldfinches munching on the nyjer?)

This is certainly successful, I am wondering what to get next… I think I will get a bird bath :)

And yes, I am still having garden dreams…

Garden Planning

2008-01-22T17:19:00.000-05:00

I was astonished to discover that there just don't seem to be many gardeners in my area.
Trawling the blogs led to a couple, but our unique circumstances of being in the Upper South, with disadvantages of both the Southern hot summers and the sub-zero temperatures of the Northern winters, seem to just make gardening something people around here in Central Virginia, NOT want to do!
Well I for one will not quit! I grew up in gardening country (yes the English still love to garden, and most will at least have one or two veggies hidden in their flowers), and I really, really want a vegetable garden.
I picked up a new book to help me The Southern Kitchen Garden, but disturbingly, it seems to think that the 'South' ends at North Carolina!

HELLO... Virginia is Southern too! Oh well, the information is sound.

I enjoyed reading the seed catalogs, planning my garden for the year!

And I journalled my choices of vegetable if not the varieties!

Later I will update you on my new bird feeder... it's great!

Second Snow

2008-01-17T09:54:00.000-05:00

Which the kids are out enjoying... well, trying to recreate Snowflake Bentley's experiments :)

Action shot of the cardinal trying to stay on the feeder!

There is not really much snow, and the weatherman said that it should turn to rain later... but when the kids are eager to catch a snowflake, what do you do?

I love shots of cardinals sitting in the snow :)

Then there are snow angels... my 3 year old (almost 4) has never had the chance to make one!

Two male cardinals at the feeder.

The birds have been coming to the feeder in droves. We have hopes of seeing more now the kids are in, but I have been listening to birding friends with LOTS of birds, and soon I hope to improve our setup! You can click on my pictures to see them a little larger ;)

Birding: Nature Journal Entry #2

2008-01-03T16:45:00.000-05:00

I sat by our 'bird window' today, and drew the birds. We set our feeder up here, almost a year ago, and I have not regretted it since.

The birds were busy today… all the regular cast of characters were there, including the relatively new addition of the red-bellied Nuthatch. They only started coming a few months ago!

Today at the feeder:

White throated Sparrows, both the tan variety and normal,
Juncos
Downy Woodpecker (female)
Cardinals (male and female)
Flickers
Red Bellied Woodpecker
Mourning Doves
White Breasted Nuthatch
Red breasted Nuthatch

Some of these were ON the feeder, some below it eating the spilled food.
I also observed some other birds in the back yard, including a Rufus Sided Towhee.

Nature Journal Entry No. 1

2008-01-01T18:37:00.001-05:00

I sat by the window, watching the feeder today, and as part of my art plans for the year.

Seasons Come...

2007-12-05T11:24:00.000-05:00

And seasons go…

With the end of my growing season, I have not done much in the garden. I should have, but I became rather dispirited because this was just NOT a good year to grow things! After a drought, and some VERY hot summer temperatures, my plants just did not fare well.

But never mind, I have a new plan of attack.

First up, I am getting one of these for Christmas. I have wanted one for a long time… since before I saw Elizabeth had one or Mary Ellen (really, I am not just being a sheep… my interest in herbs goes back YEARS).

I have also gotten some new garden books.

How to Grow More Vegetables and Fruits: (And Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) by John Jeavons

And Food Not Lawns by Heather C. Flores.

I have read the Jeavons book before, but wanted my own copy… and the Flores book was a new one I picked up because she had some interesting stuff in there about turning your suburban yard into a vegetable patch :) Hopefully these will help me grow some more food... I have already signed up for seed catalogues, which I have received a few of :)

This coming year, I plan to produce more heirloom varieties (or tasty varieties anyway LOL), and I will try to focus more on my true love... herbs :)

I have been feeding my mind with Real Food by Nina Planck, which nicely supports Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and even French Women Don’t Get fat by Mireille Guiliano. I think butter and lard will be working their way back into my pantry (much to DH’s delight!).

But now, as I watch the first snow of the season, I am thinking about making my little bird friends some treats. I loved Dawn’s idea of a ‘solstice tree’ for the birds, celebrating the return of the light of the world. Right now the little juncos and other winter feeder birds are going mad, looking for food. The weatherman assures me that it will warm again next week, but this is the bird equivalent of the bread and milk run to the grocery store every time it snows (central Virginians get a bit snow-mad… caused by the fact that occasionally an unforecast snow will leave them with several feet of snow to deal with and they are all unprepared ;)).

The Loveliness of Leaves

2007-10-23T10:50:00.000-05:00

The kids had some autumnal fun this weekend, with leaves...

Well, I guess they are technically not leaves, but needles, but I think it still counts. (image: Rebel builds M'Lady a "nest")

They did fall off the tree and the kids raked them up and built with them, reminding me of the times when I, as a child, loved to play with grass clippings. (image: M'Lady poses in her "nest".)

My husband told them about the forts he built with a weed called horseweed.
The kids were inspired! (image: Rebel rakes the needles).

It only added to the fun! (image: Rebel sits in the fort that he and M'Lady created after being inspired by their Daddy!)

Garden Friends

2007-10-15T10:52:00.001-05:00

We worked on the house this weekend, Jacobite and I were cleaning the windows (ALL of them inside and out) and the kids were outside playing in the dirt.
I would have loved to get photos of them scraping holes in the dirt and throwing the clods into the air, but I had the pledge and windex going... and no room for the camera!

However, sharp eyed Rebel spotted a green snake, which Jacobite obligingly caught for him.
He was not precisely friendly... he bit Jacobite a few times, but luckily someone was wearing gloves.

We all thrilled to touch the little fellow, who's scaly skin was smooth and rather soft.
We left him to go back to the wilderness, eating bugs as he went.
The only garden excitement after that, was the harvesting of another bunch of limas. Interestingly enough, the large lima beans appeared to love the lack of water this year. Last year, our smaller bush limas did not do as well... something worth noting for the year to come!

Blogged with Flock

Furry Little Friend

2007-10-09T11:23:00.000-05:00

Nature study often begins in our back garden, as is the case with this little friend... The Yellow Bear Caterpillar, the larval form of the Virginia Tiger Moth.

He was a feisty little thing, and he did not want to sit still for a the camera, so this was the best shot I got.

M'Lady was not exactly happy with having to let him go though!

But not all of nature study takes place in the garden. Some of it takes place on a daytrip... like our recent jaunt down to Yorktown, which took us along the Colonial Parkway, at sunset.

View of the sunset over a branch off of the main James River.

The pink sunset reflects in the James River.

Ground level view of the sandy river beach and cliffs of the James River.

More Pink Water.

Another sunset view.

OK So I am not certain whether it is the James or the York River, deduction suggests James River :) But anyway, we all stood beside the warm river, watching the sunset, some geese and picking up blue quartz :D

The Nature Table

2007-09-24T17:12:00.000-05:00

The nature table is a seasonal display of objects found in nature, or made to reflect those found in nature.
The kids put up there objects they find outside while walking or playing, or seasonal crafts. Think of it as the extension to your nature notebook... it might display a caterpillar or ant farm, a shed snake skin, birds nest or some robin's eggshells. Maybe you'll be braver than me, and place the wasps nest on the table rather than on the ground outside ;)

Ours is the top of a bookshelf in the kitchen, and also houses some of our religious things-- sort of a family altar slash nature table. There used to be a cross there but it disappeared, and I need to replace it, and the Bible occasionally rests there for a while ;) The kids have placed a bunch of rocks on there, and the two baggies hold some European Hornets ready to mail to collector friends! There are some shells and an empty frame that occasionally holds a picture made by the kids. The flowers are silk, I liked the colours and hope to get some real leaves soon!

Be that as it may, our table is just starting. If you like, take a look at Katherine's table for a great idea!

Nature Tables and Wasps

2007-09-12T12:16:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, Jacobite and I decided to clean the house. Not the inside, it's pretty clean already, but the outside. This necessitated a day of power washing, and a few run-ins with wasps and such, including a swarm of these fellows: the European Hornet.

This is not my photo... mine would just show a dead hornet, because we killed a bunch of them... but these things like to swarm our porch-light at night and bump into the doors and windows. I never really paid much attention to the sounds, until Jacobite discovered the culprit! Now we need to find their nest, because we really don't want these things around the kids!

But onto something a little bit more interesting.

The Nature Table.
I always wanted to have one. Indeed I have, several times attempted to start one up, but they always fell by the wayside. Then I decided to read some of the seasonal activity and craft books out there and it popped up again... so I have decided to dedicate a shelf for a nature table.
It still has not happened... the shelf is ready. I just don't have anything to put on it. We did have a wasp nest I considered, but the idea of the bugs in it were too creepy for Jacobite who stomped on it!

So here is Faerie Rebecca to the rescue with a picture of hers!!

Thanks to Alice, I just discovered MacBeth has a BLOG!! Yahy!! She is definitely worth the visit!

Harvest Waning

2007-08-30T13:59:00.000-05:00

Indeed, the season of plenty in my garden is drawing to a close. The corn died an unhappy death as we had another year of 'not-quiet-enough-rain' to keep it going. Of course I could have watered it, but I prefer nature to take it's course.
I did enjoy a couple of peppers from my plants, but the tomatoes were just not happy campers this year!

In spite of that, we have been observing in the garden.
First there were the ants. Indeed, we did not have to go to the garden for this, as they were quite happy there in our house for a while, but we stopped that.
A day or two later, DH discovered these ant 'volcanoes' in the garden... a veritable city of them!

Then there are the baby birds which have been visiting the feeders. I managed to capture this mother and baby on top of our feeders... but excuse the blur, I had to do it through the window without disturbing her!
There were pawpaws ripening on our pawpaw trees this year.
See... I even have proof! But unfortunately, some bandit animal took them. Again. We never have yet managed to eat the pawpaws ourselves!
And the hummingbirds have been visiting, I swear. They often get close to us, they are very friendly... BUT they are SUPERFAST and I never have had my camera ready!
Soon the autumn season will be on us, and I have different plans this year... including the nature table. More about that another time... once I have started!

Some other Peoples Gardens

2007-08-08T10:25:00.000-05:00

Some of the ladies on the 4 Real Forum had fun this year, following along with Susan Lovejoy's Book Sunflower Houses. This is a great inspiration for parents who want to garden with their kids!

Maria had great success growing HUGE sunflowers with her kids! I was definitely impressed with the size of them!

Joann managed to actually get a house out of her sunflowers... but they aren't done growing yet!

If you'd like to make your own sunflower house next year, check out this page for instructions and some fantastic pictures of sunflower houses in action!

Garden Fun

2007-08-01T13:55:00.001-05:00

I have been gardening... sort of. Now the dog days of summer have come, I have formed opinions.
1. Store bough seeds suck. The varieties suck. The crop sucks. Next year I will have heirloom tomatoes... and the cherokee purples (the ones I had such luck with last year) and sungold (the ones I discovered I LOVE at the farmer's market) are top of my list!
2. Zucchini/Courgettes suck. Stupid bugs love them. However, their cousins the yellow squash are great. I will look at heirloom varieties of them too!
3. Cucumbers hide. While looking for the fruit you thought didn't come, you will suddenly notice the mother of all cucumbers. It will be huge. And for some reason the store where you bought them, had PRICKLES on the cucumbers. For a girl from England, used to LONG, SMOOTH cukes, that is just gross.
4. Why were my plants so late in fruiting? Not enough sun? Planted too late? They will go out earlier next year, even if I have to build special 'mini-greenhouses' for them.
5. Panicking over the neighbour putting up a fence BEFORE he does it, is premature. It will not actually shade your garden at all! PLUS you will discover you have more yard than you thought, because you forgot you over-estimated the amount of space on the other side ;)
6. Time to sign up for seed catalogues to buy REAL seeds.
7. Cats (specificallt neighbour cats) suck. They will go to the toilet in the square in which you planted your pumpkin seeds at the very last possible minute >:.

And that, dear friends is why I have not blogged about my garden for a while ;) Heat and humidity, are NOT friends to me... but I do wonder if the dog in the neighbours yard will scare away the bad cat (whom the kids and DH nicknamed 'GreySkull')

The Mysterious Garden

2007-08-01T13:50:00.000-05:00

What a wonderful post I discovered online... a REAL homeschooling moment for a Mother, as they let the mystery plant grow!

Home-grown Food

2007-07-10T12:05:00.000-05:00

I made up a recipe the other day, for breaded chicken. I wont hesitate to say it was delicious, so I will share it with you. It is definitely in the interests of a garden blog, because I picked all my herbs garden fresh, and the squash/courgettes were farmer's market. Of course there are many people out there that will have their own squash sooner or later ;)
I modified the squash recipe a few days later, adding peppers and tomatoes, and I use the Near East Whole Wheat Couscous brand, Garlic and Olive Oil flavour.

Breaded Chicken with Couscous and Squash medley.

Breaded Chicken

4 Chicken Breasts
1 C Whole-wheat Breadcrumbs (I used my homemade bread and crumbled it up, freezing it until needed)
2 T Fresh Thyme (1 T dried), chopped fine
2 T fresh Sage (1T dried), chopped fine
2 T Fresh Rosemary (1T dried), chopped fine (optional)
Salt and Pepper to taste or Mrs. Dash to taste
1 egg, beaten.

Mix the seasonings with the breadcrumbs.
Dip the chicken breasts in the egg, then coat with the breadcrumbs.
Cook in a saute pan over medium high heat, until cooked through, turning halfway through.

While chicken is cooking, make the squash medley (recipe below) and couscous.

Squash Medley

1 T Olive oil or butter
2 Zucchini/Courgettes, washed and diced
2 Yellow Summer Squash, washed and diced
1 Poblano pepper, washed and diced
1 Onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloved, minced (optional)
1 tomato, diced (optional)

Saute the squash, onion, peppers and zucchini in the olive oil, over medium-high heat. Cook until tender, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and tomato if desired, and cook for 2 minutes, or until heated through.

The tomato is not entirely necessary, but does add a good deal of colour to the medley, as does the poblano pepper. I did not use garlic, but it would definitely give your meal a bit of 'zip'. The squash medley, mixed with some concentrated tomato puree (the kind in a tube) and a little sugar to sweeten it, makes a delicious pasta sauce. Serve it with whole-wheat pasta and some grated cheese on top... YUM!

And more to harvest

2007-07-02T10:11:00.000-05:00

Yes, this weekend was a harvest weekend. My onions' tops had fallen over, so I pulled them. And some of my beets... and the rest of my turnips! I realise that most of these could have grown a little longer, but you can call me impatient. I ate them for the vegetable part of my lunch... beets and turnips roasted in a little olive oil and salt, with an onion (not mine, I am letting them dry out a little). Yes Mum, I ate the beets... fresh are definitely better ;) In fact, I ate the beets and the beet greens... after all, that's what Swiss Chard is. Only mine was the real deal!

Then there were these:

The neighbour found them underneath his porch, and we believe that they might be snake eggs. I kind of hope they are really turtle eggs! I can stand a box turtle!
Then there was the fox that ran across the road in front of us, less than a mile from our house! He was an American Grey Fox... and looked a whole lot like this picture... only running ;)

Cute isn't he? The kids were thrilled to see him, and M'Lady even drew a picture of him on the 'magnadoodle' thing we keep in the car for her.

Harvesting Again

2007-06-26T08:56:00.000-05:00

I managed to get the broccoli harvested… it was quite delicious! But then the cabbage white butterflies came… and well, the last cabbage should show you the result of that! I don't have a good closeup though! They got ALL of my brassica veggies. Otherwise, yes, the garden is quite blooming and growing.

Our beans and corn are growing well… in fact I managed to pick a goodly number of beans the other day. I am hoping the squash will start to fruit soon, I HAVE spotted a few blooms ;)

The tomatoes have a few baby tomatoes and although all my peas are done, we did get to eat a number of them.

I would show you pictures, but in reformatting my computer, it looks like I forgot the most recent photos :(

Oh well... life goes on!

sorry for the delay posting

2007-06-22T21:20:00.000-05:00

and I hope to be posting again soon... now my internet is up to speed!