New Pictures taken 7/23/08

It's taken me weeks to get this post up, sorry about that! Sometimes real life doesn't allow for much online time, and dialup isn't really conducive to the uploading of photos. We're supposed to be getting cable modem soon, but I'm not sure when that will actually happen. Since Blogger isn't doing a stellar job of handling pictures, I've decided to upload the pictures to Flickr, since it does a much better job of organizing them and doesn't limit the display size. I'll still put a few pictures here, but to see all of them, just go to the Flickr link on the right.

On Saturday we planted the pea patch. I have a picture on the camera waiting to be downloaded, but of course I grabbed the wrong cable this morning. Here's the layout of the patch:



I got a little carried away when ordering seeds, as I mentioned in an earlier post.

In an effort to deter deer I strung up some pie plates around my little garden area (after they ravaged my sweet potatoes twice). If the tires they're planted in didn't look hick enough, the pie plates are the icing on the cake! *giggle*


Between the pie plates, some hair clippings from my little one, and an unmentionable deterrent method I read about online, the deer seem to have lost interest.

Another Hummingbird Moth!

I saw another hummingbird moth, this one definitely the one in the picture below (snowberry clearwing). Seeing it made me realize that the one I saw last time was slightly different and much larger, so I'll be combing the internet for a picture of the other kind. I snapped a few pictures, if any of them turn out I'll post them as soon as I get them off of the camera.

A gentle soaking rain...

Last night we got a wonderful soaking rain, which saved me from watering the vegetables this morning. I went out and harvest three zucchinis and one yellow squash, as well as three beautiful golden wax beans. I also planted some more bean seeds hoping to get a late harvest. We'll see if it works out! Also, the sweet potatoes seem to be bouncing back vigorously from their deer-inflicted defoliation. My dad says it might even help them to put more energy into the roots instead of the greens. Time will tell.

Hummingbird Moth

The day that I took pictures of the butterfly bushes I saw the strangest thing... it was about the size of a hummingbird but it was striped almost like a bee and had antenna. I think it was a Snowberry Clearwing Hummingbird Moth. I could hear it's little wings humming just like a hummingbird! Sadly I didn't get the camera up in time to snap a picture, but it was one of those moments that stopped me in my tracks and I just stood there, staring.

On another note, the deer discovered my sweet potatoes last Friday night and mowed most of the greens off one of the tires and found the other one the following night. I don't think they're dead, just pretty defoliated, and after research online the quickest solution I could come up with was stringing baling twine and hanging pie plates over them. It looks... ummm... well... very rural... but so far it's working. *giggle* Next year my husband says he's going to help me to put in a more formal garden space including some kind of fencing, although I'm not interested in traditional row gardening. I'm sure that'll be a great research project for the cold winter months.

The Pea Seeds Arrived Today!

At the beginning of the week I placed an order with the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and it arrived today! When I told my son he got all excited. It's contagious, because when I pulled that package out of the mailbox I was giddy, and I refuse to feel silly about it. I wonder if the deer will allow any of the plants to get to the point of producing, since the little buggers came in and ate the greens off the tops of some of my sweet potatoes, but I've taken evasive action.

Anyway, after reading through the descriptions on the Southern Exposure website I made the following selections:

• English Peas - Little Marvel and Wando
• Snow Peas - Mammoth Melting Sugar
• Southern Peas - Calico Crowder (Pole Cat), Big Red Ripper (Mandy), Pinkeye Purple Hull, and Peking Black

My son is really excited about the Pinkeye Purple Hulls because the picture on the website showed purple seed pods, which he can't want to see! My order was $20.77, so we're going to have to get a lot of peas to make up the cost, but that's not really why I'm doing it so I'm not worried about it. I'm thinking that I might offer a few of each kind to the ladies at the farmer's market, since I love to feed my family the fresh, delicious foods that they grow and over the four years I've been going to that little farmer's market I've gotten to know a couple of the ladies by name.

The Butterfly Bushes (of which there are five)

Here are the pictures of the individual butterfly bushes, starting on the north end.





On February 2, 2007 I had to euthanize my Saddlebred gelding Fantasy, whom I'd had for 23 years. I didn't do anything over him for months because I couldn't bear to go out there, but then I found this butterfly bush at the farmer's market and decided it was perfect for him. It was only about knee high when I bought it. It's so beautiful now! I feel that it honors him perfectly.





This is the biggest butterfly bush, it takes off like crazy every year. It's planted over Denny, the little black miniature horse we lost three years ago.





This one is overshadowed by the white one... I may move it at some point, since it hasn't grown much in the three years it's been there.



This was the first one I planted, it's over Li'l Bit of Sass, a sweet and beautiful miniature horse who was the first we lost. Like the white one, it's huge and towers over me. It's flowers are lavender and usually copious, although for some reason this year all but the white one seem to be blossoming sporadically instead of bursting into a riot of color like in past years.





I planted this one three years ago and it hasn't grown much. I'm not sure why, maybe it's the kind that it is? I think it's called a Dark Knight Butterfly Bush, but I'm not positive.

Every year I try to improve the butterfly garden somehow. This year it was the monarda, hopefully next year I'll add a new variety of butterfly bush. I can't quite describe how happy it makes me to pull in the driveway and look over at the beautiful flowering plants and bushes.

Enticing Butterflies and Hummingbirds (and other flowers)

I love butterflies and for some reason just seeing flowers has always made me happy, so when we bought this farm I decided that I would add a little bit of floral delight each year. I know it's not about gardening, per se, but attracting pollinators is as important to me as growing food, so I'm going to share.



This is the butterfly garden I mentioned in my previous post; the one that's over the animal cemetary.



Another view of the butterfly garden.



Some daisy-type plants I put in a couple of years ago. They were standing tall under they got beaten down by rain. Even growing along the ground they're still going strong.






Last year I bought a single monarda plant that I thought was Jack Kline (which is red), but turned out to be Raspberry Sorbet (which is hot pink). The plant had one flower stalk with a gorgeous single flower when I put it in, but this year it came back with a half-dozen gorgeous flowers! I went to the feed store about a month ago and they had red, pink, and white monarda so I bought a pink one and a white one, thinking the one I had was red. When I realized my mistake I planted the new pink one with the one that was already there, put the white one between two of the butterfly bushes, and returned and bought two red one, which I put between two different butterfly bushes. Unfortunately the red one had already flowered so I don't have a picture of how pretty the red ones are. Oh well, next year!









Last year I bought a bag of Butterfly/Hummingbird seeds and planted them, and some came up again this year! I also bought a couple of random plants (the names of which I can't recall, so if you know the name, please let me know!) and put them in because the tag said butterflies liked them.



These are two astilbe plants that were in pots for months after I bought them and appeared quite dead, but I put them in the ground anyway and they bounced back! They're beside the driveway so when they flower I'll be able to see them clearly.



This is sweet basil that I planted two or three years ago in a planter beside the driveway and it keeps coming up. The butterflies love it. I'm afraid to plant it in the ground because I suspect it'll take everything over, but I'm looking around the yard and figuring out where I don't mind of something takes over, such as along the edges of the property, thinking that I'll plant such things there.

I'm going to put the butterfly bush pictures in a separate post because there's quite a few of them.

When we bought this farm 5 years ago there was a newly planted patch of irises beside the driveway that bloomed so beautifully; they were lavender and there were a few tulips and gladiolas mixed in. Sadly, we were too caught up in other things to pay much attention to it and in the last two years blackberries have seriously taken it over. I'm thinking that this fall I need to move the irises, because they're going to get choked out completely before long.