Straight through May and on to June

Well, that escalated quickly.  Once again, I feel as if I turned around and everything brown is green again.

It continues to be a cooler than average spring, and we've had a few storms that were untypically savage. Pouring rain, high winds, and cold fronts.  Today's storm of May 30th brought snow to the upper elevations - nearly six inches to the summit of Mount Washington!  It's been a cold, heavy rain here, but much welcomed.  We've moved the needle from severe drought conditions down to moderate over the past few months.  We've had a few summer sneak peeks of 80*F here and there, but pleasantly cool otherwise.  

The pasture has fully recovered from my accidental torching, and emerald green grasses now cover the burned area.  Reputa took a trip to my small engine guy's garage to see if she was salvageable.  Thankfully the only damage reported was a burned up drive belt, so I told him to give that old wench whatever she wanted, she deserved it.  A new belt, an oil change, new spark plug, air filter and fuel filter...the full spa treatment.  

 

She's back and running like a champ, but I'll admit that the first time I hauled a cart of manure out across the pasture, I was shaking like a leaf.  I didn't dare leave her running and after I'd put her away when I was done, I spent a good ten to fifteen minutes staring at the route we'd taken, checking for smoke or flames.  The next day I ordered two small fire extinguishers online.  One fits snugly into the pocket on the back of the seat cover, and having it has made me feel that much safer. 

On the suggestion of my small engine guy, I checked the mower deck pulleys and sure enough, one had frozen stuck.  The friction from that must have created the heat that sparked the dead grass that burned the pasture that lived in the house that Jack built.  Sorry, got a little carried away with that one.

Reputa is done mowing for the time being, and I'm not sure that I ever want to put that mower deck back on, even if it were fixed.  It's becoming increasingly difficult to lower my broken body to the ground to get it hooked or unhooked from the tractor, and it's even more increasingly difficult to heave my massive bulk back up onto my feet.  I still have the wimpy Craftsman rider for lawn mowing and such.

 In the gardens, I have thoroughly enjoyed all of the species tulips I've invested in.  I've flagged the red with yellow striped looking ones and plan to relocate them to the hot gardens.  The rest will remain in the cottage gardens, where they are just stunning. 

 

 

 Also in the cottage gardens, some of the Snake's Head Fritillary came back, and bonus - a few are pure white instead of the classic pink checkerboard pattern.

Happily enough, the 'Louise' dwarf iris finally emerged.  

 I can't wait to relocate them and the 'Katharine Hodgkin' to the alpine garden.

Oh, updates.  Well...more mule fence went up, but not enough that I can let them out yet.  I finally found someone to help and when she's here, things go three times as fast.  The cat fence still sits on the pallet, waiting for the day I finally start that project.  The hillside garden is an absolute m.e.s.s. - the grass has overtaken half the beds, the cool weather crop seeds I sowed a month ago have basically done nothing, and a bunch of my onions died off.  Weeds are rampant, though.  So hardy, much thriving.

I've ended up buying a lot of started vegetable plants because I just don't have the gumption to start more seeds indoors.  In fact, I've dismantled the racks and put them away for the time being.  I wish I'd taken some recent photos of the winter sown seeds.  They have done fantastic!  Going forward, that's how I plan to do my seed starting.  The only problem was that once the seedlings were big enough to pop out and pot on, I looked at the hundreds upon hundreds of them and said NOPE.  I pulled the seedlings out of the jugs in solid mat forms, broke them up into chunks, and planted them in clumps around the cottage gardens and the meadow area.  The only ones I decided to pay attention to were the Verbena Bonariensis and the white penstemons from my own seeds.  I planted those in clumps in a holding bed, and will try to separate them and move them when they're bigger.  

Speaking of the meadow area, I cannot get over how much growth has happened in just a few weeks.  This is a photo from May 12th and the same area today, May 30th.

One of my quick projects was painting the short metal fence that had been out front to divide the yards and use it in the meadow garden.  Last year the meadow plants grew crazy tall and flopped into the path area, and trying to water or simply walk around admiring my plants was difficult, especially when they were covered in stinging insects like bees and wasps.  Hopefully these will help hold things back a little. I am short a few sections, so I put some grade stake fence in as a placeholder until I can get some more panels.  In the front yard I needed to stake my peony and baptisia, and ended up cutting a ringed tomato cage in half.  I have a bunch more of those type of tomato cages and I may try using those for staking some of the taller plants in the meadow, as well.

I was thrilled to find two of the baptisia I grew from seed came back for a third year.  I'm hoping by next year they'll actually bloom.  The clematis "The President" that I bought at Job Lots last year came back, too.  I secured the dress form to the fence this spring so it has something sturdy to climb.

I'm also happy to report that after three years (yup, I started these seeds in 2023!), my Virgin's Bower plants are finally coming to life.

The three that I planted inside the bird cage are growing like crazy.  They definitely followed the rule of three that my mother reminds me of when I get impatient - the first year they sleep, the second year they creep, the third year they leap.  Since this vine won't bloom until late summer or early autumn, I've also planted some morning glories in with it to add some color.

The yellow twig dogwood is blooming - it feels like this is earlier than normal.

Ugh, look at all that grass.  I had planned to spend an hour every night working on pulling the grass on the bank and fluffing the bark mulch.  Planned.  Old.  Tired.  Too many projects.

Elsewhere in the meadow, spring bloomers are doing their thing.

And around front, the Midwinter Fire Dogwood garden has finished its display of tulips and daffodils, but they were spectacular this year.

The sunset colors of Tulipa 'Marit' were beautiful, and reminded me of the Mango Charm I had a few years ago.  These are a Darwin tulip, and may rebloom for a few years.  Those rich dark pinkish red tulips are leftover 'Artist' from last year, but honestly I feel like they were mislabeled.  I plan to split this clump and spread it throughout the bed, and hope it will come back again next year.  Whatever it is, it's a wonderful contrast to the softer colors of the daffodils, and picks up that pink in the 'Marit'.

With so many projects and everything getting ahead of me, I'm trying to focus on one thing at a time.  Tomorrow I will finally put edging around the hot gardens in front of the barn.  That will probably take me most of the day, but if I have extra time, maybe I can fit in some fence work.  We'll see. 

 

This tractor's on fiyaaaaaaaahhhhhhh

 I need to retitle this blog "The Idiot Yankee - Learn From My Mistakes".

So on a beautiful spring day I decided to get my tractors out of my mother's lean-to and make sure they were ready for the season.  Li'l Red fired right up and I drove her around the yard and pasture to be sure everything was working.  Then I went back for Reputa and she also fired right up and I headed to the pasture to run the cobwebs out.  And here's where I made a terrible, terrible mistake.  After the last mowing of 2025, I neglected to clean off the top of the mower deck, where grass and leaves had packed between the deck and the bottom of the tractor.  I'm sure some enterprising mice probably nested in that warm and cozy litter, adding to the tinderbox.  As I drove around the pasture I decided to engage the mower deck to be sure it was working.  I went around the pasture twice and suddenly realized there was smoke coming out from under the tractor, and assumed a belt was stuck.  I shut the deck off and headed toward the house to take a look, but within seconds I saw flames shooting out from under the tractor.  I immediately shut it off and lumbered toward the garage to find a hose.  As I was hooking up the hose to the spigot, I looked up and saw smoke and flames in the pasture.  This was the beginning of about a three hour panic attack - I called my mother, screaming, hung up and dialed 911, screaming.  Mom couldn't understand what I was saying, so she came down and I was screaming at her to go get more hoses.  At this point my neighbors across the street came running over to see what was happening and immediately jumped in to help.  My other neighbor had heard the screaming and was walking down her driveway to figure out what was going on, and through the woods she saw the smoke.  She came racing over to help, too.  Within what seemed like only five minutes there were police, ambulance, and fire vehicles swarming the yard.  The fire department had a forestry truck that they were able to drive right into the pasture and begin hosing everything down.  I was zero help as all I could do was sob hysterically and attempt to beat any flames out with a shovel.  The fire chief told me this was their second call that day - conditions are still extremely dry in our area and it doesn't take much to go from a spark to a full on fire.  I am so lucky they were able to contain it to the pasture, and I am forever thankful to my amazing neighbors, and the police, fire, and ambulance crews that got here so quickly.  I'm not sure if Reputa will run again, but if not it's a small price to pay.  I keep thinking of what could have happened if the fire had spread more quickly - I could have burned down my neighbor's homes, not to mention hundreds of acres of forest.  I wouldn't be able to live with myself if that happened.  I have learned one more valuable lesson in my life.  

 

 

Good gravy, it's winter!

 And just like that, everything was covered in snow.

 

It's funny that most people I talk to are astounded by how "soon" winter arrived.  It's December in New England - we're lucky we didn't have a white Thanksgiving!  

So my to-do list isn't quite ta-done.  I didn't get any more fence posts in, I didn't get any fencing up, I didn't get more brush cut in the forest garden area, or cut the sumac whips behind the bitch barn (my alternative to a she shed).  I guess all of these shift over to the spring to-do list, once the snow is gone.  So much to get done next year, what with the alpine garden, maintenance in the hillside garden, and the continuing formation of the forest garden.  I really need to set my expectations to a level more acceptable to a mature woman's abilities.  That's a nice way of saying I'm old and broken, and can't bull like I used to.

In the house I've started some more lettuce, another tomato, and another pepper.  Hopefully the aphid invasion was stemmed in time.  I ended up tossing some old friends on the compost heap, figuring they may have been the culprits that brought aphids in the house.  Goodbye to my four year old celery plant, my five year old parsley, and a few annual flowers I've overwintered.  I always feel like I'm abandoning a pet when I purposely cull plants.  The guilt can be overwhelming, which is half the reason I overwinter things I shouldn't.  

This winter, I'm going to try winter sowing in plastic jugs, and I'm excited to see how it pans out.  Last winter, I stratified seeds in the fridge and then grew them under the grow lights.  I really didn't have the best success; the fame flowers died before I could get them planted out, the five poppy mallows that survived are planted in a holding bed and I'm not sure they'll make it, the whorled milkweed that germinated died soon after planting out, and the gaura never did much.  The coneflowers did really well, but the ones I planted out into the meadow area struggled, and I'm not even sure if they made it.  The leftovers that I planted into the cement bed in the hillside garden thrived despite the lack of water, so hopefully I'll be able to transplant those out next summer.  

I'm thinking this year I can concentrate on annual flower and vegetable seed starting in the house.  I need to curb my enthusiasm so I don't overplant and wind up with no room to spread out under the lights once I begin to pot on when the seedlings get too big for their containers.

Looking ahead to my outdoor gardening new year, I hope to get the back yard finally fenced in.  Once that's complete, I can start laying out the garden beds and pathways.  I've been researching paths, because I don't want to make the same mistake I did with the gravel paths that were eaten by grass within one season.  My biggest mistake may have been the landscape fabric barrier, believe it or not.   I think I'll start with mown grass paths, and go from there.  Of course, there are the prerequisite chores that need to be done first, so that I can do the fun stuff...get the alpine bed situated, because once fenced I won't be able to get the tractor in there.  Get more mulch on the bank, because once fenced, I won't be able to back my truck up to unload.  Ugh.  Who knew a simple garden would be so much work?  I did, because I never make these things simple!  But I honestly believe I thrive on this stuff.

 

 

Suddenly...

 Well now, that escalated quickly.

I feel like we only had a few weeks between too hot to function and why is it so cold?  One of the best things has been more consistent rainfall, though.  We haven't quite put a dent in the drought, but it's getting there.  Now the concern is the ground freezing before it can absorb this beneficial water.

I had picked all the squash and brought them inside after the second hard frost, which finally killed the actual plants.  Those were pulled up and hauled off to the compost heap.  I was shocked at how many acorn squash were still on the vine.  The other day I finally quartered and roasted one of the blue hubbard squash - the top one in this photo.  I gave the other one away because who needs that much squash, right?  

It's amazing that a squash that size, probably 15 lbs, cooks down to this:

I've given most of the acorn squash away, too.  Let's face it - the less I have to pretend to enjoy food prep and cooking, the better.  Since these did so well, I'm feeling like that's the path forward for next year; purchase small plants and be done with it.  The plants I buy tend to do better than what few I manage to start from seed.

On the chore front, I've been waylaid by weather and shortchanged daylight by the turning back of the clocks, but I have managed to get some fence posts pounded, the pasture mowed, and the wildflower meadow mostly knocked down.  Garlic is planted, so that's scratched off the list, and despite my best efforts to get everything in pots planted, I've had to bury a handful of perennials in the hillside garden beds to overwinter.

I decided to take down the section of track fence I had put up two years ago, which sounds like utter madness, but let me explain.  That section was put up with six foot posts, which are actually about five feet tall once they're pounded into the ground.  My fence is taller than the posts, so it just looked awful.  You can see in this photo how the top six inches of the fence isn't secured to anything.
 

My plan is to leave the fence posts in place and get a roll of fence that suits the height better - 48" should do the trick.  Hopefully the deer won't breach the shorter fence, as it's close to the house, but I've been finding deer poo not ten feet from my back door lately.  Clearly proximity to the house is not deterring them! Meanwhile, I've purchased 7' t-posts that should accommodate the taller fence nicely.  They were a bit harder to set, because I had to stand on the tailgate of the truck in order to effectively use the pounder.  

freshly mowed pasture

 

new section of mule track with 7' t-posts

old fence removed

  As I was working on the fencing chores, this happened.  Never a dull moment.

 

I also decided to take down the rope and post fence in the meadow area. I'm not sure if I'll put it back up next year - even though I liked it, I finally decided it didn't quite mesh with the overall feel of the area.  

I've been slowly emptying plant pots and spreading the soil in the meadow area to build it up a little, and to act like a mulch by adding a little protection over winter.  I still have some finish mowing to do, and some seed to spread.  I've bought a grass called side oats that grows in clumps, with long stems that hold oat-like seeds hanging down one side of the stem.  It's a prairie native, so I'm hoping it will fill in some of the bare spots.  I also have Valerian seed that I'll spread now, along with some of the wildflowers that I gathered seed from earlier this year.  

The polytunnel cover has been removed and put away for the winter, and the last of the tomato and pepper plants hauled off to the compost heap.   It looks so bare out there now.

The last big pre-snow chores on the list are to tackle the bittersweet and briars that have grown up outside of the mule paddock, and around the pine stumps in the pasture.

I spent nearly a day cutting and pulling bittersweet along the new fence area, and made a pretty good dent in it.  Two truckloads to the dump, and all I need to do now is get in there with the wheeled weed trimmer and knock down those briar bushes and weeds.  I'll open it up so I have another place to haul manure for the winter, and hopefully make the pasture look a little more tidy.  It's almost time to put the tractors, mowers, and trimmers away for the season, and it's been spitting snow for days now.  Time is a-wastin'!

 

Alpine Madness

 I've been saying for a few years now that I'd love to try my hand at an alpine garden, and today...well, today there's no turning back!  My super awesome neighbor came over with his tractor and dug out a depression in the back yard, then set rocks in it.  And so begins the alpine madness...

 I'm sure it just looks like a bunch of rocks, but I can see it filled in and full of amazing alpine plants.  I have a stockpile of smaller stones that can fill in the gaps, then over that I'll need to add gravel - drainage is key.  Then a mix of sand, sharp pea stone, and soil will top that off.  

I love some of the stones he placed deliberately - the square stone that I can put a bird bath or statuary on.  

 

The cubby area that...hmmmmm...I wonder if I could finagle a water feature in there?

The triangular and flat topped stones that can be used as seats along the garden's edge.

 I probably won't get the garden planted this year, save for the little blue spruce tree I've been hanging on to for a few seasons, but I am so excited to spend the winter researching the perfect plants for my new rock garden!