May showers bring June flowers

 And still, it rains. The most astonishing part about this incredibly wet spring has been how dry the ground remains.  The wet weather has certainly pushed certain plants to show off in the most spectacular way, especially the iris.

 

I'm so happy to discover I can photograph some of my garden during the Golden Hour; my previous house was positioned perfectly to capture the beauty of my gardens as the sun waned, and I had thought I lost that magic light here.

Other perennials in bloom at the moment:

bleeding heart

columbine

catmint

ragged robin

clematis

I forget...

 

 

I'm astonished by how quickly the peony I planted by my little fence in front of the house established itself.  I really didn't expect it to bloom this year, or be quite this full!  I'm debating whether to plant another cream colored one on the other side of the gate, or a pale pink.

pale pink in the hillside garden

 Vegetables are doing well, too.  The lettuce is small, but it's growing.  The cabbage seeds have begun to push through the dirt.  Peas are growing well, and the potatoes have begun to send leaves through the soil.  My leeks are doing very well and the carrots are coming along.  I'm still moving perennials out of the hillside beds and to locations here and there.  

Finally, Nugget Watch 2025 has begun.  The old hen and an auntie hen have been hanging around the pasture for about a month now, and the other day I spotted the old hen with two nuggets!

 No sign of auntie hen, so I'm not sure if she was able to hatch any chicks yet.  Fingers crossed these two little ones are able to make it through the summer.

And once again, I'm holding my breath and allowing the boys to go on pasture.  Flea's insulin was within normal range, the lower end of normal, in fact.  I was so happy I cried.  I cried again watching him and Fargo race around the grass track yesterday.  It finally feels like I have my boys back. I can't wait to get the rest of the track done now!

Fresh is best!

 Maybe...we'll see.  This is my first time making Pico de Gallo, so I really won't know until our dinner guest tastes it and either tells me it's passable, or she spits it into her napkin and tells me to maybe try again.

At any rate.

My tomatoes, onion, jalapeno, and a lime I purchased with my own two hands.  My mother can't deal with cilantro, so I used some freshly snipped parsley instead.  And to think, I put that 3 year old parsley plant out on the porch to succumb to the elements!  I suppose it's earned its spot back under the grow light for the winter again, especially with the impending potato harvest.  We do love parsley and buttered boiled potatoes.

And I'm also quite proud of the yarrow plants I grew from seed this winter.  Some of them have bloomed and I've been very happy with the soft color palette.

The verbena bonariensis has finally come to.  I can only hope it self seeds, it's just beautiful.

The buddleia has bloomed and the pollinators are all over it.

My late planted cukes are finally starting to stretch out.  Hopefully they'll produce fruit before the growing season ends!  I'm glad I thought to leave the dried pea vines intact, the cukes are using those to cling to.

 We had the first taste of the Sugar Buns sweet corn last night.  I was a little disappointed that it wasn't picture perfect, but the flavor...unbelievable! I can't wait for more to ripen.

 

I'm happy to report we're still getting on and off rain, so I'm feeling better about my newly transplanted perennials now.  Not sure how this big guy feels about the soggy weather, though.

And Then The Skies Opened

 Shortly after my last post detailing our water woes, I broke down and purchased a new pump to draw ground water from a small reservoir that sits above our driven well. My new pump is fully submersible, so no need to prime for each use. This is one of those better late than never items, because at this point the vegetables have pretty much gone by or the lack of water damage is already done. 

Why am I telling you this?  Because the day after the pump arrived it started raining, and we've had multiple deluges since.  Some areas of our state have had damaging floods.  So my pump sits in the box, hoping to be put into service next year.  My luck continues to be fleeting in all things yard related.

There is good news, though.  The tomato plants look to have recovered nicely from their issues.  There is so much fruit on them that they are falling over...from desperation to abundance!

 And I don't think I've ever grown pepper plants that were as spectacular as these.  From now on, I'll always grow them in the polytunnel - seeing is believing.

 

 

These little yellow jewels are the NewMex Lemon Spice jalapenos.  I tried one off the plant the other day and it was excellent - a mellow pepper flavor and decent heat, but nothing outlandish.                 

Side note - the little blossom at the bottom belongs to I believe common nightshade, which was pulled and laid on a rock to bake in the sun.  No thank you, pretty poison plant.

The corn continues to grow, bolstered by the recent rains.  I'm looking forward to some ears roasted on the grill, and mom has already laid claim to the stalks for her autumn decorations.

I love the burgundy silk of the Sugar Buns ears.  The Silver Queen has silver silk, on what few ears have started to develop.  She's a later variety, so I'm happy that we'll be able to stretch that harvest over a few weeks.

Two of the three garlic varieties have been harvested, dried, and are ready to dole out.  The Thai Fire is smaller than I'd hoped, but I did roast some cloves with a few potatoes I'd harvested and some of my tiny onions, and the flavor is fantastic.  They don't pack as much heat as I'd hoped.  After speaking with a garlic grower at the local farmer's market, it was decided that I didn't feed them enough.  Apparently garlic loves high nitrogen, so in the empty garlic beds I'm now growing field peas to fix nitrogen in the soil for next year.

In non gardening happenings, another buck has shown up in the pasture.  I think this is the same one I photographed earlier this spring, and at that time you could see black masses on his face.

June 10th

Here he is on August 6th, not a great shot but you can see the hair has grown over the lumps on his muzzle.

I sent the first photo to NH Fish & Game to find out if whatever those masses are would be contagious to my mules, since the buck was hanging around their paddock.  I was told by one of the folks there that these were fibromas, and that "Fibromas are wart-like skin growths that are caused by a deer-specific papillomavirus.  There is no risk to your mules. They generally do not cause any issues for the deer unless they affect its ability to eat or see".  That's good to hear, but I'm sad for the deer.  At least for now they look to be small and not affecting him adversely.  It sure didn't affect the growth of his spikes!

 We also had a couple porcupines on the property.  This coyote was starting to harass this little one, but then thought better of it and trotted off through the woods.

 Now for some truly awful photography - I've said it time and time again, my low-light skills are nonexistent.  This lovely orange coyote was under the mulberry tree recently.  The distinct lack of pattern or color change in the coat makes me wonder if this isn't The Beast.  I've read coats will change from year to year.

About a month and a half ago, my neighbor and I were standing in my driveway talking when I spotted something at the bottom of the pasture.  As we watched, we realized it was a coyote that was limping very badly.  I was certain it was mortally wounded.  Last night, I was reminded of the resiliency of these creatures when a "tripawed", or 3 legged, coyote bumped across the pasture.  Surely it's the same coyote!  Again, low light and movement aren't my friends, but you can see the right front paw is missing.

 I'm not sure if this is an interloper (single coyote trying to establish territory) or a member of our local pack.  It appears to be in good health despite its handicap.  My game camera has decided to stop functioning correctly, so I'm missing a lot of night action right now.  My goal for 2025 is to afford a replacement, so I can continue to watch these fascinating creatures.

 

transplant fever

 Here it is, the beginning of February, and I'm already doing a second transplant for the yarrow seedlings.  

 I had noticed the last time I watered that there were roots emerging from the bottoms of the pots.  These  are 2" square pots, and I only transplanted into them 3 weeks ago, so I hope that speaks to how robust these little plants are so far.  They certainly had nice root systems - notice I didn't wait until they were pot-bound, with roots creating a thick mass.  I think this will make them more inclined to grow down into the new soil, or at least that's my hope.  

The seedlings also have their true leaves, the leaves that they develop as they mature.  They're definitely starting to look like little yarrow plants!

I had wanted to pot up to a taller 3 or 4 inch pot, which I could have purchased on Amazon.com; a pack of 30 was around $20.  But a trip to a local off-price store led me to find a package of 50 plastic red party cups for less than $3, which I drilled drainage holes into and should work just as well as the nursery pots for my  little operation.

I expect these plants to be on the taller side by the time I'm able to transplant them outside, and without a heated greenhouse to grow them in now, it's a little tricky.  If you're only using the power of the sun coming through a window, these types of seedlings might get leggy and weak, desperately looking for light.  This is where my growing setup is going to either sink or swim.  I've set it up so that the racks are still removable, even with the grow lights zip-tied to them.  This will allow me to raise the height of the lights to accommodate the taller seedlings without compromising their health...hopefully. 

You can see where I removed one tier with lights to give these seedlings more room to grow.  If I had put them on the second rack, they would have been almost touching the lights, which I don't want.  I should be able to see if the lights are too high by monitoring their reaction to the transplant and new light situation over the next week.  All of my grow lights are on timers that snap on at 5:00 am and shut off around 8:00 pm.  Ignore the cat who has decided she'll only drink the water from the celery stub I'm rooting in a glass cup...cats.  Sheesh.  Though you can't see the stalk in water, in front of that is one that I started in the fall and eventually planted into a pot.  It's doing very well and my mother has cut a few stalks for flavoring soups already.  It's not going gangbusters by any stretch, but it'll be more than ready when it comes time to plant these out in the garden this spring.

On my other rack are some successes and failures.

I've transplanted the verbena bonariensis to 2" pots and they're responding nicely.  

This is another plant that wants to get tall, much taller than the yarrow.  If they outgrow the one tier removed situation on the rack, I can always put them on the floor and remove 2 racks, to give them more room to stretch.  

Also on that rack are some Blue Fescue ornamental grass seeds I've started.  They've just begun to come to, and if they thrive it looks like I may have around 30 nice little clumps to plant out this year.

Under the domed lid are some allium seed that I collected from my plants last summer.  I left them outside to dry, then brought them in for a week to dry even more.  After I was sure they had no moisture (potential for mold), I put them in a paper envelope and stored them in the refrigerator for a few months.  When I wanted to plant them, about three weeks before that I put them on a damp paper towel and returned them to the fridge, monitoring the moisture and checking for mold.  After 3 weeks I put them in the domed container in seed starting mix, and have waited.  It's been two and a half weeks and nothing so far, so I'm not sure if they'll germinate.  I can give it another week to see what happens, or I may move them to the basement where it's a little cooler for a short time, then move them outside to winter sow, if they survive.  It may even be that the seeds aren't viable to begin with, who knows?

We finally had a nice snowfall without rain ruining it last week.  We ended up with about 6" of fresh snow, bringing the snowpack back up to about 14". 

It's been sunny and cold since, but the strength of the sun still manages to melt a little more each day.  The driveway is a frozen tundra in the morning, and a muddy mess by evening.  Already the snowpack has settled to about 9".  As the saying goes, it's just making room for more - winter in New England is never brief!  Some of our whopper snows have come in February, and you can't discount the lambing storms in March.  (Sheep will wait for the worst possible conditions to begin lambing, I swear.  There's a two day blizzard threatening to dump three feet of snow?  All right ladies, commence contractions!)

The sunny days have brought a large flock of wild turkeys to the pasture in the last week.  About a dozen or so hens were followed by about a half dozen toms.

My crow friends have increased by one.  It's interesting, because there were 3 last winter until nearer spring, when the fourth joined them.  I don't know if that's a new member or one of the babies from last year.  As I snapped this photo a surprise fifth crow soared by the window.  There's always one lookout in the trees, especially with the hawks around.

I know the little song birds appreciate the crows and jays setting off their alarms when he's nearby.

Next up - sowing annual flowers for pots, then prepping for vegetable sowing in March.