Late Summer

Hello dear friends, it is already approaching the end of August and I am wondering where the time has gone.  I took a little stroll yesterday with my camera and have some photos to share with you.  As always, our farm is a work in progress!

Our koi are doing well in our koi pond.  They are still growing!  And some have beautiful colouring.

We still have so many unfinished projects including the ledging for the koi pond.  Eventually the liner will be hidden under flagstone and the hoses will be hidden from view as well.

Some of our pond plants.

Abby waiting (impatiently) for something fun to happen!

A fun metal sculpture for the pond.

Our rooster is still in his element!  I can hear him crowing as early as 4:30 am.

We seem to have a chipmunk invasion.  They have tunnels all around our chicken coop.

This year we are tying some different laying hens. These are Columbian crosses and Azure Blues. The Azure Blue hens will lay....you guessed it!  blue eggs!

COVID-19 has changed so many things for all of us.  One of many changes was not being able to shop at garden centres earlier this year.  When the garden centres did open there was a very limited selection of plants available.  Even our seed order was delayed so by the time we received it, it was too late to plant most of them.  

I am so pleased with this shot!

It has been very hot and dry.  Many of the perennials are suffering and even some of our trees are showing signs of heat stress.

I had wanted to paint my little garden shed this year....but havent.

Thankfully all of our hay is baled and waiting!  Our big round bales are lined up and ready for use.

I have been working on Drakk and Holly's garden this year.  This is one of my favourite statues.

We have barely used this area this year!  

The pergola from the opposite direction.

Our little waterfall garden.

Lucy to the rescue!

Abby to the rescue!

Grapes appearing on the arbour at the vegetable garden.

Everyone loves sheep pictures!

The ram is "in the mood!"

Thank you for visiting and wishing everyone a safe week!

 

August in the Garden

Hello dear friends, I hope everyone is still safe and well!  Are any of you finding yourselves challenged by technology?  For example, by having an entire post disappear to be replaced just by the letter "m"?  

So I am going to start over!  First, I wanted to share some photos of echinops in the garden.  The original plant was a purchase from the local Horticultural Society Plant Sale.  Now, several years later one plant has multiplied into dozens!  The pollinators seem to love it but I feel that I must be ruthless about digging out all of the seedlings.  Perhaps in a meadow garden?

This is the north side of our old stone house. The climbing plant is a Virginia Creeper which I refer to as the Man Eating Vine.  It is not visible in the photo but I have planted a climbing hydrangea at each corner of the stone house to replace this rampant vine!

Our darling Willow is 14 years old.  She and her sister Lucy were originally a cruelty seizure by the Humane Society.  I cant remember how long they have been here....7 years? 8 years?  Ambling through a meadow is paradise for her!

Each evening Abby (our German Shepherd) and I do a walk around our fields.  It is amazing how much more aware I am of the evening sky when I am outside.

I am not recommending thistles in the garden but we are astonished how many gold finches we have that feed on the seedheads.

I have been thinking about this part of our property which is one of our hay fields.  I am thinking about having a meadow garden with monarda, borage, echinops and other plants that attract pollinators.  Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

A full load of wood mulch ready to be spread on one of the gardens,  I hope to have this load of mulch spread by the end of the weekend and will be ready for another load!

Thank you for stopping to visit!