Late July Gardens

Hello everyone, I thought I would drop by with a little update on our gardens.  It is hard to believe that we are almost into August already!  And as always that leads this gardener to wonder not only where has time gone but why does it take so long to get the many projects done!

I recently purchased two climbing hydrangeas which are being planted on the northwest side of the stone house.  I hope that as they become established I will be able to finally remove the Virginia Creeper which has been stubbornly covering our windows.  

We have two crab apples in the gardens at the house and they are drooping with little apples.  A few years ago we planted different varieties of flowering crabs in one of our fenced paddocks and named it "Crab Apple Grove".  Those trees are all becoming established but are still quite young.

An assortment of day lillies, always one of my favourite perennials.  I would like to add to the collection with some pale yellow varieties.

 This is some unknown variety of echinops which I purchased as a tiny plant at the local Horticultural Society plant sale.  I have divided it 3 times and each clump has become quite large with the plants reaching over 4 feet tall.  They are very striking in the perennial gardens.

I am not sure why it took me so long to see the value in hydrangeas!  Now I am hooked!  This particular plant was also a Horticultural Society plant sale find.

Today I tried lemon ginger tea.  To be honest I think it might be an acquired taste.

 Another sweet little rose resting in a little clay urn.

At long last our generator has arrived!  In the event of a power failure this device will provide sufficient power to keep our home and barn running without interruption.  We learned long ago that power outages are only romantic for the first 15 minutes.  After that the reality of not having heat, running water and frozen pipes sinks in very quickly.

This is a shot of our northwest lawn above the stone wall.  The garden was upended to make room for a large stone retaining wall and to make room for an addition.  There is still much work to be done to finish regrading the area and then to work on the plantings for the waterfall garden.  I hope to have the framework for this garden in place this year.

The forecast for this weekend is hot temperatures with a humidex over 35 degrees.  I am not sure how much gardening will happen this weekend!

~Thank you for visiting!~                      

Relaxing on the Veranda

Hello everyone, I thought I would share some quick photos of part of our veranda....

You would never know that we actually have 3 cats as most of our photos seem to be of Horatio.  He is enjoying patrolling the veranda railings.

Some potted mini roses decorating a corner of the deck.

We are ready for our morning coffee break.  The deck immediately adjacent to the kitchen is protected and provides a comfortable shaded area to sit and work on some hand quilting.  

This is part of our front veranda looking towards the road.  We love our Adirondack chairs!

Same veranda but now looking in the opposite direction towards sheep pastures. 

A misty view from the veranda across the front lawn.

Another misty view from the front veranda.

Working on a blog is exhausting!

~thank you for visiting~

Early July At The Farm

Hello Everyone, time keeps getting away from us here at the farm.  For being as busy as we have been I am not yet ready to show all of our projects!  As things come together I will have more to show you.

 A view towards our back pasture.  Our farm is subdivided into a number of different fenced areas for our sheep.  From the front and side of our house we have views of the pastures and can usually see and hear at least some of our flock.

 The sheep like to rest under the shade of the apple trees against the fence.

The sheep provide many photo opportunities!

The little garden privy has still not been touched this year.  We still have some construction materials stored close by so I have been avoiding dealing with this part of our property!

The clematis has been thriving against the fence and I am pleased to note that there are no signs of the Japanese Lily Beatle...perhaps because I havent weeded this area!

Here is a two part project that will be done soon.  The concrete pad is for a generator that will be arriving later this month.  As we have experienced a number of power outages in the last couple of years a generator will power the farm in case of an emergency.  A recent loss of power this past winter caused the water lines going to the barn to freeze over.  Because we live in a rural area power outages not only mean we do not have heat for our home but means we also dont have any running water.  Our longest power outage was 5 days over Christmas 2 years ago as a result of an ice storm.  We are anxious to not go through that again!

We are very pleased with this deck that was part our major renovation last year.  There are the sheep in the distance!

Two young gentlemen on big mowers make very short work of cutting the lawns.  They are usually in and out in just over one hour.

Last week we took advantage of a dry break in the weather to cut some hay.  We have had significantly more rainfall than usual and it has made access to the fields difficult.  The weather has also been on the cool side so the hay has not grown as much as we would expect by now which makes it more challenging to cut and bale.  Another hay field has deep ruts from our tractor getting bogged down.  

Here is Charlotte, one of three house cats!  Charlotte enjoys lounging on the front veranda when the weather is warm.

The two newest members of our family are Lucy and Willow.  They are not used to sheep and seem to think that they are dogs!

I love this pretty yellow rose that we have planted at the top of the stone steps leading to the driveway.

This is very curious.  I bought 2 of these ornamental acorns and hung them in an oak tree a couple of years ago.  When I was working in this garden I noticed that one of the acorns had been filled with little twigs.  We have another nesting box that also has twigs in it.  We dont know for sure but think it might be a wren.

~Thank you for visiting!~

Late June Stroll

Hello everyone, as I have been quite busy of late I havent had the time to share photos.  Yesterday evening we went for a quick little stroll and I have a few shots to share with you.

We have a bit of a lull in colour in the garden at the moment.  Some of the irises are in bloom as is this Japanese Lilac.  

Horatio the cat is our resident clown.

  A view of a sheep pasture across the road in the early evening light.

A view of our old stone house from the road.  The fence provides us with privacy but also keeps our dogs on the property.  We have planted some young sugar maples along the road in between the large mature ones.

One of our many lambs. 

These apple trees seeded themselves and have been growing very nicely.  We have many varieties of apple trees which are visited by the many deer in our area.

Some of our sheep off in the distance.  Our fields are surrounded by a mixture of trees including apple and pear.  The sheep love to eat windfall fruit and in the fall are very excited about being moved to any pasture with apple trees.

 Earlier this spring we were concerned that we might experience a very dry year.  In fact we have had a great deal of rain and while the hay has been ready to cut the fields have been too wet to allow access.  This field was cut yesterday and the tractor became stuck in the mud a couple of times.  We have a small window of time in which to cut and bale hay and need 3 days of good weather in order to cut, rake and bale.  The forecast for the weekend is calling for rain again so we hopefully will be able to bale this field before the hay gets wet and spoils.

We were surprised to find a snake in our chicken run.  I imagine the chickens were rather surprised too!   As chickens are also carnivores I suppose the snake felt rather uncomfortable!  We didnt stay around to learn the outcome.  

Charlotte is another one of our cats.  She, along with her sister Chantal, were found in a cat carrier on the side of the highway by Cats Anonymous.  When we wanted to adopt another cat for our home we visited Cats Anonymous and after viewing all of the different cats decided that we wanted to adopt these two old girls.

Next week we will be taking several days to do some work around the farm.  If the weather cooperates I will have more photos to share!

~thank you for visiting~

More rain....

Hello everyone, I am afraid that with our wet weather I have not been able to get into the gardens in the last week.  In the past 10 days we have had 135 mm of rain with another 5-10 mm forecast for today.  Everything including the weeds are now growing at an incredible pace!  

Here is a view of the side of our old stone house.  This veranda was part of the new construction we started last year.  As we love to spend time outdoors having several covered seating areas was on the top of our wish list.

This is part of our old grove with our ancient apple trees.  I hope to be able to paint my little garden shed this summer...if the weather cooperates!

This is a bit of a mystery.  I wonder what at my hostas?

A beautiful white peony.  If only they lasted longer!  Between the wind and the rain all of the peony blossoms have taken a beating.  I dont know the name of the variety but is is very fragrant.

This peony is almost a neon pink the colour is so vibrant!

I love how water collects in the leaves of the alchemilla, the droplets are like little diamonds.

 Very misty looking towards the road.

A sweet little rose planted at the top of the stone stairway leading to the driveway.  I love yellow roses even though the tag says that it is supposed to be pink!  One of the many  mysteries gardeners deal with.

~Thank you for visiting!~