A Glorious Day in May

Last night the noise of farm machinery and the pungent aroma of liquid cow manure let us know that a change was being made in the neighborhood.  The meadow to the east of our lane was being transformed into a corn field.  Today the manure has been turned in and the corn has been planted. The sky is blue and the weather perfect for spending the day in the garden.

We have a couple of diabolically  small weeds that pop up everywhere.  I would be thrilled and surprised if I could get all these pulled before they go to seed again.

This is the other weed that really give me grief.  Both kinds are flowering now.  We had  a particularly bad patch of these pests surrounding a lavender plant just outside of the stone square.  I parked my garden cart for a seat and proceeded to fill my bucket with weeds.  I was enjoying the fragrance of the clove currants  as I worked.  I was quite surprised to hear a familiar buzzing sound.  I looked up and there very close to where I was working was a male ruby throated hummingbird sipping nectar from the clove currant flowers.  A second bird buzzed past me too fast to get a good look.  For 2012,  May 5 is the date for  the return of hummingbirds to the garden.  Seeing them was a thrill and I guess I have my pernicious weeds to thank.  I spent the rest of the morning  weeding here and there while Ed worked on the peas.

 A huge bunch of crows in the spruce trees were making an unbelievable racket.  I watched them for several minutes hoping to see the cause of the uproar.  The din lessened somewhat as I moved closer but it did not stop. The trees are thick and I could not see anything .  As I turned away  the raucous uproar resumed.  I never did see what had those crows in such a tizzy.

Lots of red admirals are still flitting around, but I was surprised to see a humming bird moth on a Japanese honeysuckle bush. I know they are supposed to have two hatches a year, but I usually don't see them until the Monarda is blooming.  It's likely they have been there all along, I just never noticed them.

After lunch Ed and I headed to the back with the garden tractors.  I took the old tractor and the garden cart and Ed drove the new machine with his grass catcher.  It was time to make a little hay while the sun was shining. While Ed was mowing the flat open area, I went down and mowed the path that goes nearest to the pond.  I have not been back to the pond for some time.  This winter was tough on the trees back here. Many of them have been wind thrown during storms.  I miss the way the pond used to be, but change is the natural order of things.

It's pretty wild back by the pond. In this wet area plant growth gets very tall.  Clumps of yellow flag are growing fast, but no flowers are in evidence yet.  After my side trip to the pond,  I joined Ed  up on Amy's meadow.  He had the grass all cut and a load of clippings ready to transfer to the garden cart.
While he drove his clippings to the front to use as mulch,  I gave using the grass catcher and the new tractor a try.  I was breezing along fairly well until my hat blew off.  I stopped just in the nick of time.
The hat was just under the front of the grass catcher, but had not reached the machinery.  I'll need to wear a hat with a chin strap next time since to properly fill the catcher with grass,  more speed is needed.  I headed to the front to get a start on dinner while Ed finished the haying project.

Now the tools are put away and it's time for a little relaxation.  Tomorrow looks like another great gardening day.

Garden Fever

Our last day of 2011 was warm enough to allow garden work while in shirtsleeves.  Granted they are insulated shirtsleeves but this is the end of December.  Autumn Joy sedum are getting cut back for the winter.  New growth is normal and it looks promising.  The weeds get to stay since the ground shaded by the sedum remains frozen.  Still we had a chance to complete this one job ahead of the arrival of winter.

Winter has our pond firmly in its grip.  Daylong shade from the wooded ridge blocks sunlight from warming this area.  That one step from the bright sunlight into the seasonal shade is like walking into a refrigerator.   The temperature difference will be noticeable all winter.  Cold seasonal stability characterizes this area.  Plants here will be the last to break dormancy.

Some animal had what must have been a scary walk across the newly forming ice.  Its path was continuous to shore so a cold dunking was avoided.  My luck has held there also.  For reasons completely lacking all reason or logic, I always have to step onto the ice to see if it will support me.  So far that move has never been early but I know that cold wet feet are in my future.

Another clump of trees have been thrown by the wind.  Come spring some of this muck will be shoveled out of the pond and readied for use in the garden.  Its fine grain will improve moisture retention in our sandy soil.  Muck must be nutrient rich it is so dark in color.

On the last day of this year we had a chance to work in the garden this morning.  That made the day a great one.  Afternoon clouds brought a seasonal chill and we are now indoors.  More marks will appear in the seed catalog as we move toward 2012.

Winter Walk

With the garden frozen hard and covered with snow, Ed gets his required time outside by walking the perimeter of our thirty-six acres.  This moss covered glacial erratic lies near a neighbor's field.  Its companion tree is a black birch that is now large enough to tap.  Making birch syrup has long held a fascination for us.  We have reduced maple sap to syrup by boiling but have never tried the same process with birch trees.  An outdoors man friend of my father reported several unsuccessful attempts to tap birch trees.  He could never get the sap to run.  I have since read that the time to tap birch trees is after the taps are pulled from the maples.  Birch sap does not start to run as early as maple sap.  One tree does not a sap line make so this tree is likely safe from the tapping drill.

This rock always reminds me of Scott Nearing.  He built a woodland study atop a similar rock.  My rock is not large enough to support an office.  Peeling off the rough surface could be easily done but what would I do with the birch tree.  This tree will never see the rock cutting chisel attack its anchorage.
  

We have lost several trees that grew on the edge of our field adjacent to the bedrock ledge.  Here the trees roots were restricted to a few inches of soil overlaying the rock ledge.  Abundant water moving above the ledge also kept the tree roots shallow.  A strong wind has little difficulty throwing such trees to the ground.  Mother nature will have to clean up this mess.  We have neither the necessary tools nor the will to tackle a job of this proportion.

Here is a recent picture taken from almost the same location as the first picture in the last post.  When we first obtained the land I had serious reservations about placing our new house so that it looked into the raw edge of this glacial terrace.  Time without grazing livestock has allowed trees to grow here.  Now our house faces a wooded slope.  Some selective cutting would improve the developing structure of these trees.  Cutting some of these trees would make a decent winter task.