Sweet Local Farm

Memorial weekend was gorgeous and we were lucky to have friends come spend some time with us on the farm. It has been sunny with highs in the upper 80′s. As with everything this year, many of our perennial flowers are blooming early. I wanted to document these blooms so I can come back to this page next year and see how it compares.

Friends in the garden:

Ants love sweet tasty things. It’s no surprise that ants are attracted to the sweet nectar of peonies. But have no fear. The ants on your peonies will do nothing to harm them. They are just harvesting a nice dessert for their colony.

Some people have been known to think that ants actually help the peonies bloom. I did a little research on this subject and learned that this is not the case. For all of your ‘ants on peonies’ related questions, I recommend reading the Heartland Peony Society’s FAQ on this matter.

Our patio area and nursery for all our up and coming seedlings:

Rhododendron:

Front porch garden:

Peonies on the verge of blooming:

Fun and indestructible Hens and Chicks:

Climbing Clematis:

Pretty Peonies:

Patio garden:

Have a seat!

Alluring Alliums:

Darling Daisies:

Iris:

Tree peony:

More Clematis:

White lily or iris?:

Veggie Garden about half planted:

We are about two weeks ahead of schedule here at the farm when it comes to natural signs of spring. The crocuses have come and gone, even though they were in bloom last year at this time. We are enjoying the colorful sights and fragrant scents of the flowers around us.

At our wedding last September, we gave daffodil bulbs as favors. The variety is a large all yellow flower:

I love the white daffodils with orange centers.

Our forsythia is so cheery. Check out my sweet garden clogs:

This ornamental weeping cherry is one of the most beautiful plants on our farm:

This one isn’t so bad either! Rouge seems to like it:

Sunset- always running out of daylight:

True signs of spring just around the corner.

Snowdrops in bloom on the south side of my house:

The fish pond has thawed and the fish have grown, multiplied, and are very active:

Forced Daffodil bulbs in bloom:

Pretty spring branches that I forced:

Tofu loves the flowers:

These dormant Winter months provide a great time to regroup, make repairs, plan out garden plots, and if you’ve got some invasive species, clear out sleeping plants.

Ever since the vegetation subsided for the season, I began noticing a thorny red vine that was taking over certain areas. It appears on the ground level as a raspberry-like vine, but when you turn your head to the tree-tops, you’ll see how it has the ability to take over the entire canvas.

I desired to remove this vine because of the way it was literally strangling trees and any other growth around it. Before doing so, I did a little research to learn more about this invader and found a number of articles on it such as this one in the Eagle Tribune: Is that an exotic invasive species in your holiday decoration?
(by Don Lyman)

“As you drive along New England roadways this time of year you can frequently spot tangles of long vines adorned with bright yellowish-red berries. Many people don’t realize these plants, which are commonly used in Thanksgiving wreaths and decorations, are actually an exotic invasive species known as oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus).”

There was the culprit…Oriental Bittersweet. To Karen’s credit, she knew this already.

This past weekend, Michael and I began the arduous task of removing a sizable area of the Bittersweet. Since there are many different facets of this plant: thick trunks at the root, long vines, etc; we armed ourselves with hatchets, saws, titanium tree branch clippers, a machete and garden shears.

Michael with hatchet

Where is he in this photo?

Some of the longer vines stretched up so high that they reached 30 ft up into the tree-tops. When pulling out these stranglers, they seemed to be aware of what we were doing because both Michael and I swear they were fighting back. I managed to get multiple thorn wounds to the face…good thing I had safety goggles on.

A pile of Bittersweet

We’ll be burning this brush in the next month to avoid it’s attempts to re-root. This batch had been growing uninhibited for the past 5 or so years. Hopefully we’ll be able to combat it much easier in the future through regular removal. Although, I have read that it can grow up to 12 feet in one year!

Contemplating the future of Bittersweet removal

We got quite a bit of snow yesterday. Much more than the “epic blizzard that wasn’t” from last week. We got home late last night, around 8pm. It was still snowing at the time and as I walked into the house what struck me was how completely quiet the world was. The snow dampens all the everyday noises like traffic and people. We live on a long stretch of country road. There are a handful of small farms, some newer developments, but overall even the suburban style homes have at least an acre of land. Our street is very pretty in every season and all of the houses are unique and well kept. I’m grateful for my little slice of heaven.

I had forgotten how beautiful the flower gardens that were here when we moved in are. I was looking through photos from last Spring and Summer and came across these. Please enjoy:

The Forsythia is now in full bloom:

What a hopeful sign of spring just around the corner: