This is the view from the back porch. It is a place I often pray. I am so thankful for the peace I feel here at our home.
The baby chicks aren't little anymore. They have been outside for a couple of weeks now and doing well. It's fun to think how much they resemble dinosaurs! :)
I have consciously decided to only use native plants in our landscaping with one exception. I have a flower garden. I have flowers that I just love there, peonies, dahlias, columbines, bleeding hearts. When we moved in, there was so much going on and I just needed to put them in the ground. I wasn't sure if they would make it through the winter - but they did! I have learned that bleeding hearts like shade, not full sun like they get, but they are happy and blooming. :) The peonies are getting ready to bloom! :) Wahoo!
Near the flower garden is the vegetable garden. It's still so early, but for the first time I have planted cool weather crops. It's fun to go out there and check on them knowing it's too cold for my normal crops and they are still doing so well.
Mama gave me a whole bunch of seeds and it's fun to watch them start to grow - these will grow up to be beets. Isn't that fun?
Trying potatoes this year. Never grown these before either. Trying them in buckets so I will have an easier time come harvest.
Swiss chard, never grown this before
Peas, growing well :). I can't wait to see these grow. We are going to try growing them up on cattle panels. Excited to see how that goes.
I am so excited to be growing asparagus! It takes years for the asparagus to get established and to produce asparagus. The first two years I have to leave the asparagus there in the bed and not pick it. It's amazing to watch these little sprouts pop up and then the fronds that come. The point is to get the roots firmly established - and then, we will have years and years of asparagus. What a small sacrifice for years of blessings.
I wish I could photograph all of the birds flying around. It's Spring so they are busy building nests and starting families. While I can't seem to capture all of the birds, I did make this short video to capture some of their songs.
Our beautiful creek - truly this is the best sound ever.
The autumn olive bushes - grrr. Autumn olives are an invasive species. They are the first and the last to get and loose their leaves. They have a plethora of sugar laden and non nutritious blooms. (This video shows how much the bees love this sugar) We are working so hard to get rid of all of autumn olives from the property. It's hard work! These plants are huge! They grow quickly and love to spread. So we work and work. I do get discouraged sometimes, but then I'll watch another video from state ag extension about how terrible invasive plants are for the environment and it gives me strength to keep at it.
Autumn olive isn’t necessarily the most nutritious food source for wildlife. The abundance of fruit autumn olive produces can cause birds to fill up on empty calories. The berries contain low amounts of protein and fat, but are high in carbs, which led my friend to aptly nicknaming the plant “Autumn Olive Garden.”
On top of that, the plant can outcompete and displace native plants by shading them out or altering soil chemistry. This reduced biodiversity can be detrimental to water quality, soil health, and of course, wildlife health
This is the orange maple in our front landscaping. I find it interesting that this one branch is fully leafed out, but the main trunk isn't. It reminds me of Jacob 5. My hope is the whole tree will be strong.
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