Irises

Posted on June 3, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

This is going to be our third summer on the farm. Our flower gardens are finally looking like gardens, not just random plants stuck in a big expanse of dirt.

Gardening takes work and it takes patience, but oh it pays off. It totally pays off.

The ferns that I transplanted last year have all sprouted, we’re going to have a ton of peonies, and our irises are amazing.

When I was growing up, my parents had some beautiful irises in their gardens: blue, peach and dark purple. When I was setting up the gardens here at the farm my parents were taking out the last of their irises–the purple ones–and they gave me a bunch of plants. The stalks have taken root and they’re blooming prolifically. I love the frilly showy blossoms.

Out on the turnaround, one particular plant has given us two-tone blossoms. Light purple on a couple of stalks and dark purple on the rest.

I especially like the purple veins of the buds.

You might recall that the farm came with a whole bunch of plants still in their nursery pots. Last year, I finally stuck them in the ground. This spring, I’ve discovered that some of them were miniature irises.

They must be happy to be out of their pots because they’re blooming like crazy.

I’ve been feeling like the gardens are finally established this year. Plants are filling out and blooming. I’m focused more on maintenance rather than actually building the gardens. It’s nice to see the fruits–or the blooms–of my labour.

How is your garden growing? Do you have any irises at your house? What colour are they? Who else is an iris fan? What’s blooming at your place?

It never rains but it pours

Posted on June 1, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

For the past few years, it seems we’ve gone from winter to summer. Just skipped over spring completely. This year, we’ve seesawed back into winter a couple of times (brrr). But we’ve definitely missed spring–and its spring showers.

The grass seed that I sprinkled has sprouted–thanks to diligent daily waterings.

Our fields are going green and our soybeans are growing, but my hose doesn’t help them, and I wasn’t sure how long they’d hang on without rain.

Saturday morning, we watched clouds building to the north of us, wondering if rain was finally going to fall. (If you look closely, you might be able to see the bright green watering can halfway down the driveway, next to a newly planted tree).

A few hours later, we had our answer. Yes, it was finally raining, but it was pouring. More water than the dry, dry ground could possibly absorb.

It doesn’t seem like we just have rain anymore. It’s either a deluge or nothing. Maybe the gentle rain is hanging out wherever spring has gone.

Poor Baxter did not appreciate the cooling moisture as much as the plants did. Apparently, melting from the heat is preferable to melting from rain.

The torrential downpour did eventually ease. By the end of the weekend, we had a full day and a half of rain.

So I won’t have to do any watering for a little while.

What season is it where you are? What season should it be? Have you had too much, too little or just enough rain? Are seeds sprouting where you are? Does your dog like the rain?

An evening walk along the pond trail

Posted on May 18, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

The nature of farm living is that it’s tough work. Last night, after a day full of hard labour, my skin was stinging from scrapes, thorn pricks and a pretty decent sunburn.

My muscles and grip strength were gone. At one point, Matt had said, “Pull!” as we were stringing the fence in the garden. And at my response–“I’ve got nothing left!”–he just laughed.

It was after 5 o’clock, and the dog still needed his afternoon walk–a daunting prospect.

But the nature of farm living is that there’s also an incredible setting, right in our backyard, so Baxter and I headed for the pond trail.

Matt cut this trail for us last year. Some of our hard work earlier earlier in the day had been sharpening the mower blades (with help from my parents), attaching the deck to the tractor and mowing the grass.

In addition to doing the lawn, Matt did a pass over the trail, so Bax and I had a lovely space to hike.

We walked alongside the lilac hedge that leads from the house down to the water.

We turned left and followed the trail along the shore towards one of our old apple trees. This tree is a showstopper this year. Absolutely covered in blossoms.

From there, the trail heads into the small pasture behind the barn, following the fence at the edge of the marsh.

It loops around past the manure pile and then up to my favourite tree.

We took a detour by the garden to check out the new fence.

And as I headed to house, Baxter decided he was going to stay out for awhile yet. He laid down beside the garden and gazed back down the trail and across the farm.

The view is fields and forest and trees and marsh, and it’s worth any scrapes, pricks, burns, aches, hard work and exhaustion.

The payoff–this farm–is exactly where I want to be.

Forsythia of ’15

Posted on May 13, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

It’s another disappointing year for our forsythia bushes. There are just a few yellow flowers and a lot of bare branches.

There are a lot of buds along those branches, so I think we’ll have a bumper crop of leaves. My plan is to give the forsythia a really good haircut this weekend. I hope that will help to reset it. I’m pretty sure that forsythia set their blooms fairly early, so if I prune too late, I’ll cut off next year’s blossoms… Not that I’m too optimistic about our chances of that given our experience the last two years.

I like tracking the onset of spring by comparing our forsythia every year. The timing of this year’s blooms, such as they are, are in line with two years ago:

2015: Beginning of May
2014: Middle of May
2013: Beginning of May
2012: Beginning of April

What’s blooming at your house? Do you have any tips for encouraging forsythia blossoms?

Snapshot

Posted on May 8, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

A clutch of spring flowers in the forest grove outside our bedroom window.

Picking up after the litterbugs

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I’ve decided that smoking, drinking and littering should all be added to the list of deadly sins.

Saturday was the annual spring clean up in our area, so I headed out with a roll of garbage bags, two pairs of gloves and, of course, my usual sidekick.

Most of the litter that we picked up was cigarette packages, paper coffee cups and beer cans. Given that most of the trash was thrown out of the windows of passing cars, I’m concerned that so much of it consisted of empty containers that formerly contained alcoholic beverages.

So perhaps to clarify, the deadly sin should be drinking and driving, not just drinking.

The annual litter clean up invariably leaves me feeling disgusted with humanity.

Not all of humanity, though. This year we had professional help from 1-800-Got-Junk. The team was driving around the concessions, picking up the bags that had been left on the roadside.

Baxter was also his usual helpful self. He appreciated the opportunity to spend as much time as he wanted wading in the ditch.

When he tired of getting muddy, he returned to sniffing and sunbathing.

Here are a few highlights of this year’s clean up:

Various car parts–headlights, bumpers, hubcaps, a license plate. Our ditches are very deep, and apparently the stop sign across from the east field is invisible.

SPB, I have your gloves… Well, two of them. The third odd one went in the trash.

We made it approximately halfway around our 2km of roadside. The grand tally over three hours of clean-up was three bags of garbage, three bins of recycling, three hubcaps and three gloves. Oh, and those three new sins.

Have you done a spring clean-up at your house? What’s the weirdest trash you’ve ever come across? What sins would you add to the list if you could?

Spring flowers, bulbs and sprouts

Posted on April 20, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

A colleague at work gave me flowers last week.

A little more wilted than you thought?

They’re actually hand-me-down flowers. Her husband gave her a beautiful pot of spring blooms: hyacinths, mini-daffodils and pussy willows.

She had no desire to plant the bulbs now that the flowers are finished blooming, so she passed the pot on to me. I think the flowers will make a beautiful addition to our gardens, but I’m most excited about the pussy willow.

One of the stalks has sprouted.

Pussy willow is my favourite shrub. I’ve always wanted one. I know they root fairly easily. I hope I can keep this stalk alive, so that it will grow into a bush.

Anyone have any tips for growing pussy willow? What’s your favourite spring flower? Do you have bulbs at your house?

Watch out rabbits

Posted on April 10, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Ralph is a top-notch barn cat, but she’s become a bit… soft.

This winter, as soon as HRH deemed the temperature too cold and the snow too deep, she retreated to the barn and refused to venture outside.

As a result of her hibernation, we had our first rabbits this spring. Two of them living behind the barn.

The snow is now mostly gone, so Ralph is outside again and the rabbits are also gone. She hasn’t gotten that soft.

But then last weekend the snow returned. It fell all night from Saturday into Easter Sunday.

HRH poked her head out of the barn.

She looked to the left and the right.

She paused for a moment to consider.

And she retreated back into the barn.

Oh, Ralphie. You’re such a tough barn cat.

At least the Easter bunny was safe.

Not quite a spring mantel

Posted on April 6, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Despite the snow flurries that fell thick enough to coat the ground this weekend, I’m pretty sure it’s spring. Easter was early this year, but not that early, right?

It seemed like it was time to update the mantel for spring. We still light the fire most nights, but the snowshoes on the mantel seemed to be a bit out of season.

For me, styling a mantel is like styling a bookshelf–challenging.

I replaced the snowshoes with some green glass bottles. I separated the pair of antlers and spread out the trio of spherical tealight holders. But I’m not sure it’s working for me.

I’ve learned I really like the pop of black from the lantern–and the glow of the candle at night–but I’m wondering if maybe I should do without it for the spring.

The glass bottles seem a little small to me. And I think their watery blue-green tone says summer more than spring.

I’d love your input and advice on what you’d do. Here are your constraints:

The stone needs to be the main feature of the fireplace. That means no covering it up with a huge painting or mirror, although something smaller might be acceptable.
I want balance, but I don’t want symmetry. Matching topiaries at either end of the mantel with a perfectly centred hurricane are not me.
Bigger is better when it comes to tchotchkes. The fireplace is 8 feet wide and 9 1/2 feet tall and close to 4 feet deep. It’s a monolith. From the mantel to the lowest point of the ceiling is 40 inches. The accessories need to be equally large scale so they don’t get lost.
I’m cheap, so there’s no way I’m spending much money on decor, especially if it’s going to change seasonally.

This post from Kim at Tidbits and Twine has an easy formula for styling a mantel. I particularly like her layers of anchor, weight and filler. However, I’d have to put my anchor off centre. 🙂

Here are some of the things I’m thinking of:

Something living (or more likely, given my luck with plants, a decent replica of a living thing)
Large crocks or bottles (or urns or tarnished trophies?)
Candles or lanterns of some kind (maybe an oil lamp or a candelabra could be fun)
Some appropriately “farmy” accessories (wagon wheel hub, grindstone, antlers)
Something appropriately seasonal (is there something that says spring besides the obvious tulips and hyacinths?)
Art (even though I don’t want a central painting, a smaller scale painting or sculpture or mirror might be nice)

This picture speaks to me. Even though the fireplace is a completely different style from ours, are there some lessons I can apply?

Source: Verdigris Vie

Help me bring spring inside, even if it hasn’t arrived outside yet. What are your styling secrets for mantels? What accessories would you use?

Good Friday

Posted on April 3, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

On our first Good Friday at the farm, I cut a huge bouquet of forsythia off the bushes beside the driveshed. Every spring since then, I’ve marked the start of April with a forsythia check-in.

Thanks to a few mild days in March, we’re in a better snow situation than we were last year. The blossom situation is still TBD. Last year we seemed to be dealing with frostbit forsythia. Hopefully we have blooms soon.

And I hope that you have a very happy Easter.

Forsythia through the years: