Gardens and Other Critters May 22, 2019 @goldenoakfarm

Rabbit by the violet bed

There’s been an upsurge in rabbits in this area in the last week. We’ve not seen the female fox for over a week. Not sure of the maternal habits of fox, but she may be sticking close to home with a new family. Anyways, the rabbits are bolder.

There have also been 3 sightings of a scarlet tanager in the county, miles and towns apart. My husband saw one in the signature oak tree yesterday, but it was in the top and he couldn’t get a photo. It’s the second one he’s seen this month.

I was working at the kitchen sink and looked up to see 2 barn swallows sitting on the edge of the greenhouse over the sink, watching me work. One would fly away and then back and watch some more. Very odd to see them so close and from that angle; just saw breasts, chin, and top of head.

New Herb - Row 1, center to top: santolina, pyrethrum, butterflyweed, elecampane, snapdragons, wormwood

My helper and I got started on the New Herb garden on Tuesday. I was mostly clearing the walkways so they could be amended and mulched. But I reached as far into the beds on each side as I could and took out weeds.

I was happy to see 2 snapdragons survived down by the wormwood. The butterfyweed came up and I had 3 of 4. I also found chamomile and blue flax growing in the walkway and transplanted them into the beds.

I got the walkway weeded, but my helper friend had to leave, so the mulching didn’t get finished. He’s back today and I’m hoping we get 2 more walkways done.

I’d noticed buds on the rhubarb last week and intended to pull them off and forgot. My intern was here yesterday and she cut the flowers off. They were so creamy and pretty, I thought I’d try them as cut flowers. This photo doesn’t do their loveliness well.

My clematis died in 2018 and I picked up 2 at half price on Tuesday: H.F. Young and Bees Jubilee. There were no photos of the flowers, so I went by names.

A check on Google shows H. F. Young as a medium purple, oh well. Not fond of purple. But the Bees Jubilee is light pink with darker pink center stripes and that should make up for it. One of the downfalls of not having a smart phone, I couldn’t look them up at the store.

On the hot Monday afternoon, I dug up chocolate mint offered by a BuyNothing person and planted it in the South Herb garden. It had died in the New North garden a couple years back. It is planted in a large pot.

In the South garden the columbine is flowering. This makes 2 of them this year. I lost a lot of plants, and columbine is usually one that dies, but not this year.

This is the peony in the South Herb garden, with 4 lovely buds. I am so delighted to have possible peony flowers this year. I was telling a friend of mine that someone offered peony cages on BuyNothing, but I passed them up, as mine never flowered….

So today, back in the New Herb garden, cleaning it out so I can plant the herbs I got on Saturday.

Source:
Scarlet tanager: CheepShot Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

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