November Hill farm journal, 154

 I came home from the mountain house to a very hot week here on November Hill. Hot and jungle-like growth of grasses, pollinator plants, potager plants, and many chores to catch up on! 

The milkweed and butterfly weed are starting to get quite lovely:

I hope the butterflies lay lots of eggs and the resulting very hungry caterpillars eat their fill!

The sundrops aren’t as prolific this year as they were the past two, but they are still quite lovely. This full sun photo doesn’t show them off as well, but that’s when I was out there, so that’s all I have!

The coneflowers are starting to bloom and the button bushes are forming their tiny “buttons” so we have a lot to look forward to! The Stokes asters are out as well but I forgot to get a photo.

I am nowhere near done mulching and hope to get back to that task this weekend. I also need to put some fencing around both my shade beds, as the bunnies are snacking heavily on some of those plantings. While I was driving home on Saturday my daughter messaged that Clementine found a bunny nest near the upper garden bed and little bunnies ran in all directions. Thankfully Clem was on leash, and thankfully she listened when my daughter told her to DROP IT - she had a baby bunny in her mouth! It ran off with the others, so we presume it is okay.

The barn swallows have a nest full of babies, and a Carolina wren has a nest one the grazing muzzles hanging in the barn aisle. Lots of life happening here right now.

In the potager we have cucumbers in full bloom, tomatoes doing the same, and the lettuces and kale are ready to harvest. We have basil and parsley too. I’m very happy with the non-edible part of the garden. Everything is doing extremely well out there. And the hazelnut trees are thriving. I need to research when we can begin to harvest nuts. So far these trees are putting their energy into growing. 

A project on the horizon is to work on creating the permanent foot path in Poplar Folly so I can begin to ID the naturalized areas around the path and mark the natives that we need to keep as well as the things that need to be removed. There are some wonderful natives volunteering down there and I have permanent markers to label them so it will be easier to track things. It’s shady so not a bad summertime project!

Yesterday I watered the beds nearest the house and today I need to water the hollies and the cedars we put in, as well as give the potager a good watering. If we don’t get any rain tomorrow I’ll go further out still with a wheelbarrow full and a bucket. This is the first week in many months that there is no sure rain in the forecast, and with highs in the upper 90s, young plantings need some help. 

The bees are good, dogs living their best lives, cats are happy, and the herd are all nearly sleek in summer coats. Cody is having some issues with his hooves right now, and until the vet comes to do bloodwork we have him off the pasture and on the ECIR group’s emergency diet in case of laminitis. His hooves are not hot and I’m not feeling a pounding pulse. We’ll check insulin, glucose, and leptin levels and also do a tick-borne disease screen. I hope he is better soon. 

That’s it for now. I hope everyone is staying cool and hydrated as we move into summer!