November Hill pollinator gardens, 3

This morning I put everything out into a staging area.

The butterfly weed and pink swamp milkweed were all planted and mulched already, so this is what was left to plant. 

I spent most of the morning putting things on top of the garden beds, trying to look at height and spread and color and texture to see if I could get things nice. I'm sure I'll make some mistakes but I hope there are some happy errors too.

Once I finished that husband brought home a pallet of stepping stones and he moved them into place in the upper bed. I have a path going from the barnyard "stile" through the upper bed and around and out the side into the driveway by the barnyard gate. There's room to put a little bench under the cherry tree once it gets tall enough. 

This bed is so deep I wanted a way to walk into to it for working and to get to the fence in there as well.

I've planted 10 plants. 

Will get back to it tomorrow! I think it's going to be wonderful! 

November Hill pollinator gardens, 2, or, we went a little wild at the plant sale

I had a list taken from the North Carolina Botanical Garden's sales list and went for the members-only pre-sale. It was PACKED. There were 12 plants on my list and we got all but one, but of course we all three spied things we just had to have, so in the end we rolled two large garden carts to the check-out. It was sort of crazy and sort of exciting.

The first thing I went for was my new favorite plant: spotted horse mint, or monarda punctata.

It is so pretty and I haven't found it anywhere but on the listing for this annual sale. I located the sign and there were only two pots left! I grabbed them, found a staffer, and asked if there were more. They checked and said they were sorry but that was it.

I was sad but moved on to the gazillion other choices they had. Later, a few minutes before we finished perusing, I happened to walk by the table where the spotted horse-mint had been and there were, miraculously, three more! I snapped them up and added them to my cart. 

We came home with a Subaru and an Element full of plants. Guess what we'll be doing this weekend? 

November Hill pollinator gardens, 1

I think it's safe to start this now that I've actually got 6 new plants in the ground and a Subaru hatch full of more to go in tomorrow!

This is what I have so far, and I'm using common names because they are just easier to type in:

For spring bloom:

Wild blue indigo
Purple coneflower
Orange coneflower
Wild bergamot
Stoke's aster

For summer bloom:

Butterfly weed
Pink swamp milkweed
Great blue lobelia
Button bush
Thread-leaf blue star

For fall bloom:

October skies aster
Raydon's favorite aster
Boneset/Joe Pye weed
Old field sedge

And this is where they are going:

Most of them, anyway. The other side is about 3/4 done, just in time for my shopping trip to the North Carolina Botanical Gardens' members' sale tomorrow evening. My goal was to get 3-5 different plants for each of the three blooming seasons so I can keep some bees, butterflies, and other pollinators happy, and so I can enjoy not only a blooming garden but a busy one.

We're fortunate that one of our county extension agents, Debi Roos, is an expert in pollinator plants and between her presentation in bee school last winter, her pollinator workshop last weekend, and her demonstration garden locally, I have tons of information available to help me along the way.

Another wonderful thing about the above photo is that we expanded that upper tier all the way to the fence and barnyard gate, eliminating lawn and the need for mowing and weedeating in there. We've done the same with the other bed and it's going to be so much nicer to have fun things growing and blooming than the grass and fire ant mounds!

I can't wait until spring!

The donkeys are running, fall is in the air!

November Hill farm journal, 38

I'm happy to be home and was outside most of the day yesterday working and tracking the march to autumn, which feels like a very slow march right now as our temps remain in the 80s with a couple of days hitting 90.

The dogwoods are loaded with red berries and their leaves are shifting to fall color. Most of the deciduous trees are starting to drop some leaves; I'm taking advantage of the mower as I spread stall waste to do some chopping and blowing of leaves at the same time.

It's extremely dry right now and any mowing sends up clouds of red clay dust, so after a couple of short passes yesterday I decided to stop.

We got a new load of hay in last week and our farm helper cleaned out the hay tent and emptied the hay stall, cleaning it down to the mats. We usually take the pallets from hay storage out to the big barnyard and dump all the hay debris, some of which is seeds, and end up overseeding the grass that way. He did that for us too, and it was a joy to see.

The fenceline is now clear about 2/3 of the way around our property. The contractor and I have been texting back and forth nailing down the final details for fencing and gates. I'm relieved but not surprised to hear that he, a horseman himself, will be removing old fencing as he goes so that at the end of the day the horses can safely go into any area of the property. There won't be a day when any part of the fence is left open.

Yesterday I took a walk to the back area of the farm, which was Friday's "office" for our farm helper. He did a stunning job clearing what will be the new back fenceline and also cleared out years of brush and fallen limbs, including one huge tree that took a hit last year during a storm. He has neatly cut that into firewood and stacked/secured it for us. That section has never been so clear and tidy. I've enjoyed the wild look back there and enjoyed my various incarnations - the woodland path, the labyrinth - but right now it's a great time to get it cleaned up so we can get the fencing in and then decide what to do with it.

It's easy right now to see where my long-time plan for a writing studio/guest cottage would go!

Down at the edge of the forest in the open area the entire stretch as far as the eye can see to the right and left is a goldenrod haven. Honey bees are getting in their last big pollen run and I stayed down there awhile just watching them work. I'm happy to know that next year my bees will have those flowers to forage.

Which reminds me - I put in two kinds of milkweed on Thursday morning before I headed to Porches. The Saturday before last I attended a pollinator garden workshop and we all got six plants at the end. These are the first official members of my own pollinator garden. The mulch arrived yesterday to top off the newly-expanded beds that flank the garage, gate to the barnyard, and the front porch area, plus some to create a bed outside the gate by the mailbox.

I have a list of more pollinator plants to get at one of our local native plant nurseries and will be working on that later this week.

It was so nice seeing the back area clear - daughter and I took the Corgis back there yesterday evening for a walk. We had a hard time coming back through the barnyard as Keil Bay and Cody wanted to visit with us and with the dogs. Soon enough we'll be working on getting the Corgis used to being out on the larger part of the farm while respecting the space of the horses and donkeys. They have regular meet and greets through the fences and gates but these two dogs have never been allowed to run loose out there. We'll start with some dog runs while the equines are in stalls eating but I hope the transition goes smoothly enough that the Corgis can be out without any stress on either side.

In other farm news we bought the propane tank that's been sitting on our property since the house was built and will be able to shop for the best propane price and have it delivered as we need it. There was some initial difficulty with the propane company about having to have our gate code, but this was negotiated and I happily opened the gate for the delivery yesterday.

Today is a gray day though no rain is forecast. It would be nice to get some but the gray sky is a nice break from bright sun and blue sky!