November Hill farm journal, 99

Time for a farm post. It’s 57 degrees here right now! I’m sitting on the sofa with the front door open, wearing leggings, a long sleeved shirt, and shivering. This has been a gorgeous spring in spite of all that’s going on in the world. It’s my favorite kind of weather. Warm enough not to need a coat outside but cool enough that even heavy chores don’t get me sweating.

Last weekend we did some work in the apiary. We inspected Echo hive. When we took the top off there were many bees, and when we removed a frame from the upper box, we could see that they have been very busy filling the drawn comb we provided them with uncapped honey. However, one of the possibly controversial things I did was to put a frame with a large piece of drawn comb that fell out of its frame into this new hive - I rubber-banded the comb into a foundationless frame. It was gorgeous new comb and I knew it would give this nuc a big head start. My idea was they would add to the comb and secure it into the frame and then eventually chew the rubber bands off and drag them out of the hive. Well - they chewed the rubber bands FIRST and so the entire comb (filled with honey now!) fell to the side and into the space of the adjacent foundationless frame.

Our inspection ended up being fixing this issue and took some maneuvering, so we opted not to go into the lower box at all. What we saw was enough (in my opinion) - many healthy bees, no signs of pests or disease, and a second box filling from the inside out with nectar and uncapped honey. For a nuc installed on March 30, this was great. Wouldn’t have happened without a laying queen and plenty of worker bees maturing to do all this work.

We closed up the hive and sat to monitor them for a bit. The downside of inspections is that they really do impact the activity of the hive. Before we opened the hive, bees were coming and going like a busy 8-lane highway at peak traffic time, but after, the activity slowed to single digit numbers of bees going in and out. This is why I aim to do minimal inspections. They remained at low activity the rest of the day.

We’ve now moved Artemis hive to its new location, where it is ready and waiting for the nuc to come later this month. Echo is the teal hive, Artemis is fuchsia.

We have also set up the third hive, still unnamed, in my potager, and it’s beautiful! But I forgot to take a photo of it so will do that soon and share it in my next farm journal.

While the lettuces and other greens continue to be munched on, they grow back quickly. The yellow squashes, the cucumbers, the tomatoes and basil, are all being left alone. We now have many squash blossoms and cucumbers are starting to tendril and bloom as well.

In other news, I’m starting to work on the renovation project inside our guest house camper Delphine. I removed all the curtains and valences and removed a protruding drop-down desk top. Next I’ll be shortening the bench on the front of the dining booth before removing the booth altogether to create a more streamlined “breakfast bar” eating and work space that runs length-wise along the front window. This will open things up quite a bit. This is an ongoing project to turn this into a cottage-like space we can use for guests and I can use for writing.

You can see how light and bright this space is now - once I get some light curtains I’ll remove the mini blinds as well. There will be more changes coming but my priorities are light, space, and new mattress.

Further along will be new wallpaper and painted cabinetry, plus new sofa fabric.

Otherwise, the farm is green, nearly buttercup free, and this cool weather is allowing me to continue putting out grass seed in the front pasture. I’m doing it in sections and it should help with some areas that needed overseeding.

At the end of busy days, Clem and I enjoy an episode of Chef’s Table.

Speaking of cooking, if you’ve never used fennel fronds to make pesto, or baked fennel bulbs with Parmesan, oh my gosh, google a recipe and do it now. Best meal of the season by far at this point - but with new CSA boxes coming every week, who knows what is yet to come?

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 42: Eastern silvery aster

These are in my newer shady bed, planted last fall. I put in three plants, behind the nodding onions, and my hope is to intermingle some native ferns either by letting them volunteer in, or transplanting some from other places on November Hill.

They are unusual and interesting - tall and skinny with many flowers when in bloom.

More info:

Plant Details

Symphyotrichum concolor var. concolor [= Aster concolor]

Eastern Silvery Aster

Scientific Name:	Symphyotrichum concolor var. concolor [= Aster concolor]
Genus:	Symphyotrichum
Species Epithet:	concolor var. concolor
Common Name:	Eastern Silvery Aster
Plant Type	Herb/Wildflower
Life Cycle	Perennial
Plant Family	Asteraceae (Aster Family)
Native/Alien:	NC Native
Size:	1-3 ft.
Bloom Color(s):	Pink, Purple
Light:	Sun - 6 or more hours of sun per day, Part Shade - 2 to 6 hours of sun per day
Soil Moisture:	Moist
Bloom Time:	September, October
Growing Area:	Mountains, Piedmont, Sandhills, Coastal Plain
Habitat Description:	Sandhills, Piedmont woodlands, forest edges, roadbanks. Rare in NC Mountains, common in Piedmont and Coastal Plain.
Leaf Arrangement:	Alternate
Leaf Retention:	Deciduous
Leaf Type:	Leaves veined, not needle-like or scale-like
Leaf Form:	Simple
Life Cycle:	Perennial
Wildlife Value:	Important for Wildlife
Landscape Value:	Recommended and Available
Notes:	Symphyotrichum concolor var. concolor is the only variety of this species in NC (per Weakley 2015).
Blooms Sandhills Game Land, Millstone Creek Natural Area, October 2004  Kathy Schlosser
Links:

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 41: narrow leaf evening primrose plus a few flowering updates

NOTE: I confirmed this with out wonderful county extension agent, Debbie Roos. It is definitely narrow leaf evening primrose. Happy to have her as a resource. She’s the queen of pollinator gardens!

This came up early in April and has been a mystery to me. I don’t remember planting it, can’t find any notes about it, but where it is and the way it’s come up can’t be a volunteer planting. It has red stems, which seems unusual and really, I do NOT remember planting anything like that last fall. I have waited until it bloomed to see if that helped me identify it. Here it is.

It’s lovely! I suspect it is the fireworks variety of narrow leaf evening primrose, but I can’t say this for certain. If anyone knows, please let me know! I always put the plant tags in the ground with the plants but I can’t find one here. Did I get it at NC Botanical Garden? The farmers’ market on plant day when the local native plant nurseries bring plants? I really have no idea.

I’ve done a little digging and will nail this down but for now I’m calling it a day. :)

A few flowering updates.

I know it’s hard to see in this full sun photo, but the third baptisia is blooming now in the midst of the golden Alexanders. 

And the yellow pitcher plants are really coming in now.

Happy to see the garden rolling along as we move into May!

More info on narrow leaf evening primrose:

Oenothera fruticosa 

Common Name(s):

• Narrow-leaf Evening Primrose
• Southern Sundrops
• Sundrops

Phonetic Spelling

oh-no-THER-ah froo-tih-KOH-sah

Description

Sundrops is a native, perennial, erect, day-flowering member of the evening primrose family. It is native to all parts of North Carolina except the high mountains, where although it is striking when seen along roadsides and in meadows, it never achieves the beauty possible under cultivation. It is also found in dry forests, glades, and rock outcrops. 

Sundrops prefers moderately fertile, dry, well-drained soil in full sun but will tolerate some shade. Good winter drainage is essential. It can spread quickly in ideal situations but isn't terribly aggressive. The yellow flowers are short-lived but they occur in a succession over a long period. In the south, the rosettes will be purplish-green throughout the winter.

Use this plant in hot dry places as wild gardens, rock gardens, erosion control on banks, meadows, native plant areas or cottage gardens. This plant was named the 1989 NC Wildflower of the Year. Var. microcarpa can be found in boggy depressions. Var unguilata is found in sandhills and moist/wet savannas.

Insects, Diseases, and Other Plant Problems: No serious insect or disease problems. 

Cultivars / Varieties:

• ‘African Sun’
  Rounded compact habit
• ‘Cold Crick’
  More compact
• 'Fireworks'
  Bronze foliage, red stems and buds, yellow flowers

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 40: American beautyberry

Since I pointed it out in the last featured plant post, I’ll go ahead and feature the American beautyberry today. It’s a striking plant when the berries form! I read today that the foliage is loved by whitetail deer, so keep that in mind if you plant it. Our beautyberry is inside our fenced farm, and since we put up the 3-board with woven wire fencing, the deer are no longer coming onto the main area of the farm. Some days I miss them, but they are still in Arcadia and move daily along our fence lines, so still very much present.

Right now the beautyberry is blending in with its neighbor, the buttonbush, but once it comes out all the way and especially when both are blooming, the difference is very clear. The berries the beautyberry forms are an extravagant deep fuchsia that really pops in the garden.

Leander, Bruce 

Callicarpa americana

Callicarpa americana L.

American Beautyberry , French Mulberry

Verbenaceae (Verbena Family)

Synonym(s): Callicarpa americana var. lactea

USDA Symbol: caam2

USDA Native Status: L48 (N)

American beauty-berry most often grows 3-5 ft. tall and usually just as wide, It can reach 9 ft. in height in favorable soil and moisture conditions. It has long, arching branches and yellow-green fall foliage, but its most striking feature is the clusters of glossy, iridescent-purple fruit (sometimes white) which hug the branches at leaf axils in the fall and winter. Bark light brown on the older wood, reddish brown on younger wood. Bark smooth, with elongate, raised corky areas (lenticels); twigs round to 4 sided, covered with branched hairs visible under a l0x hand lens. Leaves in pairs or in threes, blades half as wide as long and up to 9 inches long, ovate to elliptic, pointed or blunt at the tip and tapered to the base; margins coarsely toothed except toward the base and near the tip, teeth pointed or rounded; lower surface of young leaves covered with branched hairs. Flowers small, pink, in dense clusters at the bases of the leaves, clusters usually not exceeding the leaf petioles. Fruit distinctly colored, rose pink or lavender pink, berrylike, about 1/4 inch long and 3/16 inch wide, in showy clusters, persisting after the leaves have fallen. 

The seeds and berries are important foods for many species of birds, particularly the Northern Bobwhite. Foliage is a favorite of White-tailed Deer.

November Hill farm journal, 98

Time for a whole farm update. We had a huge rain this week and everything is growing like mad as a result. The grass in the backyard is close to 2 feet tall! Unfortunately when we created the cat-safe fencing, we made it impossible to let the equines in, which we used to do instead of proper mowing. They loved it. One day we’ll fix the gates so they can come in again, but for now, the mower is going to come in and tame the jungle.

The mower! It came home from getting a new starter and already mowed the buttercup patches in the big barnyard. Today I’m taking it to the patch in the back pasture, and then I desperately need to harrow the arena.

That will still leave the front pasture and Salina’s Paddock with their buttercup patches, but we’ll get to it probably tomorrow.

We also need to open up Echo hive and see how much room they have and if they need a super with empty frames on top.

The pieces of hive #3 arrived this week and I have to make the final decision where to place both Artemis hive and this new yet unnamed one. I’ve decided to move Artemis due to dampness in its vicinity after large rainfall. We’re still pondering putting the new hive in the potager. It will be in closer proximity to us and to the horses, but given what we see down at Arcadia, I don’t think it will be a problem.

In other news, we had a birthday this week. The cake was spectacular! Our local bakery has curbside service and we were able to get this raspberry-lemonade cake home perfectly intact thanks to their method of packaging and prep. That’s a lemur on top!

Yesterday while taking the dogs on a romp, I snapped a few photos of some of the wildflowers growing in our side strip. Years back I sowed a package of wildflower seed. It’s possible they are not all native to NC, but since I do see pollinators foraging them, I’ll leave them for now. They are very pretty and we don’t mow that strip until everything is done blooming.

That’s it for this week on November Hill. I started a remote writing workshop on Thursday that runs for six weeks, called Writing In The Dark, and already have a new mini-essay to show for it. Elephant Rock Retreats is a wonderful resource for serious writers. I can’t say enough good things about Jeannine Ouellette’s teaching. Gift yourself one of her workshops. I promise you won’t regret it!