Save my Joe Pye weed

It's hard to believe that in two days it will be 13 degrees C. Yet two days later it will be -7 C again. This really is typical I suppose, it just makes things a little challenging. So 13 C is good news because I can get into the hives safely again, and do a more lengthy inspection to check food stores.  And if food stores are insufficient I can add a feeder pail full of syrup. On the other hand, 13 C may make the sheep barn area wreak with ammonia as a whole winter of bedding starts to thaw, and all of a sudden the entire weekend will need to be spent shoveling and tractoring it all out to the compost pile. 

G just bought this book:

It looks pretty good! As if we need any more projects on the list! But all sarcasm aside, there are some fun ideas in there and all very practical.

We each have our own priorities of course, things that improve workflow on the farm, keep us organized, or are simply aesthetic. Therein lies a challenge between farming couples, at least in my experience. Who's project gets priority?

Now that we have a giant cedar deck we are both dreaming of building planters and having even more growing space for things like herbs and other plants that might need a safe place away from marauding chickens.  The cement slab that was the former patio downstairs has a crack in it the entire 15 foot length, and the frost has heaved it up close to a foot.  We will have to figure out a good patio stone solution.  I'd love to find some slate slabs that a contractor might have ordered too many of, and work out a deal.  We see things like this at the farm auctions all the time--household building materials like ceramic tiles and windows especially.  

A few photos from last year:

Jack and Kitten in the medicinal plant tiered planter that G built for me in the front yard.
Those are astragalus and St. John's Wort, and a nice sedum thrown in for bee food and colour in the autumn.

I guess I need a better excluder for next year...

One of our Carniolan bees on the marjoram

I never did get to finish my trellis project in my medicinal plant garden.  We needed to wait for the contractors to fix the rotting logs, and then when they were finished, the painters had to come and sandblast the logs and then paint. This finally happened some time in late August I think. It was a pretty awful experience for me--I had to see most of my precious plants get trampled by workers, or smashed by falling bits of rotten logs. 

G will probably never forget the morning that the workers started, they'd said to tag any really important plants that they should avoid. I had tagged the currants, a few hyssops, my only sedum, but I'd forgotten a new plant that I'd been nursing along all summer. G got up early to meet the workers. Through sleepy stupor I mumbled to him "save my Joe Pye weed...." so he could go our and tag my precious new plant.  Pretty much else was trashed. Who the hell steps on flowers?? Most of my echinaceas and rudbeckias were crushed.  Many of the new plants were important for late season bee food.  I think I pretty much gave up on the garden after that.  It was coming up to tomato harvest time anyway. I guess I'm still holding a grudge.

 I think I can make it look and function very well this year.  It looks like my lavender plants survived, the special ones I bought and started from seed that are ok in zone 4-5.

Look at that towering comfrey! 4-5 feet tall, and amazing ground cover and spots for chooks to hide and forage.  It stays nice and cool under those giant leaves.  Along with elderberry these are some of the most prolific and helpful plants we have here, and I plan to place them all strategically around the property so the chooks have plenty of cover from sun and aerial predators. If I get it right they literally could traverse a large area while staying completely under cover. 

We didn't do much with the grapes, but they sure are pretty. Dill and borage in the photo as well.

It's nice to look back on some colour when currently the fields are brown and starting to drown in meltwater. We can rebuild her! Time for some Vivaldi "Spring" I think.

Here's to renewal, and trying again to get things right.