Notes From Zone 4

I pruned the ornamental crabs and gave the branches to the sheep. They nibbled a little, but weren’t really interested. Checked the hives. Mine buzzed audibly and I saw one flying bee. No sound from Lisa’s. Many dead bees in the feeder, none moving. Took the feeder off to bring in and clean. Saw a

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We have wild turkeys in the yard all the time. It’s almost normal. But today, Frank spotted them in the crab apple trees. At first, because of the way they were positioned, it looked like they were in the dogwood trees, but really, they are in the crab apple trees behind the dogwood, happily eating the crab apples. I knew crap apple trees attracted birds, but I didn’t know it would attract wild turkeys. It was hard to believe that those little ornamental trees could support such big birds. Who knew?

Fall is officially here. The air is decidedly nippy tonight. I thought we might actually be in for the first freeze of the year, but I guess my blood just hasn’t thickened up yet. But so many of the fall plants are out in full force in the garden. The burning bushes are almost at

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It was a memorable Memorial Day weekend, if only because it was so nice. I stayed outside on Saturday as much as physically possible, considering we went to the town plant swap, where I did great. I got tons of stuff that will grow here, yay, and had time to get it all in. We’re panicking a bit because there’s still so much to do before the garden tour. I’m making a list of stuff that must be done, and we are slowing working our way down it. It mostly involves weeding, spreading mulch, dividing and transplanting, but all on an abbreviated schedule because of the hard limit of the garden tour itself. It doesn’t sound like much, but when I’m out there looking at what’s left to be done, it can be a bit overwhelming.

It is so pretty outside today, and quite warm. I wandered around out there around lunch time, taking pictures. I think we might be finally over winter, with our last freeze last night. Time to start hauling up the window boxes for the deck edge, I think. The apple blossoms are just starting and don’t look like they got too damaged from the hard freezes or the snow. Here’s that rock that Frank fought with so mightily. It’s a huge thing, and most of it had been buried. Our mechanic came over with his back hoe and got it out, without ruining all the plants I’d already put in the bed, for which I am very grateful.

The fish are getting more comfortable, and chowing down on bugs. I hope they figure out what the food is soon though. I doubt they’re getting enough bugs to grow. I could see about 10 of them, more than yesterday’s 6, so maybe they’re all OK. I also planted an Italian honeysuckle that Lisa got

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It’s so beautiful in the garden these days. The temps are in the low 60s, and it’s been really sunny, big blue skies. We need rain in the worst way, and we’ve had a couple of passing thunderstorms in the last couple of days, but we need a real soaking. Princess is really enjoying the

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One of the things on this side of the house that we want to save is an old cellar hole. There was a house and barn on this property long before we owned it, probably abandoned a hundred years ago or so. The house existed on the Marlow tax map in 1860. One of the

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