TROUTS
FARM YARD AND GARDENS
A Labor of Love which
feeds our belly and our need for beauty
July, 2010
ONE
POTATO, TWO POTATO
Jeremy stopped by
and Bob invited him to the garden to harvest potatoes and carrots. When
they were finished, they pulled two buckets of water into the shade and washed
them up. Camille is very happy that Bob takes this extra step before
bringing produce into the kitchen.
TWO OF THE
TREES IN OUR YARD
The poplar in the
front yard with the busy bird feeder dominates Camille’s view from her desk.
The tulip poplar in the back yard shows signs of wear. The many trees on
our 1.88 acres attract all kinds of wildlife. We have sighted thirty-four
species of birds on our property this year.
BUTTERFLY
BUSH
The buddleia next
to the pond to the left of our front porch attracts butterflies as its common
name implies.
HOME SWEET
HOME
Every month we
become more comfortable in our new home and every month we discover new flowers
that were planted by the former owners. From the Pampas Grass, to the Red Hot
Pokers, to Black-eyed Susans, Rose of Sharon, Phlox and Irises, they obviously
loved this place as much as we do. Some day we hope to be able to thank
them for our beautiful landscaping legacy.
SOME
ASSEMBLY REQUIRED
We were very
excited to receive our brand new Hill
rotary clothesline this month. It arrived in a very large box which
dominated our living room while we tugged and pulled at the steel poles to
unload. The plastic bracket that holds the arms together had broken
in shipping, but was promptly replaced by the great folks at Breeze
Dryer.
DIGGING A
HOLE
There was plenty
to be done while we waited for the bracket to ship and Bob got right to
work, digging a hole with Jason’s post hole digger. Next he set the ground socket
in concrete. The main standard of the clothesline sits in the socket.
The arms of the clothesline can be folded up like
an umbrella and the whole unit pulled out. We like having the option of
taking down the clothesline during bad weather or any time we would prefer not
to look
at it.
ANOTHER
FLOWER BED TRANSFORMED
Here’s the bed in weeds – this
picture was taken in April. There are Day Lilies, Red Hot Pokers, a Mimosa
Tree, an interesting rock and a nice clump of Monkey Grass in there along with a
lot of wire grass, pigweed and honeysuckle.
After a couple of
hours spend digging out wire grass, laying down cardboard and shoveling
wheelbarrow loads of soil, Camille has left the tree, the rock, the poker
and the Monkey Grass. While she was weeding, Bob drove to town and brought
home some perennial flowers.
Here’s the
finished bed, all planted, mulched
and watered. We left the Monkey grass on the right and a red hot poker
plant in the back, planted moss rose around the rock, blanket flowers near the
mimosa tree and added some colorful coreopsis. We topped it off with the
deer Mom gave us a few years back.
AT THE END
OF THE DAY
The best part
about our yard and garden is that special time when the sun is going down, the
air has cooled and we’re all done. We’ve showered and eaten and often go
out to the back porch to look at our beautiful yard, swap a few stories and wait
until the fireflies come out.
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