Last year my friend and I took cuttings of many heirloom roses. She showed me a great method of rooting cuttings. I’ve since tried it with figs and mulberries, too. It works incredibly well and is very easy and low-maintenance (a must around here!). All you need is a plastic ziploc bag and some potting…
Author: toadstoolsfairyrings
Yarn Along
Joining in with Ginny today! Despite the warming weather, it is so nice to have yarn and needles in my hands again! I won’t even talk about all the things that had to be cleared away so I could get this picture – and the baby feet still made it in! (these baby feet wouldn’t…
My Side of the Oak Thicket
We have been reading My Side of the Mountain on the way to and from the farm in the evening. It was a book both Ethan and I enjoyed as kids, and we knew Mirin would absolutely love. After hearing the first few chapters, he became enchanted with the idea of making a house in a tree,…
Nature Photos – Thistles
We’ve had some gorgeous thistles blooming at the farm this year.The flowers look like sea anemones. The goats love eating them. Some of the sow thistle stalks got to be taller than I am. They bite them off at the bottom and crunch them down until they get to the buds. It’s funny to watch. …
{this moment}
Joining in with Soulemama today! {this moment} A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
Summer Gardening Begins
The summer garden has been started! It’s like the first day of school putting the tomato starts out there – all by themselves and exposed to the elements and the harsh, cruel world. I worried about them, but they survived the latest gusty cold front and are putting on some new growth already. The eggplants…
A Birthday Bouquet
Last week as I was looking out of the window while we were driving back from the feed store, I remarked how I couldn’t believe people weren’t out along the roadside gathering gorgeous armfuls of the beautiful spring flowers. The hairy mullein is especially dramatic, sending out twisting flower spires. Unfortunately, I think that most people…
Nature Photo – Paw Paws
The paw paws are blooming now. They have such a striking presence in the pastures. When I was a kid my parents would go to the Ordway-Swisher Preserve for my mom’s Masters research on Opuntia pollination, and the first little way along the road was covered with pawpaws – quite a sight when they were…
Celebrating Easter
Easter is one of my favorite holidays. I love how strongly the old pagan customs are still involved in our lives – and in the Christian churches most of all! It must have been so important, this holiday, that people just refused to give it up. I love the strong fertility symbols that are still…
A Big Kid, Too
Ethan and the big kids like to play a few rounds of baseball in the evenings while I am wrestling milking the goats. It’s the kind of baseball I played as a kid – a random bit of wood as first base, all the bases close together, a tennis ball and not enough players. Someone else…
The Orchard – Is it Finally an Orchard?
When we first began farming, we immediately wanted to plant some fruit trees and blueberry bushes. Ethan had this idea of piping water over to a distant clearing that was covered in prickly ash. We disagreed about this, but I had no better suggestions until I looked up from fencing the garden area and noticed…
Toadstools And Fairy Rings 