the annual mating game

 Spring!

A much-need rain turned torrential.

The birds tried to keep dry under the shelter of newly-leafed branches....

...but my outdoor seedlings took a pounding and had to be repotted.

The warming temperatures have brought out the lovebirds!  These two earthworms are makin' babies!

Have you ever wondered what that pink band on earthworm bodies is for?  It actually moves during reproduction, producing mucus.  The worm's eggs stick to the mucus and then passes them over the seminal receptacle of the male, thereby fertilizing the eggs.  

These two cabbage white butterflies caught my eye with their fluttering mating dance.

Male cabbage butterflies inject a hard packet of sperm, which makes up 13% of their body weight (for comparison, this is equivalent to a 5-gallon bucket for a human).  The hard packet helpfully contains nutrients that the female butterfly uses for nourishment.  Clever!

Todd and I disturbed this (nesting?) pair of geese on the back pond.  

I miss our South Carolina "goz" so hopefully we'll see babies later this spring!

There are nesting bluebirds along the fence line...

We've seen turtles peeking out of both the back and the front ponds...

...looking for mates?

We're planning a spring garden expansion.  Here's a big delivery of compost...

...and I've been hurrying to get hardy annuals into the ground as weather permits.

It's nice to enjoy the plants that don't take these exertions...the perennials that faithfully return every year.  

We're loving the redbuds coming on and all of the green that's suddenly (and delightfully) crowding our senses.  Hooray for spring!

spring ephemeral sprawl

We took a hike on Easter morning and I was so excited to see the spring ephemerals out!  As the name suggests, they're the woodland flowers that bloom for a few weeks and then disappear.  

Bloodroot is one of my favorites.  They wear their leaves like little green cloaks before opening up.

Lots of Spring Beauties...

Duchmen's Breeches...

Young May Apples!!

The forest floor was absolutely carpeted with Yellow Trout Lily leaves.  Millions and millions!  Only a few were blooming...I think it's going to be amazing there within a week!

I also saw wild Wood Phlox, Rue Anemone, and big swatches of Columbine leaves...and the first pollinators of the season!

So nice to walk around the lake...

...see the budding trees...

...and a little wildlife!

(opossum tracks)

I've been seeing a bit of activity at home, too.  Several large coyotes have been loping around the barnyard some mornings.

They look very well-fed!  Claudia definitely stays close after she catches their scent.

It's a beautiful time of year to walk around the property.  Red-winged Blackbirds are nesting in the front pond...

...while others are keeping an eye toward our porch rafters as a potential nesting spot.

The field grass is growing quickly, and Todd is mowing down the taller bits before the early summer bush-hogging.

As quickly as I can, I'm getting seedlings, like these iceland poppies, planted in the garden.

This backfired on me last week, when we had a string of unseasonably cold days, with one night down to 20 degrees!  This caused an extraordinary amount of work for us.  I had to go around covering flowering bulbs and tender sprouts in the front garden...

...while Todd pounded stakes down the middle of our planted row.  Over the stakes went the frost cloth, very difficult to secure against the fence side, and then whatever bedding/towels/tablecloths that I could spare from the house to doubly insulate.

This whole mess had to be peeled back during the day, so that the seedlings could get some light.  I grumbled the whole time, but it worked - although some seedlings had frost damage to the outer tips of their leaves.  Lesson learned:  even if a seedling is frost hardy, no setting them out if there's even a chance of a freeze within a 10-day period...i.e., probably wait until April.  

Fingers crossed that we're now onto a mild, comfortable spring.  

Have a great week!

winter gloves and garden loves

It was nearly 80 degrees on Friday, so I rushed out to get some of my seedlings in the ground.  They can tolerate a little bit of cold, but in spring, I can't.  I adore winter until early March, and then I can only think about warmth.  Todd laughed at me yesterday in my thick winter coat, wool hat and gloves, but that 45 degrees feels like 45 below after I'm winter-finished.

I wasn't the only one who was appreciating the warmer weather.  This garter snake was enjoying the sun, too.

While I was working in the garden, he slid in and out from beneath the brown paper strip I was using for weed suppression, finally settling into a coil at the edge of the bed.

Although I had to be careful not to put my hand on him while I was digging holes nearby, I'm not afraid of garter snakes and am glad that he's going to be working near my garden this spring!

I had to walk carefully when I was moving my trays of seedlings, because we have a resident Fowler's Toad.

Sometimes he's in the gravel by the barn, and sometimes he's barely visible, snuggled into a tuft of grass nearby.  They've got a great call that's been called sheep-like by some.

I'm glad to have these 2 natural sources of pest control nearby!

We've got a few crayfish towers (or, as we called them when I was growing up, crawdad holes) in the yard.

Although the dried towers can cause trouble for lawn mowers, having crayfish around is also beneficial!  They help to move nutrients and oxygen deep into the ground...help with water runoff...and abandoned holes provide a protective place for other little creatures.  I like thinking about their little feelers quivering out of the tower's top at night as they climb to the surface to forage for food. These towers can be flattened for mowing.  No worries, the crayfish will just build it up again.  :)  

The warm weather brought out the ground bees, too.  They swarmed everywhere, exploring and mating.  They, too, are completely harmless.  Males can't sting and females almost never do, and they're wonderful pollinators!  

Our other resident farm worker, Claudia, was out in the sunshine with me.  We've noticed that as she's becoming more...Rubenesque...by our heavy feeding, she's brought in a lot less voles.   :)

I got these seedings in the ground just in time...the roots are fine now, but on the verge of being a little too thick on the bottom (i.e. root bound).  

I've got close to 110 plants (Bachelor Buttons, Cress, and Snapdragons) planted in the first row, and I'm not done yet!  They are remarkably hardy.  With our weather fluctuations, the trays have sat outside in chilly temperatures, rain, and wind.  Still, I covered the row last night, with temperatures at or just below freezing in the forecast.  I'm gnashing my teeth, too, looking ahead to the midweek - dipping down to 24 one night!  That means cover for EVERYTHING, which is a huge pain.  But, as Todd joked yesterday as I was grumbling and strapping on my winter gear to move the seedlings yet again, "You chose this life."  

Yeah, yeah!  The work is made easier by all of the little garden companions and others, like this Brown Thrasher singing lustily in a nearby tree while I planted.

Easier, too, when I have a front row seat for spring progress.  I love seeing the apple tree budding out!

My back perennial garden, too, is putting on color.  Eeek, I've got to thin some of this out in the next couple of weeks!

With spring mornings like this, I don't even mind going out in the early chill to turn on the plant grow lights in the barn.

Here's hoping (unlikely as it might be) that this week's deep frost is our last.  I'm ready to make some real progress outside.

Have a great week!