Flower Gardens

This year, we planted a cutting garden with the hopes of providing plenty of flowers for the inn. Despite the excessive rain this year, the garden did well. And it even managed to survive the first frost, so we had flowers from June through the end of October. Even a few in November...

... zinnias, nasturtium, & alyssum ...... sunflowers (Keeping the bees happy) ...... cosmos & salvia ...... lisianthus, ageratum & rudbeckia ...... cleomi & huge sunflowers ...And in October, while harvesting the pumpkins, we cut some of the Kong Sunflower heads to collect seed for birds!

Fall in the Gardens

The arrival of fall marks many changes in the gardens. Pumpkins, gourds, and flowers are harvested for decoration, inlcuding goldenrod from out new meadows. The last of the kitchen crops are picked before the first frost, just in time for soups and stews.With the harvest complete, there is still time for planting before the ground freezes. New blueberry beds are dug and planted. Twelve evergreen trees are also planted; that's almost 50 trees in the past two years.

Creating Meadows

One of our green initiatives has been to convert areas of maintained lawns into meadows.Meadows improve water quality, prevent soil erosion, provide wildlife habitat, and decrease fuel consumption from less frequent mowing... ... not to mention, they can make for some beautiful scenery.

Flowers!

The summer sun has finally come around and stayed. With it came the summer flowers. The first substantial cutting made for our first home-grown table arrangements.The first collection of nasturtium, an edible flower, made its way to the kitchen, and then to the table on plates.And the vegetable garden seems to be kicking in, yielding zucchini, beans, and the beginning of the tomatoes. The blueberry bushes and raspberry canes are also putting plenty forth.Lastly, the herb garden (and over-flow garden) has been supplementing the kitchens needs.

Wet weather & the vegetable garden

After a particularly rainy early spring, the weather pattern continued. For parts of the vegetable garden, the rain certainly helped. Plus we didn't have to water the gardens once! The peas grew to over 8 feet high. You almost needed a ladder to pick them. Plenty of them and daily. The swiss chard flourished.

The rain, as it was excessive, did some damage. While we managed to save a few, many of our root vegetables essentially drowned. These turnips were ready for pulling. We still managed a springtime basket of plenty! Turnips, potatoes, peas, radishes, chiggia beets, swiss chard, onions & nasturtium (edible flowers)! Blueberries arrived as the sun finally managed to peak through the clouds. And the champagne pink currants are also finally starting to color. In the background, chamomile and and ladybugs lend their help. Lady bugs eat the aphids that eat anything green while chamomile attracts beneficial insects. (Some even say that it has fungicidal properties!)

With all the growth and new life comes and end too. An old pine was felled, but instead of it laying to waste, we had the lumber milled up to be used in future projects!

Spring has sprung.

With spring comes the flowering of our lovely old Weeping Cherry tree. This year, however, includes new additions. The young apple trees were an early addition, bringing simple white blossoms to the fields.Our established blueberry bushes set forth with gusto, preparing for hundreds of little berries with hundreds of little white, bell-shaped flowers.But with spring comes plenty of work (hence the delay in this post). New beds were dug in preparation for endless vegetables for the kitchen just as our asparagus came peeping through the mulch.New beds were also dug for grape vines so we could expand our vineyard. Black plastic mulch was laid to discourage weeds and eliminate the need to spray herbicides. The plastic mulch also warms the soil which heat loving grapes enjoy.As of late spring, the plants looked healthy and full of promise. And a bird has even moved into one of our gourd houses, where he has taken up watching over the orchard, preying on nuisance bugs. And the peas are happily creeping up, up and up.

Little Things

While some efforts to "go Green" can be big undertakings, its important to think of the little things that can be done. They add up!
When replacing the field stone barn floor, we were careful pulling up the old boards.

Nails removed and trimmed up, the old materials will be used for other projects.
The brick courtyard was re-laid using the old bricks, mixing in new ones to replace only the crumbled bricks. Not to mention, the old bricks helps to maintain the rustic charm of the space. Last year's gourds used for fall decorating were left to dry out. We cleaned them up and made them into bird-houses.They will hopefully attract & house birds that eat bugs in our vegetable garden.Don't forget, little things often grow into big things! We've started seeds and seedlings have emerged!With a planting schedule several month long, there will be plenty of vegetables, herbs & flowers for the kitchen.

Maple Sugarin'

Another winter project this year was tapping the sugar maple trees with the hopes of fresh, home-made maple syrup. So far, we have tapped 9 trees in various locations around the property.Two behind the dining room of the inn.

One just off the driveway.Two by the pond.One outside the workshop & garage.One in the woods.And one just south of the vegetable plot.

So far, they have yeilded approximately 36 gallons of maple sap. The sap is then boiled down...

...and filtered - voila maple syrup!However, the sap to syrup ratio is 50:1, which means we should get over a half gallon.
Our first batch came out a beautiful color, about 1.35 liters in all.We added this to our pantry of preserved fruits from earlier in the season, which includes pear jam, ginger pear jam, grape jelly, hardy kiwi jam, and even a small batch of wine! Everything was made from fruit grown on the property.