Sunday, May 23, 2010







Kevin Parris identified this stump cluster of American chestnut saplings four years ago when he came to look at Windmill Hill. We cut all but two back to the ground to allow one of them to take the lead. This spring I noticed that it has some catkins/blooms on it for the first time. I SO hope it will not die of the blight as almost all of the American chestnuts in this country have. The tree is in the "little woods" between Amelia's house and ours. I tried to get a good shot of the catkins in my photograph, but they aren't very prominent.




I will send the leaves to the American Chestnut Foundation this week to confirm the identification. Now that it is old enough to produce nuts, we may be able to help out in the research and development of a resistent American chestnut without any input from Chinese or other chestnut strains.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Shifting gears

Three days of sulky, rainy weather including a big hail storm has finished off the strawberries. I sold the last two pounds yesterday. Now we shift gears to cherries before blueberries and blackberries follow in a few weeks.

10 pounds of Nanking cherries Amelia picked this morning. Each one has a seed that we feel we must spit out. For lunch, we ate a "boil" of new potatoes, sugar snap peas and broccoli with no butter. On the side we had garlic and Hakurei turnips pan fried. For dessert we ate these cherries with sweetened cottage cheese. Dessert was very labor intensive and took us a long time to eat because we had to count the cherries in each bite and take that same number of seeds out of our mouths before we took a new bite. It was just funny!

Yesterday I planted okra and crowder peas under black mesh. Today I planted watermelon, Seminole pumpkins and six kinds of melons and cantaloupe under black mesh....all to keep from having to weed. Last year, the weeds got ahead of me and were out of control. Not again! I also planted edamame and zinnias yesterday. Next will be second corn and 2nd green beans. After that will be fall seedlings in the greenhouse in late July. Hold on to your hat for summer harvesting and weeding.

Sunday, May 16, 2010




Yesterday, we had almost 20 minutes of hail and 2.5 inches of rain. It was a whale of a thunderstorm. The hail tore up many of the leaves and stems of the young vegetable plants. I hope they recover well.
After the storm passed, I went out to assess the damage and cut some flowers to put in a vase, as pictured...larkspurs, cilantro and Gloria's roses.
Also, the lemon thyme is in full bloom. I will mow it down when it is done so we can use the walk again. The bees love it.

Monday, May 3, 2010




Dan brings us this wonderful dirt from Asheville and the garden has benefitted so much.
















































We have a slow, steady rain this morning....much needed in more ways than one. The garden is dry and I am way behind in my indoor duties.




Yesterday we picked a 1/2 bushel of beautiful strawberries. The weather has been dry, but now that the rain and humid air have descended, I know the strawberries will start to mold inside the rows if they don't have air circulation and sunshine. So I went through the bed on my hands and knees picking berries and pulling out plants to accomplish that purpose. I found lots of hidden berries that way too. The freezer is full and I have customers coming to buy the rest. Gave some to Rachel yesterday. Good crop this year, but I need to find a later variety for half the crop and enforce my picking space between the rows.