Winter farm activity

January 21, 2010

I always get so many nice comments when I take you on a tour of the farm. Being winter, there has been only minimal activity, but there is still so much to discover and observe. After having a lengthy stretch of brutally cold temperatures, it's actually been rather pleasant to be outdoors and Shaun and his crew have been busy sprucing up the farm. Gardens have been cleaned up and mulched and winter pruning is taking place. Please enjoy these photos of my farm in winter.

: Pete Sherpa is busy dressing the beds with mulch from my own mulch piles.

: Although the days are growing longer, the sun is still quite low on the horizon and is still making shadows very long. This is a freshly mulched perennial bed.

: The warmer temperatures have allowed the grounds crew to neaten up much of the farm. This is the tenant house.

: The herbaceous peony beds are resting nicely.

: A crew from SavATree has been pruning all of the fruit trees. Here they are working on some of the ancient apple trees.

: Dan explained that they are removing the vigorous upper growth to encourage productive horizontal growth.

: All of the pruned branches will be chipped and added to the compost pile.

: I’ve been using SavATree http://www.savatree.com/ for many years.

: This is a fuzzy magnolia bud swelling for spring.

: The magnolia grove has gotten so tall.

: These are paulownia buds, which become spectacular lush, lavender blossoms in the spring.

: I am fascinated by the rapid growth rate of paulownia trees – they grow about 10 feet a season!

: The allee of linden has grown so much.

: I came across Betsy walking with this horse shoe that Rutger threw the other day. It took awhile, but she found it!

: This is a special winter show that has studs for extra traction.

: In the grove, I found the glowing bark of Acer palmatum ‘Osakazuki’.

: This Japanese maple, Acer palmatum ‘Tamukeyama’. is still holding on to some leaves.

: The new Japanese maple grove looks neat and tidy.

: Another glowing palmatum – ‘Sangu-kaku’

: I just love the papery bark of River Birches.

: Their cinnamon-colored, exfoliating bark is spectacular in the winter.

: Last spring, my lilac grove wasn’t doing very well so we decided to surround it with a burlap wind break.

: So far, things look pretty good with the lilac growth.

: In the chicken yard, this handsome and energetic rooster is pursuing one of the hens.

: Remember the frozen Brussels sprouts in the vegetable garden? The chickens love them!

: This is a hoof boot that Betsy put on Rutger until the farrier was able to replace his missing shoe.

: Looking through the allee of pin oaks towards the equipment barn

: This is a grove of beech trees.

: Their leaves are still holding on tight!

: A beautiful camelia shrub is blooming beside the citrus.

: Inside the cold house we’ve planted beds of spinach, cilantro, chervil, celery, carrot, Swiss chard, bunching onions, and leaf lettuce.

: Part of the cold house is used to store my citrus trees for the winter. Here is a very large lemon.

: And this odd-looking citrus is called a Buddha’s Hand or Fingered Citron.

: The honey bee hives have been wrapped and and are protected from freezing winds with a wall of hay bales. I hope the colonies are strong and healthy in the spring.