Friday, May 18, 2007

Busy time at the gardens!
It seems there are too many things to do and not enough time in the day lately.

Tonight I'm hoping to seed the rest of the herbs and plant a few plants out of the greenhouse. I'm fairly confident in the weather now so the tender stuff should get out of the greenhouse and into the ground. The asters are looking spectacular and the snapdragons too. The lemon verbena arrived in great form the other day and it is crying to get out. If the rain holds off tonight I should be able to get the lions share of all of this done.

The pond needs cleaning and now that we have a new pump that chore should be an easy one. The medieval garden needs revamping as the grass has taken over and we're building a brick entrance to the labyrinth.

Speaking of building, the concrete for the Harvest House is poured and set and the lumber was delivered yesterday. I expect at least preliminary building will start on that this weekend. It will be so nice to have a place to hold classes if the weather goes bad and a place to clean and package herbs inside. I can't wait until it is all finished. We're hoping it is up and looking good way before the Produce Party in September.

The perennials are up and looking good and I can't wait to see some color in the gardens again, we're only about 4 weeks away from that. By July we should look really good.

We're still waiting on the arrival of the still. The shippers tell us it should be here in 7 to 10 days. Not soon enough for Barry who is really anxious to check it out before the herbs are ready for distillation. This is another thing we hope to have all figured out and ready to showcase this fall at the Produce Party.

I hope all of you are out playing in the garden and having a blast. Take Care.
Holly

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Spring is definitely here!
The last couple weeks have been very busy for us. We've had a visit from Amity Moore of AAA Living magazine and Annette Schilling of the ND Division of Tourism. Amity will be writing a piece about ND Learning Based Vacations later this summer and was here to visit all of the wonderful places she'll be writing about. We had a great visit and even joined the pair for supper at the Ranch.

We also had a great time with Nancy Crowfoot and Phil her camera man from Iowa Public Television's series Market to Market. We'll be featured on Market to Market, which airs on Public Television at noon on Saturdays some time within the next month or so. We spent most of the day with them and found them to be truly delightful. Nancy and Phil also interviewed Paul Christensen, our mayor, for added commentary on rural development in Churchs Ferry.

The rains from this last weekend and the heat this week have the rhubarb growing like mad so we'll be on schedule for rhubarb harvest on Memorial Day weekend and the following week just like previous years. We are happy that our son, Adam, will be able to come home and help again. We really appreciate the time he takes off from work to come home and help us out. Besides, it really great to see him.

If the weather keeps up like this, I am hoping to get the seeding and some transplanting done this week. The lemon verbena was shipped from Ottaway yesterday, the hazelnuts should be on their way within a week or so and the seedlings in the greenhouse are screaming to get out. We've already had plenty of visitors, even though the flowers and herbs are not much to see at this time, and Barry is working hard to finish little projects that help to give us a more polished look.

Last night he finished a new highway sign that is visible for those traveling from the north and today he hopes to finish a new bench that will replace my poor example of a grass bench - that never grew - for the George Christianson memorial bench by the pond. He's been mowing like mad and trying desparately to finish plans for the harvest house which we will be building this spring. Concrete company problems and leveling have delayed this process. By now, we were hoping to have the concrete in place and ready for walls but sometimes things don't always go as planned.

To all of our friends - please be sure to plan your calendars around a stop to visit - we enjoy seeing all of you.
Happy Spring!
Holly