Spring Garden, Dog & Butterfly, and Baby Lambs

byTeriRehkopf

928 followers

2 weeks ago

Spring has Sprung in Florida!

We've had a weird Spring here in Florida. It kinda started in mid-February with a 2 week warm front with temps up to the 80s. So, I bought my first tomato plants and planted them. Woops! It got cold again with a freeze. I tried covering the tomatoes with planting cloth, but it got too cold. I thought they died, but they came back and now have fruit!

One plant is a Heirloom, and the other is Cherry tomatoes. I also got a cherry tomato plant that is already growing (hidden behind the second plant). I have garlic chives, parsley, and mint growing. We have wild onions everywhere. I had to cover them with plastic and mulch to deter growth. All support tomato growth by deterring bugs.

I am also making my own compost this year. I have three compost containers that are making beautiful black-gold soil. The metal garbage can has holes for a burn barrel or compost container. This is the first compost container I started in February, using a combo of veg and fruit scraps, leaves, grass, topsoil, and some compost. It's already made black-gold soil to use.

The black container is a two-part compost maker, so you can use one side that's completed its compost while still making more on the other side.

It got warm again into March, as it should, so I kept planting. I planted greens, which like the cold - I actually planted these late, and my mustard greens didn't like the warm weather much. I also planted two kinds of kale, collard greens, carrots, and radishes.

A bit later, I planted potatoes. I had a few potatoes from the local produce stand that had sprouted eyes, so I cut them up and planted them (they are the bushy plants in the header image in the mid-right brown cloth bag). A bit later, I got seed potatoes from the garden shop and planted those (front right bag).

The raised garden beds, pots, and a tall bed all have mint. There is one kind of oregano in the ground and two kinds in another bed. I've had rosemary growing in two falling-apart raised beds for like six or more years.

Guess what? It got cold again yesterday and will dip into the low 50s and upper 40s. We had a big storm with HAIL come through. Tomatoes don't like cold, so I've covered them again, hoping my fruit will be okay. The greens and carrots are happy, as you can see in the header image (yellow container).

Dog & Butterfly

I was walking my pasture with my dog, Emma, and taking pics of her (of course, lol). As I was shooting with my iPhone, a butterfly flew past. I love the song by Heart called Dog & Butterfly, so I sing it when I see this image :)

Baby Lambs!

My neighbor, Chris, rescued two very pregnant lambs in February. One of them had a single black baby within a few weeks. The other mama lamb had two babies, so she didn't have them until early Saturday morning after the hail storm, and the temp dropped to 49.

The momma refused to let one of the babies nurse. Chris and her friend had to hold the mother down so the newborn could nurse to get the much-needed colostrum. She then took the newborn to another friend who would bottle-feed and raise it.

Now, you see what I've been doing this Spring!

Life on farms is great and rewarding!