June!

 To finish the sad story from my last post, Blackie was dead by the end of the day, stiff under the coop when I closed up for the night. I pulled her out in the morning and left her for Terry to dispose of. We assume she will enter the food chain directly through vultures and coyotes. Interestingly, egg production has not gone down, and we got another giant blue egg yesterday. I think that Blackie was just at the end of her useful life. Our practice of rotating the layers out every two years is thus validated.

June is, as the song goes, bustin’ out all over. I’m pleased that the blue wild indigo in the butterfly and hummingbird garden is finally taking off this year. The runner that I transferred to the large wildflower garden is still alive, but puny. I am learning to be patient.

Blue wild indigo

Speaking of my wildflower garden, most of it is dandelions. Having gotten most of the vegetable garden planted, I devoted a spare hour last week to dandelion removal. It was highly gratifying, even though I know they will resprout from the roots that go to China. I recite the same mantra I use when I cut the stems off Canada star thistle—if you deprive a plant of its photosynthetic surface long enough, it will die. The difficulty, of course, is keeping up with it and whacking off the tops at the very moment they sprout back. Not happening. Anyway, many of these dandelions had been cut off before and grew back multiple stemmed, giant Medusa-head crowns. It was highly gratifying to cut them off below the soil surface. I often cleared a square foot of ground from a single root. I still have work to do, but I have enough open now to plant some poppy seeds, which was the short-term goal.

Dandelion removal, before (left) and after (right)

The irises are blooming. The picture is bluer than the true deep purple color they have. I thought I had more than one color in this patch, which either is a false memory or the purple has outcompeted the rest.

Iris, which are much purpler in real life

The black locust trees are flowering with huge racemes of fragrant flowers. Hilda loved our little grove of black locusts. She often remarked that it reminded her of a “fort” of trees she played in as a child.

Black locust flowers

The shooting stars in the shade garden north of the tractor shed are in full bloom. I have mentioned how much I love them. I need to thin out some of the other flowers that are infringing on their space. Not sure when there will be time for that.

The entire collection of shooting stars in front of wild geranium

Close up. So pretty.

.Back by the creek, the mayapple leaves are fully extended…

Mayapple leaves

And flowering!

The first flowers I have observed since I planted these 4 (I think) years ago

The developing “apple” can be seen in this photo. Mayapples are, according to Euell Gibbons, not ripe until the fall. I have heard that the apples are poisonous unless fully ripe, although Gibbons only mentions the cathartic and potentially toxic properties of the plant. I have only tasted Mayapple once, and my recollection is that it was earthy in the true sense of “tastes like dirt.” Gibbons goes on and on about a wonderful flavor. Hmm. Perhaps if any fruits are left in September, I might try it again. Or not.

"Apple" developing in the center of the flower

On the wildlife front, a lonely tom turkey struts and gobbles in the middle of the field for no apparent reason. Terry has occasionally seen hens along the edge by the undergrowth. Hopefully we will see some chicks this summer.

Lonesome Tom, with his bald, blue head

The robin fledglings are still around. I caught this one napping on one of the charcoal chimneys under the deck one morning. Pretty cute, hey?

Robin fledgling napping on a charcoal chimney

The chicks will be going outside as soon as I can get the fence up. We were hoping for rain last night to soften the brick-hard soil, but we got skunked again. When I saw the chicks perching on the board the keeps the wood chips from escaping out the door, I put the ladder in. I have only seen a few chicks exploring this new territory, including one meat chicken that went all the way to the top.

Wyandotte chick explores the ladder

For the most part, though, they stay on the make-shift perch I put together on the floor.

Meat chick and Wyandotte on the temporary perch

The gray Americauna continues to develop into a color we have not had before. I think she will be beautiful.

Gray Americauna chick

Even though we didn’t get rain, the temperatures are much cooler and more pleasant today. We still have a good bit of heavy work to get done before the dog days are upon us. We take advantage of the 70-degree days while we can!