When we moved out here to take care of the farm for my mother, one of the things we knew is that this first year would be a year of discovery.  With the yard in particular, I wanted to get an idea of what was growing where.  Sure, my mother could fill in a few details, but she hasn’t lived here in a few years, and isn’t going to remember everything.

As summer progresses, and things come to bloom in their seasons, I am making more and more of these discoveries.

This is at the base of one of the dead spruce trees I’d pulled a whole triffid of vines out of, not long ago.  When I was going around here with the weed trimmer, I avoided this area, partly because I could tell it wasn’t just a whole lot of overgrown crab grass and weeds, partly because I wasn’t sure what was hidden in it.  I’m glad I left it. :-)

The main garden area is completely overgrown right now, much to my mother’s dismay, but I did try to explain to her that I wanted to see what was there.

In the middle of some tall grass and burdock that I’d pulled, there is this splash of colour.  There is another next to it that’s more white than pink.  Just the two of them, in a sea of grass!

I will see about transplanting these somewhere, to salvage them, later on.

There were a couple of areas with a lot of thistles that I pulled when they were larger (easier to pull), but I didn’t get all of them.  There is another type of thistle, with fewer but larger leaves and spines, that grows much larger flower heads.

The bees and butterflies love them.

There’s only a couple of these big thistles.  I will leave them for the insects and pull them out just before they go to seed.

There were many more random flowers and raspberries (I picked almost 2 cups of raspberries while taking these photos – far more than I expected to get out of them!) growing in between the trees in the maple grove, including in areas where I’d already used the weed trimmer.

The girls and I have been talking about what we’d like to do, and it turned out we’re all on the same page.  When things are cleaned and cleared out, we want to plant, in some areas, a variety of wildflowers and bulbs that will naturally spread.  The rows of trees are not the same distance apart, so I’m thinking of keeping the widest area clear, and planting between the rows that are closer together.  If we’re careful about what we select, we can encourage them in these areas to not only make it look pretty, but to reduce maintenance.  No grass to mow or weeds to trim.  We’ll just have to make sure there is plenty of grassy areas, too (or maybe moss) to walk in.  Plus, I’d like my husband to be able to enjoy the space, too, and not have to worry about getting stung, since he’s allergic to stings.

Finding that balance, and thinking years into the future, will be the key in deciding what we do.  We don’t want to be in the same situation, years down the road, that we are in now with the spirea and the vines!

Until then, we’ll just enjoy the blooms as we find them!

The Re-Farmer