Sweet Potato Homestead

homestead field guide: summer update

Since my last field guide update in June, my spreadsheet has at least doubled with entries.

newly harvested evening primrose and goldenrod

Plants	81
Fungi	27
Insects	31
Arachnids	5
Mollusks	3
Amphibans	3
Birds	3
Mammals	0*
Other Species	2
Total	155

current count via spreadsheet~

Since most of June was a literal wash, a lot of these new observations sprung up as I got working on the back yard and moving wood piles to and fro.

Plants

Some notable finds around the homestead live in the plants category. Due to a month of rain and a desire to catalog any and all plants that pop up here, wild grasses and others we’re allowed to grow to their heart’s content. Here are some of the many:

Sorghum: a wild grain that has been attracting lovely blue and black birds to the yard. I think some of these will eventually get moved into the mounds out back.
Indian Tobacco: a medicinal find that once I realized what it looked like, it was everywhere! Another one to add to the medicine garden~
Common Lambsquarters: While I’ve been confusing this for its fuzzy namesake, I’ve been happy to find it in abundance within 100ft of the kitchen and will be using it as a wild green.

Fungi

While my favorite of the kingdoms, the majority of these finds were identified at the height of our wet summer and only 3 since then.

Insects

Quite a lot to add in this category, also in part to a wet start to summer I’m sure. Most of these were moths and beetles of shapes and sizes including:

Broad-necked Root Borer: this dude is huge. He was making so much noise in a pile of leaves it sounded like one of the dogs.

Arachnids

Bold Jumping Spider: this app and project has made excited to find new spiders. Mostly the outside ones though the inside ones have been doing a pretty good job at staying where I can’t reach them~

Mollusks

Ugh. With rain bought slugs, which I didn’t mind at first cause I couldn’t get anything in the ground and everything was still on the side deck. Now that I’ve given them new things to eat in a matter of hours, it’s war.

Amphibians

This guys are so dang cute~ 🐸 With all the moths that we’ve been blessed/cursed with lately, we’ve had some broskis come by and take care of them.

Woodhouse’s Toad: this dude has been showing up nearly every night for a month or so now to munch on any and all bugs the side deck has. Thankfully he seems to taste gross to the dogs and steers clear of them during the day so there haven’t been any casualties. A lil pond for him and his friends is now a future project for me~

Birds

Ruby-throated Hummingbird: Finally ID’d it proper and now they get extra squeaky if I don’t refill the feeders on time. Red flowers and vines will need to be a big part of the future gardens cause there seem to be a lot around here.

Mammals

Sort of technically 0 entries but the app has ID’d Mike and Chip as mammals but once I get a deer or something, I’ll start counting.

Other Species

Kind of a weird category since I thought these would have been categorized in the ones above but nature be crazy~

Wolf’s Milk: a sort of weird bubblegum pink slime that was enjoying their time in the wood pile.
Common Shiny Woodlouse: borders the line between cute and creepy with all those legs but was also another wood pile resident.

With summer slowly on its way out, I’m excited to see how the garden finishes this year out and what new observations I can make till winter~

clover beds

ignore the gravel, i won the fight but am losing the war~

A project that has brought a sense of “it’s working!” has been my clover yard. I was worried when I sowed all these clovers that the rain we were getting was going to wash it away but enough held on and has become quite flush. Some did get bunched together further down but it’ll sort itself out and do whatever.

The wildflowers and greens from previous years have also been thriving in this area as well.

(L to R) St John’s Wort, Large Hop Clover and of course Mentha Piperita~ The mint is in a slight low spot so a lot of clover seeds ended up bunching here but everyone looks happy and smells devine. The wort and yellow clovers have been some of the only flowers available at the moment. That back yard project really jammed up my wildflower plans so I’ll have to rectify that for next year. Dandelions, cinquefoils, grasses and some budding goldenrods are also thriving here and around our weedy driveway. The four of us have worn some grass paths here and there, compounding on the cottage garden feel and low-key providing us insight on where paths around the house should go.

After hosting some folks up here for an adult summer camp next month, I’m going to get to work removing some more stones and getting clovers planted before the first frost and get a jump start on next year. My new goal is getting so much clover added and stones removed that I can walk barefoot to the garden~

back garden update: it’s happening!

Plants are finally off the deck, out of their stifling pots and into their new homes.

I feel very behind in planting things in mid-July, especially the majority of them being tomatoes, cucumbers and squash, but summer isn’t over. I know all my hard work will pay off next year when all I’ll have to do is add some new material to the mounds then plant.

Before planting things out, I used up some half empty bags of potting soil and made of mix of soil, compost tea (bananas, tea leaves and coffee grounds- smells ghastly but plants can’t smell?), and an assorted mix of wild flowers. I spread the majority onto the mound next to the boulder since that had the most free space. I don’t how many will come up before the first frost but the weather has been unbelievably out of sorts so I might get lucky and have some flowers for October.

Alongside not getting this project done in a timely manner, I completely disregarded the plan I put together (see maine garden: year 2 to see what I originally planned in the winter).

This first bed was originally going to be yellow and blue themed with the focus on sunflowers, wildflowers, etc. Today, it’s a weird mismatch of red and yellow amaranth, hot and sweet peppers, gourds and a brussel sprout I adopted at the farmer’s market. I’m not expecting much/anything from the pepper plants, if I’m honest. Same with the tomatoes too, though I’m surprised how well they’ve done despite being rootbound and crowded with other things.

This second bed is nothing like what I had in mind. It was going to act as a continuation of the wildflower mixes from the previous bed, along with tall amaranth, calendulas and greens. It is now the tomato patch, complete with hand-me-down tomato cages. At least most of them, funny thing about growing on wood logs is that they’re still trees and a feeble wire cage isn’t going to go very deep. This is also the mound I did not add soil to as it was the fullest of the mounds and this clay isn’t going to get up and leave any time soon. Towards the end of summer I’m going to cast cover crops on all the beds to get started building biomass for the next garden year. Until then, we’re going to find out how well tomatoes do in mostly clay~ Following them along is a couple of gourds that were taking off in pots on the deck and a mix of herbs in more shaded spots.

Bed number three, the closest to my original plan. This mound was destined to be a experimental bed using comfrey and mushrooms to help build soil and biomass for it and the others. Well the comfrey made it in anyways~ This bed gets the most shade during the hottest parts of the day so the majority of the chards and lettuce was planted here. To eventually provide some more shade, another amaranth and a couple of cucumber plants should enjoy their new homes and spread upwards. I may even chop and drop a couple of those comfrey leaves since they’re so big already.

herbs and greens nestled into mama boulder

This last bed is nothing like my original plan. That one included more amaranth, more greens and squash. This one is now mostly greens and herbs which, considering our new backyard plans include a patio and outdoor kitchen, these will be of use once established. Mints, thyme, dill, rosemary and parsley are mixed in with kale and chard and sprinkled with more wildflower seeds. I can’t wait to get this herb patch established with so many different things, it will smell heavenly.

It’s a relief to have things in the ground but the back yard still has a lot that needs doing. Mostly gravel and clay removal but with all this rain we’ve been bombarded with our driveway could use a reapplication of the two~

Check back later to see if things are thriving~