Photographs

Because a picture is worth a thousand words...

2014 June:  (Terrapine c. carolina) Turtle love.   Males usually have red eyes and females have yellowish-brown eyes.

2014 June:  Kniphofia next to La Casita, not a native, but the deer didn't touch them and hummingbirds are supposed to like them.

2014 June:  The pond next to Blue Flag Bird Refuge in lush summer growth.  Note the blue flag (Iris versicolor), the spikey growth in the foreground.

2014 June:  One of three Paw-paw trees (Asimina triloba) planted in 2012, the deer don't eat the leaves.  I'm looking forward to fruit one day.

2014 June:  The box turtles are out and about.

2014 June:  The stream, Blue Flag Run, is flowing down the center of this photograph.  Tall grass obscures it now, and ultimately the dozens of shrubs and trees that volunteers and I have planted will shade it.

2014 June:  After years of trying to get rid of thrips by chemical means, I finally gave up and restricted my activity to merely feeding this old rose.  It took several years to recover and/or grow the proper predators, but now the blooms are gorgeous.

2014 June:  The deconstructed shed, now called la Casita, has mountain laurel and Carolina Jessamine planted next to it.

2014 June:  Herbs, next to the Villa, are quite deer resistant and attractive to boot. 

2014 Spring:  The pond on land adjacent to Blue Flag Bird Refuge provides great habitat for birds and frogs.

Bird

2014 April:  Daffodils blooming around the Villa.

2013 Summer:  The garden house, now called the Villa, with wildflowers and herbs planted nearby.

2012 Summer:  I had most of the shed deconstructed, leaving the walls and the first floor joists so I could train vines up and out of deer's hungry reach.  See the garden house in the background where the farmhouse used to stand.

2012 Summer:  Down to the structurally sound part of the farmhouse.

2012 May:  The shed by the road, view from the west.  Note that deconstruction has begun on the farmhouse, my next step was to tackle the shed.

2012 March:  The shed by the road, view from the east.

2012 March:  Unfortunately, the old farmhouse was not structurally sound.  I chose to deconstruct it down to the sound part.

2012 March:  I bought the land.  The old farmhouse is leftmost in this photograph and the shed is in the background, rightmost.