Bloomin' Tuesday - Tulips from Holland

My wife received several tulips that a retired neighbor brought back from her trip to Holland a few years ago. She has since passed on but we are reminded of her each spring when her tulips bloom. I have no idea of the variety but the blooms last longer than the traditional tulips that we have planted around the homestead.

Honeyberries

The yellow blooms from spring have yielded a modest number of berries from plants we started last year. While our information states they should ripen in early to mid June, they still aren't ready. This reinforces my opinion that we are at least 3 weeks behind in our weather pattern here in Iowa this year.

The fruit has a taste similar to blueberries but the plants are much easier to maintain. Our initial blueberries have not produced the past two years and it's more than likely because the soil isn't balanced for them despite my meager efforts.

Loaded with anti-oxidents and other good-for-you nutritional value, we took a chance on 4 plants from Stark Brothers last year. If these start producing (and we can keep the deer and rabbits out of them) we may expand our honeyberries in our little corner of the acreage. 

For more information, see: HoneyberryUSA and at their blog.

Wednesday wildlife, young visitor

I took a break and looked up to find this guy taking a few steps towards me. I only was able to get a short video before he jumped away.



I'm thinking this one has been orphaned because the mother was nowhere to be found and the trail cameras came up with a few shots of him all alone for about 30 minutes.

Bloomin' Tuesday, Iris

These ubiquitous flowers were one of my grandmother's favorites and she had plenty of color variations that were growing west of her house.

This one came from our neighbor before she passed away last year and the tubers have about doubled. These I planted near the NE gate and welcomed us for a few days this spring.

Coffeetree update, 6/11/15

Here's the progress on one of our legacy trees. Our best Kentucky Coffeetree:

On 4/19:

On 5/9:

And on 6/6:

 

This is the first time I've seen damage from deer on any of our coffeetrees. It tops at about 4 1/2 feet tall from a seed planted 3 years ago. The rest of the coffeetrees have a long way to go to catch up to this one that has become one of our showcase legacy trees.

Wednesday wildlife, mystery animal

Keep in mind, this camera is about 2 feet off the ground and this critter is looking up to it.

I say it's our mountain lion but my wife disagrees. This is the only picture of three that had a subject captured by the camera at this time. This is not one of our neighbor's dogs who visit.

Put your guess in the comments if you have a better clue than we do.

Wednesday wildlife, unsteady legs

I have an overabundance of deer pictures but these needed to be shared:

Just barely over the grass to the left is a newborn fawn.

The doe and fawn:

And unsteady legs as the little one tries to keep up with its mother:

I apologize for the brightness as I didn't take the time to work on the contrast.

Bloomin' Tuesday - Honeyberries

We planted four honeyberries last year and we had a few blooms in early May. I need to check again for any berries. Hopefully the neighbor's bee colony had a productive spring as these plants need an insect for pollination.

With a taste similar to blueberries but more tolerant of soil conditions, we decided to test before we invested more.