Planted outside the guest bedroom, this oakleaf hydrangea creates the considered  view from bedroom windows.  Family parking court disappears just beyond hydrangea, camellias, and dwarf boxwoods.   Granite stepping stones create paths to front and back porches.   Native to the southeastern United States, oakleaf hydrangeas  grow in   USDA Hardiness Zones 5-9   This hydrangea receives only morning […]

Everyone loves a comeback story and the bluebird recovery is a good one.  The bluebird decline had multiple causes:  habitat loss, insecticides, and non native birds competing for nesting cavities.  The European starling and the English house sparrow were brought to North America by well intentioned people, resulting in chaos and destruction ever since. Other […]

Three turkey poults and one chick.  The poults are Narrangansetts, a cousin to our Eastern Wild Turkey.  A heritage breed that is hardy, intelligent, and very social here on the farm.  The delicate days of turkey life are the first week or so but that is true of all poultry.  They need to be warm, […]

We raise Jacob Sheep on Hedgerow Farm,  providing meat and wool from this work.  Also sheepskins that can become rugs,  art (by draping it over the back of one of our favorite windsor chairs),  stroller blankets, cushions for seats in cars, wheelchairs.   After receiving the hides back from the processor, we salt them with […]

Tonight’s wine was poured from a pitcher into wine cups thrown and fired less than three miles from our farmhouse.  Bradford Pottery. Dinner was roasted rosemary chicken raised on pasture just down the road.  Goat cheese on bread baked in a cast iron pan, both bought at the farmer’s market this morning.  I spoke to […]

I’ve been writing about butterflies, bluebirds, and gardening lately.  As if life on the farm is always beautiful and joyful. A more complete description would include these images from the farm over the past two weeks:  a squirrel killed by the cat, a nest of eggs abandoned by the sitting hen just a day or […]

Spring in Georgia often feels like the end of winter or the beginning of summer but seldom like spring itself.  One constant is the re-appearance of the Swallowtail butterflies in the potager garden of HF.  It’s easy to miss the early stages of development known as instars.  Strange looking caterpillars in the beginning, some look […]

Gate keepers from England.  Painted Terracotta.  Timeless,  no maintenance.  Adding a layer of interest to the courtyard near the kitchen door.  This courtyard is commonly the ugly side of a house with the air conditioners, trash cans, grill (grills are not focal points, especially not when they are covered with vinyl weather protectors).  The small […]

Lovely package from California friend arrived this week.  Its contents, a book:  The Artist, the Cook, and the Gardener  The author leads painting workshops in her gardens in Bonny Doon California and the recipes come from lunches served to her students. It will be my pleasure to read this book, to cook from it, and […]

One of four snowball viburnums pruned to tree form.  They form a garden room behind the back porch.  Cornerstones.  This climbing New Dawn Rose will bloom very soon and throughout the summer and early fall.  Being trained up and along some discreet wires on the columns next to the viburnum.  Evergreen abelias below bloom in […]