Lone Pine Farmstead

The garlic has been drying for a couple of weeks, now I’m cleaning it up before it’s getting braiding for storage. I’m also pulling out all the damaged bulbs to dry for garlic powder.

Getting a pile of woodchips feels like Christmas.

Why? Because I LOVE mulch.

Mulch is a key to plant health around my farmstead. It prevents weeds, keeps moisture in the soil and breaks down providing nutrition for the plants.

I’ve even made raised beds with straight woodchips and had great results with them!

I love a long-lasting bloom!

Hydrangeas take the cake when it comes to blooms that last all season. They bloom in late spring, change color throughout the season and dry on the plants. In the winter they keep on providing some interest in the garden and I love the way snow falls on them.

I grow lots of them here and I love them all!

Here’s what’s available at the stand right now:

🤍 Phantom- a large, sun-loving hydrangea with massive blooms
🤍 Peegee- snowball-sized blooms, can be easily pruned into a tree-form or left to grow into a large shrub or hedge
🤍 Silver Dollar- a dwarf shrub that stays about a 4x4 with snowball-sized blooms
🤍 Annabelle- a native smooth hydrangea. She’s shade-lover with large blooms.

Elderberry cuttings!

If you ordered elderberry cuttings from us this past winter, here’s an update on what they should be looking like about now!

Cuttings can be very finicky about water so I like to start mine in trays up close to where I walk everyday so I see them and remember to keep them well-watered. Drying out is the #1 reason cuttings fail.

By July they should have TONS of roots. This particular one I pulled up also had two long suckers growing from it. Those suckers will be whole new plants next year! At this point, you have a few options: leave them alone until the fall. If they seem crowded you can feed with a diluted fertilizer (I like fish emulsion). You can also put them in larger pots or you can plant them directly into your landscape. If planting though, be sure to keep them well-watered!

If you missed out on our cutting sale, we have lots of gorgeous plants available now at the stand. They are well-established plants in gallon sized pots. Wild varieties for $8 and Bob Gordon for $10!

If you’re looking for a place to source elderberry or willow cuttings this winter, please keep us in mind! Our cutting sale will go live in January.

A pro tip for trellising tomatoes:

Don’t wait until July 😆

I trellis my tomatoes using the ‘Florida Weave’ method which basically sandwiches the plants between twine strung on t-posts. It’s fairly economical and does a great job. It’s real easy to do if you’re a proactive gardener and string your twine before the vines are 5+ feet long 🫣

I, however, am not a proactive vegetable gardener, so here I am trellising in July.