Tag Archives: black chokeberries

Blooms, Blooms, Beautiful Blooms

Oh I wish you could smell these!

Or walk through the aisles and just listen to the birds chirp and the bees hum as they flit from place to place enjoying all the blossoms.

Watching that big, mean Rottweiler stop and smell the flowers is a real treat too.  Although, I couldn’t get a really good picture of him this year!  It’s just too funny watching him stop and sniff.  

Right now when they are so pretty you can overlook all the grass that is trying to grow under the plants and just enjoy the beautiful miracle that is happening turning those tiny little plants we planted 10 years ago into the beautiful floral beauties and then  a super nutritional berry right before our eyes.   Isn’t the power of nature magical!

Beautiful No Matter the Season

I always forget to take pictures out in the Aronia berry fields during the winter months.  It doesn’t seem possible this was just on Monday as we were going out for a walk and to do some sledding.  We knew the snow wouldn’t last, but the fields are beautiful, no matter what season.

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#$#% Deer

Yes we’re cussing the deer.  Since we planted the berries, we’ve replanted and replanted countless times.  The first weekend alone we probably replanted 100.  It’s been a month and over the last couple days we’ve replanted about a dozen.  The stupid deer pull the plants out of the ground and leave them lay, usually right where they were planted.  But sometimes you have to go on a search mission.

They’ve even figured out how to get inside the fishing line fencing gate to pull them out.  The fence is in tact but the plants are pulled out.  Who said these were stupid animals?  Sasha has been doing her best to keep them at bay at night and Abe is learning to chase them off.  We have seen a remarkable difference on the nights Sasha is most active and barking through the night.  Fewer plants are uprooted.  So the big dogs are excellent prevention.  Sasha is about 12 years old and just not as fast as she used to be and Abe is only 6 months old and not as brave and bold as he needs to be just yet.  It’s looking like we should have gotten him sooner!

We’re so fed up with the deer though we’re talking electric fence and we hate to think about it, but it may be the best option to protect our investment.  We have yet to weigh all the pros and cons.

In the meantime, I’m off to water once again.  Since we planted we’ve only had one significant rainfall.  So I’m still hauling water.  Come on rain!  It rains all summer long until planting time and then the spicket shuts off – just our luck. 🙂