Devonviolet Acres

[Devonviolet]

I love your little bungalow! My house is the same sq. footage so I think I'll call it a bungalow too! Sounds so charming. Mine however doesn't have that sweet front porch.

I like how you have started your goats on rose trimmings. It's the gateway drug for goats you know, not that goats need a gateway drug. They are born and two minutes later start searching for the hard stuff. But they are so darn cute!

I hope you hang out here with us and keep us updated on your new venture in permaculture and gardening!

Oh, and I know a person with a great resume on perimeter fencing. Right @baymule ?

LOL @baymule & I are good Buds! We just chatted, on the phone, this afternoon. I got to "ride fence" with Baymule & her DH, in their 4 wheel Mule. She has taught me a thing or two about building fences, to be sure.

Our goats came from a dry lot & got goat feed pellets, alfalfa pellets & hay. They were 8 months old when we got them. At first they weren't interested in browse. Little by little we gave them browse from our woods. Now they get excited whenever we go out in the yard, cause they want browse. Around Christmas We walked back into the woods, cut down a small cedar tree & dragged it to the fence to lift it over for them. They got so excited, they were trying to eat it before it was over the fence, and the branches landed on top of them. They looked up & just kept eating from the middle of the tree. What a stitch.

 

[Devonviolet]

Hey, I'm excited to follow your garden. I don't follow your heard journal because it got a little crazy but will follow this journal

Hey @Poka_Doodle! How nice to see you here! I'm glad you'll be following my journal here.

 

[Devonviolet]

I love your 'moving' story, @Devonviolet. It is such a challenge to be able to start with a nearly blank palette and make it your own. I envy you. I'm too old to want such a change myself, but I will enjoy watching your adventures.

Thanks @Smart Red. It has been a challenge! Sometimes it is fun & exilarating. But sometimes it just wears us out. We are both retired. . But, sometimes we work harder than when we worked a 40 hour week!

 

[Carol Dee]

I LOVE your place and all the furry and feathered occupants! What fun it must be to hang out with @baymule I am looking forward to watching your progress.

 

[Devonviolet]

I LOVE your place and all the furry and feathered occupants! What fun it must be to hang out with @baymule I am looking forward to watching your progress.

Thanks @Carol Dee! We do love our little piece of heaven on this earth! God truly blessed us, when he led us here! we have nice large windows, which allow us nice views of the beautiful land around us. It doesn't matter which window you look out, the views are spectacular!

This is a recent sunrise, off the left side of our front porch.

This is the gravel (calechie) road that goes by our house. They call it a "county road" but it is more like a 1-1/2 lane, pot hole laden dirt road. Ah, the joys of living in the country!

Yes, it is fun to hang out with @baymule & her sweet DH! We had them for a visit a few weeks ago, and served them lunch. They brought me three flowerpots full of wild violet plants, from around her DDs house.

My love for violets goes back to my childhood. When I lived in Rochester, MN, I had a small Craftsman style "bungalow" (600 sq ft on the first floor, 250 sq ft [and the only bathroom] on the 2nd floor). One spring day I was mowing my lawn & saw some purple flowers, in the grass. They turned out to be wild violets. I carefully mowed around them & went back later to dig them up. They got planted in my flower bed border, which got to be 18" deep & 30' long. After I met DH, we sold that house. But, I dug some of the violets & took them with me, to plant in the garden at our new house. Several moves later, we were in a condo in PA, and I had violets in all the flower beds there. My avatar photo is a blossom of one of those plants.

Sadly, when we moved to Dallas & were living in our 600 as ft apartment, the summer was hot (100+°) & dry, and the violets didn't survive.

When Baymule heard my story, she remembered the violets at her DD's, and brought me some nice plants to plant here on Devonviolet Acres. In the next couple of weeks they will get planted in clumps around the farm. As time goes by they will multiply & spread, and we will truely be "Devonviolet Acres", thanks to my good friend Baymule!

 

[aftermidnight]

As you can see by my avatar, violets are favorites of mine too, not all are fragrant but the ones that are, their fragrance in the spring is absolutely lovely. The one in my avatar, bought as V. labradorica is actually V. riviniana. I also have a large clump of 'White Czar'. All the rest are wild violets I have purple, mauve, white and pink. We used to have the little native yellow one but it has disappeared, I must get some back from my son who has them all over his property.
They're also in the lawn (if you can call it that) along with crocus, English daisies, creeping veronica and lots and lots of moss. Can you tell I'm not a "lawn" person .

They pop up all over the garden and I leave them alone to do their thing with the exception of my flower beds, but in the gravel, around the base of shrubs and planters I let them be.

Not the best picture but I love the casual look they give when they plant themselves, these are just starting to flower now.
Annette

 

[Devonviolet]

Howdy Annette! Your avatar has some lovely violets! I see you live in Vancouver Island, BC. A friend from high school used to live on Vancouver Island. I believe she lived near Telegraph Cove. She has since moved to Oregon.

It's so nice to meet another died in the wool violet lover!!! You are the first in all my years.

The way you have violets all over, is the way I want our property to be some day.

 

[Carol Dee]

I am in LOVE @Devonviolet what a wonderful place it is.

 

[aftermidnight]

Howdy Annette! Your avatar has some lovely violets! I see you live in Vancouver Island, BC. A friend from high school used to live on Vancouver Island. I believe she lived near Telegraph Cove. She has since moved to Oregon.

It's so nice to meet another died in the wool violet lover!!! You are the first in all my years.

The way you have violets all over, is the way I want our property to be some day.

Telegraph Cove, it's up the north end of the island, not many people live there anymore, used to be a fishing and canning village but now tourism is big. If you haven't looked it up here's a peek.
http://www.telegraphcove.ca/
We are mid island about 80 miles north of Victoria.
Annette

 

[PhilaGardener]

What wonderful potential! You are going to have a great time gardening this year! Thanks for sharing your journey with us!