Call me crazy, but I enjoy Mondays. It started during Covid, when I craved the comfort of a simple routine. Mondays are now the start of another week of goals, whether that’s finally getting the plumber to come check out that funky smell outside our kitchen, or to research how to plant potatoes (am I too late?), or to find a family doctor in our new area. Mondays also happen to be when I water all the house plants. Of course, that task is losing its appeal since my priority has become all the things that are growing outside. Maybe my indoor plants know this, because they’re starting to look a little sad. I actually had to throw two of them into the compost this week, since they slowly withered and finally gave up. I hope that’s not a bad sign for my outdoor plants! Between what we inherited in the gardens and what I’ve planted in crates and pots all over the deck, I’m now very invested in our outdoor foliage. The funniest part of this is that I’ve always sworn I have no green fingers, yet here I am, spending most of my waking hours thinking about plants. How much to water them, whether to treat the insects infesting them or let them be, and especially if they’ll fail to thrive like some of my house plants.

The 10 yards of mulch that had been sitting in our driveway for the past month is finally all used up! While we probably could have used even more, at a certain point we had to say enough’s enough and we moved onto other projects. The weather has vacillated between glorious- sunny and hot- and days and days of rain and near freezing temperatures at night. This has made it somewhat difficult for both the plants and the ducks. Some early bloomers like the daisies and iris have opened up. The color variety is stunning; I’ve never seen iris in these deep plum and pale peach shades. The wild beach rose bushes have bloomed as well. I can imagine they’d be beautiful as a hedge, but they’re randomly scattered through the last and final garden I have yet to tame, and I’m weighing the options of pruning them into submission or digging them up entirely. I finally broke down and downloaded a plant identification app, Picture This. It’s been really useful to identify the new things that have popped up or even to suggest care and maintenance. I’m still so new at this and it’s not easy determining the difference between an invasive weed and attractive ground cover. For example, the two-toned leaves I’d been admiring near the blueberry bushes are apparently ground elder, which will take over everything if not dealt with. So once I muster the motivation to do another day of weeding, they’ve got to go.

Of the plants that were already here, I’m especially excited about the lupin. The leaves themselves are so beautiful and broad and the purple flowers that shoot up from them are just so elegant and lovely. Then the multi-colored iris, of course. And I’m becoming a bit of a daisy-convert. When the gardener I’d hired told me that’s what those plants would turn into, I was slightly disappointed… but now I’m so glad they’re here. They’re taller than a lot of the other plants and are such a sweet addition to the garden, adding dimension and light. The peonies are getting close to opening, and that’s going to be pretty spectacular. I can see a little hint of deep pink in some of them, but the rest will be a surprise.

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When we moved in, we noticed sprinkler heads scattered over the property. Which is fantastic, since watering everything by hand takes about an hour each day. When we did a test run of the system, however, we weren’t able to get it up and running. (The repairman who’s coming next week will be the latest of a long list of service people we’ve hired to help. It’s a relief to know we have this rolodex should any emergencies pop up…) Up until this past weekend, my husband was diligently making the rounds each morning (and sometimes in the evening if it had been a particularly hot day), making sure everything was hydrated and happy. The established plants are less at risk, but we’d planted the peach tree, 2 apple trees, and some blueberry bushes, and I don’t want to lose them. So far they’re all doing fine and there are even mini fuzzy future peaches popping out all over the tree! The blueberries are starting to form and I’m hoping we’ll get a good harvest this year. The apple trees are still a little young so we’ll have to be patient until next year or the year after. The wild raspberry bushes that popped up voluntarily are also thriving, after I pruned and trellised them. Once I knew what to look for, I spotted them all over the property and was able to transplant them to where I could manage them better. There are now little bushes planted around the outside of the duck run, and we use the girls’ discarded pool water to hydrate them (the bonus being that the water is “fertilized.”). More on said pool in a moment!

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In keeping with my vision of a more self-sustaining homestead, I’m also trying my hand at some vegetables and herbs. For now, they’re all planted in containers or raised beds on the deck where they get full sun. The soil here seems to be pretty rich and I suspect the vegetables would thrive in-ground, but I’d have to deal with some impediments. Firstly, there’s landscape cloth buried about 6 inches below the surface. I understand the reasoning behind that, especially when planting gardens and trying to suppress weeds. But it’s nearly impossible to cut through and I’d have to essentially clear off all the soil, rip up the cloth, and fill it all back in. Nothing is impossible and I’m sure we could do that, but then there’s the bittersweet. We’re finding new shoots popping up everywhere, and I worry that what I plant in the ground would be shoved aside by those gnarly vines. So we’re conducting a little bit of an experiment. I got the biggest grow bags I could find (10 gallons each), and some plain wooden crates from Michales, and lots of organic potting soil and compost. I’m seeing how the vegetables and herbs do in these, and maybe we won’t have to use in-ground planting at all. Both my husband and I came to the conclusion that a greenhouse would be the logical next step, so we can move any of the containers “inside” when the weather changes. That idea got a lot more support this past weekend when the rain didn’t stop for 3 days and the temperature dropped to 37 degrees each night. So I hauled my crates inside the house and dug out the grow lights from storage, and felt like I was regressing back to March. So a greenhouse would make this so much easier! There happens to be a random stretch of grass off to the side of the property that we nicknamed “the badminton court” since we couldn’t think of another purpose, except another place to have to mow. Then over the course of a few days we kept an eye on the sun exposure, to make sure it got enough. And…hallelujah. There’s not a more sun-drenched spot on the property! Between having to get the roof replaced and doing some remodeling on our bathroom, we have a bit of a spending hangover. So we’ll hold off on this purchase til later in the summer or early fall, when we’ll actually start needing protection from the elements. I have a deep desire to serve a Thanksgiving meal this year with produce almost entirely from our garden: potatoes, radishes, kale, scallions, carrots, beets, garlic, and zucchini. All except the potatoes are currently growing, and if they do well I’ll do another planting in July and move them to the greenhouse in August for harvesting in November. And of course, we’ll also serve a Thanksgiving frittata with eggs from our very own ducks!

Which leads me to our other main topic, the 3 feathered sisters. And they are getting their feathers, for sure. In a few days they’ll be 6 weeks old, and will be fully feathered at 8, though they’re already looking pretty close. That’s been really helpful this past week when it’s gotten so chilly at night. They’re living outside 24/7 now, spending their days in their run and their nights in the shed. Last week, it reached the mid 80s and they were panting and huddled under a stool we keep out there. So we found a kiddie pool and a triangle shade sail online and rigged it up in their run. And they LOVE it. The shade is right over the pool which keeps them and the water cooler, and they spend most of their day drifting around in circles. Ducks are notoriously clumsy and ours are no different, so we had to put logs and bricks around the outside of the pool to help them get in and out more easily. We’ve discovered that Maxine is usually the first one in and spends the longest in the water. Patty is usually second, followed by Laverne… a long time later. It’s becoming a bit of a joke in our household that Laverne is not the smartest. Even after watching her sisters make their way in, she can’t seem to figure it out, and every day she’s got to learn it all over again. Right on the heels of the summery weather, the temperatures dropped and the rains came, so we had to adjust their routine as well. Like my vegetables, I moved the girls inside for a few days where they could stay warm and dry in their shed. Luckily there’s room for 10 of them in there, so crowding wasn’t an issue. But catching a chill is, since they’re not fully feathered yet. So we didn’t let them out into their run and instead we visited them in their shed 3 or 4 times a day to check on them, feed them, and replenish their straw bedding. And I think we also went to keep them company, because I have a sneaking suspicion that even though they don’t like us to hold them, they still like to have us around. One of my new favorite things is to watch them running and honking over to me when they see me coming. Yes, sometimes I have food with me, but sometimes I think they just want to say hey. My husband has decided that they call us BLOTH (big lady of the house), and TOG (the other guy), so now of course we refer to each other as that when we’re hanging with the ducks.

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I’m sort of relieved that the rain and the cold has kept me indoors. There are things I need to focus on other than plants, like working on some scripts for an upcoming weekend of performances in East Hampton. Yes, that means live theater! It’s hard to believe just how long it’s been that Covid has kept me from being onstage. I truly do not begrudge the time, as it’s allowed me to look elsewhere for fulfillment and creativity. Without Covid, I wouldn’t be sitting in an Adirondack chair on my deck right now (bundled up), typing this as I look out at the flower garden and my vegetable crates. Sadie’s out here too, of course, prowling the property for chipmunks and moles (both of which she’s gotten very good at catching). She often acts as sentry outside the duck run, sitting with her back to the ducks and her eyes toward the woods for possible predators. She’s shown zero interest in getting into the run itself, and the ducks don’t seem bothered by her presence in the slightest. I’m thrilled to report that so far there have been no hawks attempting to hunt the girls, so I guess the fishing line we strung over their run has done the trick (who knew?!). All in all, life is settling into a really nice routine, and I’m feeling a little more confident about this new “profession” I’m exploring. We’ve decided to work on improving what we’re doing now, between the ducks, the gardens, and the vegetables, and wait until next year before adding anything else in. I’d hate for us to burn out or to do things half-heartedly. So for now I’m enjoying our check-ins multiple times a day with the ducks, the plants, the dog, and the husband, making sure everyone is fed, watered, and happy.