Spring is always a busy season on the farm. Between planting, cleaning up garden beds, starting a new year with the vegetable garden, new bees and dreaming up new projects – the last thirteen weeks have flown by. I usually write this blog on a Sunday night and most Sunday nights, I have been a little burnt out from working all weekend outside.

Spring is always such a hopeful season. Plants emerge from winter dormancy with beautiful colors and lovely shades of pale green. My vegetable garden plan is always ambitious and I enjoy the process of starting seeds. You tend to forget the little mishaps of previous years.

Landscaping around the pond

The pond area has slowly evolved from a mass of privets and undergrowth, to a bare patch of clay, then the koi pond build and finally additions of new Japanese maples. Last year, I saw a beautiful tree at the maple dealer’s property which would really complement my koi pond. It’s the kind of tree that you notice because it’s around 25 years and just looks like it should sit in front of a koi pond. I had a smaller maple in the spot but who wants to wait a decade or two for a nice mature look? Instant gratification rules. The new maple required an excavator to place.

The grass in the pond area has never looked good, weedy at best. So we asked our landscaper if he would sod the area for us.

He did a great job scraping and leveling the area.

Once the sod was down, it was amazing to see the area with thick, uniform green grass. We have been watering a great deal and are crossing our fingers it makes it through the hot North Carolina summer. We had several extra rolls that have been scattered throughout the maple garden. Some of the pieces that looked like they were dead are coming back to life.

More maples in front of the house

Last year our front yard was struggling. We have redone the river bed, moved around some perennials and added a few more Japanese maples. Our peach and cherry trees are looking good but not much fruit this year.

I wanted one of my new japanese maples to look like it was on a hill so we built some elevation with several loads of dirt. It came out better than I expected.

Below is a Japanese maple called “Octopus”. It’s a slightly unruly maple that likes to grow random asymmetrical branches like tentacles. It’s not a maple that most people would want for their garden since its spread is about 10 to 14 feet. We have placed it as one of the first maples visitors will notice when they pull into our driveway.

Colorful Maples

Last spring the maples on hand had a little show which was pretty but did not last long. One year later, fuller trees, more trees – every day was a delight to walk around and look at the new leaves. The show lasted for weeks. Maples look wonderful in the fall but the spring leaves are a treat.

New maple leaves can be yellow, green, coral, pink, red or a mix. After a few weeks, many transform into their summer shade of green, bronze-green, red or purple.

Some of the early spring green colors are a vivid yellow-green that looks artificial.

We moved around a few trees to increase some of the spacing between maples. Some trees were also moved to accommodate their light needs.

This variety below, LileeAnne’s Jewel, is a real showstopper. My maple friend, Felicia, encouraged me to buy this in 2024 and she was spot on about the fab factor. It’s difficult to see in the photo but in real life, this tree is quite pink. It starts out with a light cherry red leaf and then the light hot pink highlights show up. It would catch my eye every time I walked past the front door and I noticed it through the window.

So it was nice to see the trees that had been planted in 2025 and the recent deliveries in late winter. However, when you hear that Robbie of Grove Creek Maple Farm has a truck of new maples delivered from Oregon – it’s hard to resist. Found a few cute little varieties to add to the garden. We currently have over 100 different varieties and about 120 trees planted.

Working under the maples – camellias, azaleas, hostess and fern

For the last two years, We have focused on buying the trees to place in the garden. While we have included some azaleas, hosta and ferns – we haven’t worked too much on understory plants. This year we have started adding in more azaleas, camellias and hosta for balance, color and weed control.

I have planted some camellias earlier but have not really paid attention to them. Camellias are great for our garden because they remain green all year and will start blooming before the maples wake up. Like maples there are many varieties and all sorts of colors. This could be another sub-hobby on its own.

I plan to put many more camellias in this tree line.

I’m also using understory plants to anchor some of the maples that were planted with nothing around them. It’s a little game to figure out how to build a small garden scene around some of these solo maples.

Azaleas can also be a new sub-hobby. While we were visiting Blowing Rock earlier this week, I saw a beautiful, yellow-gold variety. I believe it’s called “Florida Flame”. I’m hoping to find a plant in a a local nursery but might have to order one later this year.

Cedars of Lebanon

Tony has always loved large, ancient trees. We saw some really large ancient trees at the home of Charlie Chaplin in Vevey, Switzerland last fall. He decided we should plant some Cedars of Lebanon on our farm. Slow growers, they reach 70-100 feet and are known for their durable, aromatic wood. In ancient times, ships and temples were built using this wood.

Our ever-resourceful maple dealer looked for these trees in Oregon and found ten at a nursery. We purchased five to plant on the farm.

It wasn’t easy to plant these trees but our landscaper came out and helped us with the planting. Trees were around 14-16 feet.

While we may not live to see a 70′ tree, we hope to see some impressive trees in a few decades.

Gardening can be a test of patience

We really do try to give our plants the right conditions to thrive. But every gardener will tell you that things happen. This tsuma gaki japanese maple did very well last year. This spring it did not put out any leaves and seemed pretty dead. I trimmed it back to where I saw the slightest bit of green and waited. Amazingly, this maple is coming back. I’m sure it will take a few years to return to the size it was in 2025 but I’m happy.

The major fails this spring were the mikazuki, two carnivals, bihou, fairy hair and tsuma gaki. The mikazuki might make a comeback like the tsuma gaki. I trimmed it back and it’s been pushing out some new leaves. Crossing my fingers.

Late winter was pretty chilly and we had the bright idea to scatter some hay on the raised beds to keep new plants warm. Unfortunately, the straw had plenty of seed heads within it and my garden beds were overrun with wheat grass. It has been an extra chore to remove the grass little by little. I will probably stick to a fine mulch next year. Every year we learn something new to do or not in our gardens.

Fruits and Vegetables 2026

I have limited the number of plants I start in February. The last two years I would have trays and trays and not enough space to plant. The vegetables seem to be on target and the fruit is 50/50. Berries are doing well but the tree fruit that look promising a few weeks ago have been dropping after some cold snaps.

Tomatoes are pretty easy and reliable.

I have several varieties of bush beans, some peppers, eggplant and green onions.

Closer to the house I plant herbs, lettuce, arugula and kale. I cover the beds to ensure that the sun does not scorch the tender seedlings.

The berry house is now holding elderberry, blackberries and raspberries. I have some new small raised beds to transfer my strawberries to.

Two new arbequina olive trees, raspberries, strawberries and blackberries. Berries are often covered to discourage, birds, squirrels, groundhogs and deer. I have a quince tree showing up soon and might put in some native paw-paw trees on the western edge of the property.

This year we are going to try starting mushroom logs. We have harvested some oak from our woods and will let the logs season for a few weeks before inoculating them.

Beekeeping 2026

Year three of beekeeping. Our first two years ended with hive failures. If this year ends badly, I think we will sell all of our beekeeping gear. It really is a lot more economical to buy honey than raise bees for honey. Someone told me that even if we never get any honey, having bees is good for our plants. I agree but it would certainly be cool to have a little locally produced honey.

Our bees have been on the farm for just about a month and have not yet filled their brood box. We feed them sugar water to make it easier for them to build. I’m not sure why we have to supplement but we’re following the bee supplier’s instructions.

The Chickens

Chicken management is something we’re doing pretty well at. The chickens seem healthy, not too much fighting and relatively well behaved. Visitors who have had experience raising chickens have noted how ‘big/fat’ our chickens are…hoping this is a good thing.

We have 20 chickens – 19 laying hens and one rooster. We did lose one Sapphire Green Egger in April to illness. The chickens have been laying steadily and we collect 13-16 eggs daily.

We lost one chicken to a hawk a few months ago. We saw another hawk strike but all the hens were accounted for. We found a pile of feathers on the ground that was very confusing We finally discovered that one of the Rustic Rock hens was missing a lot of feathers on her tail – most likely the hawk hit her and she only lost feathers. She recovered from the scare well.

This week we purchased our 2026 chicks – Speckled Sussex and Gold Lace Wyandotte. One of the Gold Lace Wyandottes perished the first night. Looked like the the other five chicks did not want to share the heat element. I plan to name these chicks after the Spice Girls – Baby, Posh, Scary, Sporty and Ginger. I’ll wait a few weeks to see who fits the name.

The Koi

Nothing too exciting happening with our koi. The pond runs smoothly and Kevin Colopy, Happy Koi of Greenville comes out for an annual preventative maintenance visit. I suppose we could do this ourselves but when we had an issue with one of our rotary drum filters, we needed Kevin’s expertise. Makes more sense to have him keep the equipment running.

A lot of koi shows have started up. Missed Orlando due to a terrible cough, missed Nashville due to other commitments and could not show at ZNA Carolina due to work schedule. I did visit the Carolina show on Saturday morning to check it out. Some beautiful koi in the exhibitor vats and fun things in the vendor tent.

I picked up a little tosai that I bought from Russ Peters, PS Koi when he was in Japan last year. It’s always fun just to see what happens to these little guys. As we strolled by Bristol Koi’s vats, we saw a goshiki that looked nice. Parinez said ‘you know you want to take her home…’ – So we did. We currently do not have a goshiki in the pond so it’s a nice addition.

I have a larger koi, breeder-Kanno, flying to North Carolina, hopefully this month. She has been living in Southern California for almost five months now. Shipping around our travel schedules and the dealer’s schedule has been difficult but I’m hoping soon.

In about eleven days, I will be flying to Amsterdam to judge a koi show in Oldenzaal, Netherlands. I judged the show last year and they asked if I would come back again this year. It’s always a fun time and I love the organizers. There are so many great koi events happening during the springtime. If only work didn’t interfere…

So that’s been spring on the farm. In a few weeks I hope to be harvesting fruits and veggies. 😊