Majestic Red Fox

 We rarely see a red fox, or any fox for that matter, on our farm these days.  One of my best childhood memories is of walking the farm with my Dad when I was about five and having him stop and crouch down whispering to me to look at the red fox sunning itself on the opposite hillside.   

We were totally surprised to see this fox come out of the woods and along the pond in our backyard, turn and come toward the house and then stop and pose on  top of the septic tank!

For a minute we thought he might be headed for our cat door, but he veered off at the last minute and headed into the woods on the other side of the house.  This morning I thought it best to keep the chickens locked in their house and run!

Seeds Started, Now What?

Large Dahlia plants ready to go outside.

Back in January I had the bright idea to raise dahlias from seed to sell as cut flowers at our local farmers market.  Dahlias make big, showy flowers that last forever in a vase.  Most people buy them as tubers and you plant them as you would potatoes. But dahlias can also be grown from seed, will bloom the same year if you start them indoors and will produce tubers you can save for next year.

I wanted to have about 750 stems of dahlia flowers to sell so a couple of $5.00 packages of seed seemed like a better way to go then shelling out a couple of hundred dollars for tubers.

The seed catalog said start the seed indoors 8 to 10 weeks before your last frost date to get flowers by July. I set up my grow lights and planted 150 dahlia seeds on March 1.  I planted tall dahlias (2 to 3 feet) and short dahlias (10 to 12 inches).  Now its March 31 and I have some very big seedlings and some small seedlings and am wondering if the market will be open in May.  Whatever happens with Covid 19, I'm going to have lots of dahlias.

Short dahlia plants coming along slowly

On the trail of Ohio's Butterflies

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

Ohio is home to more than two dozen beautiful butterflies.  One of the easiest to spot is the swallowtail.

Spicebush Swallowtail Butterfly

There are more than 500 types of swallowtail butterflies world wide.  Ohioans can observe three different types. Perhaps the most common is the Tiger Swallowtail.You can easily attract them by growing some common annual flowers such as zinnias and lantana and  perennials such as bee balm and purple coneflowers. Be sure to also provide some water such as a bird bath with a nice landing pad like a flat rock or even a small ceramic dish positioned upside down.  The Spicebush Swallowtail prefers to lay its eggs on spicebush and paw paws but will also choose other common ohio trees growing in wooded areas, along streams and the edge of open fields. Zebra swallowtails prefer swampy wooded areas.

Like the Monarch the adult swallowtails like to feed on wild flowers, particularly the common milkweed.  While monarchs also lay their eggs on the milkweed providing their caterpillars with their only source of food, the swallowtails are much less picky.  The females will lay eggs on the leaves of a variety of trees.  Their caterpillars will also feed on dill, parsely, fennel and other members of the carrot family. Most of this information was found at: https://www.bgohio.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Butterfly-Tree-Hosts-12-27-12.pdf

Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly