Pictured: Beautiful sunrise early on Sunday morning. That’s Mt. Hood in the distance.
| Saturday I manage to get stung by a yellow jacket while Shane was driving, 15 minutes later an ambulance took me to the hospital because my body passed out (though I was very aware of everything). I now have a prescription for an EpiPen! Dang critters! Otherwise, we have a mini-garden now! We also beat the heat by doing an early Woods Walk on Sunday too. Enjoy! Amy | Table of Contents: ~ The Garden: Guides & Plantings ~ The Blooms & Fruit: Seasons Based on Phenology ~ The Birds: Birding with the Merlin App ~ The Videos: Spying on Nature ~ The Funnies: Plant & Nature Humor ~ The Blog: Livestock & Upcoming Editions ~ Thank You! |
~ The Garden: Guides & Plantings ~
The waxing crescent moon (New moon through the First Quarter moon) is good for planting leaf crops.
I’ve compiled a list of planting dates for 2026 based on the moon phases:
2026 Planting Guide – Zones 7/8
Here is the advice for this week:
After 7:55am Jun 15th to before 2:56am Jun 21st (waxing crescent moon) –
Sow Outdoors: Brussels sprouts, late cabbage, basil. Transplant: Brussels sprouts, basil
Shane planted a small “victory” garden in containers this week. We have strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, herbs and some companion nasturtiums. I just didn’t have the time or energy to do it so Shane took the initiative! He’s a keeper!
~ The Blooms & Fruit: Seasons Based on Phenology ~
This week’s blooms: California False Hellebore (Veratrum californicum), Pacific Water Parsely – no purple splotches on stems (Oenanthe sarmentosa), Spreading Hedge Parsely (Torilis arvensis), Self-Heal (Prunella vulgaris), Bog St. John’s Wort (Hypericum anagalloides), St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum), Crimson Columbine (Aquilegia formosa), False Dandelion (Hypochaeris radicata), Oxeye Daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare), Pale Flax (Linum bienne), Crested Dogstail-Grass (Cynosurus cristatus), and a pretty picture of the Forget-me-nots and buttercups growing in the swamp!
~ The Birds: Birding with the Merlin App ~
Shane and Amy have been spending part of the woods walks looking up in the trees and identifying birds. I managed to get 4 new ones apart from the super common ones. Those tiny birds are hard to spot a lot of the time. You can hear them, the app says they are going off, but try spotting them in heavy leafed out trees and shrubs! Here are my new birds for this week!
~ The Videos: Spying on Nature ~
Had some cool visitors to the creek log this last week! Always love seeing the bobcat down there! That coyote looks new to log crossing, the way he was a little scared of the water below.
~ The Funnies: Plant & Nature Humor ~
Enjoy weekly memes found online!
~ The Blog: Livestock & Upcoming Editions ~
Don’t forget the monthly Homestead Happenings: Livestock Edition that goes out the first of each month!
Here’s the latest:
The next Homestead Happenings: Livestock Edition for the June recap will come out July 1st, where we check in with how the sheep & chicken flocks are faring at the start of Summer!
We’ll also see you all again June 22nd for the next Homestead Happenings: Flowers & Nature, where there will be even more garden guidance and we check out what else is blooming in the woods and gardens!
The blog is a sampling of all the photos I’ve taken this month. Please head over to our social media to see the photo dumps!
~ Thank You! ~
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Hollow Hills Ranch 