I am so fortunate that here at MacKenzie-Childs I am both surrounded by beauty and blessed with very talented photographers as co-workers. Over the past year most of my blog images have come been provided by me. They were not bad, but nothing to get all excited about. Lately, I have been lucky to have two very skilled photographers taking plant and animal pictures for the blog. Hoping you all have a happy Mother’s Day or share a Mother’s Day with someone; enjoy the pictures of our gardens and the mothers here at MacKenzie-Childs.

Our Mother Goose

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And a few more of Caolainn and Nuala.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Delicious variations of Tulip Mix Melony Day

Spring rain continue to fall on our gardens. The bulbs are enjoying the cool weather and starting to really burst into bloom.

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Narcissus Tahiti

Caolainn hides in the tall grass at the verge of the pasture

 Sunday afternoon Nuala, one of our two pregnant Scottish Cattle gave birth to a baby girl- a heifer in cow parlance. This is the first calf we have had born at MacKenzie-Childs in a very long time; we could not be more pleased! Nuala is a white Highland and her new daughter, who we have named Caolainn (pronounced Kay- lin) is also white. Nuala is the daughter of our other pregnant cow Molly, who is red. The sire of Caolainn (and Molly’s in-utero calf) is a red Highland bull who has white color genes in his background so I was not surprised to get a white calf. Mother and calf are doing wonderfully- enjoy the pictures provided by our staff photographer, Katie- taken this morning.

Nuala stands gaurd

Caolainn is an ancient Celtic name meaning slender, fair, white, and pure

Nuala and Caolainn with the "Maiden Aunties"

Nuala is reponsible for Caolinn's fluffy white hair

Nuala will act as a sheild as Caolainn walks through the pasture

We will post more pictures later in the week- Maybe Molly will have calved by then!

Caolainn and Nuala together

Cool temperatures and relentless rains have delayed our usual progression of blooms here at MacKenzie-Childs. That said, it really has been almost perfect bulb weather.  Until this week, it was not too wet, and although the temperatures hovering a little above 40 were disagreeable to us humans trying to work, the plants were quite content to slowly and steadily emerge from winter dormancy without the stress of unnaturally warm temperatures like we had last year.

Regardless of the weather, we have scheduled our annual sale and hosted garden tour event for this coming weekend. Despite the cool weather the gardens are starting to burst into color. We have many Narcissi blooming- quite a few that are usually missed because they bloom before May- and the beginnings of the tulip show. For you local and not so local garden lovers, I hope to see you in the gardens Friday and Saturday. For those of you who cannot attend-here are photos of what is in bloom.

And of course, we need an update  on the lambs. It is remarkable how they have grown in just a week.

Brothaigh gets air!

Brothaigh and Breta always hang together

Brianag basking in the mild spring sun

It is really quite unusual to get an opportunity to view an animal giving birth from beginning to end. As a person who grew up on a small dairy farm, married an owner of a large dairy farm, and now live on a small beef and sheep farm; I can probably count in the low dozens the number of times I have been present when the calf, lamb, or foal slid from the mother’s birth canal into the clean straw or grass. We were all so lucky this morning to not only be there but have a fantastic photographer present when Libby delivered her twin ewes. Libby has ever been the friendliest of our sheep and also is a bit of a drama queen. Corinne and I were not suprised last week when Annick quietly waited for all of us to go home before going into labor and delivering darling Brianag; we joked that Libby would be calling for  a nurse, an epidural, and ice chips when her time came. It was like she was punching a time clock. She started at 8 am and by 9:50 we had two new ewe lambs on the ground. Fred who has supplied many pictures for the blog was at work so we called for him to come and document the event. We are thrilled to be able to show you the birth process-it is a rare event to be able to get such great pictures. Enjoy the gallery- click on any photo to make it bigger.

After Libby delivered the second ewe and we were confident she would have no more, we went about doing the sheep  husbandy duties we were there for. I tested each teat to make sure milk would come out, dipped the lambs navels in iodine to prevent the introduction of pathogens, gave mum and lambs Nutridrench- a vitamin/energy supplement, and gently directed the lambs to the right end of Libby to ensure they began nursing. Corinne and I set up the jug, a small pen Libby and lambs will live in for the next few days, and moved mum and babies into it. We gave Libby some fresh hay, a smiggen of grain, and some nice warm water after her ordeal. The lambs went to work nursing and growing. Corinne and I were afriad we would have twin ewes because we felt we had perhaps exhausted the Scottish female names starting with B. After searching and discussing, we decided we would name them Breta and Brothaigh- oddly pronounced “Brodie”. Katie, our wonderful staff photographer, then took some dry lamb pictures. So, lambing season is over, we successfully doubled the size of our flock. Now we wait for Molly and Nuala to calve- keep watching! We will post more lamb and some flower pictures later in the week.

Corinne and I have been watching and waiting for the arrival of our much anticipated lambs from Libby and Annick. Each day both have become larger, their udders have looked fuller, and we can see lots of baby movement. We hoped we would be here when the girls decided it was time but, as is usally the case on farms, when we left yesterday we had three sheep; this morning we had four! Annick had quietly lambed early this morning when no one was around to interfere. She calmly presented us with a beautiful ewe lamb who had already done the first necessary things; been dried off by her mother and had her first meal. We debated much and decided to name her Brianag, pronounced Bree-ah-nuk, we suspect she will be nicknames Bree. Her name is that of a Celtic Goddess and means strength.

Brianag is very dark brown (her father is black) and has a white spot on her forehead (known as Krunet). She is about the size of a small cat with long legs. I was pleasantly suprised how well filled out she already was; our Finn/Dorset crosses at home look quite pathetic the first day. Well, for now all is calm. Now we wait with bated breath for Libby to lamb.

The first blades of narcissus foliage poking through the cold ground

Even for me, the self-declared winter loving hermit, it has been a long winter. This past week has been discouragingly cold. Thanks to those crazy people who somehow decided taking away an hour of sunshine (I am a morning person) and tacking it on to the end of the day (when can I go to bed!?) in the spring time is a really good idea, we have had the optical effect of spring days. And the sun has been bright and cheery; but, oh my golly, walk outside and freeze to death! Still despite the Winter Storm Warning for the Northeast, I feel like spring is hanging out just behind the curtain.

February Gold, one of our earliest Narcissi

We have some hints of the tremendous bulb show to come in the  noses of the Narcissi, tulips, and chinodoxia poking through the cold, wet, and sometimes snow covered ground. I have returned to driving up the front drive when I come in to work in the mornings. I call it my 5 mph-check-out the-property-crawl. It is my standard drive by to make sure everything looks right. The 8000 bulbs we planted in the new maple and crabapple groves at the entry are looking very promising.

The geese have started laying eggs again. Not sitting on them yet, mind you, but I guess these are prep eggs.

A clutch of eggs

I saw a blue bird on the split rail fence by the Production Gardens and one kept perching on our porch rail as I worked at home yesterday. I do love blue birds!

I got to touch real soil Wednesday! Most of the gardens are too wet to do any real weeding but the raised beds in the Production Garden were perfect. I was able to satisfy my desire to play in the dirt by spending the afternoon raking the beds and fluffing the soil. There were more pressing things to do but it did my soul good.

The greenhiouse is full

We have been very busy in the greenhouse potting up the annuals and perennials that got delivered last week. It is always good to have the smell of plants and soilless mix filling the humid air- I have always loved this time in the greenhouse. The outside is brown and cold, inside the air is moist, and so healthy feeling.

Libby, Aiden, and Annick in their winter coats

Libby in her hugeness

And, most exciting we have begun to shear the sheep. Since we purchased the sheep last year after shearing, this is our first shearing. I have sheep at home but they are a Finn/Dorset  cross with fairly short fleece; our sheep at MacKenzie-Childs have long, soft, dense fleece. I have been in a small panic for about a month, knowing the April 1^stlambing date was approaching and not knowing how fat or thin the ewes were under their winter fleeces. I was initially worried they were fat because Libby looks HUGE. Fat ewes can mean lambing problems; I purchased all the “what if” equipment necessary for a hard birth. One day I went out to the sheep yard and body condition scored the sheep. This involves trying to feel the underlying muscle and bone structure by feeling through the wool. Kind of like giving the sheep a back massage. Then I became concerned that they were skinny. Skinny ewes can mean other lambing issues. All my weight concerns were resolved by Mattie, one of the designers, shearing the sheep this week. Last winter Mattie took the sheep shearing course offered by Cornell with the intent of helping us shear our home flock and shearing his own spinners flock. When I got the sheep for MacKenzie-Childs, I signed him up for shearing. Wednesday afternoon we began with Annick, thinking we would wiz through all three. Poor Mattie, about an hour later we let Annick free. Mattie and I had both watched professional shearers fleece 10 sheep in an hour, they make it all look so easy. Our Shetlands’ fleece is so long, so thick, and so full of lanolin that I really think it was not at all like the sheep Mattie had learned on. Imagine yourself bent over for over an hour trying to hold a 70 pound sheep between you knees- I think Mattie will need chiropractic help after all this.

Mattie clipping

The newly shorn Annick relaxed some of my lambing fears. She looks to be in fine condition; not too fat, not too thin, just right. She has a nice little udder beginning to form and looks to have a sizable “baby belly”. I was hoping to feel the lambs inside kicking but did not. Friday we will tackle Libby and Aiden. Aiden, as a wether, presents different anatomy for Mattie to deal with and Libby is just a monstrosity! She looks like a walking puff ball; her fleece is even thicker than Annick’s; additionally, she is what is termed dual coated-meaning she has long guard hairs and softer, shorter hair in her fleece. I spent a little time looking up custom wool processors to figure out what to do next with the fleece. I am very excited at the prospect of knitting with our own wool. This is all part of the really fun aspect of working at the MacKenzie-Childs estate. I never know quite what I will be doing next.

A pile of fleece- actually the discards

This year I am excited to add some different salvias to my repertoire. I have long had a fascination with salvias since reading the wonderful Annuals for Connoisseurs when I first started gardening. Eons ago, in the early days of the Internet, one of the first online transactions I made was to buy some exotic salvias. Living here in Zone 5, I mentally group salvias into 3 categories: the familiar seed grown salvias that used to be offered in red and bright red; perennial salvias like ‘Maynight’; and that (to me) exciting group that could be called temperennials-not really perennial in my zone, but usually vegetatively propagated. I probably first read about varieties like ‘Black and Blue’ in  a Fine Gardening article or in Martha Stewart. I was hooked; I loved the way they fit into the garden, looking more like a perennial than a staid, corseted bedding plant. They were hard to find, usually only offered by specialty retailers. Times have changed tremendously.

Salvia guaranitica 'Black and Blue' in the grass border

So this year I have expanded from my favorite Salvia fariacea ‘Victoria’ to include more S. gaurantica ‘Black and Blue’, and a wonderful (I hope) hybrid called Mesa that I have ordered in Pink, Violet and Lavender. Why? Well, I have a plan, a, dare I say it, genius of a plan. As I have mentioned before, we plant a lot of bulbs every fall. Each year it grows more challenging to avoid siting new bulbs on top of already existing bulbs. Lilies are not a problem, when we cut them down at the end of the season; we leave 2 to 3 inches of stalk. The large alliums are much like lilies; we just scatter the little ones if we discover them in our hole for new bulbs. Tulips are a moot point since we dig them up in the spring when they are done blooming.   It is the narcissi that give me the most grey hair. By November their foliage is long gone and Corinne and I have no idea where the existing clumps and where the holes are. We have tried various methods of marking the resting places of dormant bulbs. The first year,as I have mentioned before, we used zinc labels meticulously labeled with bulb names, like so many tiny tombstones. The effect was a little grim and the labels were heaved out by frost and scattered about by careless raking; far from a foolproof system. The next year we tried a, we thought, more cleaver system of labeling the bulb spots with golf tees. We utilized natural and white wooden tees that were intended to convey a threefold message. White tees were locations for new tulips, natural tees were locations of existing narcissi, and white and natural tees together were places to plant more narcissi. Brilliant! Except that wooden golf tees rot when left in moist soil for six months. Plastic would have been much better.

Enter plan C or should I say plan Salvia. Somehow I ordered twice the amount of Salvia farinacea ‘Victoria Blue’ that I needed. When looking at the extra flats of blue (as in goes with everything blue) flowers I realized I had the solution to my narcissus marking dilemma. Victoria Blue Salvia would make a perfect marker plant! The royal blue color works in all my gardens excepting the white garden and I do not worry about marking narcissi in that garden because the garden originated as naturalized narcissi following the stream bed. Salvia farinacea is also fairly impervious to the type of killing frost we need before clearing the garden for bulb planting; It keeps looking  good until we pull it as we plant bulbs. I was giddy at the solution.

Salvia farinacea 'Victoria' an excellent bulb marker!

So, what was serendipity last year is my plan this year. I have selected a number of new to me varieties for trial; I do  not know if they will hold up as well as S. farinacea but I will keep you informed.