Stan & Joyce Orchard

Tiger Lily Lives

Our son and his family recently sold their house and moved to a new house here on The Orchard Compound. This lily was growing in the ground at their old place and was near death. So they dug it up and threw it in a plastic bag and brought it here. We threw it in a pot and it has come back to life. Excellent fragrance.

Petunia Love

Petunia Love – Here on The Orchard Compound we love petunias. One of the flowers we can grow well. Tried some different color combinations this year. Now that the summer heat has arrived in full they’re exploding. Just love that!

Dragonfly Guardian

This little guy, unlike others of the species around here, is not bashful at all. It sits atop one of the stakes in our greenhouse, keeping those marvelous eyes on our tomatoes, peppers, etc. One of many critters that co-habitate with us in there.

Smiling Dragonfly

We have many insect friends here on The Orchard Compound, especially dragonflies. I’m always trying to snap photos of them but they usually fly off. This little guy perched on a thin piece of metal on our old tractor and stayed still long enough for me to get a shot. But when opened in my photo editor, I found this bug was smiling at me! Weird.

Good Morning!

This big guy wandered through this morning just after sunrise. Never tire of watching them, especially this time of year. Svelt coats, fuzzy antlers, rippling muscles. Amazing, fascinating creatures.

First Tomatoes

The weather this spring in our part of the world has been miserably cool and wet. Nice to spot our first tomatoes in the greenhouse this morning. A little bit of summer in this dark, damp season.

Pepper Pandemonium

Weather around here this spring has been cool and wet to say the least. But with the greenhouse we built last year we’re growing peppers for the first time. Amazing to watch them grow along with tomatoes, flowers, etc. We’ve been enjoying spinach, lettuce, radishes, peas for months. Life is good. Watch it grow.

Fuzzy Antler Time

Favorite time of year as they take on summer coats and new racks.

Sweet William

In the summer of 2021 I found a packet of seeds. Never heard of Sweet William before let alone grown any. So, threw some in a pot and left them alone. Put the pot in our new greenhouse where the plants thrived over winter. So much so that we divided them into four pots. Spring 2022 we’re now enjoying cut flowers that last for two weeks easy. A beautiful gardening discovery.

Log Splitter Miracle

Joyce Carol and I started heating with firewood in the mid-70s. In all those years we salvaged wood from dumpsters, forests, and elsewhere. I used various saws and axes and stoves. It became a way of life. But today for the first time in nearly a half century I used a hydraulic log splitter. Why in the world did it take me so long to learn this? Good grief, it’s amazing.