Thanks to the coldest May in Germany since 1815 and much snow and rain from December till June the 50 trees have survived their first winter and are in bud.

The last to leaf is the walnut tree at the far southwest corner of the property. Every one of the trees made it!

A friend who came to visit the last weekend in May remarked that the trees seemed to bring even more birds to settle among their branches. One tree can be the home to dozens, if not hundreds, of living organisms and though they look rather puny now under the wide blue sky we trust they are well on their way to becoming giants.

We have decided to keep the grass long around the new groves that are now establishing themselves, where yarrow, tansy, oxeye daisy and Queen Anne’s lace already grow. This reflects the mixture of wildflowers and perennials that grow around the buildings, the wildflowers planted from seed according to the method set out by Dr. James Hitchmough in his book, Sowing Beauty.

A surprise this year in the wildflower mix was the biennial Isatis tinctoria, or woad. Woad was the blue pigment extracted from the leaves of Isatis, used as a textile coloring before indigo was widely used.