This past Sunday we took a little trip out to Yellow Springs Farm and Nursery to check out the Native plants and their well known goat cheese. The cheese was delicious, the goats were cute and the kids made friends with Rosco the dog.
First off we said hello to the goats, who were not surprisingly very friendly. They were waiting to be let out into the field for a snack.
Rosco spent the time playing with the kids. He taught Sam how to play fetch. Sam followed this by saying that clearly he needs a dog. Of course I don’t think the 2 feline family members of our family would agree about that.
Maisie took charge of the camera. Not a bad shot! It is always fascinating to see the world from a small person’s point of view.
We tried their delicious goat cheeses! I highly recommend them, if you can find them! I think I will have to place an order sometime soon.
As for plants I wasn’t looking for anything in particular for the yard, except a super hardy native street tree. We decided on an American Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana). It may not be the most exciting tree, but it should be the right size, super sturdy, non-aggressive roots and it is native. They were really helpful and pointed out that this is widely used in the City of Philadelphia with good success. SOLD!
Our new tree is about 3 1/2′ tall. I think it should be a good size for planting in our diminutive grass strip between the sidewalk and curb. As much as a I love a big tree, I have had better luck with smaller specimens taking over time.
We also picked up a couple of beautiful grasses for the front yard. We picked out 2 varieties, both with reddish tinges in the fall. I think my favorite is Panicum virgatum ‘Shanendoah‘ with nice plumbs on top. It should get to be about 5′ tall.
The second grass is Little Bluestem ‘Prairie Blues’ which will get to be about 3 1/2-4′ tall. The color on it is really amazing! I am going to try and fit them in around the nandina in the front yard. They should be happy there with lots of sun and relatively dry soil. Hopefully I can get all of this planted this weekend. The weather looks good, of course there are several small jungles of weeds laughing at me. They better watch out, because I am hoping that their days are numbered!
I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!
