Two of our Favorite Things: Gardening and Nature

It's that time of year when most of our time is spent outdoors and we love it!  We are dedicating a large portion of our time right now to getting our garden planted.  Some of the beds need a fair bit of prepping so it's slow going, but will pay off later.  We planted the northeast corner of the garden in the standard 3 Sister's arrangement: corn, beans and squash.  It will be fun to see how these grow together.

After an evening of planting, we toured a garlic mustard infestation to assess how we will handle it and Steve discovered this super cute adult American toad burrowed into the soil, which is where they hang out during the day.  It's also adjacent to the wetland we created last summer.

We've heard the adults calling lately and were delighted to discover toad tadpoles in our wetland!

Many dragonfly exoskeletons are floating on the surface of the wetland so we know those guys overwintered and metamorphosed this spring.  There is so much wildlife using this small wetland after less than a year.  It really speaks to their ability to find new areas and capitalize on the more abundant habitat!

We also spotted this moth though I've not yet come up with the identification.

It's so super fun to take our daily or twice daily tours again and watch all the plants we've planted grow, the birds taking care of their babies in nests on our property and to make new discoveries each time we are out.  Love it!