Today is first snake day.

We live right next to a marsh, so are surrounded by amphibian song. Heard the first toads today. I love their little trills! m.youtube.com/watch?v=A2F2...

I’ve decided that I’ll use this account as a log for when I see “firsts”—as in first of the season. I’m in Southeast Michigan. Today: first bumblebee (actually saw several)! Also saw the first butterfly. #spring

The red-winged blackbirds have officially returned to #Michigan !#spring #itshappening 🌱

What I’m workin’ with today. 😍Wrapped bouquets & Mason jar arrangements will be heading to Simply Fresh Market in Brighton tomorrow morning. 💗

Happy #SuperbOwl 🦉 Sunday to all who celebrate.

Seed inventory/organization begins, later than intended, as usual. 😅

1st-2nd February is Imbolc, a Gaelic festival celebrating the impending lambing season and the birth of new life. A Scottish legend tells that the arrival of snowdrops infuriates Beira, Queen of Winter, so she brings frost and snow as she battles to keep her hold. #FolkloreSunday

Hello #MI friends! I’m just gonna leave this here in the off chance someone might see it who’s actually in my vicinity…I’m bringing in Ypsi grown tulips for V-Day & deliver to all of Brighton + parts of Howell, Milford, Whitmore Lake, & South Lyon. 2026 bouquet subscriptions are also now live!

I didn’t think I could love bees any more than I already do. edition.cnn.com/2025/11/12/s...

I don’t think I ever shared a photo of our new farm stand here! Here’s a pic of it from last week, before the first snowfall. The stand was both constructed & painted by Lansing, MI artist Tom Phillips.

I always take a pic of the season’s first handful of cherry tomatoes, which this year came on 8/20. (Late!) They’re just not ripening, & other people have been telling me theirs aren’t either. Sure, my toms got early blight & the deer have cropped them a few times, but… www.mlive.com/news/grand-r...

Let us remember that it is Earth who gives us life -- and that this time of delusional excess is soon coming to an end.

First monarch caterpillar sighting of the year! This one is tiny, about the length of my pinky fingernail. The milkweed in my front garden bed looks awful & I would love to rip it out for aesthetic reasons, but there it will stay.

Just found out today is #WorldSnakeDay so I’m joining in the celebration. I’ve seen more garter snakes on our little farm than anywhere else ever—I think they nest under our deck! Here is a portrait I took of one sunning on a log shortly after we moved in. 🐍

Glad I got the garlic harvested before the rain. This year’s crop was grown with seed sourced from Northwoods Farm and Skill in Michigan, as well as some we saved ourselves. I’ll be hanging these to cure in our barn’s loft, & after that I’ll bundle them with dried flowers & herbs. 🌸🧄🌿

Today in #flowers : the zins are beginning

🌞 Happy Summer Solstice 🌞 from the wasp mantidfly, which isn’t a wasp or a mantid but is definitely my new favorite #insect Seen here on one of our sweet pepper plants.

Why keep geese when wild ones will do the trick? Currently three couples with three goslings each are raising their babes here, & they mow through at least 3 times a day. Our vineyard just got planted, plz excuse the mess! (& don’t mind the sound of our radon removal system.) #farming

This spring I have been keeping a record of “firsts.” The first pea flowers of the season opened today. Also saw the first purslane sprout & the first earwig. #June

Meant to do this 😉…latest bouquet

If you see this, post a 🌺. Lush harvest of roses and yarrow from my medicine garden! #bloomsky 🌱

Iris season 💜🤍💛 This is the only variety I have & they are some my mother-in-law dug up & gave me—no tag. I don’t know a lot about irises, so if anyone knows what kind they are, plz do tell! #irises #flowers #bloomscrolling

A deep drink. (If anyone can ID this little wing, I’d appreciate it!) #butterfly #bloomscrolling

Happy World Turtle Day! We are bordered by marshes so get lots of shelled visitors on our farm, from freshly hatched painted turtles to elderly snappers.

Today is World Bee Day. There are around 20,000 species of bees in the world, yet honey bees gets most of the fanfare. Here’s to the sweat bees, the leafcutter bees, the mason bees, the longhorn bees, the bumble bees, the carpenter bees, the squash bees, and all the rest of our unsung bee heroes!

Enter the ranunculus portal ✨

Also: radishes! (More to come)

It’s morel season! We’re fortunate to have a patch very close by. 😉 Do you know any good morel recipes?

Now that’s more like it. 8” stem, flower still unfurling. (Much better than 2” stems!)

Happy Mother’s Day weekend! We’re at the Brighton Farmers Market today w/ tulips, bouquets, rhubarb, & fresh herbs. Our 💐subscriptions are 5% off for one more day—treat mom to a summer full of flowers! Market runs til 1 in the City’s Municipal Parking Lot, 200 N. First Street, Brighton, MI.

Preppin’ for the farmer’s market tomorrow. Some of my tulips, flowering branches from the wild cherry in the yard, motherwort from a little spot I’ve been visiting for years, stock from Red Cardinal farm in South Lyon. Soundtrack courtesy of The Mars Volta: “Mito de los trece cielos” 💐

The tulips are almost done, but I’m still harvesting these beauties. Viridiflora “Virichic” 🌷

Look closer ✨🌷✨ Tulip “La Belle Epoque”)

Farm stand bouquet. Spring flowers might be my favorites 😍

The farm stand is open for the first time this season, & we’ve got pretties for sale ✨🌷✨

Was hoping for 12 inch stem length on these babes, but so far it’s more like 2 🙃

Swimming in muscari over here. Did you know that grape & musk hyacinths are edible, top to toe? I didn’t know this until last year, when my toddler decided to eat one & I had to look it up to see whether I needed to rush him to the hospital. Learn more: www.eattheweeds.com/tassel-musk-...

Join Xerces and help protect pollinators across Wisconsin! Job Title: Wisconsin Pollinator Conservation Specialist 🌎Location: Remote in Wisconsin (Madison regional area preferred) 💲Compensation: $62,857 per year 📅Apply by: May 8, 2025 Learn more and apply at xerces.org/jobs

Spinning in Daffodils.

Today’s wildlife sightings on the property: two muskrats, two painted turtles, five green frogs, a garter snake, a green heron, two downy woodpeckers, bluebirds, redwing blackbirds, many other birds, &, just now, my nemesis: a whistle pig.

It’s easy to feel the weight of lost protections and broken promises. But stewardship was never theirs to give or take. Small acts still matter—in the patches we rewild, in the pollinators we protect, in the native seeds we sow, and in the wild things we tend. Hope still matters. Happy Earth Day.

My heart 🥹

AADL's Seed Sampler is back for spring! Head to your local library and check out our Seed Sampler stations. Choose from four assembled bundles for the spring 2025 season—no need to check out or place an order! → aadl.org/seedsampler

🧵 We're extremely concerned DOGE has gained access to data that would help them target farmworkers & organizations serving them. Please help us spread the word in your communities. 🚨 Here's what we know.

…also pesto season. The notoriously invasive garlic mustard springs up early. Tear it out wherever you see it (& whip up some dips) #foraging #Michigan

Nettle season 🫖 #foraging #herbalism #Michigan

Action alert! rafiusa.quorum.us/priority-cam...

The Return of the Rhubarb. Looks so wild when it emerges! #plants #Michigan