Pastures and House Lawn

Observations from a Summer Solstice Week

June 22, 2020 /
  • Rauhocereus Riosaniensis
  • Pilosocereus Albisummus
  • Gopher tortoise
  • Tiger beetle
  • East pasture
  • West pasture
  • Bluebird
  • Banana bed with watermelon, squash
  • Duck garden with bushy pigeon peas, lush growth
Summer Solstice week at Cactus Island has provided plenty of moments worth recording. I realized the longest day of the year was about to set with the sun when I photographed the tent nursery before coming in for the night. Hard work here has a fringe benefit of constant beauty and variety every time we turn a corner. A year of intensive farming rewards us with lush botanical breadth, depth and height. Pigeon pea shrubs in the Duck Garden should last about five years and easily reach ten feet, creating a mini permaculture forest in several rows. The three softball-sized Manzano bananas on the new Nannertopia have now reached almost five feet and have formed lush mats with basal pup stems. Watermelon, fig, squash and sweet potato are greening up the rest.

I’ve debagged and hardened off seedlings of several species of cactus that are growing faster with fresh air, fertilizer and bacterial fungus gnat control. Even the mid-week low point of accidentally kicking over a”gestating” bagged tray of about 1400 native fragrant prickly apple cactus turned out well after a 12 hour shift of placing every single one in 98-cell trays….they all appear to have made it and are actually growing noticeably larger in that short amount of time! They weren’t to be transplanted for another three weeks. Along the driveway the seven foot blue P. Azureus survived winter burn and now has three arms starting to form in addition to that top pup.

Wildlife making a good show, and ouch, tiger beetles not only definitely bite but are rapid-fire biters on the capturing hand. I think this is called a mustached tiger beetle but can’t be certain. Fire ants got me too. The jumbo gopher tortoise finally made an appearance after a month of watching its huge burrow grow along the driveway. I hope it doesn’t discover the tasty cactus nearby. Everything goes on here under the watch of a healthy population of bluebird.

James V. Freeman is an established visual artist (oil painting) with a deep interest in natural history, plants and farming. He has had numerous solo shows, a solo museum show, an upcoming museum show and his work has been featured in many publications to date. He currently has a studio in Williston, Fl at the family farm and homestead, "Cactus Island", and as a farmer, specializes in growing columnar cacti of the Caribbean and Gulf countries as well as the aquatic Madegascar Lace Plant. James and his mom Sharon manage and develop the permaculture homestead.

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