Update on Blackberry Homestead

Posted on by Julia

March 3, 2026

Between Nox’s and my health problems, I didn’t get as much done as I had hoped on Blackberry Homestead.

Some of you may remember the post I did on the purple magnolia in front of the house last year. We only got a few blooms due to a bitter freeze.

This year was somewhat different. Starting on February 16, the purple magnolia began to burst into blooms, reminding me of an amethyst cluster. The gorgeous purple blooms insides appeared to glow in the twilight and moonlight; they were stunning.

We got a hard freeze and it killed off the blooms.

Just started opening
A few blooms
View from the back field
Opening even more
So many buds and blooms
From the backyard
Open bloom
Sunset before the cold
Flowers killed of by low 20’s F
From the backyard
Purple Magnolia, February 2026

We put out a couple of suet bird feeder this winter. We had a downy woodpecker visit a few times, along with redwing blackbirds. The woodpecker is hard to see on the side of the feeder next to the tree.

On February 25, I planted two flats, one flat with peppers and eggplants and other flat with alpine and wild strawberries.

I plan to do another flat with tomatoes.

Bruce and I put the quilt my sister-in-law made for me (us) on the bed. It is lovely.

I enjoyed this shadow.

Glass oil lamp shadow with curled shadows from the iron work on the front porch

A picture of the trees trying to catch the moon as it rises.

The moon rise

We were able to get the front for the long drawer on the workbench earlier in February. Bruce and I put the drawer together on February 6.

While we were putting together the workbench, we noticed flashing lights at the bottom of our driveway. One cop car and another car were pulled into our driveway. Shortly after, another cop car arrived. It appeared the driver of the car pulled over was put in the second cop car. The first cop car stayed until someone arrived to drive the car away.

I was glad we didn’t need to go anywhere. They were blocking the driveway for 30 to 45 minutes.

The daffodils started blooming around February 19.

On February 28 (Saturday), we picked up where we had left of building out the large garden bed. We weren’t able to finish earlier due to Bruce’s dad health issues and the cold weather.

On March 1 (Sunday), we finished building the bed and putting the wood into the bed for Hügelkultur.

We took Monday (March 2) off from garden work, mostly. We drove to Huntsville and met up with a friend for lunch. Then we wondered through Costco.

When we got home, a red-shouldered hawk was sitting on the top wire that parallels the ditch by the road. We stopped to look at it and it flew away as I was getting my phone out to take a picture.

Red-shouldered Hawk Flying Away

After putting the food away, we went for a walk around Blackberry Homestead. We were looking at things and discussing what we want to do. We noticed the apple trees budding out. Leaves had sprouted on one of the peach trees. The blueberries flower buds are visible.

We uncovered the figs. They had just started to bud out, so we think we uncovered them soon enough.

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset, sitting on the front porch.

25 thoughts on “Update on Blackberry Homestead”

  1. You have certainly been busy! I am sorry your blooms did not survive on the purple magnolia–those are so beautiful. I fear my magnolia will not survive, and indeed, it is a raggedly-looking mess at the moment.

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  4. How pretty everything looks! You are several weeks ahead of us with spring. The birds have returned, but the flowers aren’t blooming, and the trees have yet to flower or leaf.

    Enjoy those lovely sunsets for us!

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  5. Thanks for the property tour! It looks lovely and you certainly have charted a busy Spring for yourselves. I have a couple of magnolias too but they are a different species I guess – real big white flowers and year around green leaves. Twice a year there’s a leaf fall and then I call them my trash trees. I learned a new word – Hügelkultur – and that sounds interesting.

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    1. I’ll do a post on Hugelkulur and how we are using the concept.

      When I was a kid, the purple magnolias were called Japanese magnolias.

      The magnolias you have could be a Southern Magnolia or a Teddy Bear Magnolia (related to the Southern Magnolia). Based on your description, it is most likely a Southern Magnolia.

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  6. Thanks for the updates. Life is getting back to normal – though the losses will still be felt, of course. The purple Magnolia tree was gorgeous while it lasted. Beautiful sunset!

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    1. We’ve been using Hügelkultur in all our tall beds. Before, we only used stumps at the ends of the beds and filled the rest with large and small branches. We are hoping the tree logs will make filling the beds easier and the dirt won’t sink as much since it won’t fall through the holes left in the branch piles.

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Published by Julia

I am a retired software solutions architect. I have been married to my husband, Bruce, for over forty years. We have a 12-pound dog, Nox, who we love dearly. She has been with us since 2009. We went full-time RVing for 3.5 years and saw much of the United States. We bought a ranch house on a hill in the middle of five acres. We are working on creating our homestead. I love cooking and enjoy sharing recipes. I am also an artist and I’ll share my current projects. Reading is my favorite hobby.