My Edible Garden

I've been gardening for most of my life and have been a devoted fan of organic gardening the whole time. It just makes so much more sense to work in harmony with Mother Nature than to fight her. Besides which it is better for the planet and better for our bodies. Here you can see what I'm planting and harvesting, with gardening hints and resources thrown in for good measure.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Harvest Monday

Barred Rock
Another Harvest Monday, this blog hop is sponsored by Daphne's Dandelions and is a lot of fun, go check out all the gardeners sharing their harvests and gardens all over the world.


mmmm I don't seem to have taken any harvest pictures this week, but it was mostly more of the same, salad with many kinds of lettuce, chard, chickweed, lamb's quarters, arugula. Some more yellow turnips and a few ounces of peas.

More exciting is that I went on Sat. and picked up 4 pullets and a rooster. The rooster and one pullet are Buff Orpingtons, the other three pullets are Barred Rocks. Actually I suppose two of them are hens now, as I found 2 eggs on Sat. evening.

The chickens settled into their new home just fine. They even laid those eggs right in the nest box.


Hawk
Of course don't you know that as soon as I get chickens, look what shows up. Actually there were two of these hawks circling the canyon making their eerie sounding calls and sort of playing with each other, perhaps getting ready to mate. I haven't had time to look up and try to identify them, anyone know? I"ll be adding some wires over the top of the chicken run and draping some bird netting over them, to try and discourage the hawks from striking at the chickens. Because there are way too many rabbits around here for them to eat instead!

bean seedlings








On March 10 as an experiment I planted some Royal Burgundy bush beans in my new cold frame. Despite freezing and snow last weekend, they are sprouting.

While going through my seed box I found some Hale's Best Jumbo Cantaloupe seed, home grown from 2003. I planted about 50 of them in the cold frame, expecting, if I was lucky to get one or two to sprout. Many more than that are sprouting and I"ll have to thin them out or transplant them. Actually I'll probably just thin them out, I have a lot more seed!

9 comments:

  1. Dang hawks! Our hens were outside roaming the garden last summer and a hawk swooped down on them just as my wife was coming outside. She yelled and it spooked the hawk and it flew off. Had she been 5 seconds later we would have been down one hen!!

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  2. what a cute chicken. I love chickens so much, glad they are adjusting so well.

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  3. Just in case you weren't aware the link you put on Daphne's page doesn't work. Beautiful chicken.

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  4. How eggciting, hens and a roster and 2 eggs!!!

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  5. Congrats on the hens. I dream of chickens, but so far have been to lazy to really want to keep them.

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  6. Good looking chicken! I adore our little flock of hens. Sounds like you are getting quite a nice spring greens harvest.

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  7. Jumbo cantaloupe, ha? That sounds amazing! We haven't had much luck growing melons here, but I am going to keep trying :-) Your hens sound like they're already doing their job! Good stuff! Enjoy those eggs :-)

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  8. How exciting to bring home some new chickens! I hope those hawks focus on the rabbits instead of your flock. It makes me want to get some chickens.. maybe someday. Good luck with your jumbo cantaloupes!

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  9. No chickens here but I do see and hear the hawks. My daughter in NH has chickens but her predator has been a fox.

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