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.

Sunday, March 30, 2014

New Coop, more progress!

Harmony the Farmer Girl with the new coop
Well finally got a break from my crazy job. My boss is back to work and arranged for me to have a 3 day weekend. Whooo Hoooo!

Plus I got out of work early Friday afternoon. After chores I headed for the valley to meet my daughter and oldest grand daughter, Miracle. Miracle likes to draw and had one of her pictures selected to be displayed at the school district's office. I ended up coming home with her baby sister, Harmony.


Harmony is really a farmer girl and game for most anything around here, even if it's a little icky. On Saturday morning we got up early and did all the chores, then headed for Scottsdale. A lovely young woman was moving out of state and I bought this cute little chicken coop from her. She threw in a ton of other chicken paraphernalia  along with a little white Silkie hen. (I seem to have become a Silkie magnet, people keep giving them to me!) Harmony helped me get it washed out and sprayed for bugs (just in case) and then we moved Miss Bianca the broody in with her 8 eggs.

Claire

Henrietta
We then returned the beautiful golden girls, Claire and Henrietta to their 'real' chicken mom, my friend Cindy. It was so funny to watch Henny jump up on the wall and talk to Cindy and get loves. Who says chickens aren't smart!




Claire and Henny will take a break from breeding over the summer. They will come back in the fall to visit with Claude so we can hatch more babies. When these two girls came to stay with me a couple of Easter egger pullets took their place at Cindy's to produce the breakfast eggs. So those two girls came home with me to rejoin the layer flock here.

In addition Cindy had two young cockerels from Henny and Claude that also came home with me to finish growing out. I'll have to get pictures of them tomorrow.

And today we slept a bit late, did chores and got going. Harmony helped me plant a seedling mulberry tree that sprouted up in one of my pots last year. It's sited so that in a couple of years it will help shade the kennels from the late afternoon sun.


The wind blew all day but it was cloudy and cool. We had to build a big berm on the downhill side. I am hoping this will help keep runoff water from washing the tree out. When we were done we had some delicious brownies baked by my friend Cindy for my birthday. Yummy ;-)


1 comment:

  1. Mary, that's a mighty fine coop you inherited. It's great that your grand daughters are fond of helping you around the homestead. I've yet to get my grandson, who lives with me, interested in any kind of gardening. He'd just rather eat the corn and pickles that come from the garden and his thoughts gravitate toward, "You know they sell those at Walmart just over the hill. Why are you working so hard when you could be playing." Well, he's only nine so I'm going to keep trying to show him at least to be thankful for those that do grow his food. He's starting to see just how long it takes to grow that ear of sweet corn, contemplate the fact it has to be harvested, processed, and transported to the store before it can be bought and eaten. I guess that will have to do for now.



    Mulberry trees, blah, don't get me started about them. I just chopped out a mulberry tree that sprouted up in the chain link fence line. Here in Nebraska they grow like weeds along a fence line. The birds love their berries and well like to drop their load while sitting on the fence. The bird's digestive system must activate and invigorate the seeds to grow. Every year I must run the fence line to root out the mulberry sprouts. It's a tedious job but if not done will be totally out of control in just a couple years.



    I imagine you enjoyed your three day weekend immensely. Have a great edible garden day.

    ReplyDelete