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.

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Major Coop Progress

Giotto
Before I show you the major progress that happened on the coop today, I'll show you some pics I forgot to put in my last post. Of course my constant companion, Giotto, now 12 weeks old. He is a good boy, although a baby yet. He is learning when I say NO! I really mean it.

He has begun to sort of "bounce" at the chickens, especially the Silkies. It's like he's bouncing on his front feet. I don't know if he thinks it's funny to scare them and watch them scatter or if he's trying to get them to play with him. He usually stops with a stern NO! and so far there haven't been any real issues.

He is also learning to sit still for brushing. He is shedding his baby coat and it is matting up, especially on his hindquarters. I had to get an undercoat rake to help get it out. But he is an energetic, wiggly, bouncy puppy and he just can't sit still for very long  at a time. So I try to work on it a few minutes in the morning and again in the evening.

 

I have some wall pots by the front door of the house. I fell in love with the idea when I went to Italy. There all the little alleys are lined with them. Most have geraniums but I also saw some with basil and different flowers. They are hard to come by here. I got some plastic ones from Amazon and found another at a thrift store. The beautiful ceramic ones I bought at a nursery.  These are planted with lobelia and sweet alyssum.

Almost finished!

I was up early and worked most of the day on the new coop.

Here's the northwest end. This end needs some trim is fill a gap on one side of the door and some sort of latch. I need to put up fence wire on the opening on the left  and fill some gaps under the bottom frame.






The inside partition is finished except for a latch on the door and filling the gap underneath the bottom board.







And here is the southeast end of the coop. It also needs the openings wired up.









mummified frog
Giotto hung out with me all day, mostly snoozing in the shade. But he did go off adventuring this evening while I finished up the painting. He brought back a mummified frog and appeared to be intent on eating it. I didn't think that was such a great idea so took it from him. He didn't object really but he did give 'that' look.





I'm not talking to you....

1 comment:

  1. Mary, your coop looks very intriguing. The use of cattle panels and tarps is a unique concept. The new addition to the homestead (Giottio) should produce many future stories. I'm glad even in his puppy behavior that he is listening to your commands and backing off with scaring the chickens. Is he a breed of guard dog? I've been reading several posts about homesteads with guard dogs. It seems like a great way to protect the homestead. I always enjoy your posts about the activities happening on your homestead.

    Have a great major coop progress day.

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