New Chickies
October 3, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Well last weekend I made an all day trip to a breeder’s and picked up 14 Buff Orpington chicks. They were from one to a few days old. I have been looking for someone in state that had Buffs. They are a Heritage breed. I had decided to raise and breed one of the Heritage breeds to keep them alive. While Buffs are not currently endangered, they very much suit my purpose. They are good brown egg layers and also grow fairly quickly for meat. Out of these 14 chicks I will probably keep 4-6 hens and 1 rooster. The rest will go in the freezer. Then next summer when they are laying well I’ll begin to hatch out batches of chicks to supply the table and perhaps sell a few.
Here they are enjoying some fresh air & sunshine. The rest of the time they are staying in a box in the living room. Little chicks have to stay warm until they get all their feathers. If their momma hatches them out she will take care of them, otherwise it’s up to you.
Here they are enjoying some fresh air & sunshine. The rest of the time they are staying in a box in the living room. Little chicks have to stay warm until they get all their feathers. If their momma hatches them out she will take care of them, otherwise it’s up to you.
Heavenly Blue morning glories cover an arch by the front gate.
The small sunflowers are still blooming. They attract a lot of butterflies and bees of all kinds.
One of the surviving Heritage raspberries has put on a few fruits.
The Moon & Stars watermelon is going strong, tho no fruit yet.
Elephant Ears & Canna lily
The Jicama are going strong, just hope they are making nice big roots!
Can’t hardly walk beside the house for all the plants out there.
Delicata squash almost ready to pick.
The eggplants in pots on the patio are doing very well.
A couple of Rio Grande pepper plants loaded with fruit.
The back garden. The two empy beds in the middle are for carrots and parsnips.
Kentucky Wonder green beans cover a 5′ wire cage. So far it’s been so hot they haven’t set any beans, but I found one yesterday so we should have lots of them soon.
Apache Purple pod beans cover part of the greenhouse. They are just beginning to bloom.
Cucumbers & beans. I don’t think we’ll get many more cukes tho, they are severly infested with aphids. I think I should probably just pull them out.
Four o’clocks bloom by the front gate.
16 baby artichoke plants in their pots. Just not sure where I’m going to plant them!
The 11′ Lima beans, which still have yeilded no beans.
Heavenly Blue morning glories cover part of the greenhouse. You can just see one of the Kabocha squash in the leaves at the lower left.
Here you can see that corner of the greenhouse on the right, then the baby corn, the row of paste tomatoes and on the left some cucumbers and an apple tree still in it’s pot.
Yesterday and again today it is raining. Actually when I took this pic through the front door it was also hailing. We got .4″ of rain yesterday and it is very dark and rainy again today. We were going to go to the lizard walk at the arboretum today, but don’t think that is going to happen. This rain looks like it might hang out all day. It is 9 AM and it is as dark outside as if the sun were nearly down! And I’m loving it and so it the garden.
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Here’s the big corn patch, most of what you can see here is the Bloody Butcher beginning to tassel. Also the patch of small seeded sunflowers. Close up is a part of an old greeting card rack, which has become a trellis for a couple of luffa plants.
I love the color of this small seeded sunflower!
Compare this shot of the yellow Moon & Stars watermelon plants with the one from July 4th and realize that is only 24 days of growth!
The Elephant Ears are getting huge and the canna isn’t doing too shabby either!
A tomato forest. After I took this pic I actually pruned these back a bit. With it being over 100 degrees every day I know that none of the current blossoms are going to set, so I took out some of the excess suckers and branches. That way the plants will stay shorter and are less likely to break later when they do start setting fruit again.
Here you see Miracle’s triple header sunflower is falling down on the baby corn. Her giant 8 & 1/2 foot one is in the background.
If you look closely where the leaves clasp the stalks you can see the little ear shoots coming out on our baby corn. The girls haven’t seen it yet, but they will be excited when they do-they have been waiting for the baby corn all summer.
The yard long beans are growing like crazy in the heat. The yellow blossoms are the Double Yield cukes from www.freedomseeds.com
Pickles on the vine.
The Kabocha squash by the greenhouse is turning orange already.
An apple of unknown variety.
In spite of the earlier rodent attack, the cantaloupes on the compost pile are making a come back. This one will be ready soon.
A view of the back garden, with hollyhocks and sunflowers.
These are Polish Linquisa paste tomatoes. Almost ready for makin’ sauce!
That roque squash plant turns out to be a Kabocha.
A yard long bean. They do love the heat.
Double Yield cucumbers from www.freedomseeds.com are bloomin up a storm
Huckleberries. I’ve never grown this before. They are loaded with fruit and while it is black it doesn’t seem to be ready to pick yet.
The front yard grain patch. In the front the small seeded sunflowers are beginning to bloom. In the back ground the bloody butcher corn, popping sorhgum and broom corn.
This is the raspberry bed that was overseeded to buckwheat. I discovered I probably planted the buckwheat too thick and with the heat it was taking a lot of water to keep it from wilting. So I pulled it up, picked off a few ripe seeds and laid it back down, along with the wild sunflowers, as mulch for the raspberries. We will probably have more buckwheat and sunflowers later on when the monsoon gets around to giving up some rain.
The moon & stars watermelon plants are taking off and outgrowing their little cages.
No Vacancy. The new rabbit condo is full with our 4 does in place. When the weather cools off I’ll build another like it for the 2 bucks, which will also give me space to hold fryers over if I need to.
The greywater filter tub, with canna lilly, elephant ears and kabocha squash.
The Jicama are really taking off now that it is really hot. I just don’t know why the leaves are scorching like this.
More ‘maters. These are the Imur Prior Beta, nice 1 ounce fruits.
The yellow peppers are Rio Grande, with a nice mild heat. There are some green bells hiding in the back ground.
This squash started out innocently enough, just a little sprout in the compost in the corner of the greenhouse bed…..I now believe it is an alien bent on taking over the garden!
Liberty said we had to grow pickles and so we are, here’s a couple still on the vine 
Here’s the greenhouse from the other side. The big bushy plants in the tubs are huckleberries. I haven’t grown them before but they are doing very well, loaded with flowers and green fruit.
I just finished potting on some eggplants and peppers into these 2 1/2 gallon containers. The peppers are Rio Grande. The large leaved plant just behind the peppers is my little fig tree, growing from a cutting I took last fall. Behind everything are some of the potted potatoes.
A Delicata squash grown in a large tub. I love these little winter squash, they are very sweet and tasty. Much better than any acorn I’ve ever tried.
Purple de Milpa, a purple tomatillo from the Seed Saver’s Exchange.
On the patio the Trombocinno is taking off and so are the yard long beans.
A young Trombocinno squash
these “Snow White” tomatoes are certainly misnamed, tho they are sweet and juicy.
The Jicama have finally quit pouting and started growing now that is warmer.
The grey water filter tub is growing a good crop too. Kabocha squash, Elephant ears, canna lilly
A Moon & stars Heirloom watermelon seedling. This time of year nothing is safe from the birds and every little seedling has to be caged to keep them from being ripped up and eaten.
The King of the Garden Lima beans are still going at it. They are now 11 FEET tall!
Bloody Butcher corn is doing well. some of the popping sorghum and broom corn were wiped out in an afternoon when the chickens got loose, but there are still some plants left.
Looking along the driveway from the front steps, the bergamot is blooming, the grape vine thinks that everything is there just for it to climb on, like the apple tree.
This is a Blacktail Mountain watermelon. It’s one of the ones growing on the compost pile out back.
Here’s another little watermelon along with a cantaloupe. We would be much closer to eating cantaloupes except for the darn rodents that ate every single developing fruit! as well as munching on the vines. They are making a comeback now though.
Baby Blue Hubbard squash on their compost pile. They look a bit sad because I forgot to water them one day and when I got to them they were badly wilted. They are doing fine now though, with several small squash coming on.
Here’s one of those Baby Blues, next to the compost thermometer, which still registers 140 degrees. It actually went down to 130 but a good watering and it went up to 150, but has settled back down to 140 again.
We had a nice thunderstorm this evening and I spied this double rainbow when I went outside after the rain.