Another Garden/Chicken Update

April 5, 2013

My last update was only a week ago but there is much to post about. It will only get busier around here as the weather warms up and the chicks continue to grow!

The first week of March, I planted garlic and potatoes. The garlic has emerged but the potatoes have not 😦 I bought the potato seed locally, waited until the ground was 50 degrees (45 degrees is recommended), and planted them in composted chicken manure. We also put horse manure on top so that whenever it rains, they will get some compost tea for fertilization. We have been having quite a bit of rain so I would not be surprised if they have not come up because they are rotten. I think I will give them a little longer before I dig to see what’s going on.

(garlic emerging around Peach Tree)

We received our Christmas present from my brother and sister-in-law (raspberries!) and planted those in horse manure this week by our blueberry bushes. It is not likely we will get raspberries this year but hopefully next year we will!

(Row where we planted 10 raspberry plants. The other bare plants you are seeing are blueberry bushes and if you look REALLY closely, you can see a Peach Tree blooming to the left)

I also planted some peas (OLD seed) and carrots a couple of weeks ago and this week as well. It takes a while for carrots to come up so I am still hopeful for them. I will post pics if anything ever sprouts 🙂 I think I’m going to plant some more carrots today.

The chicks continue to grow. They are 4 weeks now and are flying all over the coop. I was just told our March weather this year was typical of our average January temperatures in years past. Craziness. So, the chicks still have a heat lamp on them at night in the coop.

We are working little by little on the tractor. We put the chicks in whenever it is nice enough outside so they can get used to it. We basically only lack a ramp to the nesting boxes before they can go in the tractor daily.

We also put a window in the coop (there is ventilation at the top but we felt they needed more light) that the kids raise & lower every day.

The only thing we lack with the coop, really, are stairs…

Then, of course, we are going to get started on the run…and we are thinking about getting a dog to help keep the birds safe and to warn our children if there is anything in the coop when they go check for eggs…so we need to go check the pounds for a puppy with some type of guardian dog in him/her…just like making gravy…it never ends…

Oh, the Peach, Pear, and Apple trees are starting to bloom also! It looks really pretty…so of course I forgot to take a picture [meh]…the blueberry bushes are thinking about it…

That is what has been happening over the past week outside.  As far as inside, I am trying two new things that I have never tried before. Update coming soon. I have ‘jumped into’ so many things lately that I am kind of on a roll! Support me when I crash & burn, mmm’kay? 😉

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Early Spring Back to Eden Garden Update

March 6, 2013

I’ve been planning and planning my garden. All of a sudden, I feel behind as many things need to be planted already! How did that happen?!

We’re starting March out running!

Planted who knows how many potatoes.

Should have just put cardboard down, potatoes, composted chicken manure, and then 8” of mulch but we do not always have the motivation to do that much work at once so when we had the motivation to do cardboard & mulch but I didn’t have any manure and it wasn’t time to plant potatoes yet, we just went ahead and did it. Which means when it came time to plant the potatoes we had to dig through 8” of mulch to plant potatoes. Ah, well. It’s done.

I also read that planting garlic at the base of your peach trees protects it from some type of fungus. You can also plant garlic by tomatoes and a host of other plants but most of the garlic that was given to me to plant was rotten so I only had enough for one peach tree.

Of course, AFTER I planted the garlic, I remembered the plan was to let the chickens loose on the peach tree because it is not fungus that kills the fruit every year, but some type of worm. Not sure how I’m going to work that out. I may just let the chickens ‘clean out’ under the other peach tree and see if it makes a difference and then next year I’ll plant garlic elsewhere so the chickens can take care of this peach tree.

I read recently about using milk jugs as a greenhouse and as my seedlings were looking quite spindly, I decided to give that a try. I planted bell peppers, roma tomatoes, amish paste tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, and romaine lettuce. I am excited about this method! I have heard that trying to sew indoors does not work well for people with efficient windows as it blocks some of the heat and light. Next up is some kale and flowers for the girls (and bees and other beneficial insects).

The next day, we got a call at 5:45am from the post office telling us our chicks were in!

(Making sure everyone got a drink of pedialite after a long trip)

We had not bought a heat lamp yet so we used one of my husband’s photography lamps and I boiled a bunch of water & heated the box that way until he was able to get the heat lamp on his way back from work. Once we had the heat lamp, there was no need for the jars of water so I took them out. It was so cute to see the chicks all huddled with one of the jars of water! Just like it was their mama 🙂

I still have on my list for this week:
1. Plant more seeds in my ‘greenhouses’
2. Plant peas and carrots in the garden
3. Put a mulch walkway from our brick walkway to the driveway as with all of the rain we’ve been having it has been getting really muddy
4.I am hardening off some transplants daily.

We’re off! If only I could stay organized enough to keep this up…and remember what I did next year 🙂 Something else to put on the list – make some kind of binder so I can make informed decisions next year…

Some more of the chicks because who doesn’t love to see pics of cute chicks?! 🙂

I am submitting this to Simple Lives Thursday. Our life is FAR from simple right now but that is what we are working towards 🙂