"DD" or "DeeDee" or however you want to spell it (it stands for 'double dot') has healed and is back with the rest of the crew. She still has a bald spot, but it's not irritated any more and the girls seem to be leaving it alone. Maybe the extra room is helping? We have them all in the outside coop and have been letting them run around outside during the warmer parts of the day. They are not too fond about getting back into their coop at night, so we are going to try and bribe them this next time.
DD and the one we put with her as a companion during her confinement seem to be a little bit anti-social for the time being. I assume they will come around though. We had a name for the companion but I forget it right now.
Inside the coop:
Outside the coop:
Our starter plants are coming along as well. I guess I should say Corban's starter plants .. he's doing all the work. He had to transplant and move most of the first starter plants. He put them in recycled plastic red cups (saved from our church fellowship meals) and set them all in a glass green house outside next to our drive way. (glass is from the old church windows) He has a space heater in there for the night time as it still gets quite chilly at night, but WOW is it cookin' in there right now!
Mostly older plants in the glass green house:
Mostly newer plants in the church house under lights:
The zucchini never seem to have a problem growing, huh?!
Here are a few misc photos of outside ...
Fruit trees doing well (peach and apple)
A few flowers; we planted the bulbs last fall ... they add a nice bit of color to our otherwise dull looking parking lot garden :)
A female cardinal that has been frequenting our feeders - she is missing a leg, but you cannot tell it here. I wonder the story behind that? I appreciate her songs when I am hanging out laundry.
We have old (heirloom) plants from last year that seem to be going to seed ... I am excited about that.
Beets
Kale
Spinach
And a few new plants seeming to do well. I did not take pictures of the little kale and the baby spinach.
Beets
Lettuce
Onions
Peas
Peas do not usually work for us, so we'll see how they do this year. We got them out pretty early. Last year we only got a few peas ... enough to save the seeds and plant more this year. We'll see what happens.
And one final picture of our parking lot garden ... the compost piles. We started with one but then added another some time last year and now another a few months ago.
That's all today. The boys have been working at the bigger garden a little today between mowing jobs. A brother and his dad helped the boys get an irrigation system and I think they are hoping to get that set up this week??? The potatoes out there are starting to grow plants ... and it just got a lot of rain. I'll get pictures of that some time in the future, Lord willing.
Nice garden! Your labor will pay off with a bountiful harvest.
ReplyDeleteWe kept our chickens in the coop for about a week straight when we first got them and then they always went into the coop at dusk. (except one that was "hen pecked")
ReplyDeleteHi, I love your blog! I am kind of new to seed starting and I have some successes and some failures. What type of soil do you typically start your seeds in? Do you just buy it or take ground soil and mix some of your compost into it? Do you start seeds right out there in the sun or part sun? (I mean besides your indoor seeds, which I see are under lights).
ReplyDeleteSorry for all the questions, but it seems like your gardens are doing so well!
Thanks!
Also I am intrigued by the sauerkraut and pickles, I just may have to try that out! My grandfather used to make pickles. He grew everything in his garden. Except maybe the garlic? I am not sure if he bought the garlic or grew it. They always tasted similar to Claussen pickles and were delicious. I remember eating them as a kid when I went to his house.
He had a lovely garden, especially the tomatoes and the grape arbor, which he strung a hammock up underneath. You could lay on the hammock and pick and eat the grapes! It was great!
And his dill was always up to my shoulders every summer. It would smell soo good walking past it. I'd always pick a little and eat it on the way in to the house. :)
Min - We are still learning :) this year we used some organic starter mix from Jiffy. It seemed to work real well. The boys have compost they work into the garden soil before planting or transplanting. They have been keeping the lights on 24/7. The ones in the green house only have natural light and they seem to all be doing well that way. The ones in the garden are all in mostly full light during the day. I know that certain seeds germinate much quicker when the soil is warm. For example, the lights we have did not really heat up the soil, so it took a few weeks for the tomatoes to germinate. But then once it started getting warmer in the building, under the same lights, the seeds germinated in about a week. So, warmth is important for germination, but I guess not 100% crucial!!! Though it probably would effect the germination rate. Maybe some of the seeds did not sprout that would have sprouted had it been warmer? Like I said, we are still learning! Usually we learn by making mistakes, but sometimes we learn by accidentally doing things right the first time :)
ReplyDeleteOur homemade (lacto fermented) pickles are very tasty. We look forward to making them with whole cucs this summer; I think they will turn out better that way. Your grandpa sounded like a very resourceful man!! I have an uncle like that - lots of knowledge with gardening. We always enjoy seeing what he's got going on in his garden and he was my son's source of inspiration to get started on his own garden :)