Summer 2009 Part 3

Summer brings lots and lots of summer squash. Good old fashioned crook neck is one of my favorites. I didn't get any seeds planted, but I bought a few starts at our local garden store and now have plenty for us, the dogs, and the chickens!




The garlic is in bloom now. They have such neat-looking flowers.






The corn and pumpkins are looking great! They grow so well together! The corn is much darker green this year with it growing in the pumpkin vines. I'm convinced! This is a great way to grown them both! Another great trick from our Cherokee ancestors!
















Here's a beautiful pumpkin blossom.









This is a little rubel blueberry that had something happen to it during shipment. We thought for sure it was dead. But it looks like it is going to make it! I must say though that the rest of the blueberries we got from Hartmann's were the best plants I have ever received in the mail! Actually, they were even better than a lot of plants I see at nurseries! I will definitely be shopping with them in the future!


Here's the blackberries I still have not planted, sitting on the back patio. I may keep them in the shed over winter and plant them next spring. They have grown enough this year that maybe we'll get a few berries next year! I hope so! :)




The strawberries are producing like crazy already. We're getting 8 or so a day. Yay for strawberries!
It won't be long before we can make strawberry cake, strawberry ice-cream, strawberry jam, strawberry sauce for cheesecake. Yummy!

New Chickens!

Now that I am pretty sure I have a good setup for the chicken coop and yard to keep "Big Nose" out of my eggs, I decided to get chickens again. After searching for a week or two I found a lady who needed a good home for her flock that she had rescued along with some other animals from an abusive situation. I had to do a bit of research to find out what kind of chickens they are. I think I have decided that they are Wyandottes. There are a Black, a Golden-Laced, and 5 Columbian, one of which is a rooster. Well, being in town, dot dot dot, no rooster, so I had to find him a home. Luckily it didn't take long. There was a catch. This rooster is sterile! I have a couple of friends out in the country that have chickens, so I called around. I thought it might be hard to find a home for a sterile rooster, but I got lucky! One of my friends said that she didn't need a rooster, but she has a friend with some laying hens including some younger hens she was raising up. She had lost one the other day to a hawk and was desperately looking for a rooster to protect the flock. She did NOT want fertile eggs, just eating eggs- so this rooster was PERFECT! And as luck would further have it, my friend was already in town and volunteered to drop by and pick up the rooster for her other friend. The only sad part was I never got a picture of him. :(
The hens have spent the last couple of days getting used to their new coop and yard. Today I let them out into the whole backyard and they have been all over the place checking everything out. I have a ton of pictures! Click a picture to see it larger. Enjoy!

Summer 2009 Part 2

So... where was I? Ah yes, holy cabbage. Ok, so slugs aside, everything else seems to be doing great! I have several kinds of tomatoes as usual, this year I have Grape, Early Girl, Brandywine, and a Russian Black. I have lots of green tomatoes out there, so it won't be long till I have fresh tomatoes!












I also have several kinds of peppers. I have purple, yellow and red bells, and cherry. I've picked a few already and there's lots more up and coming.









In the salad department we have enjoyed red leaf and romaine lettuce, but it is going to seed now, so it's time to plant more.










We have lots of onions and some garlic that is just beginning to make heads.









We have no shortage of violas that have blanketed all the free space in the garden. What a splash they make in fresh salads!











Our comfrey has really taken off this year! This versatile medicinal plant is certainly a welcome sight in the garden.











There's still more to report, so it looks like I'll be posting part 3! Stay tuned!

Summer 2009

I can't believe it has been so long since I made a post to this blog! Has it really been this long?! I suppose so, since so much has happened. I was so late getting my garden in this year that I came close to not planting one at all. But now I am so glad I did! Everything is coming along nicely. :) The fruit trees are doing well, not much in the way of fruit this year, but they are growing like weeds! We do have a few pears and a couple of apricots.









We planted blueberries this spring and actually grew a couple dozen berries.










We also bought 50 Tristar strawberries which are doing well and are already producing berries! That's Tristar for ya! :)









Not everything is growing as well as I would like. My chicken powered bug patrol is currently out of commission- I gave my chickens to a friend to keep for me until I was better able to keep Orion from eating all my eggs! So this season I have had a slug problem! Slugs ate my Cherokee beans to the ground! GGGRRRR!!! After replanting the beans and distracting the slugs with a blanket of leaves from the box elder tree, I have a couple dozen struggling plants that look like they might make it.










The cabbage has not escaped the slugs either. Holy Cabbage Leaves, Batman!!











There's much more to report, but I'll have to finish later. I'll post part 2 tomorrow! :)