We have eggs in the hen house! Too bad they are not chicken eggs :P This weekend Matthew and I finally put together the pre-cut nesting boxes that we bought when the girls were still little. They are coming up on or may have already passed the 20 week mark, and should be ready to lay eggs anytime now. We filled the boxes with straw and I put a couple of the kids plastic Easter eggs in there to encourage them along. I have read that it helps them figure out what they do in there, so we shall see. The boxes look awful small to me, so hopefully I don't have claustrophobic chickens!
Speaking of the chickens, they have their own little bed of goodies growing in the garden. Since all the lettuce bolted before we could eat it (we planted way to much of it!) I have been letting it grow and giving the chickens a head now and then. Here is their garden:
And here they are happily munching down on some green leafy lettuce:
This is Freckles, and she is easily the prettiest chicken we have:
Every time people come over and see them, they remark on her beautiful coloring. However, she has such a skittish personality that none of us really like her much. My favorite chicken is actually the ugliest one we have, because she is so friendly which just goes to show you that beauty isn't everything!
Things are really starting to come along in the garden, but not without a few snags along the way. I went to the nursery today and took in a few of our tomato leaves. One of the cherry tomato plants lower leaves had what turns out to be sun spots on it, because I hadn't trimmed it up high enough and where the water touched the leaves it burned. Easy enough to fix that one! The next thing I learned was that I am not being consistent enough in watering my bigger tomatoes. I really thought I had this watering thing down, but the plants say otherwise. Its only the tomato plants, and only the large ones, but their leaves are all curled up on themselves. I noticed it last week, when the weather was really warm and I was watering a little more than I usually do. Normally I try to water deeply 2 times a week, but since they are in raised beds with no border its hard to keep the water where it needs to be. The solution that I got from the experts today was to water just once a week....but for about 8 hours! I will use a drip hose for this, and luckily enough the previous owner left two of them here. This allows the water to really penetrate the ground which is important because tomato roots can grow more than 18 inches down. Its good to encourage deep growth of the roots because it increases overall plant health and plant production. So, I have the hose going now, and will start to water at least the peas, cucumbers and tomatoes once a week. I don't have enough hose to do the whole garden in one day, and don't relish the idea of doing multiple watering's each week. I might just water the rest of the veggies by hand like I have been doing, they seem to be thriving.
Speaking of thriving, check out our cauliflower and romanesco!! I had thought that they weren't doing anything but a closer inspection yesterday revealed that they are hard at work growing.
Cauliflower:
Romanesco:
I also harvested our first head of brocoli tonight, I think I may have waited a day too long to cut it, but it looks and smells delicious:
We will have it for a snack after dinner tonight, along with the 2nd and 3rd cucumbers we have picked. I love this time of year, things are really going to start happening now!
Speaking of the chickens, they have their own little bed of goodies growing in the garden. Since all the lettuce bolted before we could eat it (we planted way to much of it!) I have been letting it grow and giving the chickens a head now and then. Here is their garden:
And here they are happily munching down on some green leafy lettuce:
This is Freckles, and she is easily the prettiest chicken we have:
Every time people come over and see them, they remark on her beautiful coloring. However, she has such a skittish personality that none of us really like her much. My favorite chicken is actually the ugliest one we have, because she is so friendly which just goes to show you that beauty isn't everything!
Things are really starting to come along in the garden, but not without a few snags along the way. I went to the nursery today and took in a few of our tomato leaves. One of the cherry tomato plants lower leaves had what turns out to be sun spots on it, because I hadn't trimmed it up high enough and where the water touched the leaves it burned. Easy enough to fix that one! The next thing I learned was that I am not being consistent enough in watering my bigger tomatoes. I really thought I had this watering thing down, but the plants say otherwise. Its only the tomato plants, and only the large ones, but their leaves are all curled up on themselves. I noticed it last week, when the weather was really warm and I was watering a little more than I usually do. Normally I try to water deeply 2 times a week, but since they are in raised beds with no border its hard to keep the water where it needs to be. The solution that I got from the experts today was to water just once a week....but for about 8 hours! I will use a drip hose for this, and luckily enough the previous owner left two of them here. This allows the water to really penetrate the ground which is important because tomato roots can grow more than 18 inches down. Its good to encourage deep growth of the roots because it increases overall plant health and plant production. So, I have the hose going now, and will start to water at least the peas, cucumbers and tomatoes once a week. I don't have enough hose to do the whole garden in one day, and don't relish the idea of doing multiple watering's each week. I might just water the rest of the veggies by hand like I have been doing, they seem to be thriving.
Speaking of thriving, check out our cauliflower and romanesco!! I had thought that they weren't doing anything but a closer inspection yesterday revealed that they are hard at work growing.
Cauliflower:
Romanesco:
I also harvested our first head of brocoli tonight, I think I may have waited a day too long to cut it, but it looks and smells delicious:
We will have it for a snack after dinner tonight, along with the 2nd and 3rd cucumbers we have picked. I love this time of year, things are really going to start happening now!