Evil Chickens

The evil chickens as I find them every night. Why they insist on having me personally escort them into their coop I have no idea. They certainly don't enjoy me grabbing them or prodding them with a stick, and I could do without their piercing shrieks of terror. I'm afraid to think what the neighbors believe goes on in our yard every night!

Seedling Time!

Due to social commitments and some lousy weather the past few weekends, we just got to planting seedlings this weekend.

To the left is my husband posing in his AWESOME post-yoga gardening outfit. I'm just glad nobody saw what I was wearing - my riding breeches, floral blouse and crazy blue sun hat!

It is a little late, but hopefully our mild Southern California weather will trick these guys into blossoming.

Here's what we've got:

San Marzano & Heirloom Tomatoes
Carrots
Green Beans
Pumpkins (2 kinds, can't remember what they are)
Cucumbers
Watermelon
Kale
...and a few other items!

Most of the seeds are from Seeds of Change, which sells 100% organic seeds.

Now that the chickens are securely caged and their wings have been clipped we should be able to keep the garden going year round. We are going to have to move a some of the existing herbs that are now inhabiting the raised beds (rosemary, mint, sage) to make room for the larger items. The pumpkins will go in the in-ground bed next to the garage.

I pulled out this crazy Brussels sprout plant and gave it to the chickens, who devoured it with much enthusiasm!

New Plants & Double Yolks

All of our chickens are finally laying and our yard is coming together. Yay for Spring!
Developments this week - almost all of our plants are finally in the ground in the front yard (photo at left) AND we found that a giant white egg from Marge, our Leghorn, had two yolks! (photo below, right) I read online (you know, the source of all unverified rumor and superstition) that two yolks equals 1000 years of good luck in Chinese culture, or that a wedding is coming up. Either way, good omens!

This weekend we need to start some seedlings and get ready to replant our raised beds and our new in-ground area off the garage, where we are planning to put pumpkins. We missed out on pumpkins last year due to our construction project, so I'm excited to get them going again for this year. We aren't going to make the mistake of letting them grow wild again, as that resulted in them taking over half of our yard. I mistakenly thought that each seedling equaled one pumpkin - boy, was I wrong!

In addition to pumpkins I'd love to get some tomatoes, garlic and potatoes going as we eat these every week.