Can Chickens "Dog Pile"?

Some spring sights in the garden:

What is that big ball of feathers?

A chicken dog pile!

Chick Uno says: What are you looking at?

 Our butterfly weed was a prime attraction for monarch butterflies in the fall. Turns out the neighboring dill is just what the caterpillars ordered. The dill is slowly being consumed by lots of those tiny (but quickly growing) critters:

How many do you see?

A pan of the spring garden, slowly growing more green each day. Also our new pallet chicken fence to keep the chickens out of the mulch path and garden. It makes me feel spoiled because it means I no longer have to always be watching for escape artists.

The Wildflower Meadow's 2nd Spring

We have been excited to see how the wildflower meadow would evolve from its first year (see post that chronicles the meadow each week of spring 2012). This space was previously a lawn. Bermuda grass is notoriously hard to get rid of, which we found out first hand. Throughout the late winter, I spent a hour or two at a time hand weeding out the bermuda grass that had taken over parts of the meadow, shading out the flowers. I'm sure I'll have to keep an eye on it again this year, but the effort seems to have been worth it as the flower foliage begins to become lush throughout the space. The biggest difference we've noted so far is that the verbena, in a variety of purple-pink-to white tones has established itself, already blooming throughout the meadow beginning in late winter despite the cold and dry conditions. It's hard to see in the photos, but it has been a bright spot of color throughout the winter.

March 14, 2013

verbena

verbena

One spurred snapdragon

March 22, 2013

california poppy

daisy - finally the deer didn't eat them all!

April 8, 2013 - Daisies dominating

Evening Primrose/Buttercup

Indian Paintbrush

May 12, 2013: The reds and yellows of summer are beginning to bloom.

Indian Blanket

Mexican Hat

 

The larkspur have been blooming for awhile now, but interestingly are concentrated on our gravel patio

The Tomato Experiment Continued

When it started getting hot and sunny we removed the milk jugs so that the tomatoes didn't get too hot. I noticed that the leaves of the covered tomatoes were much larger and more lush than those never covered. Next time I will adjust the tomatoes slowly to full sunlight (harden them off) so that they don't burn like they did. Fortunately the new top growth is still coming along great..other than the overnight hail storm that broke a few branches and leaves. Another item of note: The black pots catch windblown leaves (which we use abundantly as mulch), which allowed cutworms to access the stem above the aluminium foil wrapping. We lost a couple tomatoes this way.

Update: Tomato Experiment

It's been 2 weeks since we planted the first of our tomatoes in a trial method. Today I removed all the milk jugs in order to water and was able to compare their growth.

The first set are 3 heirloom Sun Gold cherry tomato plants. All three have grown very vigorously with no obvious difference, see photos below.

#1: Covered

#2: Uncovered

#3: Covered

The second set are heirloom Brandywine Tomatoes. There are striking differences in their growth, with the covered plants being much larger than those left uncovered, as seen in the photo on the left where the 2nd and 4th tomatoes are already visible peeking above the black pots.

#1: uncovered

#2: covered

#3: uncovered

#4: covered

(planted a week later but already showing the same trends)

#5: uncovered

#6 covered

        

 

A Bountiful Day

A small harvest of fresh veggies for the kitchen uncovered some large and very beautiful veggies. Evening egg collection surprised us when we found that every chicken had laid! We would like to thank (in no particular order) Pia, Lacey, Uno, Lucy, Cinnamon, Solo, and Maybelline.

A giant carrot hangs out with me

A glowing beet relaxes in the garden

Red beet, orange carrot, white beet

An egg for every chicken

Itching for Spring - An Experiment to Establish Tomato Plants Early

We have been experiencing temperatures at least 10 degrees above average for the last week, with at least one record high temperature set. This warm spring-like weather has been encouraging buds to swell on perennial plants around the yard, including the primrose jasmine weeping over our path to burst into bright yellow.

With the mild temperatures, I felt like I should be getting the summer vegetable plants planted in the ground. I know that we can still experience freezing temperatures for several more weeks, but with global warming causing deviations from historical weather patterns and more plants in the greenhouse than we can ever find space for in the garden, we decided to experiment.

A friend described a planting technique that she had recently seen at a local nursery, so we decided to give it a try with our tomatoes.

This year we decided to create a more organized support system for our tomato plants. Last year - our first garden attempt - we decided to mostly let our plants do their thing and see what happened. The indeterminate, sprawling tomato plants did create a nice ground cover for the garden, but also sprawled across our pathways. Especially in the fall and with the heirlooms, we noticed that the plants spent more time and energy on their exponential growth and less on ripening fruit and it was a scavenger hunt to locate the fruit that was on the plants.

Therefore, we are using a staking system of two stakes at either end of 3-4 plants with a double-thickness of garden twine wrapped around the stakes at sequential heights as the plants grow to provide support and keep the plants growing vertically. Utilizing trunk segments removed from yaupon holly encroaching on the street in front of the house, we buried support posts. Between the posts we strung the first level of twine to guide the placement of the tomato plants. We utilized the posts to separate tomato plant varieties, planting 3 Sun Gold and 4 Brandywine Pink, spaced about 18" on center.

4 posts create 3 planting runs

Now comes the experimental part. For each plant, we dug a deep hole. The plant was centered in the hole  below the twine, with the top of the vegetation still about 4 inches below the existing soil level. Then the hole was back-filled with soil freshly amended with compost just to the level of the existing root ball. Then we pinched off the cotyledons and wrapped the stem with foil to protect against cut worms. We cut the bottom off a black plastic nursery pot and centered it around the plant. When placed, the pot stuck several inches above grade. The soil was then moved into place around the pot.

Plant centered under the twine

Plant placed deeper than existing grade

 We hope that the black pot will protect the plant from cold winds and absorb the sun's heat to help plant growth. Additionally, the soil should help insulate the plant during cooler weather. Once the plant grows above grade, the pot will be removed, any low branches pinched off, and the soil back-filled into the hole to promote more root development for the plant! Remember, all those little hairs on tomato plants are potential roots. Building off suggestions from a book that gives tips on devices for maximizing solar impact, I created homemade cloches/ mini-greenhouses for half the plants as an experiment. I cut the bottoms off of gallon milk jugs and put them over every-other pot/tomato plant. The jug caps can be put on at night if it is cold to lock in more heat. Additionally the milk jug is a protective frame over which insulating material can be piled if the temperature drops. The first level of twine of the tomato staking system put in place to guide planting placement is also the perfect height to hold the milk jugs in place! 

Milk jugs placed over pots, held in place by twine

The Tale of Two Rhizomes

Ginger: This spicy flavoring is essential in a lot of our meals. Although we don't live in the optimal growing range because of winter freezing, we are still going to try it out! I bought organic ginger and cut it into 5 pieces, each with several sprouting tips. Conventionally grown ginger is often treated to prohibit sprouting. Soaking the rhizome overnight supposedly helps overcome this effect. We planted three pieces in a pot that can easily be protected from cold weather by bringing it inside. Two pieces were planted into the garden, about 2" deep in an area that will be sheltered from the harsh afternoon shade. We'll see what happens...

Ginger cut into 5 pieces

Each piece has several growing points, as seen in the center of this photo

Sunchoke (aka Jerusalem Artichoke): We started 3 rhizomes last January - 2 bought at the grocery store and 1 from a plant nursery. They all did great with no noticeable differences. They grew multiple 8' tall stalks with repeat blooms of sunflowers at the tops. The tall vegetation died back in the fall. After a few freezes had come through the area, we began harvesting the sweetened rhizomes. We tried them sliced raw in salads and pureed into a soup, but our favorite has been to roast them with a variety of other vegetables. With the weather warming, we knew that we should harvest anything remaining before it starts sprouting. We found buried treasure! We dug up as much as we had harvested already throughout the winter. Unfortunately, as they store best in the soil, we'll have to eat these pretty quickly. Tonight we're going to substitute them for water chestnuts in our stir-fry!

Scrubbed sunchokes reveal their golden beauty