Garden - May 2012

May 30 -
Veg plot - No sign of the Mon Petit Cheri green beans, not even seeds. I think the birds got them. Scraped that row and put in 1 Rutgers tomato, 1 Black Krim tomato, 1 Pantano Romanesco tomato, 1 Carbon tomato (all heirlooms), 4 sweet basil plants, 1 thyme and 2 French tarragons. Added 4 more jalapenos.
3 Sisters plot - Sweet corn is coming up in most hills. One hill has nothing. Sowed Kentucky Wonder pole bean seeds. Transplanted pumpkin from compost bin. Planted 7 zucchini plants and 2 lemon balm.
Rhubarb plot - No sign of rhubarb or carrots. Onions coming in nicely.
South side chicken pen - No sign of anything but weeds.
North side chicken pen - No sign of sweet basil, planted 1 sweet basil plant and 1 lemon thyme.

Garden - May 2012

May 14 - My uncle came over and tilled a foot wide section on the long sides of the chicken pen, a plot for rhubarb and two 10x10ish plots.

May 15 -
North side chicken pen - sowed sweet basil seeds
South side chicken pen - sowed bird & butterfly seed mix
Rhubarb plot - planted three rhubarb crowns, about 15 yellow onions, carrots
3 Sisters plot - sowed sweet corn seeds in hills

May 18 -
Veg plot - planted 2 red bell peppers, 2 green bell peppers, 2 banana peppers, sowed a row of Mon Petit Cheri green beans, planted 2 Beefmaster tomatoes, 1 plum tomato, 2 cherry 100 tomatoes, 3 jalapeno peppers

Pics From The Weekend

New sign on the chicken pen:

I got it at Target on the Easter clearance. It had a stake for a yard sign, which I took off. It was originally $10, I got it for $2.50. I sprayed it with sealer and will remove it before winter. It's not quite what I wanted for the pen, but it's cute.

Surprise in the compost bin:

I checked out the compost bin this weekend and found a pumpkin vine. I plan on taking down the compost bin this week anyway. This just tells me that it's not getting hot enough. I threw in pumpkin hulls in the fall. It should have killed whatever seeds the chickens didn't eat. I will just throw the chicken manure across the back pasture. Rabbit manure can go right on the garden.

Sprinkles, 9 weeks old

Sprinkles is settling in nicely now. I haven't seen any signs of more predators. We still don't know what it was that killed Splash.

The woman I get my chickens from has ordered 5 Speckled Sussex pullets and 5 Easter Egger pullets. They should be ready to come home around July so I will get one more of each to complete my flock.

And Then There Were Two...

I lost my beautiful new Speckled Sussex pullet today. My mother came out today and when we left around 10:30, all three were fine. When we got back around 1:15, I didn't see anyone. I didn't think much of it because Ruby might have been laying and the grass was so tall, I figured I just couldn't see the babies. I went out a bit after 1:30 to check on them, and saw the feathers...  Best we can figure out is that something snagged her through the fence, slashed her neck and side, then she fell out of reach and it left. Ruby and Sprinkles were quite freaked out and hid for hours.

We do have raccoons here, but I've never seen one during the day. We have opposums in the area, but I've never seen one on our property. Our neighbor has a cat that he lets out, but I don't know if it would go after the chickens. The hawks could not have gotten in the pen.

*sigh*

Sprinkles and Splash

I picked up two chicks from my friend today. They are 8-ish weeks old (waiting to hear exactly how old).

This is Splash. She's a Speckled Sussex. She was sexed at the hatchery.

The black and white one should be a Plymouth Barred Rock pullet. She was part of a "bin clean out" mystery batch. The hatcheries sometimes offer a mystery group when they have extras. Her name is Sprinkles. I'm hoping she is a she! I'll have to get better pics tomorrow. If she is a he, he will be going back and we'll switch out another. I cannot have a rooster here.



Ruby was fairly accepting of them. This was Sprinkles' first time outside ever! When I went to lock them up for the night, they were hiding under the sawhorse. They came running and cheeping when they saw me. I had to put them in the coop. They'll get the hang of it eventually!

I hope Sprinkles isn't going to be a problem... She scaled the pen wall and if it hadn't been netted at the top, she would have been out. Later on, I saw her on the bottom shelf of the sawhorse, then on top, eyeing the top of the pen!