Well, after a few months off, a lot has happened here. We had three baby chicks hatch with in the last few weeks. One of our hens decided to go broody. At first I thought she was just being mean. Then I realized she hadn't been going outside and that she seemed to just be sitting in the same nest box all the time. So, we let her do it. We didn't even know when she had started doing it. But after a few weeks one started to hatch. A few days later another one, and then another. there are 5 more eggs in the nest, but I don't think they are going to hatch. She gets off of them and goes outside now with the little chicks a few times a day. So we'll see, but I think its just the three. They will be some kind of mutt chicken too. The hen is a Silver Laced Wyandotte, and the rooster is a Rhode Island Red.
The starts are all coming a long great. I have a lot of extra brassicas after planting out a full 75' long row, but I think I am just going to try to make space for them in the garden. I have a lot of flowers going too. Both annuals and perennials. The lavenders ended up doing really well and I have about 160 of those transplanted into 4"pots. I am really looking forward to putting in the small lavender plot near the chicken house.
I have realized that I have learned a lot in the last few months about what I need to do for next year in the garden. And its all about mulch mulch mulch with leaves if I want to have a good sized area to plant early spring crops. The soil here is just sooo clayey. Which means it is just really wet in the spring and probably won't dry out until middle of May. Last year we rototilled the whole garden at the end of May because it was so wet. We'll see how this year goes, but it takes a while for it to dry out after all the rain. So, I decided next year I will be mulching a rather large area with leaves so I can just rake them off when I want to plant my spinach, peas, arugula, broccoli, chard, cauliflower..etc etc. This year, I am not able to plant most of that stuff because I allowed a lot of weeds to grow in the beds. So, next year if I mulch it, and then rake it off and just fertilize it before I plant, it should be good until tilling for summer crops. I realized I am unable to turn that amount of soil over by hand and pull all those weeds. Yikes. I am disappointed at myself for not having the foresight to see and know that I would need to mulch those areas. But now I do for sure! Then I can do crop rotation and be sure that the area that didn't get cover crop over winter, will for sure have cover crop the next season.
I think this year we are also going to try to move the greenhouse, which Casey extended so it is now16 feet long instead of 8 feet, into the garden. We can grow the peppers and other things in there that need it really hot.
This is short. I am going to bed!
