Getting Ready for the Chicks

Since we lost 4 of our birds last summer, and we didn't have much luck obtaining birds from local chicken owners (and didn't like just how long it takes for them to become hand-tamed...), we've decided to buy four chicks.  We're mail ordering them again because of the wider variety of breeds available and the small minimum.  (Local farm supply places do sell chicks in spring, but they were rather limited in the variety of breeds they offered and the minimum purchase they imposed were too high for backyard chicken enthusiasts within the city limits.   Too bad. )

So my daughter and I went over the breeds and decided on 2 Barred Plymouth Rock chicks and 2 Easter Egger chicks, mainly because the previous ones we owned were so sweet in temperament and smart, too -- just a joy to have as pets!  But these breeds were smaller than some of the others and tend to get bullied, so we got two of each... hoping that at least the Barred Plymouth Rocks will look similar enough to avoid being  too heavily picked on. ^^;

Since our two birds are already 1 1/2-years-old, we're building the new girls a smaller coop where they can grow until they reach about 16 weeks old and fully feathered in.  Chicks won't stand a chance against a big bully Dorito, who asserts her superior ranking to Fiona every chance she gets. ^^;

We bought a chicken coop kit from Tractor Supply Co. this time, rather than try to figure out an extension to the existing coop.  It's already pre-assembled into panels and sections, so it shouldn't take very long to assemble.  We read the customer reviews and some people were complaining about how the wood swelled after a rain and things fell apart.  So I'm painting the coop to match the big girls' coop (barn red with white trims).  We'll most likely reinforce some sections, too, based on what some of the customers said on the review.  We will also give the coop a base of pre-treated timber so that it won't be sitting on the ground directly.

Painting turned out to be rather tedious with lots of trims and hardware to go around. ^^;  But hey, better safe than sorry.  And even after the new girls can join the main coop, this smaller one will be handy as a quarantine co0p for new aquisitions in the future. ^_^

While I was painting the 'fence white' paint on the trims, I had to chase away Dorito because she tried to eat the paint, thinking it's her favorite Greek yogurt I feed the girls often. ^^;  Sometimes I marvel at how smart these birds are, and there are times when I just go, "Really?" when they try to eat paint or packing peanuts...  You've got to watch these babies.  They seem to think everything is food. LOL

Got a real late start on this year's boxes.  We've had freezing temperatures throughout April and on the first days of May!  Planting has been postponed for a lot of tender varieties.  Here in this photo, you see some onions carried over from last year, new pea seedlings, and some salad mix that self-seeded from last year's plants.

Violas I bought in April.  They're pretty hardy and survived multiple frosts and doing well in our Bees and Butterflies Flower Box.  :D  Nice to see some colors.

The flowers on strawberry plants in the Strawberry Box.  Some got killed by the frosts, but more are coming.  This is these plants' 3rd season.  They're looking really strong and I'm hopeful that they will have a fantastic year. ^_^

That's it for today.  Will have more shots of the chicken coop in progress in the next few days.

Pics from the Garden

We had a nice stormy day yesterday with scattered rain showers and even some lightning and thunder.  Here in the desert west, this kind of weather is rare, and it seems to have a profound psychological effect on people's mood in a good way.  Moisture in the atmosphere is very soothing to us.  And since this region has been in a state of drought for many years now, every bit of precipitation is gratefully received. :)

As promised, I'm posting some photos of the other boxes that I didn't get to take pictures of yesterday (At some point, it was starting to rain a little too hard for me to continue gardening, and eventually got rather cold...).

This box is dedicated to the flowers for insects in our neighborhood.  I have it planted with pansy, lobelia, snapdragon, lavender, bee balm, bachelor's button, pineapple sage, echinacea, Mexican sunflower, Mexican cosmos, and chocolate mint.  Some were planted as seeds, so you don't see them popping up yet.  Bachelor's button plants are getting huge.  They were the volunteer plants from my pots in the porch that I transplanted early in spring.  The snapdragon plants were planted early, but got hit by frost a few times and they are now starting to bloom again. ^^;

This is our 5th SFG box that I just planted yesterday.  Mostly herbs except for the cherry tomato plant in the center.  I have sweet basil, orange mint, flat leaf parsley, dill, cilantro, and thyme.  I've just sown German chamomile and garlic chive seeds this morning.   We have the 6th box in progress, which will be planted with corn.

One of my favorite plants in spring is the pea.  I love the particular green which is slightly grey-ish and the tendrils that add to the delicate look, plus the white flowers that look like bonnets.  I think they are such feminine plants.  The peas straight off the vines are so tender and sweet!

The strawberry box is overflowing with leaves that are much bigger than last year.  These plants are so vigorous and each is loaded with fruits.  They are still blooming a lot, but I got this shot this morning by looking under the leaves.  You can see the small fruits developing. :D

Because it was a nice rainy day yesterday, we had dew drops form on the strawberry's serrated leaf edges this morning.  I took many photos of the sparkly dew drops, but this is my favorite.  These are very small, young leaves (note the lighter green color), and just looked precious with sparkling beads!!

Day 26

     It's hard to believe it's been 26 days since we put this SFG box started.  These are still baby plants, but the whole thing looks so fun right now, now that each square is getting more filled out with one variety of vegetable to make it distinct.  I thinned out the Swiss Chard this morning so that I have one each of the four colors: pink, red, orange, and yellow.  I pinched off the above-ground portion of seedlings about 1.5 inches.  I washed the little leaves and tasted them right away.  They were mild with the fresh green taste.  Yum! :D

   The "Alaska" peas are now about 6 inches tall.  They are the fastest growing veggies in this box.

   Years ago, I had seeds from the "Blue Flower Garden" packet of mixed seeds.  I scattered them in the backyard and on the side of the front lawn.  We still get volunteer plants of Bachelor's Buttons.  Most of them are blue, but I spotted a deep purple one.  We had very little precipitation this past winter and spring, so the plants are shorter than usual and blooms are smaller.  Still pretty, though. ^_^

   A fluffy peony bud in the front flower bed.  These guys have a few magenta streaks inside of them.

      The first peony bloom of the yard.  It's already too heavy for the stem to support, so it's leaning over. ^^;

   One of my favorite irises in my yard -- pink and magenta.  This was also in the mixed batch of rhizomes that I got from a friend years ago and I don't know the name of the variety.  I generally love the two-tone irises like these.  I have another variety that is peach on top with reddish purple on lower petals, but I haven't seen them in a while...

Photo of the Box on Day 13

   A quick snap shot taken this morning of the spring veggies box.  The sticks everywhere (which I forgot to remove before taking this picture... ^^; ) are in there as 'cat deterrent' -- they are not the prettiest, but cheap and accomplish the job.   I saw the first of the carrot seedlings coming up this afternoon.

   Radish square from April 17, 2012.

   The same square on April 21,  2012.  Time to thin them out.

The Beginning

   I decided to keep a casual blog of my Square Foot Garden's progress for the 2012 gardening season.  This is the first year we are implementing the SFG, based on the "All New Square Foot Garden" book by Mel Bartholomew.  The reason we decided to try this is because it's supposed to save a lot of water, labor, and disappointment. XD  We live in the arid desert west of the Rockies where precipitation is scarce and the summers are dry and HOT.  The average garden plants don't do well in our heavy-clay soil unless you are willing to do a lot of work amending the soil and diligently water.  Many parts of our area enjoy the benefit of the canal water for their field and gardens, but we live within the city proper, served by the regular water service, so the water bills in the peak summer months are no laughing matter just to keep the average lawn in the front.

   I've always gardened in varying capacities all my life, including window sill gardening during my apartment dwelling days.  It's something I was drawn from a very young age and always enjoyed.  So after getting married and buying a house with a fair size backyard, it was a dream come true for the first several seasons.  We had a garden about 20 feet by 30 feet, and it was lush and vigorous.  We also had a composting pile in the shaded corner outside of our kitchen and everything was done organically with great success without much trouble.

   After a few seasons of growing corn, tomatoes, and most backyard garden veggies, we realized that we couldn't keep up fertilizing.  The compost pile couldn't keep up, and we also had to move it to another location because of bug problems.  The new location was too sunny and keeping it moist became a chore.  Little by little, the garden soil started to deteriorate, seemingly requiring more and more water, and the crops it produced looked not worth the cost of water.  The only thing that seem to be thriving was the weeds.

   When the recession hit, I was burned out of doing heavy-duty garden work (like tilling), and I let go of the garden.  It doesn't take very many seasons at all for the top soil to completely die.  We saw it happen in many people's back (and in some cases, front) yard in the last few years.  I had down-scaled my gardening effort to just a few pots in the back porch and mostly focusing my effort on the front yard.

   My husband had the old version of the Square Foot Gardening book.  The thought of growing everything in a 1-foot by 1-foot square didn't originally appeal to me so I resisted.  Then just recently we came across the "All New" version utilizing a 4-foot by 4-foot box, just 6 inches deep.  This radically different approach actually seemed interesting to me who was fed up with all the dredge work the traditional gardening method required.  We bought the book and studied it up, and decided to give it a go on a small, trial scale for the first year.
 
   As I mentioned, we live in a very hot, very dry, desert west of the US, and our lot has very little natural shade from either structures or tall trees, and water bill is a serious concern.  The SFG's soil mix called Mel's Mix is 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 mixed compost, so it holds a lot of moisture.  So we're going to see if this method is suitable for our area.  We are planning on starting a few boxes first, then keep adding boxes as we gain experience.

   The first box of spring vegetables were sown on Easter Sunday, April 8, 2012.  With a grid planned like this.

   The Mesclun mix of seeds were the first to germinate on Day 4.  Something that looked like radish seedlings appeared first.  Mornings were still frosty a couple of times during that week.