A Month of Posts

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Bonnie and Emmy Lou are mothering their four chicks together.

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Ground Ivy growing at the foot of the elm tree in the backyard.

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The chicks quickly started eating greens we brought to them.

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Dolly hanging around the brooder.

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Tom Thumb lettuce

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Just two weeks old and the chicks are out and about.

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Also up on the roost and atop mom. Already!

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We attended the Augusta Garden Club tour. This copper beech impressed me the most. It was planted in 1945 and is huge. I don’t know how I didn’t notice this tree when I drove by it.

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Leo/Rex and his ladies.

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Dolly and the girls

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Smokey striking a pose.

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Found this radish in the barn garden this morning. It was just sitting out of the ground. Almost like it was saying – I’m ready to be eaten you dummy. I thought it was too early for the radishes to be ready and would not have checked for some time yet. How it got out of the ground will remain a mystery.

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A flower bed with a new rock border and all mulched. Luminaria blooming in the background.

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Picked this one as I could see the red peaking out of the soil.

Had a chicken liver and bacon salad for dinner. Delish!

Two firsts I saw today –

a rabbit in our pasture between the backyard and the spring house (did he have anything do do with the radish appearing – seems unlikely – wouldn’t he have eaten it?)

as I was driving home from Heartland Harvest I saw a cow licking it’s calf. The calf was curled up on the ground. I wonder if it had just been born?

Spring Chick

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A little chick came out to eat. Didn’t go very far from mother hen. We saw one yesterday afternoon – just didn’t get a photo. Temperature is expected to be in the 20’s all night tonight. I searched online and feel assured that the chicks should be fine. We hope to get them out Monday afternoon to clean out the brooder. The hen on the right is still sitting on four eggs. Not sure what is up with that. I thought she started sitting at the same time. Hopefully, the eggs aren’t duds and something happens soon.

Our head rooster is actually acting a little protective. He’s been sticking by the coop and was actually sitting up next to the brooder for a while yesterday morning. We plan to kill the two extra roosters. We thick there could be a chance that they would harm the chicks.

An Update

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Just a few photos of our rock borders. I hope it helps keep the weeds out of the beds and give us a definite edge of the border for weeding.

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I haven’t found out what these pretty yellow flowers are yet.

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Expecting temps in the 20’s tonight so picked the tulips, hyacinths and the last of the daffodils.

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After I posted the previous post this morning I went out to the chicken coop to give the broody hens their daily dose of weeds and grass and to check on their water. I was surprised to hear tapping. I put my head close to the hens and was assured that it was coming from the nest. A little earlier than I thought. Chicks take 21 days to hatch and I was expecting something to happen on Thursday. I checked on them a couple times over the afternoon and about 4:30 there was a little peeping sound and I saw an eggshell just outside of the nest. The hens tail was facing outward. I’m sure she is working hard to keep the chick and eggs warm. We put straw and a wool blanket around the sides of the brooder to help. A little worried about them, but what will be will be. Wonder what we will find in the morning. Wish this wasn’t happening during a cold snap.

March

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A little snow we had a month ago.

March was very busy in the garden. We had a very mild and wet winter. March was very warm and windy…very windy. I wanted to get a head start in the garden and found myself outside for at least a while most every day.

I was all set to post this the last day of March and then was having computer problems.

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The forsythia blossoms fill the view from the kitchen window.

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Frida and Eartha. This has become one of Frida’s favorite spots.

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We have two broody hens so Dave built this broody box to keep them separate from the others and close to the ground for little chicks.

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I don’t have an exact count, but I think one is sitting on about nine eggs and the other is sitting on four.

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Dave was inspired by Norm of Geezer Farm and got these drip hoses and the row cover for the cabbages. He also got a timer for the hoses. Should all help with the watering and hopefully the cloth will keep away the cabbage worms.

We planted parsnips, turnips, carrots, beets and radishes here.

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Preparing these beds were part of our garden work in March. Brought these pine logs from the orchard area to define the bed and hold back the soil

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Also using logs to keep the chickens out of the barn garden. Note the branches sticking up from the fence. Also to deter the chickens since the can also fly over the fence.

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They know good things are in the barn garden and are looking in.

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Over the winter we also enlarged the compost area. The compost is starting to look good. Lots of worms!

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Here is the kitchen garden. Put in some lettuce and onions starts from Milmont nursery. Also planted some onions I started from seed and sowed lettuce, spinach, collards, chard, parsley, orach, anise and dill.

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Here are the Tom Thumb lettuce sprouts. They came up first. They form small heads of lettuce – about 3 inches if I remember correctly.

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I’ve been weeding and thinning and giving the seedlings to the broody hens.

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Inside the rounded fence are the garlic and shallots.

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Just one of many borage volunteers.

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Dug up a lot of grass and weeds to define the border. We’ve already added a rock border and will be back soon with some photos.

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Much more work to be done here. This is the front side yard. It was probably once a beautiful flower bed but with the magnolia and holly bush it was hidden from our view. It was also full of weeds among the flowers so we decided with the wonderful sloped southern exposure we’d make it a veggie bed. We moved peonies and day lilies from this bed and plan to plant our tomatoes and either melons, squash or sweet potatoes here.

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We planted these azaleas – two on each side – where the boxwoods had been. I should have taken a before photo. The boxwoods were damaged by snow falling from the roof two winters ago. The were starting to come back but were rather wonky. We decided to plant the azaleas and hope the damage done to the boxwoods were a freak accident.

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I planted two creeping thyme plants I started from seed last year and they have really taken off in this spot.

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The native bee balm has really spread as well.

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Some transplanted peonies in one of the front crescents shaped flower beds.

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Pretty violets.

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Lots of weeding needed here.

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I think these are called Bells of Ireland. From photos I could find online the bells should be more like spires. I think the warming and freezing that defines our springs around here are not good for this plant. Will have to keep an eye on it and decide whether it stays or goes.

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I think these might be Roman Dark Blue Hyacinths. I happened upon a photo that looks like them on the Old House Gardens website.

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periwinkle

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rocks for our flower bed borders.

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Beautiful now but this bush gets very overgrown over the summer. I plan to cut it back hard when the blooms have faded and maybe moving some of it to the front pasture to add some color there.

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Moved some of the sweet woodruff that was in this bed and looking like it was getting too much summer sun. There is a stump and tree roots here so it had been shaded before which is where it does well. Added some day lilies and delphiniums from Milmont.

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Digging the border for the addition of rocks.

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Love the spring green of the early willow leaves.

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A bleeding heart

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added some columbines from Milmont

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love our Virginia bluebells – just beginning to bloom

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the transplanted sweet woodruff to the left of the tulips.

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Hoping the clematis uses the sticks to climb upon. They refused the fence last year.

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False Indigo for the front bed with the statue. I think I killed the one that was in one of the back beds. Cut it back too far.

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It might like this bed more as they prefer full sun or partial shade.

We’ll see. I’m learning so much. Reading Barbara Damrosch’s A Garden Primer.