This past weekend, I got a bunch of work done in the garden. Mainly grunt work, like weeding around the vegetables, and digging out 522 of the 5022 buttercups that are infesting portions of our plot. Specifically the portions that I want to turn into a pasture for the chickens, future meat chickens, and ducks. So those buttercups have got to go!
One fun thing I did was work on the little espaliers-in-training. They have grown branches long enough to stretch out and tie to wires.
See? Look at that! They almost look like real trees! 🙂 This one is the pear.
I also put in another raised bed in the east yard. This one is built around the one Honeyberry bush that I currently own. It is absolutely flourishing, and next Spring (or maybe this Fall) I need to get another one planted on the other end of the bed.
Under and around the Honeyberries are little alpine strawberries I just grew from seed.
Speaking of strawberries, the Sparkle strawberries I planted on top of the quail coop are doing great.
Right as I was beginning this post, actually, mom brought me a bowl of berries she had just picked. They are so sweet and good!
Also doing well are the “White Soul” strawberries I planted, although none of those are quite ripe. We have to wait until the seeds turn red – the berries themselves will stay white.
The fruit I’m most excited about are the hardy kiwis. After making me think all last summer that they wouldn’t survive, they are finally thriving…and producing fruit! Of course, the MALE vine is covered in flowers, while the female has exactly six. But I hear some kiwi vines don’t produce at all for upwards of seven years after planting, so I’m quite thrilled with six. Fingers crossed they all survive. With all those male flowers, they should at least be well-pollinated!
All my potatoes *seem* to be doing fantastic – although I won’t really know for sure until it’s time to dig them up and see how well they produced. These are the batch I’m growing in a trash can. Whichever method works best will be the method of choice for next year. I’m kind of rooting for the trash can. It takes up the least amount of space!
In chicken news, one of my white egg layers surprised me yesterday with a lovely cream egg. Not to be outdone, one of the new Italian quail girls laid a pure white egg. I’ve had two pure white quail eggs from her now. I’m very happy with that! I was hoping there would be a white egg line in these new quail girls I hatched out.
And that’s pretty much all the news around here. So now I’m going to end this with a few gratuitous garden pictures and two video tours.
You’ve heard of crop circles, and how some believe aliens are using them to communicate with mankind? Well, I think those same aliens are also using my bunnies. See those black lines on Daisy’s nose? That alien-in-appearance furry crop circle? She has them all over, and they are constantly changing. One day she has circles on her nose. Then she has drag queen eyebrows. Then peculiar black squiggles on her back. I need to start documenting her fur…for science!
Now, video tours! Number one, a tour of the new front yard vegetable garden.
And the back yard garden:
Out of Eden 