February Update

I want to get into growing mushrooms, but since I’m afraid of poisoning myself, until I do a whole lot more research, I’m confining my experiments to indoor growing only. As a starter, I bought an oyster mushroom growing kit.

And look! I have mushrooms!

Actually, since I took this picture, I harvested the first lot that grew, and now I have new batch beginning to grow. Mushrooms are amazing – they grow so fast. Literally, once they got going, they doubled in size every day.

Last time, I told you about the big Spring project – digging out the raised bed in the back yard, and replanting everything in the ground. That’s done, now. There is still finishing work, like edging and mulching, but that will happen gradually.

The garden looks pretty bad right now.  Luckily, there are signs of Spring everywhere.

The violets are blooming.

As is the “test pansy” I bought to see how many slugs are still left in my garden after the ducks have been working it.

Used to be, I’d plant one of these, and the flower buds would be eaten within minutes. Not anymore. This one’s been out there for a couple of weeks, and not a single nibble!

We built new compost bins, and placed them in the chicken yard. (The green roofing panel behind it is from me testing to see if I want to make a roof over it. I think I do…one on hinges so I can open or close it.)

The chickens also got a new feeder. Mom made this from a 5 galleon bucket, and so far it’s been working great. The chickens can’t get inside to throw their grain out everywhere, and yet it’s low enough to the ground that partly lame Antoinette can still reach it.

Because the ducks do like to eat cabbage and other vegetables – and also poop all over our patio, I fenced off the patio and the four beds that I mainly plant the back yard veggies in.  Simple fix: wire and small t-posts, but it works. And once the plants grow up, you’ll hardly see it.

I also made the ducks a “duck den” beside the rhubarb. In winter, I give them just a small pan (kitty litter box sized) to get in and have a splash. As you can clearly see by the mud and feathers, they’ve had their bath already. Sigh. It’s impossible to keep duck water clean. Five minutes after you change it, it’s already muddy.

Anyway, the ducks really like to hang out back here, and it keeps them away from the areas of the yard I’d prefer they not spend a lot of time trampling around in.

To the right of the duck den, is the worm composter box for all the food scraps that don’t go to the chickens.

Since we have the new chicken yard compost bins, I was finally able to clean out the corner of the yard where I used to throw all the compost stuff.

I’m going to plant a pear espalier against the fence, and probably plant veggies back here until I decide for sure what else I want to do. This is the ducks’ favorite place in the world. Lots of bugs and worms in the compost-y ground!

Dexter, who cannot quite be trusted to practice his herding skills on live animals yet, watches from the living room window…