Welcome to our garden....

Well yesterday we visited the chicks, so today as promised I will show you our garden raised beds.  I have always had the old fashioned conventional garden, you know, the dig in the dirt, break your back to till, spend hours and days ridding weeds type garden.  It wasn't always fun but it was a great produce maker and had lots of space.

Since we have moved to our daughters land, she has always used the raised bed garden.  I must admit it has always  intrigued me.  So when we moved here she and I began to talk of having a good size garden this year so that we could preserve the produce for the winter.  With the way this country is going right now we must plan and do what we can to take care of and provide for our family with what ever we are able to and have at hand.

When I was young, I remember spending many summers along side my grandparents working in the garden or in the kitchen with them canning and freezing all of the produce from our garden.  I can honestly say that those were some of the best times of my life,  My grandma instilled in me a love of  canning and baking that I carry to this day.  I can tell you that I still love to walk through a garden and dream of what those beautiful plants are going to bless me with with a little water, a little sunshine and a little help from the Lord above.

I have gotten off the path so let me get back to my garden story for you.  This year my daughter and family decided we needed to double the size of her old garden so she and her hubby built 4 more boxes for a total of 8.  I will tell you in advance, that still is not enough!!

working on the new garden boxes

Anyway, the adding of the boxes was quite a good days work making us feel quite accomplished when finished to say the least.

So with this addition of 4 more boxes we are able to greatly expand what we want to grow and we had started some seeds in the house  to be place outside in the boxes.  Needless to say we planted to soon and with help from the many of the plants did not make the cut to the garden.  

This was one of the lucky survivors in the tomato plants that made the cut. We have planted a mess of tomatoes so I am sure we will be picking and canning them for weeks!!  Below you will find some of the "instant garden" we have planted and despite all the rain they all look really good today.

Peppers 

Lettuce and Strawberries in the planter

 

We decided to move the strawberries to a planter for easier access and to be decorative later.  

So I think we are all done with the planting of the garden and no, we did not have enough space even with the addition of the boxes we still had to till up 3 more conventional spots along side the beds to place potatoes, cauliflower, onions and garlic.  

 So what we planted in our garden:  Tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, peppers and jalapeno's strawberries, cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash, winter squash, sugar snap peas and Kentucky wonder pole bean.  That is a full garden and will be lots to put up for the winter I am sure.

Along with this garden I decided to try and plant a few things with the chicken girls in mind so I did small container gardens for them. I decided to place these close to the run for the girls so that I can treat them when ever I go in to visit them.  To put them in  the run would mean they would wipe them all out in one sitting and they would have no treats this summer. So far everything is doing well.  

I have lettuce coming up in the little square containers, in the buckets I have a Patio tomato plant  and cucumber for them.  I also planted Rosemary, Thyme and Basil for my usage in my kitchen.  In the green planter is mint that is supposed to keep the mice away and that will go in the ground all around the coop when it gets bigger to help keep the mice away (hopefully).  

Lettuce for the girls and for my salads.

Tomato and Cukes, with mint in the blue pot behind the buckets.  Please note these items will be removed from run before the chicken girls have access to their new run.  That will be this weekend.  I have placed them in there to protect them from all the rain the past few days.  

Thyme, Rosemary and Basil

So that ends my little garden tour for today.  Hopefully the rain is done for a few days and these     plants will grow like crazy.  So I hope you have a blessed day today and everyday.  You can choose to do anything, choose to be kind.  Take care and we will see you very soon back here at SunflowerFarms.  

They are here!!

Well the last time I was here I told you that chicks were on the way and you saw our progress on our coop and run.  I am very happy to say the build was a success and is now complete.

When I say complete I mean really complete.  Our chicks arrived on the 27th of April and spent 2 weeks in the house in totes in the bathroom and laundry room.  Why inside with such a nice coop you ask?  Well we live in Michigan and Mother Nature has a sense of humor it seems.

We thought that the babies would be able to go immediately to the coop but the day they arrived it was a blustery rainy day and we knew that the best decision would  be to keep them in the warm house.......  for a day or two.  BUT the weather had other plans.  Not only  did it rain but the temps dropped, and we even got a couple days of snow.  So the babies had to stay inside, which was okay for a week.

But 19 chicks is about 10 too many in one tote so we had to separate and divide into 2 totes and then into another room.  This was the 6th day and they grew so fast we knew what we had to do.

So bring on the next tote and lets let them have some room.  The chicks were much happier.  I did have 2 little chicks that had a bad case of pasty butt and one developed a prolapsed vent so I had to be very choosy who I put with who.  So luckily we have chosen 4 very docile breeds and it was not to difficult to choose.  We have Salmon Favorolles, Austrolorpes, Delewares and Speckled Sussex.  All very sweet girls for sure.  

Now the chicks are 3 weeks old and if you are at all familiar with chickens you know what little mess makers they can be.  Needless to say they needed to be moved to that lovely coop ASAP.  We love them but we didn't like the mess, the dust and the poop!  OH so much poop!   I had forgotten how much poop they can produce and with 2 brooders going ...... yeah  they had to go out.  

So when they turned 2 full weeks they made the move to the big girl coop.  We had a few pretty chilly nights but with the help of a little space heater and some dividing of the coop the girls did just fine.  Now they have full run of the coop and they are beginning to truly become chicken girls.  They love life and I love these little egg makers. 

 I can't wait for the day when I can take a little run out to the coop and gather some goods!!!    Some fruits of their labors this time....

But that is a few months off for now.....   If you have never had a fresh from the nest egg before.....  You have no idea what you are missing out on.  They are the best,.  and I know what my chickens ate and how healthy their eggs really are,  

Well until next time everyone, have a blessed day and we will see you soon.  Next time we will show you our garden and how it is progressing.   Be kind to one another and take care.  See you soon.

They are here!