Gardening in Pictures

Sooo....Maybe I failed as a vegetable gardener for this year; but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy. Here are my gardening happenings in pictures...

Here is the infamous coop that never gets done! We're close to finishing, though!

Here are the lucky ladies...future residents of the soon-to-be-finished coop. They are scratching around in our compost pile. Charming, I know. Here is Ranger...really wishing he could have a chicken breakfast. And here are the chickens...destroying the lawn I've been trying to get started. I think they're in cahoots with the gophers. And here is what happens to your porch if your baby chicks grow up before you finish your coop. Here is my little succulent and cactus area. I planted a few ears of what I think are prickly pear cacti. They've gone crazy! I decided to plant a little forest of them in the lower yard because I neglect to water that area very often.

So here they are...at the very bottom of our property. It's going to be utter cacti chaos down here pretty soon.

I've also planted some drought-tolerant ice plant in that area. It's going to be really pretty when it takes off.

This is the poor old gigantic oak tree we had to have cut down. It became beetle infested and died. It was very sad...the prettiest and largest oak on our property. It was also very sad to say goodbye to the $1200 it cost to have it cut down. The only up-side is that I now have a LOT of wood chips to mulch with, as well as firewood for the next 3 years!

I'm getting a rose garden going. So far I've got yellow, red, purple, and peach colored rose bushes planted. Who would think that squirrels and rabbits like to eat rosebuds? Well, they do. Fortunately, my non-toxic pest repellent seems to deter them.

And last but not least, I've been working really hard on the terraces right outside our house. I've gotten them going with Lily of the Niles, Day Lilies, geraniums, ice plants, Bird of Paradise, Euryops, and some things that already existed (and I don't know what they're called but I'm managing not to kill them).

:(

So...sadly I've fallen off the gardening wheelbarrow. Life had distracted me in dozens of different ways and I have very little to report about things I've grown. Here's what I do have...

A harvest of garlic was very successful. So were the beets which grew to be huge! Potatoes are growing and thriving as well.

The chickens grew out of their little cage a long while ago, but Tom and I are having trouble getting the coop finished. It's about 3/4 of the way done and will be quite the masterpiece when finished; but it's a two person job and we've been having trouble coordinating time to work on it. In the meantime I try to let the girls frolic in the yard as often as possible.

When we were away in New York for Tom's grampa's funeral we had to force our little hens to cohabitate with my father-in-law's chickens so his girlfriend could care for them. Sadly, one of my americaunas was pecked to death. Chickens can be jerks.

I just got three new baby americaunas at the feed store today. Our coop will be able to hold plenty of chickens, so I thought, "what the heck?! why not?" Hopefully my chickens are a little nicer than my father-in-laws. I'm looking forward to plenty of blue-green eggs!

My main focus for the garden in the next couple of months will be landscaping-type projects. Tom and I eventually want to sell our house and move even deeper into the country, so home-improvement projects and landscaping will certainly help. If I have time I'd like to work on gopher-proofing the veggie patch as well. Gopher sabotage may have been the point at which I became so frustrated I neglected the garden....not a very good attitude to have in gardening or in life. I live and learn.

One more REALLY neat thing...
My neighbor has goats. They are so awesome! I love them! Three of them were pregnant this spring. I got to see one set of babies right after they were born. They are so amazing. Too bad human babies aren't so self-sufficient at birth. Imagine if human babies could walk around right away. I don't understand how goats do it...they have no opportunity to develop muscle in the womb. Yet they plop out, wobble a bit, then start walking! Now we have six playful kids next door. They are so adorable!