Two Peas

All of our pea seeds are old, and I guess it was inevitable that not all of them were viable.  Of the two rows planted in April, only 2 came up.  Rhiannon helped plant them while I transplanted celery into the raised bed in the backyard. 

We were going to go to the Ppatch this morning, however sleeping in is what happened (7:30!)  So now the plan is for after dinner.

the scent of spring

Still Preparing the Ppatch

The Ppatch is slow going. 

Today I removed all the straw bales from the hill and replaced them with leftover and warped 2x4's from my neighbor.  It looks so much better, as the photo shows

Then I packed the straw back in and plan to top it off with compost when more gets dropped off.  In the meantime I transplanted some of the Ozark strawberries from the hill of the new plot to the top terrace in front of the apple trees and mulched them with straw raked up from the floor of the local feed store.

No money involved, but plenty of sweat equity.

And sunburned arms.

Spring appears to have arrived

Chris and I have started weeding the P-patch. 

Our hill looks good, although we need to replace the straw fronting the two levels.  I planted 2 apple trees along the fence which I will try to espalier.  We signed up for another plot along the fence and need to terrace it, as I have 2 more trees on the back porch waiting.  But first I have to fight with the elm root that is sending up suckers everywhere.  I know I won't beat it, but I am of the "no leaves, no photosynthesis, no plant" mindset so I dig along the root and cut. 

The idea is under the apple trees I will plant daylilies and iris (FREE from our yard) along the fence to crowd out weeds from the yard on the other side.  Add in some chives and clover, with strawberries (left by the previous caretaker of the second plot) along the edge to cascade over the salvaged wood.

Of course, tomorrow is my day off and Mother nature plans on rain.

That would make weeding easier though.

Oh oh oh - and peas are coming up in our raised bed!  And all of my greens survived being snowed on repeatedly!  And last year's fruit trees are flowering!

Waterloo

"Rhiannon it's 5am, what are you doing up?"

"The chickens are being really noisy.  Well mostly just Napoleon."

Sounds of a full volume crow.  Followed by another.  And another.

Pile o' pullets

Before

After

(Not really, but it sure looks like it could be)

Chickens at the Backdoor

That is the name of the class I helped teach with two others at the Littleton History Museum today.   It seemed to go over well, about 30 or so people showed up and made positive comments on the way out again two hours later.  I brought a dozen eggs in different colors and also some chickens - Snowball (the bantam cochin frizzle hen) and Chocolate (Indica's bantam naked neck hen), Honey (Rhiannon's standard cochin hen) and Chewbacca (a friend's Arucana hen) and a white brama pullet.  I really felt these showed a wide range of breeds available.   We visited the 1890's chicken coop - a fine example of a hen house to be sure.  Having a 3-person panel was great, as we all had different information to share.  There is a second class in May.