And Speaking of Chicken Feed....

Here are the new additions to the family!  Born at approximately 6:00 AM on Saturday, February 26th.  They came home on Monday the 28th.

These are from the first week, taken March 2nd.

They sleep hard!

We are changing our breed this year and have decided to go with Buff Orpingtons.  This breed is supposed to be pretty calm and even bordering on timid.  They are good layers of large, brown eggs and (drum roll please!) the hens tend to get broody more than other breeds (that means they will sit on their eggs and hatch them for you).  Since our current chickens are approaching the end of their laying cycle, are meaner than snakes (they kill each other.  the hens, not the rooster), and don't get broody, this seems like a good change for us.  The best thing about getting a breed that will get broody  is that you don't have to keep investing in baby chicks every few years.  Hooray!

Our local Tractor Supply store (we love Tractor Supply!) even got Orpingtons in as a preferred breed this year.  We got fourteen straight run chicks.  Straight run means that we do not know whether they are pullets (girls) or cockerels (boys).  However, the hatchery that provided them to Tractor Supply guaranteed that the straight runs are 98% pullets.  While we don't need cockerels for egg-laying, we do need a cockerel to make that broody thing be productive.  Since we had only gotten fourteen we were beginning to wonder if we should try and get another five or six just to be sure we had one cockerel.  This week  we noticed that one of the babies was getting quite big but was not feathering out like the other ones.  Bingo!  That usually means a boy (they are big, but they don't mature as fast as the girls) (as all you girls and mothers of boys already know).  

So here they are as of March 13th at two weeks and one day old....

The little guy in front showing you his rear end is probably the cockerel.  I think we are going to call him Buckaroo Banzai.  Or maybe Perfect Tommy.

We call this stage of chick development the "Eagle Stage".  Notice how they are feathering out so well.  The next stage is commonly known as the "Dinosaur Stage".  When you see, you will understand.

So there you have it; the new additions!

About Growing Lettuce Indoors....For Liz

This is just for Liz so she can see how we do lettuce.

 

It looks just a little pathetic right now because we had spaghetti for lunch today which requires salad.

You can use anything to plant indoor lettuce; these plastic bins

(the little one on top ~ the big ones are too deep for lettuce but great for chicken feed)

or these aluminum roasters

We get these from Fred's dirt cheap (pun intended).  They are probably a couple of inches deep and just the right size for enough lettuce for almost 3 salads.  Just pour in your potting soil and direct sow the lettuce seed.  Sprinkle a little soil over top and gently water.  When you are ready to harvest, cut off pretty close to the dirt.  Keep watering it, keep it under some flourescent lights (or put outside during the day time if it is warm enough where you live), and enjoy!  If you put it in these, you can not only bring it indoors when it is too cold, you can bring it in when it is too hot for lettuce and perhaps maintain your growing season until the tomatoes get ripe!

Catastrophe!

What happens when you have high winds and driving rain?  Bad stuff!  First of all, the vent pipes from the bathroom vents...you know, the ones that were never really sealed like they should have been?...yeah, those....spring a slight leak.  Fortunately, the leak was very slight, but just enough to leave a water mark on the bathroom ceiling so you know that there is a problem.  God is gracious!  I called our wonderful realtor who helped us buy the house.  This amazing brother in the Lord called another wonderful brother in the Lord who came, climbed and conquered!  Given that the pitch of our roof is pretty steep, the vent pipes are on the back side of the house and the drop from roof to ground there is quite a bit further than in the front (where we have the gently sloping porch roof to slow the slide), Uncle Mark wisely decided not to try and fix this.  Tommy stepped in, fixed it and charged us 1. a dozen eggs 2. a jar of peach jam 3. a jar of apple pie filling  4. some really good prayer time.  Tommy is now a friend for life!

The second problem was a little more serious to the garden.  I walked out the morning after everything finally calmed down only to find this, which we had filled up more than is shown here....

...had become this....

We were able to salvage most of it, but we did lose a pan of lettuce and a couple of the heirloom tomatoes.  Ouch!

Progress, Part II

It's not February anymore.  Did you know that?  Sickness, dead computers, etc. have kept me away for longer than I intended.  Here we are back with a bunch of "What-is-in-the-ground" pictures.

Onion Sets a few weeks ago:

Onion Sets March 13th

English Peas are coming along....

Potatoes are trying to spring up...

but my picture died and it is dark outside right now.  Oh well!

Also, Uncle Mark planted broccoli and cabbage today

Please note, Liz, how he did the newspaper on the bottom, then the plants and then the shredded paper around everything for mulch

The shovel is my (very) early Birthday present.  I graciously allowed him to use it today.  

Isn't he handsome?!

Finally, for what is ON the ground....

 We will be screening it in, since we have extra lumber.  

Eventually the hammock will go down here (I think).

In the meantime, the chair naps really well!

Stay tuned....next up, Catastrophe!

February Progress Part I

(Part I of a III Part series with pictures)

What did you do over the past two weekends?
Here in Uncle Mark's Garden we planted!  The weekend of the 5th, we got seed started for the following:
Bibb Lettuce (more!)

Tomatoes
     Brandywine, Rutgers, Delicious, Caspian Pink, Giant Belgium, Champion

Peppers
     Big Dipper, Karma, Giant Thai, Hot Banana, Scotch Bonnet, Numex Sunrise,
     Carribean Red, and Crispy
 Leeks
 (sorry; don't seem to have pics of the peppers and leeks at the moment.  I'll include them in another part)

Herbs:

Chives, Cilantro, Dill,Common Thyme, English Thyme, Basil, Oregano, Greek Oregano, Sage, Chammomile, Cumin, White Mustard, Parsley,

Planting Day

2 Weeks later.  Somehow the lettuce keeps creeping in to all these shots and hamming it up a little.

Chives

Cilantro is being a little bashful

And here is the current status of the artichokes.  Yes.  I am VERY excited about growing artichokes!

Stay tuned for Part II of the update...what's in the ground

Before And After

Yesterday Mark had his first home-grown salad of the year; it is amazing what you can do in the basement with grow lights!

Here are some before and after pictures of what is going on in our garden right now. 


Last year the herb beds were in the back yard.

This year we have moved them around front.  Better access for me to run out and clip what I need for a meal!

Last year we used these are chicken tractors.

This year we covered them with green house grade plastic....

...and we are wintering some of the hardier plants in our home made green house.

This is a shot of the back yard earlier this winter

I now have a new, bigger, sturdier clothesline and the yard is ready for planting.

We have taken a break the past couple of weeks for a nasty bout with the flu.  Everyone is much better, tomato seeds have become plants and have been transplanted into bigger pots, and after the expected cold, wintry weather later this week we will be ready to get out and do more.

This is Alabama??

It has snowed four times so far this year.  Here are some pictures of the garden from the "Big" snow of January 9-10.  We had almost four inches up here.

The raised bed

Do you see the prodigal hen?

We got her back!

The asparagus bed

The (former) herb garden

And the obligatory "Cardinal in Snow" picture.  Sometimes you just give in and enjoy the shot!

What's Up?

I did not get outside to get pictures of what has kept Marvelous Mark so busy all weekend but I thought you might enjoy seeing what's up in the basement under the grow lights.

Tomatoes

Cabbage

Broccoli

Artichokes!

And lettuce.  Homegrown.  No comparison to iceberg!

 So far, everything that we have started from seed inside is up and thriving.  Hopefully within the next day or so I'll get some pictures of what is going on outdoors.  Don't think we are being deterred by the cold and the bouts of wintry weather!  Gardening in January?  You betcha!

Getting ready; winter in our home.

This year we are more interested in year-round gardening.  Mark looks forward to the winter months as a time of planning and preparing.  He has worked hard to developed a spreadsheet calendar/timeline to help him keep up with when he needs to do what.  Doing this on the computer lets him keep track of what has been done and what needs to be done.


Winter is when we start seriously looking at the different catalogs.  In the last post I showed you the table where we store our seeds.  Some of these are left overs from last year's planting.  Others are things we harvested from last years' plants.  It is a feeling of accomplishment to see that we are going to be able to re-plant without having to re-purchase!  After Mark figures out what he has on hand (another spreadsheet), he starts looking through catalogs to figure out who has the best product and the best price.  Some of the seed we purchase locally.

Winter is also a good time to read.  Our local library Co-Op is wonderful.  We can go online, look up a book, and request a hold on it.  If the book is at a different branch within the system it is shipped to our branch as soon as it is available. We find that it is often easier to get hold of gardening books in the fall and winter than in the spring.

Today I decided to do a photo shoot of the current catalogs and books we have on hand.  Some of these are library books, others are part of our library.  If you have a used book store or a library used book sale table, that can be a great place to pick up a bargain.  I did give Mark a little bit of a hard time about how much we have.  He pointed out that I did have some old catalogs and some repeats (Park Seed is bad about sending multiple copies of their catalogs).
Whatever!  Here is the big picture: please note that this is the couch where our 6 foot 4 inch Daniel can stretch out comfortably with plenty of room!

Here are Mark's personal favorites.  The only one missing is Harris Seed.  Since the titles are a little hard to read, they are: Pinetree Garden Seeds, Parks, and Totally Tomatoes.

Here are his three favorite books:

Yes, Dick Raymond is one of our favorites.

Stay tuned; more to come!

Welcome!

Welcome to Uncle Mark's Garden!  It is our goal to have you join us in our gardening adventures this year.  Mark has been asking me for sometime to chronicle his gardening year.  Grab a fresh cup of coffee and some gardening dreams and join us.

Gardening is a year-round process at our home.  When the weather is too cold, wet and dark to be outdoors working the beds, Mark is indoors perusing catalogs, developing his planning calendar, ordering seeds, and dreaming big.  We have 3.5 acres to play with but a lot of that land is wooded and had not been tended much before we moved in.  Our first year here was spent clearing more area and doing what we could with a very cold, very wet winter followed by a very hot, very dry summer.

 This is the side yard last year.

This is the side yard (also known as the potato patch) this year.  What a difference a bow saw makes, right?


Mark was able to use a lot of the wood cleared to make different things.  I am hoping that over the next year he will do more with the furniture; I like his rustic furniture!

I'm thinking that most of the time we will be a little heavy on the pictures.  Enjoy, and check back often.  One of us will be posting at least once each week.