Sunday Gardening Adventure

Today was gorgeous! We had clear blue skies and temperatures in the upper 70's.  I spent my Sunday afternoon mowing, harvesting/spreading compost and playing with the chickens.  I have included a few of the highlights in picture form.

My red clover, which I planted to fix nitrogen and attract pollinators.

Look a pollinator! It's working!

And again! They are just buzzing with cute little honey bees. I love it! I also added white dutch clover to our lawns and hope they attract they same cute little guys.

My beautiful compost pile. It is full of black gold. So Happy!

This is what I collected today and spread over the front lawn. Our front lawn has a tough time with two huge trees and Western exposure. So I'm doing what I can to keep it healthy. Mowing high (~3 inches)  + compost. The clover is there to add nitrogen and I'm excited to see if it improves it.

The next exciting addition to our little farm are 2 cute chicks! They were an early graduation present! (Graduation is May 4th. I can't wait)

Presenting Mia (a Polish) and Astro (Australorp). Polish chickens are known for their crazy puffy heads and Australorps are big beautiful metallic black chickens who are prolific layers

The babies currently reside in our living room and won't be meeting the established flock for at least 4 weeks.

The girls keep kicking out the eggs. I've been getting about 3-5 eggs a day.

My lovely ladies. Hippie and Flower are Lakenvelders. They are the black and white hens. They lay medium sized white eggs. Then Ginga' and Maryanne are bantam Cochins. They lay cute little brown eggs.

And finally a bunch of plant photos...

My attempt at growing strawberries. I just can't give up on them, but I've battled extreme summer heat and slugs. I hope being around more will save these guys.

Two examples of my favorite sweet smelling pollinator attracting alyssums. They're also great at self seeding.

My asparagus patch is kicking out more and more thick spears. Year number three is proving to be a great harvest. I've been going by the rule that you can keep harvesting them until they are thinner than a pencil and we've been eating asparagus about twice a week. Isaac also eats the thinner spears raw in the garden.

My sad frost damaged bell peppers. I guess we'll see how well they recover.

Isaac's tomato from school between two red basil plants. They're doing well.

My pink knockout rose is going crazy! (thanks to compost) I can't wait until it starts blooming out.

Cilantro loves it here! This is a volunteer and I've found it growing in the lawn too. Izz also snacks on this. He's definitely my son. 

Our last surviving blueberry bush is pretty scraggly. I don't have anything for it to cross pollinate with, but I plan to grow a row of blue berries on the west end of the garden. At the end of the season I'll add this one to those.

This is a hodgepodge of little seedlings. There is a sunflower, alyssums and carrots. Oh, and there's some weeds too. 

 So, that's what's happening in the garden thus far. Chris has requested that I try squash again. I'm a little hesitant because I was never able to deal with vine borer moths and squash bugs, but I love to grow veggies that we'll actually eat. I'll probably give it another try.



BONUS PICTURE:

Thelonious in the garden. Leave Thelonious Alone-ious!