Sunday, June 23, 2013

Summer Solstice Garden Update

Hello! We have just begun the summer months.  I took some photos this morning to show how much progress the garden has made in just a few weeks!  I also took a photo of my homemade citrus cleaner. You can check out how I made it here.  Most of you know I saved 4 baby bunnies a couple of months ago, and I released them about a month ago.  Just thought I'd let you know, I've seen them around!  They stick to the back around the chicken coop.  June 20th my baby chicks arrived!  I had 13 of them ordered from Meyer Hatchery.  Two of them didn't make it.  This is tough, even for me, who has been around baby chicks the majority of my life. Day old baby chicks are very fragile and it isn't uncommon to lose some.  Just the way of the world I guess.  Anyway, I've still got 11 of them and they're so cute!  I posted a photo of them below too!  Enjoy the photos!  You can click on the photos to see them larger if you'd like.  *If you are a new reader, please keep in mind you can scroll to the bottom of the page and click on "OLDER POSTS" to see all previous posts!




















Check out the green peppers!


This small greenhouse from Harbor Freight was only around $200 bucks on sale and we have used it quite a bit!

Greenhouse Tomatoes


Kidney Beans!

This is the squash garden. Zucchini, yellow squash and spaghetti squash.

This is an older photo of a sunrise on my camera!  You can tell because there are no leaves on the tree. I thought I'd post it anyway!

Just one more view of half of the big garden.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Amy's Harvest Garden Update

This is an update long overdue! I will just get right to it.  I took lots of photos over the last few days to put up here so you all could see how the garden is coming along and see just how many things I've been up to!

First, here are some photos of what the garden is looking like so far.

Zucchini is the first one.  We have also planted yellow squash, butternut, spaghetti squash and also carnival squash.


Sugar Baby Watermelon.  This year instead of planting seeds, I just bought a few plants.

Brussel Sprouts

Buttercrunch Lettuce


Green Onions


Jalapenos, Green Peppers, and Super Thai Chile


Tomatoes


Next, I took a couple of photos of how I deer proof the garden. In the back field, last time I checked there were 18 deer back there.  We had to do something to protect the garden.  This year we are using two methods.  The first photo is of an electric fence insulator.  We set up electric wire around the entire garden this year!



You may be asking yourself why you see a picture of Billy Bass.  Well, I actually have 6 of these that I've picked up at garage sales for $1.  They have a motion sensor in them.  I place them around the garden and every time a small or large animal passes them, they sing!  This has worked for YEARS.  We've been using this technique for a long time!



One day last week I noticed that between watering plants, flowers and chickens I had carried somewhere around 20 gallons of water all over the front and back yards and also all the way back to the chicken coop.  I decided that since I would be getting 12 more baby chicks, I would eventually be carrying even more water.  I decided to get myself a garden cart.  One that could be pulled manually or one that could be towed!  Here it is, already being put to use!


A few weeks back my dad and I rescued 4 baby bunnies from a nest in the front yard.  We kept them inside for almost a month.  We let them go in the back field a couple of weeks ago...here are a couple photos I took of them. So cute!  Since letting them go, we've seen them regularly hanging around!




Here are a few photos of what was going on in the chicken coop this morning.




The photo below is a bird's nest inside the chicken coop. I'll let you know if I see any baby birds in there!



Here are some various photos of flowers and plants growing around the house.  Below the first one is bamboo, it's out by the garage.

Foxglove


Lantana

Below are Peonies in an old milk bottle from my grandma's house.

Various colors of Verbena


The blueberry bush is loaded!  I have to get it covered with netting so the birds don't eat all of them!

Here is a photo of the first green onion harvest of the season!



This last photo is of a couple of items I found at a garage sale last week.   One is a dog feeder and the other is a dog water bowl.  I'm going to convert these to a chicken feeder and a chicken waterer!

As you can see, I've been busy!  Hope you all enjoyed the photos!