The Productive Backyard 2013 January to June

[Nancy]

Chicken adventures are expanding the neighbor kid is done with high school gave his chickens [2 hens] away to a friend and gave the coop to us we are going to remodel it for an isolation cage /roo run/ or brooder. So it was a very exciting day to get that on Sat. here last weekend! It's red the other neighbor made it I need to ask him if it is paint or stain the top needs a new coat.

We are down to six hens h. got rid of the mean ones for me. Also we still have all ten of the chicks they are now fryer size and some are as big as the smaller hens. The four we got later are pullet size now of those four looks like only one is a hen.

This week h. cut a board for a second roost and things have calmed down at night when they go to roost. We had been talking about doing that for a while. I put up a temp. one of a tree branch that broke off but it was too unstable for any of the bigger ones to use. The really like the 2" x 4" on the four inch part to roost on at night.

I've changed them over to pellets and have less loss to song birds / mice stealing it because of the larger size. The also love corn, canned corn I found at a yard sale, corn on the cob I got an extra one for them to enjoy. I need to go pick up the cobs!

The younger ones are learning to enjoy the back yard I have a few holes to plug up so the younger ones do not escape but it's fine as so far only one spot has been a problem.

[Harriet]

Our hens stopped laying temporarily after a snake went through their nests. Either that or they have found a way to lay in the yard. I've searched and don't believe so. Not 100% positive. So it's time to go back to the wooden nest egg and convince them to lay in the nest if they will. HRH dusted under the henhouse with snake repellent powder. One thing about the snake visit - it stopped Cicely from being broody much more efficiently than I could! (yuck, though)

Have little walnut-sized Big Boy tomatoes showing here. It will take them a long time to ripen, of course. The SuperTasty are doing very well, looking very neat. (Big Boy plants are anything but neat.)

The Marigolds look great. So many blooms coming on. The other little annuals are happy. My disappointment with these mini-Petunias is that their blossoms close up through half the morning and half the late-afternoon/evening at least, looking much less attractive then, even though that might be when someone wants to admire them. As long as visitors come mid-day, they look great. Makes me look over at the Marigolds and think what troopers they really are - tried and true.

My only shady outdoor pot is a Fushia and it is going wild with buds/blooms right now - I guess the perfect moment in the season for it. I may insist dd14 take a photo of it when it really fills out the blooms. Also I may need to protect it from these harsh afternoon thunderstorms.

[Nancy]

Your yard sounds lovely Harriet!
I'm grateful for the iris in the shade that are still blooming and the late bloomers. I'm thinking of getting one of those red raspberry colored iris bulbs if I can find one & if it doesn't cost and arm and a leg.

We have currents starting to turn and some walnut sized apples and cherry size plums for the chickens.

I asked the neighbor that built the dog house that's been converted for chickens use if it had paint or stain on it and it's been painted so I'm pleased and will be doing some painting on it to match the other coop and house for summer projects. G.kids think it's fun to paint.

[Harmony]

I'm still getting some tomatoes and broccoli in the garden.

Everyone with Mango trees here have been giving them away by the bucket-fulls lately. When our tropical storm came through they all fell off the trees. We got about 10 the other day from DFiL and turned down as many from another friend on Sunday.

Today DH took me outside to the patch in the grass where last year we had all those watermelon vines. Just now the grass is trying to fill in that now-bare spot. BUT, he pointed to a couple vines with 2 leaves just poking out of the ground in the same place. A couple of those seeds must have gone dormant and just now decided to sprout! I'm not sure how I feel about losing my patch of grass when it's just starting to come back...but it is sorta funny. In the "God provides" list, I suppose!

Those bulbs my friend gave me have sprouted. My amaryllis is smaller with orange flowers. I gave her some of them. Her bulbs have big tall stems bigger around than mine and one gave me a 4-headed flower, deep orangish-red with big feathery-edged flowers. Very pretty. It fell over in the rains and DH brought it in for the vase.

Harriet, I agree, marigolds are troopers. I had some that grew top-heavy with so many flowers.

Nancy, what do you do with all the eggs you get?

My poinsettias that I planted from their Christmas pots looked really bad for a while, but with all the rains we've been having they are twice as large now with many new green leaves. Yippee!

[Nancy]

I decided that one of the sections of the divider fence in the chicken yard would work better over a few feet so worked on moving that and pulling out one stake to be repositioned.

While I was out there got the hens some more red currents they love those!

The neighbors cat got the mole on the side yard yea!

Re; eggs we eat them, I like mine over easy; h. has 'em boiled for breakfast and omelets on the weekend. I use 'em for baking too. If we have extra they go for deviled eggs or to family & friends. We could easily use 2 doz. a week and only get one doz. so done get to have extras very often.

[Harriet]

Sprawling, ugly Big Boy tomato plants with lots of little tomatoes coming on.

Neat, attractive SuperTasty tomato plants with very few little tomatoes. Hmmm ... ...

But does this have to do with the Big Boys being planted and the SuperTasty being in containers? The containers are big, but maybe if they were planted, too, they would be doing better with fruit set. At least I'm sure it's been such a rainy spring that none have done without moisture. There are plenty of flowers on the SuperTasty, but not as many of their flowers are setting fruit. Same fertilizing.

Harmony, were the previous watermelons hybrids? I was just thinking, a hybrid's seeds won't make the same plant the next season. Wow the Amaryllis sound beautiful.

Nancy, my mother loved Iris. Have not heard of raspberry colored ones.

[Harmony]

Harriet, who knows about the watermelons! Last year when the teens came for a bonfire after the hotdogs I served slices of watermelons from the supermarket. A couple of the boys spit their seeds into the grass. Whola! What did we get from those vines, about 6 watermelons? All huge ones. They were very good melons but all tended to split. I have no idea even what kind they were, except I'm sure they weren't seedless ones!

I've always liked Iris too. Don't know if I can grow them here or not. We had the deep purple ones growing up, we called them 'flags'. I think they were the bearded kind. Is that the right word? Ruffled kinda.

At our other house I have four o'clocks also which reseed themselves and come up and flower every year. I just love them but have been unable to find a packet of seeds lately. Last time I was over there I gathered a dish of seeds to plant here.

[Harriet]

DD14, trying to learn close photography,
followed someone ELSE who was productive in the backyard today. Can you see him?





The soft colored blossom he's found in the first photo is the Coral Berry mini petunia. The bright hat he's pulling over his head in the second photo is the Cherry Star mini petunia. And the white blossoms are the Calypso bacopa, which trails so well it peeks out everywhere.

[Nancy]

Lovely flowers Harriet thanks for sharing those photos.

We got 4 eggs last week. I have zip ties to use in securing the fence so that will be next.