While Away

I feel like I've been away from blogging for so long now, or at least very sporadically.  My yard, gardens, and chicken coop conversion have been keeping me  very busy and very tired. Here is a little progress on the first of the raised vegetable beds.  

  This garden is under netting because the squirrels keep digging things up.  The bed is 4 by 10 feet and is divided into square feet because I'm trying the "square foot gardening" method.   Everything in this garden I planted from seed and it includes peas, three kinds of onions, radishes, five kinds of lettuce, swiss chard, nastursiums, cilantro, carrots, red beets, spinach, and kale.  These are all early cold weather plants which enjoy the cooler temps.  

  I feel like these seedlings are my little babies and I check on them several times a day.  It always amazes me how much they grow ~ especially after a rain.  

  The raised bed next to this one I have just planted with two kinds of cabbage, brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, and two kinds of parsley, with 13 squares left for several more types of vegetables.  

  In between the four raised beds, I placed a 3-tiered iron planter that I'm using to grow strawberries.   

    They have a ways to go before we'll be getting any berries, but it is fun to watch them grow since they came bare root and no leaves.  

   A few flowers blooming around the back yard add some much enjoyed color.  

   Our new chicks are coming on Tuesday, and although they'll have to live in the house for a month or longer, I've had to divert my attention from the gardens to the work of converting part of the green house into a chicken coop. That will keep me busier than the gardens, so I may not be around blogland much but will certainly share pictures of the chicks and visit you all as often as I can.