Leeks and San Marzano tomatoes are in

After I finished work, I got a few hours to work in the garden.  I divided a 4-cell starter we bought of leek starters and planted them per instructions in rows 4" apart.  I have three rows of those.  Having never grown leeks before, we have no idea what to expect.

Once that was done, I got a number of the San Marzano tomato starters in the ground as well.  They weren't as far along as the Old Virginias that I planted the other day but still look to be in decent condition.

Kids are on the board

As we have done in the past, Wifey and I are sectioning off part of the main garden for each of the kids.  As with the past, we have told the kids we will provide them with some plants (ideally of their choosing) to grow.  We will support them and help them with the garden, but the responsibility is theirs.

All three kids have their gardens at least started.

The Boy has some peppers, basil, and cherry tomato in the ground.  He would like more flowers which we will try to get this weekend.

The Bruiser (our youngest) being still quite young has a smaller garden area (at least so far).  He has a bell pepper, a cherry tomato, and a squash growing.

The Girl wanted hers to be partially under the Japanese maple.  Because parts of that area had been used for Spring planting, we weeded it out.  I was going to roto-till that area, but she was interested in keeping some lettuce (from this year).  She also wanted to keep some volunteer tomatoes from last year to see what they are and how they do.  We planted basil, a bell pepper, and a cherry tomato there.  As with her big brother, she wants flowers which we will be getting this weekend.

First summer plants are in the ground!

We finally have summer plants in the ground!

I'm taking a little bit of a gamble here.  Technically, our 10% chance of frost date is April 29 (see below from the National Gardening Association.  I felt pretty confident planting a few days early, though, since our temperatures have been running a bit on the warm side and the lowest forecast low temp for the next week is 41 degrees.  Forecasts may be off, but I think it's unlikely they'd be off by 10 degreesl



We still have a lot to plant both in terms of seeds and transplanted starters.  At least we have the Old Virginia tomatoes, yellow banana peppers, and some basil in the ground.

Our little ladies gave us a truly monster egg

Wifey brought me a monster egg today that she retrieved from the coop.  We're all in awe over the size.

Worth noting is that I zeroed the scale after putting the glass dish on it.  Our previous high water mark was a 4.1 oz egg.  This one clearly blows the other one away and is amazing.  It's so big I can't help but wonder if it's a triple yolk egg instead of "merely" being a double-yolk egg.

Stiffening the kiwi t-frames

When I planted the kiwis I sunk some 6'x6' posts then mounted 2'x4' crossbars on either side at the top to support the vines once they get long enough.  Ever since then I meant to stiffen the crossbar  with other pieces to join the two sides together. 

Today I finished one of the t-frames. One more to go.

We might have a wild mulberry tree

Wifey and I were wandering around the property yesterday afternoon and saw a small tree growing along with one group of pawpaws on the wood line.  We both think the leaves look remarkably like mulberry to us.  I think we'll be looking into transplanting it elsewhere.  Not sure where, though.

Transplanted Oregano

While I was working on the raspberry lines yesterday afternoon Wifey worked on putting a wood chip border around a few of the apple trees and transplanting the bulk of an overgrown oregano plant from the front bed.  We decided that since deer supposedly don't like strong smells (including oregano) that we'd transplant most of the plant to part of the orchard as a bit of a deterrent.  Perhaps the flowers (once it flowers) might attract pollinators as well?

 

It's hard to tell from the picture, but this plant is about 2' x 2'.

Bumblebee on raspberry

Wifey got this picture of a bumblebee pollinating raspberry flowers today.  It's a great one, I think.

Baby raspberry canes are coming up

I don't know if it's the warmer weather, bouts of rain every few days, or the lack of weeds in the area (or a combination?) but we're seeing a number of new raspberry canes coming up.

Working on the middle tier of raspberry lines

This afternoon I worked in the orchard to add support lines in what will eventually be the middle of three tiers.  I got three of these lengths completed.  One more segment will complete the middle tier.

Kiwi continues to survive

I've been trying to grow "Hardy Kiwi" for a few years now.  I think that that name is more than a bit of a misnomer as I've had a heck of a hard time keeping them alive.  Below are pictures of a 2+ yr old vine that has survived despite all odds.  I also have two other vines that are one year old that are barely hanging on.  The hope is that they will eventually bear fruit.  At this point it's just interesting to see if I can keep them alive.

Mulberries continue to thrive

Our mulberries continue to do quite well.  As I read prior to planting them, they're growing quite well.

Persimmon is sprouting

While we were working around the asian persimmon tree to clean up its root area, we got a few pictures of it as well.  It is always a bit behind everything else so there doesn't appear to be a lot of new growth yet.  At least it's leafing out.

Cleaning up, transplanting elderberries

As I've posted previously, Wifey and I have been doing a fair amount of work in the orchard to clean it up.  Our elderberry bushes are doing quite well so far this year.

They all have a fair amount of new growth.

While cleaning up he weeds around the base, I transplanted one set of large sprouts from one of the initial plantings to a new area.  They became quite stressed and it's taken a bit for them to recover, but they seem to be on the rebound.

Cleaning up the raspberries

Wifey and I have spent a lot of time digging out the areas around the base of the raspberry plants to create a channel for them to grow on.  We've also added wood chips to deter weed propagation somewhat.  I'm slowly crimping wire ferrules to cable to help keep the canes from leaning too far one direction or another.  Would really be helpful if I bought the correct tool for the job.

While digging the weeds out, we transplanted a number of canes that had spread to the sides to go down the middle of the channel.  To my delight, we haven't lost a single transplanted cane and even have some new sprouts such as the one shown below.

Peach tree growth

Our peach trees seem to have handled the winter pruning pretty well.  It's great to see that we have a lot of baby peaches on the larger of the two trees.

Blueberry blossoms

While on a walk with Wifey yesterday she took a few pictures showing blueberry growth.  She also got some nice pictures of the flowers on a variety of the shrubs.

Apple blossoms

Wifey and I took an evening walk through the orchard to see how the various plants are developing.  We were quite happy to see that the apple trees haven't been impacted severely from our first effort at pruning this past winter.

 

 

Our little ladies are snake killers

Yesterday afternoon the Wifey and I were taking a little stroll around the property when we came across a bit of a commotion among the two Wyandotte chickens.  Wifey saw that one seemed to be choking on something and sorted out that it had a baby snake in its mouth.  After a moment, it spit out the snake and the other Wyandotte stole it.  They then proceeded to play a rousing game of "keep away" until the ~6" snake was consumed.

Amazingly, a few minutes later they found a second snake in the woods.  As with the first, they played "keep away" and devoured that snake, too.

The only downside to the whole thing is that if those were baby black snakes (which eat the copperheads), I'm not nearly as happy about that.  Oh well.  That's nature doing nature things.

So the chicken coop wasn't large enough....we extended the run

As we got through our first 6 months of chicken farming, we realized that there's a reason the term "cooped up" exists.  Anticipating a cold, snowy/rainy winter (that never happened) we were concerned that leaving the chickens in their original digs would be problematic and end up with them getting rather stir crazy.

So we decided that we I would build a much larger run attached to the coop.

In the interests of making an extension using as much existing/leftover material as possible, I made it 4'x10'.  Why 4x10?  Because I had a number of 8' long 4x4's and had a few leftover 4x4's that were 12' long.  One was pretty twisted so I decided to cut off 2' to minimize the worst of it.  Thus: 4'x10'

As with the original coop, I made a base frame.  Unfortunately, I decided to try a different anti-critter approach to the base.  Rather than install the 1/2" grid as I did with the other, I attached it to the frame and excavated a trench underneath the frame and had the grid go vertically downward.  That was A LOT more work for a similar result.  Never again will I do that approach.

As you can see from the picture above (and below) we have a chicken waterer inside that can be plugged in to keep it warm during the winter.  Although it's smaller than the one in the coop, one thing it has going for it is that it doesn't have cups to collect dirt in it.  The chickens just poke a ball valve to get water.

As with the initial coop, we made a PVC food dispensary.  This time, we made it out of considerably larger diameter PVC so we don't need to fill it as often in the winter (or at all, for that matter).

As I mentioned above, we were concerned about the chickens getting bent out of shape if we were unable to get them out of the coop for a lengthy period of time.  As such, the wife wanted a swing (which they've never used) and a nesting bar (which they also have never used).  Regardless, they have them.  What they do use is the tire/dust bath.

 

We have also attached another solar powered light.  This one was purchased from Walmart.  We actually like it the best because you can install the panel and light separately and direct both sensor and light through independent articulation.

 

Lastly, I installed a hinged trap door separating the original chicken run and the new extension.  There are two pins that can be installed to keep one area from the other.  We have yet to need to close them off, but it's a nice option to have in the event we ever need to do so.