29 December, 2017

Hainan: a chook perspective [guest post]

Hi! I'm Hainan the Leghorn, and I'll be taking you on a tour of the garden I live in today...

Garden late December 2017

The first picture there is me (aren't I pretty?) with my companion Honey Soy, an Isa Brown, in the background.

Here's a better one of Honey:
Garden late December 2017

We run around in a moveable chook 'tractor' which we scratch around in most of the day, connected to our coop/house by a series of tunnels:
November 2017

Our chook tractor is made without a bottom so we can dig up the soil. Our droppings combine with the straw and other clippings that are tossed in, and they fertilise the ground which can then be planted out with seedlings.

Here you can see the patches which have been planted out - the first one with corn and tomatoes, the second one with corn and pumpkin, and the third one waiting. We're not allowed into the planted out patches, which is really unfair! I love sitting on a plant and scratching it into submission while pecking at the leaves and destroying the plant! It's one of my favourite things to do when I escape!
Garden late December 2017

This bed, with the corn, cucumbers, and tomatoes, is the first bed that Honey and I were set to scratch out - look how well it's doing after around 6 weeks!
Garden late December 2017

More corn, and pumpkins. Although, as chooks, we're supposed to love pumpkin seeds, Mummy tossed us a whole heap of seeds and we didn't end up eating them! So they lay in the compost until our chook tractor moved on to the next bed, and then they sprouted. But Mummy is keeping them. (Maybe she shouldn't keep quite so many of them - one vine grows quite long!)
Garden late December 2017

And this is what a garden bed looks like after the chicken tractor is moved off:
Garden late December 2017

Lots of space for planting things!

At night we get locked up in the coop away from cats and foxes and other urban predators, and in the morning we lay eggs and make very noisy clucking sounds to let everyone know what we've done! It's a hard-knock life for a chook.

08 December, 2017

more chooks

How much happens in only a matter of weeks!

The girls are still with us, still scratching away, a lot bigger.

We had a dip in egg production for a while - Hainan laid three eggs - one with a weird 'soft' shell, one that came out crushed and bloody, and one that was normal. And then she stopped. And Honey stopped egg production, too. For about a week, I was worried at first that they were egg bound, and then I was worried that Hainan had torn something up inside her laying that broken egg, and then I was worried that I'd hurt them or injured them while checking that they weren't egg-bound...

The local vet where we take our cats was very helpful. Right in the middle of fretting about it, I called the vet and the tech there was so helpful and lovely and encouraging. I needed that - to know I wasn't a failure at chook management. So I'm feeling a bit better about it all now...

Anyway, we got back into egg production about three days ago, and yesterday we had a breakthrough: TWO EGGS! (Okay, so one was weird and long and was shaped like those really smooth river/sea stones, but still...an egg!) Hopefully we'll see another two today. They've sure been swallowing the curl grubs down something fierce...

They sat on the 2nd bed for 2 weeks, happily picking and scratching and grumping and clucking back and forth, although I think at the end of the two weeks they were getting a little bit bored with the space - I haven't managed to grow much inside or around the cages as yet, you see. So it's a bit of a wasteland beyond grass and dirt and the mulch I throw in semi-regularly.

November 2017

So I moved them on from the 2nd bed on Sunday, but I've found the grass isn't as torn up as I'd like, and I'm thinking I probably should have left it there for three weeks at a time, rather than the standard two. But what's going in there will mostly be corn and beans and cucumber and fruiting vegetables.

One of the things about the chook run/pen is that it's pretty small and rather low. It's not easy to climb into and fix things, and it felt kind of poky. So I added another 'level' to it.

Behold Casa de Chook, now about 1.5m tall, with a lot more airspace (even if no more floorspace) and the potential for perches and wing flapping! I can also climb into it without catching on anything, which will be a relief. Fewer scratches (we hope)!

December 2017

I finished it just last night, and while it does need a little more work on it to neaten things up, I'm pretty happy with it right now...

19 November, 2017

chickens, setup, and bed prep

One of the principles of permaculture is review and redesign as necessary.

It's been six weeks since we got the chickens and while they're a PITA to have to wake up and feed first thing in the morning, they're terribly cute, excellent garbage disposal, and destroying the grass at a wonderful rate!

My desire for chooks originally stems from Linda Woodrow's 'Permaculture Kitchen Garden' in which she keeps the chickens in the garden , preferably among the fruit trees to deal with the fruit flies and other nasties. And so, that's always really been my goal. The problem the coop that we got the chickens with hasn't exactly been very moveable. It's large and heavy (solid timber) and in spite of the wheels, it's not very moveable across uneven ground. Plus, there's wire across the bottom of the coop, so they can't actually scratch up the ground, dust bathe, or dig for worms. Very frustrating.

Chooks

Also, while I let the girls just forage through the garden for a couple of weeks, my vegie garden was showing signs of exhaustion. Plus, Hainan has a habit of climbing onto a plant and basically scratching it to death. (Ever seen a chicken use a bush as a scratching pole? Seriously.) So I knew that sooner or later I was going to have to come up with a longer-term solution or I wouldn't have a veggie garden.

Cue the creation of a mobile chook pen (not coop) in which I put the girls during the day, locking them back in the coop at night so as to be safe from urban predators. (Cats, mostly, possibly dogs and urban foxes.) I've picked a spot in the shadiest corner of the garden for summer, and in winter, I'll put them either back where they started, or possibly up on the porch step, facing out into the garden. I'll decide once winter gets here - it's another six months yet!

So right now, the coop is here in the north western corner of the garden, almost right up against the house:
Chicken run

The pen, meanwhile, is in the sunniest spot in the yard, where I want to grow the productive fruiting annuals: corn, tomatoes, cucumber, etc:
Chicken run

And a wire tunnel joins the two, which I fashioned myself. I really need to refine it better (and make it neater) because the tunnel edges are kind of scratchy and they don't fit together very well. Right now, when I want to move tunnel pieces around, it's a bit of a production. The tunnel needs better modularity, and possibly some flexibility for getting across the yard...

And, of course, as always happens when wire is involved, there are war wounds...
Garden with chooks

Ultimately, I fear the wire is winning!

But the chooks seem pretty happy - the enclosed pen has some old vines I tossed over, and a plastic mat that serves as a shade against the hot midday sun. And I toss them the scraps to eat and scratch around. And they've happily dug out and mulched the area I want to plant out tomorrow! EXCELLENT!

I put them in a penned area yesterday with a few older plants, and Hainan rewarded herself by climbing the brussel sprout and trying to scratch it dead. On the other hand, they did find a few curl grubs and peck/bash hem dead. (They don't like the big ones, just the smaller ones which they can swallow whole.)

This is a picture of Hainan trying to kill the brussel sprout, while Honey digs for curl grubs:
Garden with chooks

As you can see, Hainan knows how to go about it.

We've started getting eggs - most likely from Honey. The first one was teeny tiny:
Garden with chooks

That's so small, it fits between the 2" wire gaps in the base of the coop!

Comparison with some other eggs.
Garden with chooks
Left is Honey's 1st egg, centre is an egg from a friend's home-ranged chickens who've been laying for nearly a year now, and the last is a commercial size.

She's produced nearly one every day for the last week, except for Monday. And we lost the one on Thursday, because I think she laid it while perching and then someone stepped down onto it, breaking the shell...

We eagerly await the day we discover two eggs in the coop!

Anyway, this morning, I moved the pen over, and the space beneath is pretty much ready for growing (I had to dig up some of the grass - the girls hadn't dug quite deep enough to pull out the runners):
Chooks in garden.

Tomorrow is the installation of an irrigation system, and planting/planting out day, particularly the perennials that I'm growing between the coop stations.

24 October, 2017

pics of the chicks

Hainan and Honey Soy. (My sister named them!)

Chooks

I don't like the coop much, but working out something smaller and lighter in its place is going to be difficult. I definitely want a chook tractor, but the designs I've seen are very solid and therefore rather heavy. I want something that can be moved around the yard - but it's not a large yard, either!

Anyway, I'm still working out their personalities - and I think they're working out their pecking order. Honey tends to be the first into the feeder, and she hogs it something terrible when I hang it up, but Hainan seems to like prodding Honey - 'scaring' her, so Honey flaps away, or (when it comes to roosting time) climbing all over Honey until Honey gets off the perch and gets back up again. It's this big jostle-and-flutter on the perch, and somewhat amusing from a human perspective.

Chooks

I'm contemplating a 'fixed coop' with a moveable dome, but then, where should the fixed coop go? The backyard is about 6m x 8m - about large enough to swing a cat - and honestly, I want most of it for garden space!

At least the biggest danger to them will be the local cats. Not ours who are kept indoors, but the free-ranging, wandering cats who are about the neighbourhood - at least two, maybe three. There are dogs in the neighbourhood but they're all walked on leashes and it's our backyard. There may be urban foxes, but the chooks are mostly in the coop all day, except for when I let them out to free-range. Not sure about rats, but if we have free-ranging cats in the neighbourhood, then they'll probably deal with the rats. (Plus, our cats may be in the house, but their scent is probably on the underside of the house which is the most likely place for rats to try to make home. At some point, I'm going to need to make some fencing/gates so the chooks can't easily get out without going up. Their wings aren't clipped, but they're not instinctive flyers.

Chooks

Also, I need more fencing for seedlings! Luckily most of the summer seedlings I've got in the ground have pots around and over them. But the chooks have happily dug up the 'centre bed' which mostly housed the wintervege and coriander-gone-to-seed (coriander did AMAZINGLY in my garden this season, which resulted in my sister putting a chunk in the curry - and I do mean A CHUNK. As in, I forked up a bit of green...which turned out to be a lot of green, like an iceberg of coriander, with only the tip showing in the curry sauce...) I need to start collecting that seed, btw. So many things to do, so little time...

20 October, 2017

we have chooked-off!

The chooks have arrived!

They arrived on Thursday, bought from and delivered by the very helpful guys at Rentachook, and are set up in their fully-enclosed chook tractor. There are just two of them, one brown, one white and my sister has already named them (respectively) ‘Honey’ and ‘Hainan’. *facepalm*

The coop is perhaps a little larger than I anticipated, which means less chook stations. Also, there’s going to be rather more ‘dead edge’ in the space under the chook tractor since the chooks don’t really go all the way into the low corners, which is going to make those weedy edges just a touch tricksy… Ah well, I guess we’ll see how the first ‘rotation’ goes.

16 October, 2017

chooks in the garden

One step closer to chooks in the garden! They’re being delivered on Thursday morning, which means I need to work out where they’re going to go to start the rotation. (and, perhaps, to deal with the fruit flies and slugs!)

I have some planned-out chook stations, which I think will need to be better considered once the coop is actually in the garden and I have the size and scope of it all. In a circumstance that slightly complicates things, I planted out one of the beds on the weekends, and the growing period is nearly upon us (from Saturday for 10 days). It’s also the bed that has the most slugs in it, thanks to the leaf litter that I dumped on it a week ago.

The plus side of parentals moving: they’re not going to need all the mulch they’ve been making for the last couple of years. And I am going to be quite shameless about co-opting it for my garden, thank you!

(Which means woodchips for the paths, I guess. Luckily there’s no shortage of those around the place...)

The fruit trees are being...interesting this year:
all the Nectarines: fruiting really heavily but also fruit fly invasions
all the Peaches: doing pretty well thank you
Apricots: NOPED RIGHT OUTTA HERE
Plums: WHAT ARE EVEN FRUIT
Cherries: *waves a couple of fruit lazily*
Avocados: Three are 'fruit, what fruit?' and one is "I'm givin' her all I can, Gardener!"
Apples: One is "wait, I'm supposed to do WHAT?" Two are "...Oh wait, you want fruit? Come back to us in a month..."
Citrus: "yeah, yeah, we have flowers, talk to us in autumn"
Fig: "you put me in the ground three months ago and you want WHAT?:
Established Passionfruit: "HAHA I'M WILD, I DON'T ACTUALLY FRUIT IN SPITE OF PUTTING OUT REAMS OF FLOWERS"
Still in tubes Passionfruit: "PUT US IN THE GROUND AND LET US GROOW, LET US GROOOOW CAN'T HOLD US DOWN ANYMOOOOORRREEE!"
Sultana Grapes: "Hey, I got leaves, don't ask for more this year!"
Red Seedless Grapes: *dead*

I do wish I'd gotten the chickens a few months earlier, though.

12 September, 2017

crop rotation

One of the things I want to do once I have chickens: Crop rotation.

Easy Crop Rotation - this is a seasonal one, growing one set of vegies in a bed each year. Could work with multiple beds, although may not necessarily deal with what happens in winter.

This link deals more in-depth with families and planting cycles, including seasons somewhat. Although I suspect that the best solution is always going to be one's own observations and experiences in one's garden space.

It's a little confusing because there are so many things that I like growing, but finding the space for them is another matter, and everything takes longer in my garden - I'm not sure if this is a ground nutrients issue, or something else.

Some thoughts on crop rotation:
Tomatoes/eggplant => cabbage/caulis => Corn/Cucumber/Pumpkins => beans/peas
Capsicums/zucchini => broccoli/brussel sprouts => beans/peas => Potatoes
Corn/Cucumber/Pumpkins => green manures => Tomatoes/eggplant => cabbage/caulis
Cucumber/Pumpkins => onions/carrots => silverbeet/lettuces => green manures
Potatoes => beets/radishes => Capsicums/zucchini => broccoli/brussel sprouts
silverbeet/lettuces => green manures => Cucumber/Pumpkins => onions/carrots

Hopefully, the chickens will help reduce the need for legumes/green manures, though.

Chook Dome: I still have fantasies about doing this circular, but I think circular may have to wait for the front yard, while I go for the space-saving option of rectangular in the backyard, still using a moveable chook tractor - just a rectangular one...

THOUGHT: Sow a line of barrel medic/lucerne along the fencelines, particularly under the crepe myrtle.

LINK: Growing Trout in a bathtub system...

11 September, 2017

spring is in

I've rented some chickens for the spring. I plan to move them around the garden in a moveable chicken coop, but I guess we'll see how that goes. I know what I want for them to do, but actually getting them to do it may very well be another matter (honestly, it's largely fertiliser and fruit fly management).

None of the plants that I bought have yet been transplanted. Largely because I asked the lawn guys if they'd dig the holes on the outside of the fence, and they were worried about the council (which is decidedly punitive about things that they don't like which, peculiarly, includes not chopping down annoying trees, but not allowing people to plant trees that might otherwise flourish. *sigh*

Anyway, the lilly pillies died when I failed to water them during a hot spell after a long dry spell, and are not responding to my seaweed brew therapy. I think they're probably dead. As the grapevines I transplanted may be. (Dammit.)

The back fence has not yet been dug out (those damned rocks that the previous owner put in to deter weeds), and with hockey ramping up to the finals series, I haven't dared to wreck myself by going out and doing the work of a chilly winter evening. I think I need someone to help me with the garden - who doesn't cost the earth, and who doesn't mind a day or so of 'bit' work.

- passionfruit fence
- front hedge trees
- avocado

04 July, 2017

Hedge-Grows

So, we have 4 passionfruit, 3 lilly pillies, 3 acerola cherries, 3 macadamias, 2 avocadoes, a loquat, and a fig tree that are going to various parts of the property boundary.

The passionfruit are to go along the back fence, hopefully climbing up the new fence to cover it, and provide some screening between us and the neighbour, who feels a little awkward since his study window looks straight into our back porch. The lilly pillies, acerola cherries, and macadamias will probably go along the front fence, with the avocadoes and loquat. The fig tree is going to replace the mandarin that doesn't produce anything.

Actually, none of the citrus in the front garden segment are doing very well. I think they may need more/better feeding. Like loads and loads of horse manure/green manures.

The plan is to keep the lilly pillies, acerola cherries, and macadamias well-trimmed along the front fence (western border of the property) so they don't impede the sun to the front lawn, which I hope to someday turn into a full-fledged vegetable garden.

There's a part of me which would like to keep the avocadoes safely in the backyard, or behind the fence, because, well, avocadoes! But I guess one of the things I consider pretty important in gardening is community involvement - sharing of resources, crop-swapping. And so long as someone isn't going to run off with all my avocadoes, or people ask, then I don't mind sharing...

This has been a tricky winter in which to grow things - not weather wise, so much as the fact that I've been working from sunup until after sundown, and it's difficult working in a dark garden. (Plus, the neighbour's dog yaps at me from the other side of the fence when I turn the garden light on.) I can plant some seeds at night, and I kind of have to - still have many winterveg seeds to plant out.

Planting out the winterveg seeds is the Thing To Do for this week. I'll have to leave the hole-digging and the claybreaking to the weekend, when there's light and time.

Some thoughts on rearranging the garden

Upper step bed near carport is difficult to reach; not a good place for grow-and-pick vegies, better for fruit trees and perennials.

Lower step bed near carport is easier to reach, better for grow-and-pick stuff.

1. move grapes to upper and lower beds against fence.

2. move sage to upper bed, move rosemary (under cherry) to upper bed

3. move chilli/perennial capsicum to upper bed

4. move lavender to upper bed

5. plant bulbs in upper bed (save lower bed and side for easy annuals)

new fence, preserves, winter garden

I had to pull up some sweet potato plants for when we did the back fence.

Garden May 2017

Tricky part: persuading the neighbour not to paint or treat the fence with anything that might turn out to be toxic for my plants.

Wombok (I think)

Garden May 2017

Old Fence.

Garden May 2017

More old fence:

Garden May 2017

Still more old fence:

Garden May 2017

The root vegie garden - rocket and carrots and parsnips and leeks and a bunch of other things, most of which aren't growing at all.

Garden May 2017

New fence being put up (early morning light makes it tricky):

House and garden: new fence

New fence:

House and garden: new fence

More new fence (from same POV as the old fence photo above)

House and garden: new fence

And the long view of the new fence:

House and garden: new fence

I chopped down all the basil and made pesto:

There's gonna be pesto... #basil #gardenofsel #harvest

That was a weekend of preserving, actually. Last of harvest: red tomato chutney, green tomato chutney, preserved lemons, and pesto. Everything but the lemons came from the garden, and I swapped the lemons for lemongrass I did grow in my garden! #gardenofsel #relish #preserves #homecooked #homemade

Last of harvest: red tomato chutney, green tomato chutney, preserved lemons, and pesto. Everything but the lemons came from the garden, and I swapped the lemons for lemongrass I did grow in my garden!  #gardenofsel #relish #preserves #homecooked #homemade

I pulled up the only parsnip that I'd managed to grow:

First ever parsnip! #gardenofsel

I've planted more parsnips, but they're not actually growing. They're difficult to grow apparently - need good sandy soil and the opportunity to grow straight down...

I'm thinking of pulling up the carrot seedlings and planting them out in boxes of sandy compost.

09 June, 2017

planning thoughts

to buy
- another avocado (grafted)
- grapes for the back fence (plant behind the washing line)
- passionfruit for the back fence (plant down in the bottom corner behind the apple
- nuts & berries for the front fence (macadamia, almond, chestnut, lilly pilly, acerola cherry, kumquat)
- raspberries under the lounge room window in front bed

to do
- pull out mandarin (replace with avocado)
- espalier multi-apple
- put hooks in fence to grow things on

to do THIS WEEKEND
- pull out remaining summer plants
- plant out seedlings
- mulch fruit trees and prep bed behind washing line

14 April, 2017

front fence hedge - loquat

Must remember that I have a loquat seedling (full size, grown from seed) and it will go nicely by the front fence!

13 April, 2017

All The Trees Are Brown...

So, gardening. Mum called this morning at 8:30am to say she'd be coming around with her garden helper to help put in some fruit trees.

We got the avocado (grown from seed) and the two apples (my birthday present this year) in the ground, and moved the apricot over. We also discovered a large chunk of cement in the front garden - too large to lever up. So we just planted the apricot a little beyond it.

The avocado - planted out just in time. It's been getting entirely too big for its boots, and had just started leaning to the side in the teeny tiny pot that it's been growing in the last, oh, five, six years...
Trees

Two apples up against the fence - I'm going to espalier them, probably in a fan shape - and the apricot in the front, looking like an umbrella blown out the wrong way...
Trees

The big sprouty thing to the left of the pic is an eggplant. I've done really well with eggplants this year (compared to previous years).

The apples a little closer up:
Trees

I also put in some sweet potato (we'll see how that goes, but I had the length of vine), and started clearing space in prep for the attempt at autumn-winter corn.

07 April, 2017

I just spent three hours in the garden.

I was not expecting time to pass quite that quickly.

On the plus side, I got the seedlings transplanted and covered up for the first day in the sun (so they don't transpire so much), moved the smaller seedlings to larger seedling pots or planter trays, and prepped the seed trays for seeds.

I want more bok choy and asian greens, cabbage and cauliflower, and, oh, it's time to plant peas (sugarsnap and snow) for the end of winter, isn't it?

Interesting. This planting guide for Sydney says to plant sweet corn in April! Full sun, of course...

I wonder if I should try planting it in the front bed where the fruit trees are. There's probably space. Hm. It would need extra nutrients and mulching, but I've got a decent amount of worm castings and quite a bit of compost... Might give it a try. Depends on whether we have a cold or a mild winter. Last year was cold. Year before was mild. At the worst, it won't grow or it'll grow stunted.

25 March, 2017

front yard plans

The first thing that I want is a hedge rather than a fence. Mostly with citrus and nut trees - maybe some pomegranates, but otherwise, mostly non-fruiting ones that people might be tempted to steal.

Garden, March 2017

I have four citrus in the front garden bed - a lemon, two multi-citrus, and a mandarin. None of them are doing very well at all - I haven't gotten a fruit out of any of them, and they're pretty much the same size as they were when I planted them, and it's been two years. So I think it's safe to say that they're not liking that bed. The fruit salad stonefruit tree on the other hand is growing GREAT GUNS, while the persimmon is doing nicely, also, and the dual stonefruit trees are holding up. But the new apricot doesn't seem to like the bed so much:

Garden, March 2017

I'm more than a bit worried about that. It's got good leaves, but no new shoots happening.

I also have an avocado in a pot, grown from seed about 7 years ago, so it should be right about ready to start producing. I just need to get it in the ground, because it has seriously outgrown the pot. And my mother just gave me two apple trees for my birthday.

Garden, March 2017

To say that I have an abundance of trees is something of an understatement, I believe.

current plan:
1. plant the apple trees right up against the lattice fence between the front garden bed and the side lawn, and espalier them to form a hedge
2. plant the avocado where the camellia used to be
3. extract the citrus and plant them along the fence, letting them dig deep and grow out

Also on the books for this year is getting chickens - for eggs, for pest control, and also for mulching and manures. I have the geodesic dome hubs, I just need to buy the struts and set up the chook dome. The only question is size; I want a slightly smaller dome for the backyard, and I'm thinking that I might set it up so that the triangular hutch in which the chickens come opens out into the dome, so they can go out there during the day, do their thing, and come back inside into the warmth in the evening and lay their eggs. At least to start with.

Many plans, most of which wouldn't have been possible if I hadn't been made redundant earlier this year (with warning late last year). It's made me appreciate not only cash flows, but garden time, too!

While homesteading isn't something that I'd do unless it was dire, I would like to develop a self-sufficiency in fruit and vegies and eggs, through chickens and a garden that is both productive and pleasurable. At some point (nuclear war, abrupt end of the petroleum society, dire social breakdown) I may decide to start a Linda Woodrow circular permaculture garden in the front yard, but I feel that's a few years away right now...

In the meantime, we tinker on!

22 March, 2017

Autumn 2016

So I pretty much skipped all of summer there...

So far I have two pumpkins that have set, another two that are up in the air. Also struggling to set fruit is the passionfruit vine which has flowers galore but nary a passionfruit to show for it. I think I need to trim it down pretty savagely come winter.

I have several tomatoes setting fruit - whether they actually ripen nicely is another matter - there was a brief fruit fly infestation in the garden and I haven't seen any decent tomatoes since January, although there are some growing on the vine now. The 3rd planting of corn looks good, but whether it manages to pollinate is another matter. The 2nd planting wasn't very thoroughly pollinated and the cobs look like gappy teeth. The 1st planting I lost entirely to mildew and insufficient growth, alas - I think it needed better soil and mulching.

This is part of the learning cycle of gardening for me - working out what goes where and how to make things grow - at least somewhat by trial and error.

What's doing really well? Eggplant. I have three plants producing, and while they're not going great guns, they're doing pretty solidly. Oh, and the basil. The basil is going NUTS. Everywhere, NUTS.

And I finally have a harvest of fruit; my fuyu (sweet) persimmon tree has branches laden with fruit, and has kept them for the last three months as the fruit fly came and went... It's pretty delicious, actually!

The biggest problem right now is that I'm running out of space to plant things. It's actually rather annoying; I've got loads of root vegetables that I'd like to grow through the winter, and the current crop sets are beans and peas (and some brassicas, which will soon need to be planted out). It's going to get crowded...

A look at the garden in March 2017 (compare with September 2016):
Garden March 2017

I'm seriously thinking about those chickens again, too - to keep the grass in check.