Perennials, Lazy Gardener's Best Friend

This spring has been a strange one. We had our usual freakishly warm weather in February, but then we had a 20 degree frost for the better part of a week. Since then it's been very wet and generally cold, with a sunny day sprinkled in there. For me this means, between work and school and rain, the garden isn't where I want it to be.

However, I have been getting the perennials we have planned on having at our place in the ground. We are planning on four perennial crops, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and asparagus. As of today, we only have the blackberries left. The strawberries we planted, almost a month ago, now are doing really well and all of our plugs took =].

We planted twelve blueberries last week. They are already flowering, which is a great sign. I have been picking the flowers off for now, so they put their energy into establishing, not fruiting. I can wait. By letting your perennials get well established the crop is larger for the rest of their lifetime.

The asparagus, I planted today. We planted 26 asparagus plants, two rows of 13. We won't get any this year, but next year we can harvest half and after that we can have full harvests for as long as we live here. The asparagus are going to be a great investment, because they are quite expensive at the store and they start producing around the beginning of March and keeping going through July. I'm really excited to have them part of the family.

Perennials are so nice, because they often have less maintenance and produce well for years once we invest the time for first growth period. This is one of the reasons I have planned for a good number of perennials to plant and depend on while we live here. Other than the fruit bearing ones I mentioned, many herbs are perennials and I'm planning on planting some basket willows, which are perennials as well.

(The strip between path and driveway is where we are planting blackberries)

Whether certain herbs are perennial or not depends on your location. Since we have mild winters here there are many herbs that are perennials. I have started thyme, oregano, marjoram, and chamomile for perennials. I have some lavender and a beautiful rosemary bush already. I also have a young California Bay tree that is waiting for me to decide on the perfect spot for it.

The great part of many perennials is they often produce more then you need. For example fruit trees are great, easy plants to care for and one tree often produces more than one family could eat of that fruit. This means there's plenty to trade with others that have fruit bearing perennials. I have friends with fruit trees, so I will trade my extra berries for peaches, plums, lemons, cherries and apricots. I just need to have a friend with some apple trees and I'll be set.

How are you gardens going? Planting any perennials? Hope they are growing as well as mine! Until next time! 

Chickens: Our Flock

I am an animal science major at my university and it has been difficult at times for me to be patient when waiting to start our dream farm. This is largely due to the fact that you need land to have livestock, which is a main focus of mine. We have finally got to a place in our lives where we can afford to rent a house with a yard. Since our city allows the keeping of chickens, we have a flock of our own. This has been one of my greatest pleasures, from raising the chicks to taking care of the hens. So I thought I would share with you all about our flock.

At the moment we have seven hens. We have two "generations" in the coop, so we are getting half full sized eggs and half pullet eggs. Our older girls we raised from chicks in the spring of 2016. We raised them in my Dad's garage as we were preparing to move to a place where we could have them. We started with seven chicks, two of them turned out to be males and one was too independent for her own good and got lost (literally).

Of the four in our flock now one is a Gold Sex Link, one a Rhode Island Red, and two are Americanas. I have fallen for the Americanas and not just, because their pretty blue eggs. The Americanas are smart and watch out for the others. The Gold Sex Link has impressed me with her laying, she lays an egg just about everyday. I will not get another Rhode Island, they are just unimpressive in just about every way.

I won't bore you with everything about each hen, yet. I will just mention my top hen, Bumblebee. She is a gentle Americana and watches over the others like a rooster most of the time. She and my other Americana are very attached to me and follow me around the yard. Bumblebee is especially friendly and will often let me pet her. She's a great head of the flock.

For the new crew we wanted to increase our production so we could sell to others more consistently. This made us consider some higher producing breeds. I'm general against leghorns, they just look weak and would make great prey for anything, so we skipped those. We went with an sex link, but black this time. I'm hoping she turns out to not be such a brat as Lily, but still produce good. We also got a Astrolorp, Walnut. They are known to be excellent layers. Then I got another Americana, because I'm in love and a silver laced wyandotte, since they're gorgeous. Unfortunately, the Americana turned out to be a little boy =/. The others are laying well and have integrated into the flock well now.