Backyard Update

First question we continually get is "How are the chickens?" The answer? Peachy. They're all growing up marvelously and one has even stopped peeping like a chick and has started clucking like (we hope) a hen. I've got my eye on one in particular that keeps doing what I take to be aggressive things. Hopefully she's just a really butch hen and not an adolescent cock trying to macho himself onto a dinner platter.

Here's a group shot of our blue oregano, cilantro, carrots, and the broccoli behemoths. We got one crop of radishes (which I had planted between the broccoli plants) before the broccoli shaded them out. I've since moved them to the watermelon bed since that'll be bare earth for another couple weeks/months.

The cucumbers, peas, beans, and butternut squash are doing great. I'm planning on getting up their growing supports in the next week or two. This little lettuce plant is a volunteer from last year's garden which is a good thing since all the lettuce seeds I planted where I wanted them have failed to grow. Nothing. I think ants or some other crawly thing is eating them. I have no proof for this theory, but that's my final answer. (For now.)

The corn is growing fast. This year we expanded to include sweet corn in addition to the popcorn we also had last year. My son thinks it's the coolest thing in the world to eat popcorn he grew himself.

You can also see the Mammoth Russian Sunflowers creeping along the fence. We had these last year and we all loved them. I left most of the plants for the birds, but did keep one or two for ourselves.

This strawberry is now in my daughter's tummy. She proclaimed it "the perfect strawberry." Can't beat that, right?

Next year I'm going to make this an herb pot and attempt to grow strawberries in one of the beds. Hopefully that way we'll have more than one or two berries ripe simultaneously.

We planted these jasmine plants last year to someday cover the chainlink fence and create an arbor over to the other side. We weren't sure if we did a sufficient job protecting them from the winter frost (it didn't help that they are intertwined into a metal fence which got dang cold), but they're growing like crazy with lots of buds, so we must have done something right.

Looky what I noticed for the first time today!! The broccoli is beginning to bud! Such excitement!

These radishes, on the other hand, are having issues. The one on the left looks okay. The one in the middle is a bit sad and chewed on, but saveable, I hope. The one on the right (if you can even see it), has had all its greenery chewed away. Poor thing. Again, I'm blaming the ants. I've seen them all over the plants and haven't been able to figure out what they're doing.

Being the ever-observant gardener, I didn't even notice the actual fruits on this tomato plant until I took this photo to show off the blossom! Such a dork!

You want to know what I love best about my garden? The daily serenade I get from this little guy (gal?). The sounds this mockingbird dreams up are awesome. I thank him verbally every day (yes, I talk to birds, so shoot me) and he thinks it's pretty cool to sit in his tree, watching me do my thing, and singing his little heart out. It seems we have this mutual crush thing going and I, for one, LOVE IT!