Good Garden Growth

While I went to town, Phil moved the laying hens up into the orchard. (Too bad we didn’t have them there the day before, when we had chicken photos!) This year’s little laying chicks did not want to move. Now, 24 hours later, they are still running free. Unlike the older layers, they didn’t even settle in after dark. We’re not sure how to deal with that.

The ducklings overall are behaving well with the tiny new chicks. I'm amazed at how different their body feel is from the chicks. The ducks have soft and meaty chests and extremely teeny wings. And they are four weeks old and still covered with down.

I finished planting out the peppers yesterday. All 210 are in the ground. I had been worried about the space in the garden, concerned that we would run out of room, but we have a LARGE amount of space yet to fill up.

My original lasagna garden is growing, too. I picked peas from the two beds, and I am thrilled with the size of the Music garlic growing.

The Egyptian walking onions have beautiful bulbils.

The main market garden continues to grow. The beets (which probably should have been thinned).

The cabbage: huge leaves, but no heads yet.

Eight varieties of potatoes: some varieties obviously are a good bit more vigorous than the others!

The oldest, largest tomatoes, now all nicely staked (thanks to Ken and Cheri).

The newly planted section, with tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and flowers.

And the lettuce and mustard greens we've been harvesting. I must admit that the mustard greens are a bit too bitter for my taste. Maybe I let them grow too much? I don't know.

We've eaten Caesar salad with the lettuce, and it is marvelous.