First garden meals, brave chicks and trampoline gardens

Brrrr! This cold weather has kept the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and basil inside for a few more days until it really warms up, but it is good news for all the cool weather crops that I planted late like mesclun, spinach, and pac choi, so we have been eating delicious salads! Sweet reward! We also harvested the top leaves off the basil plants that are still indoors and getting a little too tall - they were so yummy with mozzarella. Speaking of which, one project on the near horizon is to start making fresh mozzarella with raw milk from grass fed cows.

I have really gotten on top of the mulching this year. In the past I have procrastinated or made excuses not to mulch, but mulching is really doing yourself a favor - it conserves moisture, keeps weeds down, and encourages soil life from earthworms to beneficial microbes.

Spinach and Pac Choi mulched with grass clippings a few days ago, clippings are now dry and brown

Pea Tipi - We will run twine from the little fence up to the top for pea vines to climb

Gilfeather turnips just mulched with green grass clippings in the middle of the pea tipi

Cabbage plant - still needs mulching

Potato plants doing great! They were easy to plant right under the grass-clipping mulch and they are thriving. The plastic sour cream container is doing great too!

Comfrey plant from a tiny start a friend gave me 2 years ago. Comfrey is very easy to grow - it can take over too but it is very beneficial. This plant has been left without water in a pot for too long, planted in the middle of the lawn (I'm still not sure where I got that weird idea...) and then dug up and moved to this spot. I will dry the roots and leaves to make a healing oil and salve. Comfrey contains allantoin (a common ingredient in lotions and other cosmetics) which helps damaged skin regenerate really quickly. The dark green oil is very healing for chapping, cuts, and scrapes.

The chicks are now outside foraging all day and in the garage only at night.

Brave chicks exploring

An even braver chick exploring the deep grass field

Chickens love wood chips and they like to scratch it off the black fabric mulch that the previous owners so thoughtfully provided so we don't have to weed the ornamental plantings. Yay! More time to grow food!

Just a great picture Rose took

Trampoline gardening:

Where this used to be, we now have a bed for an herb garden:

I noticed the area under the trampoline had been cleared of grass by being shaded and by chickens scratching around in the nice shade. Being a sucker for grass-free ground, I got Peter and Rose to help me move the trampoline so this can be our herb garden. It has a lot of rocks and full sun, both of which are good for Mediterranean herbs like rosemary, oregano and thyme. The rocks absorb the heat and reflect it back, which those plants enjoy. I am clearing the residual grasses around the edges then I will get my herbs in. It will be perennial culinary herbs as well as medicinals (and many herbs fit into both categories - food as medicine and all that jazz!)

Photo credits: Rose Gustafson and Celeste Gustafson