Category: How Things Grow

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Building the Great Chicken Wall of 2014

It’s time to build the Great Chicken Wall of 2014. There’s nothing like a dog to help with the digging. No one licks the sweat off your brow better than a dog.

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The first fence post is in. Six more to go. I could use the power auger to dig the holes, but it’s more relaxing to dig the holes by hand with a shovel, and much quieter. There is so much beauty to see when you work outdoors. The foxgloves (dead man’s bells/witch’s gloves) are blooming. Amazing that something so beautiful is so poisonous.

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The fence posts are in. These are the posts (see Posts – Nature’s Gift) I made back in April from young alder trees. Tomorrow I’ll put up the wire. The purpose of the Great Chicken Wall of 2014 isn’t to keep the chickens in, it’s to keep the chickens out. I need more vegetable beds to grow greens and vegetables for my customers.

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Foxglove ~ Botanical.com
Plants Poisonous to Livestock ~ Cornell University
Foxglove Plants ~ About.com Landscaping
Foxglove ~ The National Gardening Association
Foxglove Poisoning ~ National Library of Medicine

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What’s Growing Today – May 19, 2014

What’s growing today? Figs, squash, shallots, mustard greens, and of course chicks.

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These chicks are just two and three days old and out on grass. This is only possible by having a mother. Farmers and individuals raising baby chicks without mothers have them under heat lamps and indoors to protect them. If they do put them out on pasture, they won’t do it until the chicks are two or three weeks old. By then, much of their childhood will be behind them and they will have missed out on a lot of outdoors fun.

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Berries You Can’t Buy

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The peaceful walk down the driveway early this morning belies the reason I was walking through the woods. The dogs had caught an opossum in the wee hours of the morning. It wasn’t dead. It was lying on the asphalt looking very dead. A number of years ago, when the dogs caught one, I went outside to bury it. The dogs had lost interest in the carcass and were off by the pond. I went to get a shovel to bury it, and when I turned to go back to the opossum, it was wandering off into the woods.

This morning, I put the opossum in a box and took it deep into the woods and let it go. They are very resilient creatures, able to endure being dragged around by dogs. This is life in nature. Everything is eating everything else. No matter what you are, you are on somebody’s menu. While cutting tall grass this morning, the mosquitos reminded me I was on their breakfast menu.

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Speaking of menus, the purple salmon berry blossoms of April have turned into berries. Another month or so, and they will be delicious tart snacks to enjoy on a sunny afternoon while toiling outside.

The thimble berries are in full bloom. Of all the berries here, they are my favorite. They are too delicate to appear in grocery stores. When they ripen, they are good for just a day or two. Many of the best foods never make it to store shelves. You need to grow them yourself, which is why cities need to be laced with community gardens, so that even people living in cities can enjoy delicate treats like thimble berries.

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Baby Greens

For many people, the first time they encounter a tomato or a bunch of salad greens is in the grocery aisle in their supermarket. Or, if they are getting their food prepackaged, or in a can, or in a jar, or in a restaurant, or in the frozen food section of their supermarket, they don’t even see that.

But baby vegetables, popping out of the earth and spreading their leaves, have a charm all of their own. They can be as cute as baby chicks. Don’t have a garden or place to grow things? Check out How Things Grow at a man and his hoe® from time to time to see how your food grows. Do you want to see how a particular vegetable grows? Let me know.

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Baby Arugula

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Baby Swiss Chard

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Baby Ruby Streaks Mustard

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Baby Squash

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Baby Tomato

Important to all growing vegetables, is a healthy environment. This includes providing habitat for a rich variety of insects. All of the vegetable beds here are not far from borders of flowering plants which provide food and shelter for predatory insects, spiders, and even snakes. See Bees, The Beauty of Produce, How Apple Pie Starts, How Things Grow, and The Soil Will Save Us.

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How Apple Pie Starts

This is how apple pie starts – as a small flower. It’s late April and the apple trees are blooming several weeks early. Soon, wild bees will pollinate these flowers, and all summer long the apples will soak in the sunshine and grow until they are ready, in early fall, to be eaten right off the tree or made into apple pie. From now into fall, the air buzzes with the sound of wild bees. According to Wild Bees as Alternative Pollinators, by the Penn State:Fruit Research and Extension Center, there are “3,500 bee species other than the honey bee which are also important pollinators of most specialty crops in the U.S.” 80% of bees are ground nesting, so it’s critical to have undisturbed land to provide habitat for these bees to thrive.

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The elderberry bushes are also in full bloom. Come June, they will provide plenty of red fruits for wild birds to eat.

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The garlic patch is nearly knee high. Lucky, Billy, and Imelda are looking for something to eat along the edges of the garlic patch. Lucky is the most curious hen at a man and his hoe®. No matter where we go, she is sure to come along to see what we are doing. And Imelda seems to have been smitten with Billy, the five year old rooster. Wherever he goes, she follows. At a typical egg or poultry farm, hens and roosters never get to develop these romances. It’s one of the benefits of being a chicken at a man and his hoe®.

Articles on wild bees:

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The Importance of Herbs

Herbs serve many useful purposes. Besides enhancing the flavors of dishes and providing vitamins and minerals, borders of perennial provide habitat for spiders and beneficial insects. When the flower, they attract hordes of bees which then pollinate flowering fruit trees and vegetables.

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The rosemary is now blooming and the oregano is growing vigorously. Not far behind are parsley, marjoram, and lavender. Soon, delicate sweet annie will be scenting the entire garden with its fragrance.