a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

Category: How Things Grow

  • A Fresh Morning, Hissing Ducks


    It’s a cool, damp morning. Gentle rains through the night have made the air sweet. Each year has its own feel. By now the poppies should be setting buds. They are a long way from that. But the apples are forming, their little babies getting their first blush of red.



    In the hoop house, Snow and Emma are on their nests much of the day, hissing and scolding whenever I approach. Would they scare off a fox? I have my doubts. If all their eggs hatch, that will be some thirty ducklings. Now I see why there are thousands upon thousands of wild ducks on the fields and marshes. At that rate of reproduction, it doesn’t take many generations to end up with millions of offspring, or keep many a fox, hawk, eagle, and coyote well fed.

  • Essence of Summer


    Grass flowers are underrated. Are they even rated at all? Waving in the summer breeze, they are the essence of summer.


    The Japanese name for Lupine is Nobori-Fuji 昇り藤 which means climbing wisteria. The word to climb, noboru, is an interesting word because it can be written three different ways, 上る or 登る or 昇る. All have the meaning of climbing, but with subtle differences.

    上る is used when referring to climbing stairs, climbing up a slope, climbing onto a train, and putting things onto a higher place, such as a table.

    登る is used when you are climbing onto something with purpose or with a lot of effort, such as climbing a mountain, or getting up onto a rostrum to give a speech, or a platform to give a performance.

    昇る is used for things rising high into the sky, such as the sun or smoke, and in the case of the lupine, wisteria climbing into the sky.

    One word, three different ways of writing it, and there are many such words in Japanese, which give it a richness when it comes to expressing yourself in writing.




    Ema and Snow have gotten serious about incubating their eggs. Ema’s nest is a huge mound. My first experience with brooding ducks, it’s interesting seeing the difference between them and chickens. Chickens don’t build such elaborate nests. They don’t cover their eggs when they leave their nests. They don’t hiss the way ducks do when you approach their nests. Chickens stay quiet, until your hands get too close, and then they draw blood.







  • Summer Days, Summer Colors


    We are past the days of new green. The only tree that hasn’t leafed out and settle in for the summer is the mimosa. The chickens spend hours exploring the lush forest floor.


    Soon, bright red thimble berries will be right for eating off the stem. From petal fall to sweet ripeness happens quickly. All it takes is a few weeks of bright sunshine.




    The scent of peonies wafts through the garden. The white ones are as glorious as thunderheads rising above the mountains.



    A few weeks ago I was concerned that I didn’t have any brooding hens yet. I even borrowed this broody black hen to mother a clutch of Welsummer chicks I ordered. This week, four of my hens have gone broody. I will have plenty of mother hens to raise many chicks.

    The brown chicks are Welsummers. The light ones are Redstar roosters the hatchery added to keep the Welsummers warm on their two day journey here. Though, since I ordered 18 of the Welsummer chicks, it is more likely the hatchery added the Redstars to get rid of them. Oh, well, it is what it is. Summer is no time to be upset, not with peonies in bloom.

  • Under Summer Skies, the Gardens Riot


    Looking out at today’s gray skies, it’s hard to believe that just a few days ago we were staring up at brilliant blue summer skies. Yesterday’s rains were a welcome relief. The forecast is for more sunshine and warmth. The garden is already a riot of green and color.




    If you want to provide bees with plenty of food, comfrey is the plant for you. Instead of blooming all at once, its flowerheads are made of rows of flowerbeds which uncurl and bloom row by row. Cut the plant down, and in no time, new shoots spring up to bloom all over again, providing bees with flowers much of the summer, and you with a steady supply of verdant mulch.





  • Early Summer – Dreaming of No Waste


    Today’s clouds are a welcome relief from the early heatwave of the past few days which gave us a taste of July and August in May. The yellow dandelion flowers have turned into fluffy white balls, which float away with the slightest breeze.


    You’d never know that the woods are full of chickens, their favorite place to be. It’s not until you hear their alarm calls, that you even know they are there.


    The cherry blossoms have become baby cherries. Another month or so and they will be plump, sweet, and irresistible.


    I’m getting bountiful rows of pulled weeds clearing the garden beds. They should make good potato beds. I’m covering them with gunny sacks with holes cut out for the potatoes to grow through. Come mid summer I’ll find out how well this works.


    Working in the garden and woodland, I’m in awe that nature never has any waste. There are no garbage piles in nature. Everything that is made can be reused, recycled, composted.

    There is a small town in Japan, Kamikatsu (no English on the town’s home page, but fun to click through anyway), on the island of Shikoku, which has a goal of becoming a no-waste town by 2020.


    They recycle 80% of all their waste. They have a recycling center where the townspeople bring their waste, and sort it, not into simple categories like paper and plastic, but into many categories. For example, there are 9 categories just for paper products. There is a chart of 1,152 items, from aluminum-coated paper candy wrappers to whiskey bottles to dresser mirrors, listing which bin to put each item.

    Try as they might, they can’t yet get down to 0% waste because of the way products are manufactured. To get to 0% waste, they need companies to rethink how products are made and packed, and to design 100% recycling into the products before they leave the factory.

    It‘s inspiring to see a small town in the mountains of Japan taking on the goal of reducing waste to zero. Their efforts have attracted attention from around the world. How different things would be if producing zero waste was taken for granted, and it was the way everything was made. Nature does it. Why can’t we?