This yard is wonderful as it is a huge challenge for me – devoid of almost anything except for grass and buckthorn when we moved here in March 2007 (with a few trees the previous owner put in – actually a lot of trees in the woods, too, but those were lost in the buckthorn) – it was 1.7 acres of fresh canvas for me.  I had aspirations to be an artist, using that canvas, but a fearful amount of work stood in my way.

In order to plant even the tiniest thing here, I’ve needed to dig out sod, haul literally tons of compost to lighten our hardpacked clay soil, pull out buckthorn, rocks, roots, clay and relocate all of these things…in short, terrifying amounts of backbreaking labor.  Luckily I was so incredibly enthusiastic in those first years, because it was horrible work.  I was exhausted, dirty, constantly getting injured (back, ribs…), and worst of all, for years I’ve done this crazy work and not felt much peace at all from my exertions.  I’d look around and still not have one easy place to plant.  I didn’t have enough plants to fill spaces.  I was never convinced that I got the design right…and it seemed like there was still so much work to do.

I feel a turning point this spring, and it is so welcome!  I was starting to get worried that I had totally exhausted myself and quenched my gardening thirst, and now I was going to be stuck with 1.7 acres of nothing but upkeep and no enthusiasm left to get me through the hard work.  This spring, I can’t believe what I am seeing when I look around – plants that are really, really growing up and filling in…trees that are reaching the top of the house (pretty pear trees we planted 3 years ago)…bushes that I planted expecting to reach a certain size, that now look so interesting where they were placed.  I feel like I have – finally – so many plants to divide and share!  I have tons of gardens that are ready to accept new plants and plants to put in them!

Yes, I have tons of buckthorn, so many dandelions, still too much grass, really hard terrible soil – and so many challenges in front of me if I want to plant more and really be a “steward of the earth”.  It doesn’t tire me out as much as it used to, though…because I finally have the kind of gardening to do that I really love – plants to tend, to divide, to split, to move around to better locations.  I used to feel like an artist with a canvas in front of me that was still in the package.  It took so much work to get it out!  Next, I felt like an artist with a ready canvas, but no paint!  My plants grew up, and now I have the paint to go with the canvas.  Last, I was worried that I had no paintbrush (I didn’t have the tool with which to get the job done – my enthusiasm)…but with the chance to take a breath and enjoy the fun of gardening (the gentle tending, moving, creating of pictures with plants), my enthusiasm is back.

I’ve been walking my “grounds” every night, dragging whichever willing family member I can find with me – just loving my plants and my gardens…itching to pull weeds (it was raining tonight, though, and I didn’t have gloves on), itching to move things, so excited to have an idea to move this or move that.  It’s so NICE to not always have to be doing the extreme labor..and with just a little bit of a break from the extreme labor, I am recharged and ready to do more of it.  What garden should I build next?

Who wants this plant?

It’s basil (and not as big as it looks, I am a lazy photographer. I think it is a 4-inch pot)…grown from my fantastic AeroGarden (thank you, Bradley girls!).  I couldn’t bear to grow all those plants without getting some ready to transplant to my garden this spring, and so while I was being annoyed with pansy-starting, I did a lot of transplanting from my AeroGarden.  From our $19.99 purchase of plant refills (seeds), I have made about 20 plants so far, so that is good, but far too many for even my garden, esp. considering what I have coming down the pipe next (lettuce!  and broccoli!  Not even counting my puny pansies…more on the lettuce and broccoli soon…and some giveaways for those will come too.)

So today, I am giving away this basil plant, ready to be used for your cooking (it would benefit from being pinched and having the leaves used, but I don’t use enough basil for that).  It can also be transplanted to your garden or container planting in the spring, with careful hardening off.  Actually, I don’t think I was that careful when I hardened my  basil off last year, and it provided me (and others) with fresh basil until frost!

So here’s the picture of the plant.  If you want it, post a comment (with your email address).  I do need you to live close by as I am horrible at going to the post office!  If I have a few takers, I will do a random drawing for the winner.

Here’s a pic of the AeroGarden, should you be interested:

LOVE it.

Yes, how totally weird!  But they are just so cute, and I am fired up over my new abilities with chick-raising.  Yes, I am on fire with it.  I just think it is so totally wonderful that last week I had never touched a chicken, and now I know how to pick them up, hold them, pet them, make them fall asleep in my hands, I can tell them apart, I know all of these chicken facts now…it’s like an explosion of chicken information and it is so fun.

So, to backtrack…we purchased 8 baby chicks (said to be 4 weeks old…but she calls all chicks 4 weeks old until they get their feathers so we don’t know when they were actually born…chicks are being born all the time at DestinyFarm, which, strangely enough, is only 16 miles away and I had never heard of it.  Now I feel like going there all the time and becoming a frequent client there (for other things, 8 chicks should be enough for us!) on March 14th.  We chose 8 because we figured one might become a rooster (which we don’t want/can’t have), and one might die or be “an asshole” (the farmer said that) and we could then end up with 6 (we can trade in the unwanteds, or any of them, at any time…they would be happy to take the older birds back as we have done all the work growing them.)

We haven’t lost any birds in this first week…in fact, they all seem to be doing so very well.  It appears that we have 5 older girls, who are getting their big girl feathers and are very inquisitive, and three babies, who are still adorable, chick-like, and want to snuggle up in my hands and go to sleep.  The kids and I have named them all and we (or more like, I do this) spend time with each of them daily.  According to the farmer from whom we purchased these chicks, if you get your chicks young, spend time with them and treat them well, they will come when you call them, trust you, and think you are a surrogate “mommy chicken”.

So here are their names and quick descriptions (first 5 are big girls, last 3 are the babies)…btw, these birds are all Isa Browns, which are a mix between Rhode Island Reds and White Leghorns (I believe)…great egg layers and nice, social birds:

• Annie Lennox (named by Emma) – has the most big girl feathers (started out with some gorgeous big girl feathers on the tops of both of her wings).  Inquisitive, for sure…and I thought she’d be the most inquisitive, but she has been replaced in this trait by
• Margaret (also named by Emma, who thought this was a good name for a pushy bird or person!)  She is one of the biggest – with Annie Lennox – and is the lightest colored.  If I were to pick one to be a rooster by mistake it might be Margaret (the roosters aren’t brown, they’re white.)  We’ll keep you posted.  Lately, Margaret has been trying to fly up to the top of their nesting box and fly out every chance she gets, and she is the most happy to explore…
• Rosie (named by me + Emma – me because she had a rosy heart-like shape at the back of her neck, Emma because Rosemary was my mom’s middle name) – Love this bird.  She is also inquisitive, but not to the point that she’s always crazy and trying to jump up on things and out of the box every chance she gets.  She is a bird who likes to walk onto my hand, and is the first who ate from my hand (and then stepped up onto it).
• Batman (named by – who else – Nathan!) – I think today that Batman looks like the biggest bird!  That would be a switch though.  She’s nice, had more dark around her neck than Rosie but not in such a distinct patch.  She is more like Rosie than like Margaret…maybe the most reserved of the big girls.
• Taffy (named by me) – Taffy had the lightest head in the beginning…like salt-water taffy.  She has a crazy tic and sometimes last week I saw her banging her head against the side of the nesting box like she was pecking it.  It’s hard to tell if she is just a little bit “off” or if she is just a weird one…but I like her.  I bonded with her on the trip home in the car.  I’m keeping an eye on her to see if this tic means she is a goner.

Now, babies:

• Puff Puff  (named by Katie)
• Princess Snow White (named by Natalie)
• Annabelle (named by me), also known as the “best chicken ever” – the teeniest and the most likely to fall asleep when cozied up in my hands.  However, I am finding that all of the babies do this a lot more than the big girls, who will happily sit in my lap but don’t like to be covered with my hands.

I don’t know as much about the babies as I haven’t had them out of the nesting box as much.  They don’t have as many big girl feathers and so I am worried they’ll get chilly.  According to the Farmer (I should just start saying ATTF), chickens have a body temp of 101-102, and until they get feathers it is hard for them to stay warm without that insulation.  Thus, I let the big girls walk around out of the box a teeny bit more (for maybe 5 minutes).  ATTF, chickens are so fragile, they get sick easily, and then perish, and I don’t want to get into that sort of a situation yet.

They sleep (and poop) on wood shavings, eat Chick Start/Chick Grower that is medicated because they would normally be getting immunity to worms, etc. by eating the big chicken poop, and without big chickens they can’t do that, need water available at all times, and a 100w light bulb for warmth.

I suppose I should answer the big unspoken question here – WHY?  WHY CHICKENS, YOU CRAZY WOMAN?

Well, why not?

Ha.

Actually, I had cut out a picture of a woman’s pet chickens from a gardening magazine, about 7 years ago.  I loved how the chickens, with their scratching and their poop, were good for the garden, and also I loved how the woman referred to them as her “pets”.  I moved to this piece of property to feel as much like a farm girl as I could (that had been a dream of mine, which I felt would never be realized, since I was about 9)…chickens help realize my farm girl goal immensely!  I also love animals, and I think it would be wonderful to get eggs from chickens that I have lovingly cared for, instead of chickens that never see the light of day, have enough space to live, and have happy lives.  Once I read that chickens have a very highly developed social order and that sealed that idea of mine.

However, I would never have dreamed that I would be lucky enough to have my own chickens…and other than a passing word to my husband, I never really articulated how MUCH I wanted to have chickens, as I felt that would be a lost cause.  Imagine my surprise when he came home from a conference with a Psychology Today magazine (purchased at the airport while waiting for a flight) that spoke of the benefits of having your own backyard chickens!  (Funny that my husband picked up a Psychology Today…was probably thinking of his crazy wife.  One of the cover articles was “dealing with an early loss” or something like that.)  Apparently, it’s all the rage to be closer to your food and to know where it comes from.  ATTF, I’m not at all at the start of this trend!

So, our next step is to build our coop!  We have about 6-7 weeks inside time before we can start acclimating our chickens to life in their coop, where they will then live year-round.  ATTF, as long as they have 6 months to acclimate before the first frost they are good to live outside year-round after that (in their cozy coop).  I have a feeling I’m going to have to get that ball rolling, so prepare to hear more soon about my adventures with power tools!

a woman loves to build bonfires (she’s all excited with her new skill, and the fact that she doesn’t have to ask her husband to start them anymore)

and…

this same woman loves to pull out buckthorn

and…

burning is the only good way to dispose of all of this invasive species

…

What in the world is she going to do when the buckthorn is all gone? 

I do have 1.77 acres of it, but with the pace I have been attacking this shrubby-tree thing – 500 babies pulled out this week! – I am one day going to look up and be very sad that I have no more fires to start.

Pyromaniac.

Anyway, here is something that is good to know – pansies can survive even a fair amount of neglect, though they are not the most thrilling seed to start.

I was worried about my seedlings getting whatever that green icky moldy thing that covers the soil is…”damping off” maybe?  So I took them out of their greenhouse-like enviroment a bit too soon (took off the cover).  SO, poor pansies were trying their best in soil that was a little too dry…and then I wimped out from keeping them under lights (hated wasting the electricity), so I moved them upstairs, then downstairs, then kept them in the dark, then put the lights on, then turned them off, blah blah blah.  Essentially, I did everything wrong.  Last night I even forgot them outside!

However, pansies are still alive…yay!  But they are still boring (boo).  I prefer to start things that give me more thrills.  HA!  By that, I mean that pansies poop out in the heat…pansies don’t provide me with food…but most of all, they just don’t grow fast enough (even under great conditions – I’ve been a better pansy starter before).

All this being said…

I’m sure I’ll start them again next year!  Something needs to drag Mrs. Lucken through February to March…!

Oh well, I guess I have a month before I will even take a step into the yard…there’s always time between now and then to get those tasks done, right?

I have started some seeds, though – only pansies, which I’m about a month and a half too late with starting, but I couldn’t wait any longer, and yet didn’t want to waste any good seeds by starting them too early.  We’ll see how they turn out!

So this week, I am going to face my thank you note guilt spiral, and write all of the thank you notes I have procrastinated for so long – 3-day thank yous, pan can walk thank yous, Nathan’s birthday thank yous, Emma’s birthday thank yous, Christmas thank yous.

If I survive, we’ll see what I can battle next week…and this will be a weekly feature on the blog of my self-improvement!

Battle Plan:

• Work on miserable task 1 hr/day for 7 days
• Add fun to task – nicer paper?

Here’s the problem: we have too much stuff.  10 years of childhood, plus 7 years of school supplies and stocking stuffers leads to some very jammed cupboards!  Does anyone really need 24 yellow crayons (yes, I counted that many).  No, no they do not.

So what is a mom to do?  Art time!  Together, Nathan and I:

• tested all the markers
• collected all the broken crayons
• sorted the crayons and reduced by 50%
• cleaned and condensed into better containers
• found some paintbrushes!
• used some supplies we hadn’t seen in a long time…lost in the mess!
• had a great time

See our slideshow for evidence!