sunshine!

Heading outside to work in the garden, I'm going to let the chickens out to roam and do some prunning, I'm going to also dig out a path to the chicken coop and fill it with gravel, perhaps haul more dirt up to finish covering the sheet mulch around the blueberries.


I'm going to take some more pictures and then upload them!

I won a book that I'm excited to read  from the lovely Meg at  http://growandresist.com/ you should check out her blog, she's a much better writer than I am and her garden and chickens are gorgeous!

I've already learned something new I'm excited to try - broccoli likes to be planted with aromatic herbs, rosemary in particular!  I'm excited to try this since we have tons and tons of rosemary and I have not had any luck whatsoever with my 3 attempts at broccoli.

In other news I found out the weirdly pruned shrub outside is indeed a forsythia since the golden yellow flowers have started to bloom.  Also the NGP's mother was down last week (she lived in this house for 30+ years) and said the old pear tree is delicious yellow gold pears and the apple tree is good for cooking though it has problems with scab.  I will plant chives around it asap to help with the scab and hopefully after some pruning both of them will produce lots of fruit this year!  I'm excited to try canning fruit and with apples, pears, plums, peaches, raspberries, blueberries and grapes there should be plenty to experiment with.

I'm thinking if there is a large yeild to have a canning/harvest party.  I'm thinking bbq on the patio and come can, take some home, eat some fruit...something.  I don't know entirely - just the beginning of an idea and fall is a ways away right now anyways.