What's growing in our garden?

Every year I say that I'm going to write down and keep track of all the veggies I've grown that year and I've never actually done it.  I want to do it so that the next year, I can remember which tomatoes I've grown and how well each varietal did.  Well, no more excuses!  I did it! 

I planted a few things that I've never planted before: yellow crookneck squash, shallots, eggplant, and a few of the tomatoes. 

The most important part about documenting my plantings is to know where I planted each type of veggie and later to track what produced well where and what I would not want to plant again.

As in my work, I use evidence-based design to plant my garden.  A few years ago I grew my cucumbers next to my corn by chance.  The result was a symbiotic relationship between the two veggies.  The corn provided nice shade and stalks on which the cucumbers could grow.  I made the best pickles that year!  I am attempting to recreate that fate this summer.  As you can see the corn field seems to attract all the pets.  Soledad, the cat is in heaven with all of these birds around her.

 My zucchini is off to a good start although it has been a steady 10-15 degrees below normal so far this spring.  I'm hoping to harvest my first squash sometime this week. 

THIS is tonight's dinner!

I planted this artichoke about 3 years ago and it has since multiplied and is producing about 15 artichokes or more per season. This winter I will dig it up, divide it and replant some in another location and give a plant to a lucky friend.  But for now, dinner needs to get on the stove.

On a completely different note, my girls are truly looking like hens!  While I was working in the garden this weekend, they hung out on the patio and I grabbed this photo of them.  My beauties!

The mothering of hens

Mother's Day is supposed to be a day that we celebrate being a mother, but the truth is, being a mom is so difficult.  We go about our business as professionals, wives, homemakers, party planners, and friends, all while trying to keep our children safe and happy.

From the beginning of this journey with the chickens I have felt a sense of responsibility to these girls in a way similar to the instinct that kicks in when your first baby is born.  What if a cat were to get them?  Or a hawk were to pluck them up? 

We patched holes in the fence and gave them a safe coop.  We watched them carefully as they roamed the yard with their beaks in the grass. 

Today Rosie went missing as the flock was together on the patio.  I heard the squawking from the other hens and she was nowhere in site.  After looking everywhere for her, and thinking about what I could have done to keep her safer, I started this post.  Midway through a knock came to the door from one of the neighbor kids telling me that she was in their front yard.  OH HAPPY DAY!  I cuddled her and carried her home to her flock who accepted her as if she had just run to the store for some snails. 

Being a mom is full of ups and downs, happiness and hurt, love and acceptance, and most of all taking care of our flock.  Becoming a mother teaches you to always have one eye on the task at hand and one watching out for the little ones. 

Sometimes it might feel like I have no time for me.  But in reality, I wouldn't trade any minute of any day.  Being a mother, whether to my child or my hens is perfect.