Borrowing Chickens

I haven't posted because quite frankly the garden hasn't been doing well, and I don't have time. I've been adding compost from purchased bags, growing fall cover crops and tilling them in, but I can't seem to stop the decline. I think it's due to soil depletion and lack of crop rotation. Either things become diseased, are decimated by bugs, or both.

This year I borrowed 2 chickens from my friends to help with fall cleanup. I wasn't sure if I was ready for ownership so what better way to find out, right? I'm finding they're cute, sweet, love mixing my home made compost into the raised beds for me, and FRESH EGGS!! We may have to get a couple.

Turning compost into the soil

Eggs!

Begging for treats!

Seed starting

For those wondering when to start their seeds indoors, and when to plant the seedlings outside. This is a fairly useful chart for San Joaquin County.

http://ucanr.org/sites/gardenweb/files/29042.pdf

I'm trying to start EVERYTHING from seed this year. All previous years I've purchased plants from Home Depot and Lowe's with a couple of seeds here and there. I may end up hungry this season, or I might discover new delicious varieties of veggies I can't buy from the big box stores.

I was very sad to find that most places only carry one type of zucchini plant (black beauty) when there are so many out there. So I tried to seed my own. I didn't get a picture of it but the only one that sprouted sent roots into the air, and leaves into the ground, then died. I must have planted him on his head :-) The other one I planted didn't sprout at all.... I have many more seeds and am going to try again soon.

I got a little to excited about spring and started sprouting seeds way to early. They outgrew my nifty seed starting tray so I had to transplant them into window boxes. I'm still working on moving them all into window boxes but here are a few of them.

Roma Tomatoes

Romaine Lettuce 

We use a lot of cilantro around the house. I've been successfully growing a little bit in a window box all winter! I need to plant more seeds though, I would like to fill up the whole box.

Cilantro