Garden and Chicken Update - The Rainy Season Begins

 

Amaranth, taro, squash and corn in the long garden bed.

The rainy season is underway now. It rained more than three inches during the past two afternoons. This morning I spent some time propping up and tying corn stalks to poles of bamboo. Many of the corn stalks fell over from all the wind and rain. Everything in the long raised bed is doing very well. I hope I didn't over plant the corn, but it looks very healthy now.

Raised garden beds under a plastic roof.

Here's a look at the raised beds that are under a plastic roof. I am experimenting with letting these beds "naturalize". I want to see what will grow and reseed itself in these beds. So far tomatoes, fennel, zinnias and some weeds the chickens like are doing well.

The under cover part of the garden and wild cosmos flowers.

This is another look at the undercover raised beds. I spend a lot of time in the morning photographing cosmos flowers in this part of the garden.

Oak tree trunk ready to support vanilla orchids.

This huge piece of oak has been sitting on top of the wood pile for way too many years. I decided it would look good here, on the edge of the barn. Not shown in the photo are two vanilla orchids that will eventually grow up and cover the wood. 

Six brahma-mix hens.

My six hens seem to be doing OK. Some of them are molting and not laying eggs now. 

Junior the Brahma-mix Rooster

I continue being concerned about Junior. He is also molting so perhaps that explains some things. I haven't seen him mate with the ladies for weeks, he isn't crowing and he mostly likes to sit on the ground. Also, his poops don't look right. I'm hoping time and nature will heal him.