hens in the garden

Our hens are 7 years old this Spring, and we have 7 left from the original 15. Although I am now vegan, and don't eat eggs, it's not often an issue with them...they are pretty causal about laying. I like to provide them with room to scratch the dirt, look for bugs and worms to eat, and some dry, bare dirt to hold their elaborate dust bathes. Nothing looks more blissful than a hen laying in a dustbowl, stretched out in the sun ...they can look positively comatose. They were all out, helping me get a look at what's going on in the Fenced Garden (FG )...fenced against deer, mostly. But it keeps the hens in and foxes out, too. The girls are not allowed in there all of the time...once the growing season gets going, they'll have to move their activities to another little "field".
Pictured is Aurora ( aka The Khaki Barn ), a Buff Cochin and Top Poly, the more dominant of the two Polish Tophats.

Kitchen Door Daffodils

The cold has kept the daffodil's development down and bit, but yesterday and today it 'soared' into the upper 50's...yea!!!!! There are some daffs out front, that get more sun throughout the day, and are a little further along, but not as easy to watch their progress. The first few years we lived here I planted bulbs each Fall, forgetting each year how hard it is to plant them in clay-bound rocky soil. Those gorgeous gardening books show people casually tossing bulbs into 6-8" deeply groomed beds that must have taken weeks to prepare. Or worse, some glib TV host is showing how to plant bulbs in the lawn, for a natural look...he or she sinks a trowel up to its hilt, pulls it aside a bit, drops in a bulb and then seals the earth back over the slit that now contains a flower bulb, nestled firmly in the ground. And this is under trees for crying out loud ! What, no tree roots ? No rocks ? Give me a break. Or better yet, give me a couple of seasons to forget, so that I can be lured in once again by the promise of Spring and load up on bulbs again next Fall. I just remembered the Alliums ! Their flowerhead's spherical shape mirrors many other forms in nature...diatoms come first to mind, then dandelions and their tribe. The gigantic Gladiator alliums are showstoppers ( we don't currently have any of those growing...at $5.00 a bulb, I just can't seem to go that final mile and actually buy them ! ) , but the late-season white ones ( actually a garlic I think ) are a nice contrast with the Echinacea and Asclepia....and who knows where else this year...they seed pretty freely.