You have to love this time of year. Although we’re mired in March muck and rain, we’ve been teased recently by some glorious days of 60 and 70 degree weather. The daffodils and crocuses are in bloom and you can see other perennials pushing out shoots, patiently waiting for the next warm stretch to exuberantly burst forth and begin another cycle of rebirth.
Although 2009 was a poor year for warm weather crops we still enjoyed a nice harvest of kale, chard, parsley and other cool weather crops. And I was able to make significant additions to our fruit and flower collection including two grapes, four thornless blackberries and five raspberries. We also added to our chicken flock bringing our total to nine hens. They are all currently laying and we’re getting between 6 and 9 eggs a day.
I built a sizeable addition to our playhouse coop and constructed a large run for the birds. Just in the nick of time, I might add, since as I was completing the run, a hawk swooped over my shoulder and grabbed on of the pullets. Luckily, the chicken was too heavy for the hawk to lift and I was able to shoo it away and cover the run in poultry fencing. Several months later my daughter Abby came home from school to find seven hawks perched in the trees above the run. One thing I can say about hawks, they’re about as smart as a chicken is dumb.
One thing we’re all looking forward to this spring is our first full asparagus harvest. We’ve been patiently waiting since 2008.
Plans for this year include building two more raised beds on the south side of our house (which happens to be the street facing side). I don’t know yet what I’ll be growing but it will be something that loves lots of full sun, probably peppers. I also hope to get a small harvest of raspberries and blackberries. I’ll have to wait a few years for the grapes to come into their own.
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