First year gardening and first year with chickens (six weeks actually). So the garden is more mature than the birds right now. We started off with several lettuces and kale which took off and we couldn't harvest, eat, or give away fast enough.
Now we have tomatoes, tomatillos, jalapenos, green bell peppers, black beans (yes my wife wanted some Mexican food from this garden and the amount of salsa she creates proves it), green beans, zuchini, and cantalope.
The tomatoes have been great but again too many too fast and some of them are enjoyed by the critters before we get to them. But salsa and pasta sauce have been made and frozen by the gallon freezer bagful. The cantalopes leave a little to be desired, too small and a couple have been rotten. The peppers (both kind) have been the best and the pests seem to leave them alone. The tomatillo plants are gorgeous but have taken over the place. Maybe we needed to trim some back while we went, but we are learning as we go.
Next year we look forward to the rich compost that our girls and garden are helping us create for a richer healthier soil.
Right now though we are struggling through at stink bug and assassin bug infestation. The girls don't seem all that interested in heading into the garden right now even shying away from the large tomatillo plants, and when I've tried to give them clippings from some of the plants with and without bugs on them they walk away in disgust. I hope I am not raising the only chickens on the planet that don't want to eat insects and pests as already they aren't pulling their weight around the place by being to young to start laying.
It is all an adventure though and we look forward to learning more from our successes and mistakes for next time.
