Washingtonians

[Chickielady]

All fabulous idea, I think I may use ALL of them and make a little garden - perhaps even put in a little bench so I can sit and read on a spring afternoon. ​

Yes!!!​

I have yet 5 more potted curly willows.............maybe you want more ?
Like a small forest/sactuary ?
A nice bench on which to sit & ponder ?
I ponder alot nowadays....on my Samantha's grave, I want a steel siloette cut out of her, life size.
A guy here in Raymond does them.

 

[anniesmom]

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I'd go with Forgetmenots. Beautiful blue flowers.

They will grow in the shade and come back every year. ​

The Forget-me-nots are gorgeous right now. I bought 2 four inch pots years ago. We now have a carpet of blue everywhere on the property, the neighbor's property, out along the street..... They reseed incredibly well. All you have to do to spread them around is pull out a few when they are about done blooming and take and shake where you want some the next year. I'm sure they call them Forget-me-nots because you couldn't get rid of them IF you wanted to! Good thing they are beautiful. Mine grow anywhere and everywhere.

 

[Chickielady]

Sooooooooooooooo happy for Cheryl !!!!!!!!

 

[KMHunter]

Yay! Way to go Cheryl! Welcome to the world Emily!

 

[anniesmom]

I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Renee. I live in Auburn. Our family just got our first chicks. My three kids (10 and 7-year-old twins) are excited about them. They each named one. I think their names are kind of silly, but the kids are proud of them. That's what counts.

I have wanted chickens for a few years, but we had to wait until the city revised their codes to allow for city chickens. They finally revised the codes in November. We live on 1/4 acre and we could have gotten 6 chickens, but we opted for 3 because of the size of our yard and our desire to not be a nuisance to our neighbors. It might be enough for the neighbors to get used to the idea of 3 hens in our backyard. Before getting them, I read two books on raising chickens and attended a class.

Last night we moved our 12-day-old chicks into a 2.5' x 4' metal dog crate that we wrapped in cardboard and plexiglass. They outgrew their plastic tub very quickly. The metal crate seems to work well. Plus, it's tall and that made it easier to attach their light over the top. It gives them a lot more space to run. They appear to love it and are very active. It's fun to watch them try to fly across the floor. Today I plan to devise some sort of "roost" to put in there.

I still need to build the coop. I have been modifying the Purina coop plans to fit in our backyard space. We'll probably have to build the coop 3'x 4' so we have space to attach an outside run. Since there are only 3 of them, I'm hoping a 12-square-foot coop will be big enough. They'll have 28-square-feet in the run. Plus, when they are old enough, we plan to let them free-range in the backyard as long as we are out there with them. We have a lot of Bald Eagles and hawks that fly over our ridge, so we'll have to be very careful about free-ranging. We also have raccoons that come up over the cliff at night, so we're taking precautions to raccoon-proof the coop.

That's pretty much it about our newest additions to the family. I look forward to learning the ins-and-outs of raising chickens in Washington from all of you.

I live in Auburn, too, up near Lake Tapps. Congrats on the new babies!

 

[hallerlake]

Welcome newcomers, and congratulations Cheryl!

My baby left for San Fransisco today. Felt so sad, I had to go visit a nursery. Fortunately, I had a 40% off coupon.

 

[Totalcolour]

Great for Cheryl, and welcome to new baby!
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[Stumpfarmer]

Eight eggs today. I think.

I've lost track.

Found out that the Easter Eggers really, really like mint leaves. I'm converting a lot of my old perennial plantings to mint, anyway, it's good for the bees and keeps bugs down and I'm fine with it being invasive in beds already full of thugs that I don't have energy to keep down. The other chickens prefer lemon balm, which comes as it will.

Still trying to figure out where the catnip plant came from.

Also I bought a semidwarf apple tree Sunday- Pink Pearl, which is just a pretty, pretty tree, with bluish foliage and deep pink bloom, plus pink-fleshed fruit that makes for interesting salads and pies. Only now I'm not sure where I'll plant it: all the trees I wanted to get rid of sailed undamaged through the ice storm.

 

[KMoran]

Hey guys a up and coming page on Facebook called "Chicken Lovers of Washington State" Check it out )

 

[SweetSilver]

And welcome from me too!

Thank you - I'm glad some of my BYC friends met her. We buried her last night. ​

Now I'd like to put a shrub or something where she is. It's a shady spot -any gardeners have any ideas?​

Hugs to everyone who has lost a pet/chicken recently.

We all shed tears

Are you near the water? You might be able to grow Daphne odora there. Definitely evergreen huckleberry. Hardy fuschia--magellenica (sp?)--is the best choice. In my yard away from the water it generally grows back from the roots, but in Seattle more often the branches resprout. Not evergreen but beautiful and somewhat drought tolerant.

It all depends on what kind of shade you are talking about and if a tree is looming over all of it and its roots burrowing all around it. If so, I would go native (like the huckleberry).

Anyway, those are my first thoughts.