What did you do in the garden today?

[pennyJo1960]

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moving out to the brooder

too cute girl

 

[AllenK RGV]

@TropicalBabies yeah my egg count is way down, everyone and her sisters have all been stressing out my broody prison capabilities for the last week. I have one that I allowed to brood who popped out 2 chicks but some mystery animal grabbed a chick last night out from under "broodzilla" somehow so she only has 1 left from the 4/21 hatch. Tonight I'm setting in a night light so she can scare the bejezus out of whatever it was, kill it or die trying. I'm thinking rats even though the cat swears it can't be.

We also decided to throw up our hands with the feral she has never been hard to break but at 5 days in prison decided to give her 3 LF+silkie sired eggs. I am starting to think I need to use the ice block method of breaking broodies to get them to turn about faster.

Nothing garden related today other than watering, no need to mow as we are still in the D3 drought. I have been doing some off and on weedeating hoping to locate a hidden nest but didn't discover anything new

 

[pennyJo1960]

My egg count is up but have new layers here kicked the old EE into action again

 

[NewBoots]

There is slightly elevated ground at the back 12' or so of the lot that we call "The Bluff". It doesn't get mowed and we've planted shrubs and trees with a mix of native and non-natives. There are shore pines hiding the rest of town behind us so eventually the back will look like the forest edge has grown into our yard.

We try to have as ecologically friendly a yard as we can and this lot was wild before we got here. This is our first spring on this property so we've been having a great time watching things pop up. I was giddy to find the buff area is full of wild lupin, an important native butterfly host. We've planted a bunch of native plants and shrubs and will be adding more. I've got native clarkia, campanula and achillea planted in the greenhouse and everything but the campanula has sprouted. Just came from the greenhouse and my native campanula seeds have finally sprouted! We had them growing wild at our former home so we saved some seeds, it'll probably be next year before we get flowers but that's fine.

I so love this lot.

 

[AllenK RGV]

There is slightly elevated ground at the back 12' or so of the lot that we call "The Bluff". It doesn't get mowed and we've planted shrubs and trees with a mix of native and non-natives. There are shore pines hiding the rest of town behind us so eventually the back will look like the forest edge has grown into our yard.

We try to have as ecologically friendly a yard as we can and this lot was wild before we got here. This is our first spring on this property so we've been having a great time watching things pop up. I was giddy to find the buff area is full of wild lupin, an important native butterfly host. We've planted a bunch of native plants and shrubs and will be adding more. I've got native clarkia, campanula and achillea planted in the greenhouse and everything but the campanula has sprouted. Just came from the greenhouse and my native campanula seeds have finally sprouted! We had them growing wild at our former home so we saved some seeds, it'll probably be next year before we get flowers but that's fine.

I so love this lot.

I too like the look of lupine in the fields. Just keep in mind that anything using that plant for a host plant will be doing that because of the highly toxic cardiac glycosides they produce. Digitoxin does have medical uses in Cardiac care though.

 

[NewBoots]

I too like the look of lupine in the fields. Just keep in mind that anything using that plant for a host plant will be doing that because of the highly toxic cardiac glycosides they produce. Digitoxin does have medical uses in Cardiac care though.

Thanks for the warning, I can't say I knew it was that toxic but we are pretty careful of the plants we use for fodder for the rabbits. We only feed the plants we can identify as safe.

 

[pasdechat73]

Any name suggestions? Dorkings originate from Roman times. In the pic, you can see his pen in the background - it is part of the compost set up.

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He reminds me of my battle-axe of a rooster (in my profile pic) that we deemed as 'Napoleon'. Best roo evah. May he not rest in peace...he would not like that.

Then, to top of this long post, we were outside around 7pm and noticed this bat on the side of our chimney! He looked like he/she was waking up, but still asleep. Anyway, it got me thinking about building a bat house. Spouse is game, so maybe that will be a summer project. They look for nests in the spring, so generally best to have the house up in the fall/winter, so they can find it when they are looking in the spring. We will see if the thought amounts to action!

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So cool! My hubby and Ayla found a bat in the laundry room about three weeks ago. They just opened the door and ushered it out as it flew back and forth. They're def. unique creatures!!!

 

[pasdechat73]

Sending this via the so-called smart phone Since repotting and using bark and c s**t as the medium, my orchid is beginning a new lease on life...

 

[pennyJo1960]

This is my first hatch

 

[karenerwin]

This is the chick that hatched about 3 or 4 weeks ago. Edited to add:LOL! Photo fail. I tried to not get me in the picture, but still managed to get my neck and chin. Not my best features!

Here is one of the new hatchers. I like how her face has some brown on it.

Here is the 2nd black one. Two of them have the white dot on their heads.

This is the 3rd black chick. No dot on head.

This is the newly hatched yellow chick!