The garden is finally started

Rain delayed us a bit, but we actually got peas, broccoli, cabbage, onions, and shallots in the ground over the last week. We still need to plant potatoes and garlic. I didn't get any lettuce, chard or spinach in the ground, and at this point I think I'm going to wait until fall to do that. There's no way to know when the hot weather will set in, and I would hate to plant lettuce only to have it bolt and become chicken feed. Maybe this will give me enough motivation to actually plant this stuff in the fall! I have good intentions of doing that and wintering greens in the cold frame, but I never seem to get it done.

The tomato seedlings are now in the cold frame and growing away. We have a couple of weeks until it is safe to set them out. The peppers and basil are not quite ready to be transplanted to pots, but they are getting close. I forgot to start them on time, so they are a bit behind, but still should be ready in time to plant. There is some thyme that is ready to transplant, and I'll hopefully get to that this weekend. But first I'll have to reorganize all my garden stuff on my new potting bench out in the new building (yay!). My little Rudbeckia seedlings are also coming right along. For about $4 of seed, I will have over 80 plants...not a bad deal!

Tomatoes -- last year I discovered that these plastic tubs work just as well as the standard seed trays, plus they are red, which is supposed to be good for tomatoes, and they have a lid, so if the cold frame is full, they can be set outside and still covered very easily at night.

The Rudbeckia seedlings - the shorter ones are the Cherry Brandy variety, they were a little slower, but are coming along very well. The taller ones are standard Black Eyed Susans, and I would have had even more, but they were so thick in the starting trays that I put several seedlings in each pot when I transplanted them. I am very excited to add these to my bank bed. I'll be tying in Luke's bench to the rest of the bed (yes, expanding the behemoth bed again...I just can't help my self!). I've already added two varieties of reblooming daylilies and I've ordered some red switchgrass. The Rudbeckia will fill in the gaps; it's going to be beautiful!

Speaking of chickens, I never mentioned that we got some more chicks to add to our flock. The hens are going into their third year, and we expect their egg laying to slack off. Their molt and winter slow down lasted quite a while, but they have returned to steady egg production this spring. Anyway, friends of ours wanted to start some chicks, so we split the batch with them and we have 12 new pullets of assorted breeds. There are 5 Barred Rocks, 4 White Rocks, one Buff Orpington and a couple of Rhode Island Reds. We have them in their own coop right now, but soon it will be time to introduce them to the older hens and get them out in the pasture. It is a pleasant sight to see hens dotting the field, pecking here and there, foraging for bugs and seemingly enjoying themselves immensely.

Most of the new pullets, apparently the White Rocks are shy. They were all pretty flighty when we first brought them home, but they seem to have adjusted to us walking through the pen now.