It's a start!

My 2011 garden is officially started.  Saturday and Sunday were unseasonably warm and lovely, so out came the trowels and seeds, and in went the beginnings of the garden.  I planted strawberries (with companion plant Borage), 2 kinds of lettuce, 2 kinds of radishes, shallots and chard in containers.  I have rainbow chard, and found I don't like to use the red, because it bleeds!  Everything I put it in turns out pink.  So I am using last year's seed in a container, then will transplant the white and yellow ones to the garden. I might still grow out the red ones and give them to the livestock.

I also planted garlic.  It is supposed to be planted in the fall, but we didn't really have a fall last year. It was hot, bone-dry and the soil like a rock, so I'll try some spring plantings and see what I get.  No need to buy anything special.  I found some huge heads of garlic at the grocery, and pulled off the biggest dozen cloves to plant.  Then I peeled the remaining cloves, ran them through my mini-chopper with some olive oil, froze them on a non-stick sheet in teaspoon sized lumps, then stored them in freezer, (double) zip-lock bagged.  Minced garlic at the ready that I won't have to chop at a moment's notice.  Only trouble is, now my kitchen reeks of garlic. 

Today and tomorrow are supposed to be just as warm as the weekend, so if it doesn't rain, I'll put some more cool-weather things in after work.   'Still don't have the potatoes in. I have dumped the soil out, but I need to scrub and bleach the container they were in last year before I plant them.   

I've got buds on my blueberry plant!  I wondered if it would over-winter, and it seems to have made it!

I need to get a quick pen made so I can put Abigail out in the garden to 'work it over' before I plant there.  Don't yell, but I think I can easily handle at least one more chicken.  I have one whole large cage/coop that I'm not even using.  I talked to a breeder about a bantam Cochin pullet (splash color) over the weekend.  She's got 5 or 6, anyone else want one?   They aren't the best layers, but they are calm and tolerate cooping well.  If I ever wanted to hatch out some eggs - I wouldn't need a brooder, because they supposedly go broody a LOT!   What I really wanted was blue, but they seem to be hard to come by.  The breeders don't want to let those go.  (I don't know if this photo is even the hatch the breeder is selling, but it is of her birds)