Gardening woes

We had beautiful weather at the beginning of the week... and then this massive cold front moved in.  It rained buckets.  The temperature dropped.  It was 89 degrees on Wednesday (May Day), and by Thursday night it was 35!  Damn!

We got 2 1/2 inches of rain.  Luckily that's less than the previous rain front that moved in, which resulted in 6 inches of rain.  But it's been a wild and wet time the past 2 weeks or so.


When I checked on the veggies on Wednesday; we had tomatoes, carrots, beets, radishes, squash, melons, cucumbers, okra, asparagus, rhubarb, garlic, Jerusalem artichokes, onions and potatoes growing.

Our veggie garden when planted on 4/16/2013

 This picture was taken after I had all the seedlings in the ground.  It's hard to see those little plants in this picture, but it does show how the garden is laid out.  The square on the upper right is the bed for carrots and beets.  The radishes are adjacent to this.  The asparagus and rhubarb are located on the lower left of this picture.  The artichokes are off the picture, on the extreme left.

Our NE flower garden on 4/30/2013

The row of potatoes and onions can be seen in the background of this picture, to the left and behind the irises and the peach tree.

Each of the lilac trees bloomed this year, for the first time.  We planted them in 2009, and I think they're doing very well.

 I wonder what I'll find when I check it later today.  My friend Julie said the deer came along and ate EVERY plant in her garden.  Bummer!  Now she's got to start all over.

I had my chicks out in the sun on Wednesday.  Then the weather started to turn and so I decided to put them back in the cage with a light bulb for heat... and 1 of the Brahma Cochin chicks was gone.  Poof!  Damn.  I guess a snake got it.  That's the only thing that could have take it out of that cage.  All the other chicks were alive and well.  It's a mystery to me....

Mama Bantam Pebbles still has 5 little fuzz balls she's minding.  She's a great mother.  She keeps her little babies under close guard. 

My Black Copper Maran, Jet, is very broody.  But she doesn't have any eggs in her nest, so her hopes of motherhood aren't very likely.  I haven't been taking her eggs, so I think the rooster, Henry, is eating them.  Or maybe she's not laying.  Again, it's a mystery.

Henry and Jet

I'm making a trip to Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds today with my friend Michelle.  I've never been there, so I'm really looking forward to it.  I'll post pictures tomorrow.  Here's the link for them.  http://www.rareseeds.com/