Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems. ~Rainer Maria Rilke

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Lettuce all be happy... even the chickens.

Got the pumpkins planted this morning.
With help from the Prospector, I got the beds ready and sunk those little seeds into the new mixture of soil.
Now, all I have to do is pitch a tent and sleep down there for a month or two so I can ward off the birds and critters that want to steal the seeds and eat the delicate plants as they come through the soil.
Note the absents of a Fig tree at the other end of the planter. We had to pull it out last fall because after the goats trimmed it through the fence, the foxes (here's the story) broke all the branches while eating the figs. I loved that tree and it's gone.
 I think I need a secret garden with a fifteen foot stone wall around my vegetable garden... and a wire mesh cover over the top. It's a constant battle to protect the garden from those critters that think we planted all of this for them. Maybe I need to build a dog house down there and bring home a pitbull mix from the animal shelter to guard my garden. Do pitbulls like vegetables? I don't know. I'm such a softy though, that I would end up sleeping down there anyway, to keep the pup company.
Our other raised bed is doing well. The tomatoes are planted...

 and all the lettuce is coming up.

Even the Irises that I planted, late, are loving the rich soil and growing faster that weeds down there.
One of them is going to bloom. I didn't think, when I planted them, that they would  bloom this year. The smaller plants in between  are romaine lettuce that blew in from the upper bed. I didn't plant them with the Iris. Either the birds rearranged the seeds or the strong winds of last month blew dirt and seeds over into the lower garden. It's all a mystery.
I picked some lettuce and took it back up to the house. I've been thinning it and giving the pickings to the chickens, but now the leaves are bigger and so it is as with all things in life, the higher order of species gets the good stuff. With what the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche called the Will to Power, I have asserted my."dominant hierarchy" and the lettuce is mine.
I cleaned it.
 Drained it.
 I ate some.
Then I took all the roots and leftovers out to the chickens. They seems OK with what they got. Chickens are hard to read... but I'm trying to understand the subtle differences in their attitudes.
I let them out to free range for the day. They seemed really happy (I guess) about having a day of freedom from the coop. Squeaky was the first through the door.
I went inside to have a salad for lunch...
and enjoy the lettuce of our labor.


4 comments:

  1. glad you got your planting...we are still trying to figure out how to protect any thing we plant...dang deer eat everything..except potatoes...they leave those alone...go figure...

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  2. Your gardens are all doing very well. We will not be planting any tomato or peppers this year since my husband health is not that good.
    I still enjoy my flowers and enjoy my yard work. Have a blessed evening. Madeline

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  3. Sneaking in a comment here and there in the midst o my remodeling chaos. I'm impressed with your raised beds! Makes weeding so much easier. I lose a lot of seeds/plants to critters. I just shrug and believe it's my contribution to their happiness...heaven knows we humans have brought enough sorrow to them...

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  4. You're so much more ahead than we are. We had some gorgeous, get motivated kind of spring weather but it's been cool and rainy for the past week. That's o.k though cause I was down with a bug and caught up on some needle felting.
    Our chickens used to love 'getting out'. They would fly/run their funny little flights down to the feild!

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