Plants, Trees and Such

Our Butterfly Bushes are looking nice now. I plan on taking a few cuttings to make more bushes. The only problem with having them where they are is that they are stunting the growth of the Japanese Pencil Bushes that I planted there first. We had no idea how big the Butterfly Bushes wold get when we added them there. So I need a new spot for the other bushes. Hmm, where shall I plant them?

We had to remove our fig, plum and nectarine trees plus our blackberry bush from their first location when we had all the construction going on. They remained in tubs for a few months until we finally got around to replanting them. The nectarine tree seems to be doing well in the front yard and the fig trees are now on a sunny hill in the back yard. The fig trees are doing very well. We planted them about 8 to 10 feet apart.

It is hard to believe both of these were just little branches in the ground a couple of years ago.

If you look close you can see tiny little figs coming in on the branches. Each branch has a lot.

If all works out we'll finally have a lot of figs this year. Now to figure out how to keep the birds, squirrels and chickens from eating the figs before we can. Figs have to ripen on the plant, so it will be challenging. Last year we had about 8 figs, but we only got to eat a couple since the robins and squirrels got to them first. I caught them fighting over them.

We have flowers on the cherry and grape tomato plants now too. The larger tomato plant is starting to develop flowers too. The squash and zucchini are starting to bud too! So excited!! I hated starting the season so late, but at least things are moving right along now.

The Fence

We have a fenced in back yard now! It has only taken 18 years to get our yard fenced in, but better late then never, I guess? Now our dog Maxie can run free, we don't have to worry about strangers wandering up or stray dogs killing our chickens again.

Our dog before Maxie, our Chow was a Shepherd mix and she was attacked two different years by a neighbors set of pit bulls. We actually took the neighbor to small claims court both times to pay for Bandit's medical fees. With the fence up, we will not have to worry about Maxie being attacked. Also last year 13 of my chickens were killed by a stray dog who wandered on our property while they were out free ranging, so now I do not have to worry about that happening.

The day after the fence was up we let Maxie our dog run free for a few hours and then we put her in the garage and "released the cluckins". They loved it! The first day they stayed pretty close to the chicken run and coop. Now when I let them out they are all over. So far none of them have tried to fly over the 5 foot fence and seem to not be interested in anything outside of the fence.

We still need to fix this side of the yard and chicken run as you can see. We plan to seed it and grow bushes all around the chicken run.

One of the problems with free ranging besides the chickens trying to eat my garden is dust bathing. This area of the yard has the best grass.  Here is the Black Australorp taking her bath in the hole she has made in the grass.

 They love this spot for some reason and they are making a lot of craters in the ground in this area.

They also love to dig under the new mulch and into the compost that we put under the rose bushes to dust bathe and cool down. So after they are done free ranging I put back the compost and mulch that they disturb. The holes in the grass though need more repair then that. We'll have to figure out a way to move them where we want them to dust bathe. Life with chickens, always a challenge!

Dirt, Compost, Mulch all that good stuff!

Am I weird that going to Compost Central in Charlotte is exciting to me? They sell wood or nugget mulch for $10 a truck load, which is an awesome price considering how much just a small bag costs. They also have compost available for a little over $20 a truck load. You drive up, pay and go to the side and they dump a large scoop in and off you go. When my husband wanted a pickup truck, I was very supportive of him getting one. He may be regretting that now. Although, I do think he is happy about it since the yard looks so good now!

We also pick up gardening soil from a place called Markham Landscaping. It costs around $36 a truck load, but it is more like half a truckload. The soil I like to get from there is called Gardener's Choice and it is a combination of soil, compost and manure and you can sure tell the manure is in there. We ended up getting 4 loads of wood mulch, a load of compost and 2 loads of Gardener's Choice this past week. We got a nice workout for our arms with all the shoveling and wheel barrel moving. We added compost around a lot of our flower gardens and then added mulch. We fixed up the front, side, back, etc. Plus we've gotten a great start on my vegetable garden.

I recommend the Gardener's Choice for anyone in or around Charlotte, it is great garden soil. This is our first year using it exclusively and the vegetables so far are doing great.

Here are some pictures of our progress:

We made garden boxes out of untreated wood. We have 3 now and they are all 4' by 8'. We also cut 16' cattle panels in half and looped them over the top. The cattle panels along with bird netting will keep the squirrels, birds and chickens out of my vegetables. I planted squash and zucchini plants and seeds in one box. A variety of cucumber and bean seeds in another and a variety of tomato, pepper and tomatillo seeds in the 3rd box. This is a big shrink down from my gardens from years before, I used to have around 14 boxes. We had to redo everything due to the construction. It is so nice now to be at the point where we can rebuild.

I had planned on only using heirloom seeds this year, but since we had to demolish our garden, I broke down and bought a few plants from Lowes. Here is a large tomato plant and a grape tomato plant. I planted basil along side them to help deter bugs, plus fresh basil tastes great!

I planted a cherry tomato plant in my herb garden. The grape tomato plant and the cherry one are already starting to flower. The soil must be really good for them to be so short and already flowering. My plan this year is to trim the plants a lot so they'll be short and bushy and hopefully full of tomatoes. The tomato seeds I bought should be ready by the time these are done giving us tomatoes. That is the plan anyway.

I added some strawberry plants to the side of the house too. I had some really tasty strawberries last year in the old garden. I am hoping to get another box for these plants since I really do not want them to remain on the side of the house. Strawberries need a more permanent location since they come back year after year.

Here is my herb garden surrounding our patio. We've seen a few mosquitoes so we have our screened canopy put up now. The garden has citronella plants, rosemary, lavender, thyme, basil, sweet mint, spearmint, gardenias, marigolds and more. A lot of the plants are to keep bugs away and also I have some for their flowers.

This is the wall we broke down and then put back up with castle blocks. We finally ended up using all the castle blocks we had to move from the front and side yard.

So the garden is in full swing now and the yard is looking great. I am so glad I agreed to buy a pickup truck when my husband wanted one. We have put it to good use hauling dirt, compost, mulch, trees, bushes, plants, wood and more.

I have a lot of before and after pictures of our whole yard that I will post soon. It has been over 3 years from start to finish with the city and all the construction surrounding our house. We have felt like we've been on this never ending episode of the Yard Crashers.

It's been awhile since I posted and we've done so much, hopefully I can find the time to show you all the progress.

Flower Bulbs and Spring

I planted my flower bulbs in the front yard in September of last year. A few weeks ago they started blooming, so far only the daffodils have bloomed, but the tulips are also coming up. We've had some weird weather this year. Two years ago at this time I already had vegetable plants in the ground. We still have some freezing weather this week plus my whole garden is gone now, so this year will be an interesting one for vegetable gardening.

Well back to flower bulbs...This is one of the areas in the front yard where I planted bulbs in September. I was concerned that the squirrels had dug them all up.

I thought that I planted a variety pack of daffodils, but so far only the yellow ones came up.

 They sure are pretty flowers though!

I also planted them on the left side of the house. Turns out this is the area where we are building up the yard, so I had to move these flowers.

Over the weekend with a little help from a friend, I replanted the daffodils and tulips that were in the area that would be affected by the yard rebuild. They looked good for about an half hour then got all droopy, so instead of wasting them I cut the flowers off and put them in water, so we have a nice bouquet of flowers in the kitchen now.

I learned a lot with my first attempt at flower bulb planting. First of all, it is extremely easy to do and second of all, it is not good to move the bulbs once they have bloomed. I look forward to planting even more bulbs in September of this year!

Building the New Coop, Part 4- Chicken Run Move

The new coop has been ready for a few days now and we've been working on the run the past few days. The chickens have finally been released into the run as of a couple days ago and they are happy to have the new outside space. We're still tweaking the whole thing and discovering along the way (and with the help of the chickens) what else needs to be done.

Just a reminder, here is the old coop

We took out the run, all the fencing and the garden boxes. Step by step, the destruction began.

The city had the perfect machine to smash up the old metal shed coop. Someone wanted the scrap metal to recycle, so the clean up of the main part of the shed was pretty easy since someone else took all the metal.

 Here is my garden before we took it apart, that took a lot of time too.

The yellow vehicle is actually sitting where the above garden used to be. We removed all the fencing and wooden boxes and they pushed all the soil and compost further up our yard. The city is now parking some of their vehicles in that spot.

So out with the old and in with the new...

Converting the new shed over was actually a lot easier then moving the run since we had 4 walls and a roof already and there was no need to move the building, just modify it. This is before we started, you can still see the old coop and run in the background.

Building a run on a slope is not an easy task. My husband tackled the challenge well although we probably do not meet building codes and are probably not really level, but it's a chicken run. They do not care and it looks okay.

The biggest challenge was the last side with the human door, that really took some time to figure out how to attach it.

Once we got all 3 walls of the run up and we covered the bottom where it meets the coop with hardware cloth, we realeased the chickens with a temporary ramp. One of the EE's was the first one out.

The broody hen was a little skeptical. She is no longer broody after being in a cage in the new coop two nights. That was an easy fix, break a broody hen by moving her to a new coop. Who knew?

The Buff Orpington was excited to get outside. They had been locked in their coop almost 3 days.

The Rhode Island Red decided that the ramp was not needed.

 Eventually they all made it out.

The Columbian Wyandotte decided flying out was the best option. Yes, chickens can fly!

I locked them up after they went to bed that night and yesterday morning we started working on their covered patio. Lucky chickens!

Building the patio...

Patio complete except for paint

The chickens spending the day out all day with their new patio. We are going to landscape around the run and hide everything below the bottom of the run so the cement blocks will not show.

A closer look at their patio. On rainy days they can go out of the coop and stay under one of the two levels.

After spending the day out I locked them in the run one more time and painted the coop before the sunset last night. That way it could dry over night. We are getting rain today and the next few days so I needed to get it done before it rained and let it dry while they were sleeping. We learned last night that some of the chickens have trouble jumping up to the patio, so put a temporary pallet ramp in there for now until a dry day and time to build a better ramp.

They were happy with the new paint job and they are starting to lay more eggs now since the move, they did slow down a little while they were locked in the coop for a few days.

So the chickens are safe and sound and we're taking a construction break. We have a lot of cleaning up to do and a few more things to add here and there. My garden is a whole other story, I am not even sure where to start there.

Building the New Coop, Part 3

We got a lot done yesterday and today on the coop. Yesterday I painted the nest boxes and roosts and also some of the floor wood. The rest we'll leave as is, since it's for chickens and they really don't care. They ended up with a soothing lavender color though since that is what I had on hand. My husband said that he hopes it will relax them to lay more eggs. Not that we need them to lay more eggs, we have way too many now. 

 We added the 2 braces to the lower roosts too.

 and the window is all set with hardware wire on the outside and an hinged door on the inside.

 It will be so nice to just shut the window and pop door with the doors and not have to use plastic anymore! So excited about that point especially!!!!

 My husband got the base of the run complete and leveled.

 He used Handi Blocks for the construction. It is supposed to be an easy way to build decks and other things. Not sure if anyone had used them for a chicken run. The run will end up higher on the end then the top, but it will be level with the shed.

 Here is the back view of the window installed. It will be just above the run.

 We also cut two vents on opposite sides of the coop and installed vent covers.

 The cutting was not perfect, but it looks good on the outside and that's what counts.

Since we are clearing out all the land where the coop and the garden is I let the chickens lose on my kale, Swiss chard, carrots and spinach. They made fast work at it and destroyed it. I was kind of sad to see all my hard work gone so fast. They will repay us in eggs though and the eggs should be full of nutrients from all that good healthy green food.

I opened up the garden bed that had my garlic in it too. They worked on it for a while too.

 I actually was growing garlic, but since we have to move everything, I won't be able to finish growing it this year. I am going to plant more for next year though. I really want to be successful at growing garlic and produce some for us. Oh well, it is a good thing that we'll be building up our property, so I need to relax and go with the flow this year. I am hoping to get a few relocated vegetable beds in this year somewhere with tomatoes, cucumbers and squash still.

So all that was yesterday, today we got a lot more done. My son and daughter helped out and we ended up dismantling the run completely and we've already moved over half the chickens. The rest are the wild ones who do not like to be touched, so we planning on moving them tonight when they are asleep. I hope that goes well. Here are a few pictures from today's adventures.

Here is the old coop and run before we touched it.

 Here is the run partially dismantled. It was not an easy process. We built it very strong which meant there was a ton of screws and nails all over, plus even buried hardware cloth for digging predators. We did an awesome job reinforcing it from anything breaking in which worked against us since we were now taking it apart.

 My son and husband tearing down the run bit by bit.

 Here is my daughter, son and husband working on attaching the moved run to it's new location. Of course, our dog Maxie was supervisor, as always.

Here is most of the run up.We still need to put the end piece and the door. It will sit higher off the ground so the door has to be moved. I also need to block a lot of the area under the coop from the chickens going too far under and predators having access to them.

So we have about 13 of the chickens moved in already. The Easter Egger really likes the new coop and window. I think they all are wondering when they'll go back to their old coop and roosts.

So there is a lot more to do still, but the big majority of the work is done and it was great to have some help today too. There is no way we would have gotten the run moved without our kids to help!