Gardening in My Rubber Boots

Jun 11

The Hens Hate Us

In case you didn’t know, we brought home two one year old Silkie hens from my mom’s house a couple weekends ago. Not only do Henny Penny and Hazel hate us, but they’re not doing what they’re supposed to do and this has me worried.

They don’t eat out of their feeder, use the roosting pole, eat yummy veggie treats, lay eggs (except one) and they sure don’t stink. We did have one VERY large poop today – good news!

And here I thought the chicks were going to be the hard ones – we brought home two of those as well – they’re in the house.

Because I’m a “problem solver,” I went in their coop today to see if I could make things a little better for them. I started by raking up their old shavings – this got them all in a tizzy. Henny Penny started squawking and flapping around. Ok. The rake is bad. Hazel then made an attempt to get away from Henny Penny and got a hand full of clean shavings dropped on her head – oops. Now she really hates me. They eventually calmed down and hid in the coop corner. I quickly finished adding the new shavings, and threw down some feed AND scratch on the coop floor. Head down – I left the coop.

I hope they come out of their hiding spot soon to eat their food – I need to see more big poops before I’m happy. Next, we’ll work on laying eggs.

If you look closely at the picture, you can see them in far right (the dark spot) laying on top of each other (next to an urn of our outdoor cat’s ashes). Poor things. I’m sure eventually they’ll learn to tolerate us.

But The Chicks Love Us

Brownie and Buttercup are a true joy. They entertain us like little comedians. I’ve heard people say they watch their chickens, now I know what they’re talking about. These little guys are eating, drinking, and pooping A LOT. All good signs. They actually poop so much that we have to clean their brooder at least once a day.

We’re not quite sure if we have hens or roosters yet – it appears that Buttercup has a couple pink feathers so may be a rooster. If we do end up with a rooster we’re going to try to keep him anyway – since we don’t have rules against this in our town. It’s only a problem if he gets too noisy & the neighbors complain. My neighbors love me.

One neighbor did have a rooster for a bit and only got rid of him because he was getting mean. We’ll see. I’m not one to give up pets…

These little guys have a couple more weeks in the house before we’ll start introducing them to the chicken coop. We’re still not sure if one of the hens in the coop is their mom. Maybe that’s why they hate us?

Jun 7

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Tour of Seattle’s Japanese Garden

Looking east toward pond & water lilies

I found myself driving through the Washington Park Arboretum in Seattle today & passing by the Japanese Garden. Since it was a beautiful morning and the garden is less than 4 acres, I decided to take a quick tour. I haven’t been to the garden for almost 10 yrs.

It was the best $5 I’ve spent it a long time. I could’ve sat there and walked around all day just soaking up the calm and peaceful environment.

As I was walking (relaxed) through the perfectly pruned trees, I decided to take this tour at least once a year to help replicate the peace and openness in my garden but on a slightly smaller scale.

Below are some pictures I took of the garden – with my phone! Since I wasn’t planning on taking a garden tour I didn’t bring our camera.

View from far end of the garden

Enjoying the reflections

Getting a bite to eat

Wisteria arbor over the water - love the stepping stones

Love the shape of this tree

Hidden statue

Pathway stepping stones over the creek

Repetition of plants mirrors creek

Fun hedge looks almost like Espalier

Jun 7

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9 – Hosta: My Top 10 Favorite Plants

I can never have enough Hostas. I buy new ones every year and still seem to need more. Even today I was thinking I needed some Hostas for under the Magnolia – the hydrangeas just aren’t enough. I love the big leaves, the colors, and the different shapes and sizes.

I’m always on a mission to find a huge leaf hosta. I have a couple big ones – but not THE big one. Maybe next year.

Jun 3

Weekend at Mom’s Farm

My mom and step-dad have a farm out in the middle of nowhere (Omak, WA). A typical weekend visit includes milking goats, watching chickens run around, petting horses, giving milk to baby goats and eating a lot of great food. And that’s exactly what we did this past weekend.

As a child I lived on a small farm with dogs, cats, chickens, pigs, horses, goats, a cow, a turkey, peacocks and geese (I still hate geese). It seems as though every day I had chores to do – replace shavings, clean horse stalls, stack wood, and etc. It’s funny, as an adult, I long to live on a small farm again. Just something I can be proud of while providing for my family.

Here are some pictures from our weekend at my mom’s.

Jun 2

Pets With Benefits

Our chicken coop

We finally finished the coop last night. Of course we still have a few finishing touches to add but it’s good enough for now.

The hens are living in their new home and are still a bit scared. This is expected since they came from a farm with farm noises and now live in town with loud town noises. We’re a couple blocks from the train, a hwy, the post office and main street – it can get pretty loud.

Every hour they seem to get a little more comfortable with their new home and venture a little further out. They’re slowly getting used to us and no longer squack and attack us when we enter their coop.

It appears we have a quiet passive hen and a fiesty loud one. It’s great to see their personalities already.

Scared chickens

We named the hens Henny Penny and Hazel. Penny is the copper colored hen while Hazel is the brown one. They’re both Silkies and were born about this time last year.

They’re not used to climbing up ramps, having a hen house, or sleeping on roosting poles. So, I need to make a couple modifications to the ramp & hen house to make it a little cozier for laying eggs.

I’m sure we’ll get it right one of these days. Until then, we’ll just take it one day at a time.

Baby chicks

We also have two Silkie chicks in the house; we weren’t sure if either of the hens we brought home are the mother and didn’t want them to freeze to death outside. Even though it’s pretty warm during the day it can get pretty cold at night. We also like having them in the house since they’re cute.

I put together this brooding box to make sure they are warm and safe. The wire top is to keep Pepper (cat) away from the chicks, even though he could care less.

I’m sure this isn’t the last time you’ll hear about these guys. I love having pets and I was able to justify (and get approval for) chickens since they also provide eggs. They’re a pet with benefits.