When Everyone Wants in, It's a Good Sign!

Today Sprinkle and I headed out to the 'farm'. Between getting three new beds ready for seeds and planting some, time was spent chasing the animals out of the plot. It started with this persistent chicken and her three chicks...

Then, these rascals were very interested and chased out by Sprinkle; who fed the brave one a piece of lettuce from the home garden which the ewe happily chewed. It even looked like the horse was going to try and sneek between the truck and the gate to the plot, had Sprinkle not intercepted with a chat.

It also seems that some other curious creature has been visiting. The last two times I have gone to the plot, all the name signs for the plants have been pulled out of their spots. It appears this pesky one is also snapping off perfectly beautiful flower heads of my dahlias...harumph! Today, I found a pepper plant, a melon plant and a cucumber plant pulled out, roots and all, uneaten but dead. In their place were small red petals from my dahlias! Curious. There were also two egg shells, freshly empty. I would love to have one of those cameras there that take photos every few seconds so I could see what delightful things happen when I cannot be there.

The radishes are coming along splendily, as are the potatoes and tiny pumpkin plants. The cucumber and melon seedlings are struggling. They just didn't take well. I have some cucumber sown directly into the beds and they seem to be doing well so hopefully this will make up for it. Today we planted two kinds of turnip, kale and leeks.

From the home garden small amounts are being harvested. Sprinkle asked today, "So what have you got out of it so far?" I proudly said: 15 radishes (white icicle, black spanish and cherry belle); 4 harvests of black seeded simpson, buttercrunch and red salad bowl; two huge green onions; and two picolino cucumbers. Big grin. I know it's not enough to be sustainable or feed others...but the magical word is 'YET'. I am on my way. With all the rain and very little sun, I think it's terrific that anything is surviving. With sun right around the corner (can you hear me big golden sun?), there'll be lots of food in the coming weeks!

Oh yes, and one beautiful, ripe red strawberry...
as you can see in the picture, my dog got a bite out of it before I could pick it!! She is now banned from doing rounds of the garden with me for the time being. It's been a day of protecting the plants from the animals (with me running for my camera to capture the fun!).