New Baby Chickens - Dual Purpose Animals

We have the cutest little critters in a bin right now, and we have already built a house for them. All 8 of them have names and they are all (hopefully) females. They are the chicks that we bought from feed stores in the last 3 weeks.

Why are chickens important? How do they help with gardening?

Chicks can do some really good, helpful things for the gardens. They can till gardens and they can also produce chicken manure which is great food for plants.

The neighbors have chickens and those little birds are over here all the time. They love our yard. I am glad they come over and I provide food for them to eat while they are here. They also serve as a natural insecticide as they spend hours looking for bugs in the ground. At first, that sounded gross to me. I'm eating an animal that eats bugs. So, therefore I am eating bugs. Well, maybe in a sense I am, but bugs provide good protein for the chickens.

The chickens also till our yard. There are places where the soil has been seriously turned over. I have to give the credit to the neighborly chickens for that.

I just used up a bag of chicken manure that I had. Probably won't have to buy that anymore!

Ginger, our Rhode Island Red

The chickens already have a section of the yard fenced off for them. They can roam that part of the yard and mow our lawn for us! The grass will be good for them to eat.

What a neat cycle in nature God made. We all are made from the 'dust of the ground'. We eat plants that grow out of the ground. Chickens do as well. Then they have the whole yard to use for their bathroom and the grass gets fertilized by their waste products. That helps the plants to grow and we eat those plants and the cycle continues.

This will be their new home in a couple of weeks. The weather needs to warm up some more and they need to have a full body of feathers to keep them completely warm before they can live here.

Of course, I almost forgot, one of the best things chickens give us is their eggs. Eggs are full of nourishment. Don't listen to the Old School of nutrition that says eggs give hardening of the arteries. New studies have been done and have found how powerful the nourishment is that we get from eggs.

Most eggs are either white or brown. Some are speckled. I opted for getting two chickens that will give either blue eggs or blue/green eggs. Some eggs are large. A few are huge. And then some are just small or medium. Most of the eggs I will get will be large.

There is a 98% chance that all my chicks are females. And they don't need a rooster to produce eggs, unless one wants fertilized eggs.

Huge Sweet Potato

I was digging in the garden today and felt a rather large sweet potato buried in the dirt. Actually, I was pulling out weeds by the roots, and found this sweet potato. Had to get a shovel to dig it out with.

As I work with cleaning out the garden bed, I get a little produce here and there. Here is a compilation of what I collected recently.

Am ready to pull up some of the carrots. I planted 3 different colors. So far the yellow has definitely done the best. The purple did ok. The beets really didn't grow well, for some reason.

I have a few snow pea plants that are bearing fruit right now. Not much though. What can you expect from 4 or 5 little plants?

Lemon tomatoes are growing ok. They had brown spots on them, but that might be due to the cold weather we have had this year. The plants made it through the cold, but the tomatoes that were on the plants did not do all that great.

While I was at Tractor Supply yesterday, I picked up some strawberry plants. Most of the last strawberry plants I had died. I have 2 or 3 that are still alive. What I didn't realize was that in the package (which is labeled non-GMO), there are 20 strawberry plants. Now I have to find places to plant them.

All of the squash plants I planted died. They all seemed to have some kind of virus and all appeared to die from the same thing. I planted cucumbers in a new garden bed and will see how they do.

Today's Garden Produce In Winter

We were gone for 5 days last week, and I didn't have much time to cater to the gardens. But, I went out yesterday and picked some things out of the garden.

A couple of small ears of Dakota Black Popcorn, A couple of ears of flint corn, a paprika, and a small variety of tomatoes.

Wade's Flint Corn, Black Dakota Popcorn, Lemon Tomatoes,
Blue's Fahrenheit Tomatoes, Paprika, Green Zebra Tomatoes,
and Purple Jalapeno. 

  The papayas are still green and we will have to pick them if a freeze comes.

   Hey, I have a plan that may work to protect the chickens that I will have one day. We have a hawk here who would love to eat chickens. I have seen feathers from birds on the ground. But, I have a plan. In the area where we will keep the chickens, I will plant my papaya plants that are in pots. I will put a wire from one plant to another that will appear somewhat invisible to the naked eye, unless you know to look for it. I know it won't be a 100% safety net, but it will help. Plus, there will be enough space between the papayas that the sun will still be able to shine through.

   There is this really cool device that you can get that helps scare animals away, but it only works at night time. It doesn't need batteries as it works by solar power. It is called 'Nite Guard'. I have a couple of them already.


   As soon as the sun goes down, a red light starts flashing. The directions say to have it at the eye level of the animal that one thinks would be a predator. This product has a fairly good rating. It even helps to keep burglars away!!

   The product 'Nite Guard' (above) is an affiliate link. This simply means that if you click on that link and order anything from amazon.com through that link, amazon.com will give me credit for the order. There is no extra charge for the customer. Thank you for your support. 

I Want My House To Be A Farm To Table Restaurant

I have been studying farm to table restaurants and have found only a few that are like this. I wondered why not many are looking for farm to table restaurants, but, part of the answer to my question came about while we were in Georgia, a couple of weeks ago.

It was a rather disappointing experience for me. There was a bright spot though. We found one farm to table restaurant called the Stovall House, located near Helen, Georgia. This place was great. It was indeed a farm to table restaurant, probably the only one within miles of where we were.

We found a farmer's market one day, as we were traveling to Dahlonega, a little gold mining town in Georgia. We visited this place the next day and learned some horrible news. The produce department was very small compared to the rest of the store. It was like a quaint, old-fashioned grocery store with many products that were homemade. But what happened to the produce? There were no signs saying if the vegetables and fruit were organic, nor were there any signs saying that the food was non-gmo. So, I asked about it, and the man told me that the don't have much produce coming in because it is now too expensive for the farmers to bring their food in. There was something like a tax on agriculture that was 50%! No wonder there wasn't much food. The man also blamed the Democrats for that.

A little while later, I saw some corn. I asked another man if he knew if it were GMO or not. He said that everything they had was GMO. I personally do not think he knew what I was asking, for then he said that the corn had to be GMO because they do not want any worms in their corn (not sure how genetically modifying food can keep worms out of the food!). It was like a guarantee that there would be no worms in their corn. Of course, I did not buy any. Even if it weren't genetically modified, there would definitely have been pesticides on it if they were that adamant about not having worms in their corn!

For a state with so many farms in it, it looks like the farmers are discouraged. In Florida, things are different. People can grow food and sell it at farmer's markets. Quite a few people are doing this now.

So, my next idea is to try to grow the types of food that people would use. First though, I have to grow the kind of food that my family will eat. I am growing popcorn and corn that will be used to make grits (and pretty fall decorations). I will grow squash, beans, and peas. All of these plants will be grown in the garden beds.

The salad making plants are going to grow in a Tower Garden. I will also put strawberries in and some herbs. The tomatoes and peppers can keep growing in the pots. And there are fruit trees growing in pots too.

Garden Beds with Sweet Potatoes and Corn

Prolific Sweet Potatoes 

Corn that is just sprouting

I want to serve people well who come to my house. It is important that food is safe to eat, not full of pesticides and not genetically modified. It should be safe if it comes from my back yard, that is, unless a plane comes over the house spraying Naled, a pesticide used to kill mosquitos.

New Garden Beds And Hydroponic, Aquaponic Gardening Coming Soon!

This is a very difficult time for me to be writing blogs, but I still have ideas and plans that I would like to share, so, my posts may be brief (and possibly boring!).

We now live in a new home with over an acre of land. Much of the yard is taken up with trees and a large barn, for which I am grateful. The front yard is large, and I don't think I can do much gardening there, because we have to use as much of that part of the yard for cars to park when we have events.

Nevertheless, I have worked with ideas on how to do gardening with little space, when I was at the old house. Many of those ideas will serve me well as I implement them in this yard.

We hired a man to redo the garden area. It will be just like the garden at the old house, but will not have trees interrupting the garden. If you ever pick a place in the yard to place your garden, placing the garden area under a tree is not a good idea! Been there. Done that. Won't do it again.

Garden Area When First Dug Out

I planted seeds in pots months ago, and they are ready for transplanting into the garden or into a larger pot. One of the seeds I planted was called St. John's Salvia, which produces a pretty red flower which attracts bees (hopefully!). I planted two of them in the garden bed near the aloe plant that a friend gave me.

Garden Bed Featuring Aloe Plant, Pineapple plants, and
St. John's Salvia plants

You won't be able to see the St. John's Salvia plant here unless you enlarge the picture. It is on the bottom right corner of the bottom garden bed. I have a couple more to plant, but will put them in another garden bed. 

Bees, you are welcome to come now! In that same garden, next to the St. John's Salvia plants, is a pineapple plant which I grew from the top of a pineapple that I grew at the old house. I was surprised that I could actually grow a pineapple, and one that looked like a pineapple and tasted good. Let's see if we get a pineapple from that plant.

So, here are some of the things I will be growing in the garden beds, Lord willing:

* Corn (non-GMO)

* peanuts

* squash

* potatoes

* peas 

* beans

* pollinating flowers

* pollinating herbs

* sweet potatoes

* beets
* celery
* carrots

Now, for the other ideas. Did you know that plant food that is made from minerals cannot be labeled organic? The word organic applies only to living things, and minerals are not living. So, my next adventure with gardening will be with hydroponics and aquaponics. I have a hydroponic set up, and as soon as the weather cools down, I will start the seeds for that. I tried this before on my balcony porch at the other house, but the plants never came to fruition. It looked like they were not getting enough light and there didn't seem to be anything I could do to fix that problem. Then a bird built a bird's nest around a broccoli plant. It was hard to clean it and change the water once that happened. So, I took the hydroponic set up down and will put plants back into it again. 

Have you ever gone to Epcot and ventured on the ride called, 'The Land'? I have always been intrigued by this and have loved this ride. Anyway, the idea of growing plants in a Tower Garden came from this whole concept as you can see it as you ride in the little boat through 'The Land'. 

That will be my next adventure. Here is my web site for this type of garden: http://www.ss.towergarden.com

I don't have one yet but look forward to the day when I can order one and learn how to use it. I want to grow strawberries, spinach, lettuce, and maybe some type of catnip or cat grass in it. Maybe I can grow wheatgrass too. 

Youtube has several videos on the Tower Garden. In NYC, there is a restaurant that uses Tower Gardens on their roof to grow their food! We visited this place but winter was just ending, and when I asked if their food was going to be from their Tower Gardens they said that it wasn't, because the weather was cold (it was even snowing while we were there). But if you go during the summer, you will probably have a choice of many food items that will have been grown on their rooftop (6 stories up!). The name of the restaurant is Book, Bell, and Candle.

Excerpt From 'Born-Again Dirt' Book

  I have just read the first chapter of this book, and it looks very good. It talks about gardening and farming from a Biblical perspective. Those who are in charge of industrialized agriculture are mainly people who do not have the mind of Christ. They do not see the connections of the web of life, and therefore, we have a very unhealthy society today who has no clue of how to recover from it.



Here is an excerpt from the book:

"For instance, the most prevalent method of agriculture today, industrial agriculture, seems to be based on a worldview that ignores God and elevates man and his wisdom as the source of truth. This humanistic worldview results in a form of agriculture whose primary objective is maximum yield and profit and whose ultimate source of wisdom is science. Hence the large scale and complex technology of industrial agriculture."




We live in a time period where we are proud of our knowledge. But our 'knowledge' is just making us more and more unhealthy. Something is wrong with this picture. I think you can get the drift of what it is by reading just the excerpt I posted above.

I have read somewhere not too long ago, where science is the religion of the Modernists. Today, we have entered into a post-modern era where the younger generation rejects Modernism. Theirs is a more emotionally charged response to life and life's problems. Neither the Modernists, nor the Post-modernists regard God as the supreme being. Modernists believe that man is the measure of all things (the top dog), while Post-modernists believe that whatever you want to be your God, is what your God will be.

So, what's the problem here? We have a bunch of Modernists running our agriculture and food industry. They are making unwise decisions because they do not have the mind of Christ, and whatever they do will result in something God never intended.

Anyway, although I just started this book, and it seems pretty good already, maybe the author will have some insight on how we can change the course of things here in our society. Maybe the day will come when there will be more farmers who know God and can hear His voice. They will have the wisdom from God instead of trusting in scientific theories (which sometimes are bias and faulty).

(This is an affiliate link. If this book is ordered through this link, I will receive credit. It will not cost you anything extra. Thank you for your support!)

My Baby Pineapple

Here is a picture of a baby pineapple growing in my garden. I grew it from cutting the top off a pineapple a couple of years ago. I wasn't really sure if a pineapple would ever grow on it though. I have a couple of other pineapples growing in this garden bed as well, but they are not as big as this one is.

Pineapple growing on a pineapple plant taken from the top of a pineapple a couple of years ago.