A little bounty from the garden.

[hippywife]

Some things survived the hail storm and went on to produce. Seven jars of garlic dills and five of zesty bread and butter. The cukes aren't done yet, either!



The chickens are doing well, too. Now if they'd only start laying!

[asdjrocky]

1. I want chickens!

Any of those pickles bread and butter? If so I'd be happy to pm you my address:eyes:

[hippywife]

3. I really wish you could have some chickens.

Really I do! :hug:

The jars on the right are the bread and butter ones. I added red pepper flake to make them zesty bread and butter pickles. :9

[asdjrocky]

6. mmmmmmm

I'm doing pickles next year. Bread and butter are in my future.

[hippywife]

7. I used this recipe

except I didn't have any green peppers:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90448284

Also added a few shakes of red pepper flakes. I just tasted them and they are yummy! Could have used a little more red pepper flake but you never know if you're adding too much sometimes.

[Blue Gardener]

2. Yummy!

Bread and butter pickles are my favorite, and yours look fantastic!

[hippywife]

4. Thanx!

We'll see how they taste when I open a jar tonight. The dills have another 7 weeks to steep so gotta wait on them.

[bvar22]

5. Yum!

Your post made me smile! :)

Love your chicken tractor! Can't believe you still have green grass.
Drought/Heat has killed everything we haven't been watering daily.
Walking around the yard is a "crunchy" experience.

We are waiting for our first eggs too.
Should be anytime now.

[hippywife]

8. Glad to give you a grin.

That tractor is so simple. It's just hog panels wire together with smaller rabbit fencing and chicken wire so the big openings aren't so big! The back is a piece of plywood that gives the whole thing structure and a place to put mower tires for a little more mobility. We looked at so many tractors on the internet and hubband just decided to keep it simple. The girls love it!

It's getting pretty crunchy here, too. If you look close there are plenty of brown spots.

I've shown Bill the pic of your enclosure. As you can see he's building a winter coop of his own design with the scraps we have around here.

Hope you guys are experiencing a wonderful bounty over your way! :hi:

[hippywife]

9. I've decided that

I'm going to incorporate just a concept of the lasagna gardening method here soon. I'm definitely going to put down the cardboard and newspapers in the paths of the current garden and the whole new area when we expand it soon. The bermuda grass is atrocious!

Also, we need to go ahead and bite the bullet on the drip irrigation. I've been hauling water in a watering can that holds about 1.5 gallons 40 feet from the spigot to the garden, one can full for each box. I just got back in from doing that in 105 degree temps. Ugh! I can't keep this up! Plus I don't think we get the lush foliage and yield we could without it.

We are going to put a white corrugated PVC roof on the coop and a small guttering system to catch runoff when it rains. So at some point in the future, I will have water actually in the garden for at least the spring time.