When? This coming Saturday, May 12th, from 9am – 5pm. Tickets are $8 per adult (children under 12 free) and there is a group rate available on the UFT website.

This year there are 31 sites to visit, 16 free workshops at the UFT’s headquarters (Crescent Studios), and [...]]]> It’s time for the Greenville Urban Farm Tour again!

When? This coming Saturday, May 12th, from 9am – 5pm. Tickets are $8 per adult (children under 12 free) and there is a group rate available on the UFT website.

This year there are 31 sites to visit, 16 free workshops at the UFT’s headquarters (Crescent Studios), and bicycle tours offered by Bikeville of Greenville. There’s also a pre-event gala & concert on Thursday, 5/10 at Zen if you’d like to meet some site owners (including us) in advance.

You can buy tickets in advance on the UFT website or purchase them the day of the event at Crescent Studios.

Photo Caption: We now have 3 hives in our apiary. Two were from caught swarms and one was a purchased nuc, pictured here.

We’re happy with the progress we’ve made on our site. As evidenced in our ugly garden post, it was an uphill climb to finish before the May 12th deadline. We were able to check off more from our todo list than we expected, but there are still some loose ends.

Two things that weren’t available last year are our mature chickens and our three-hive apiary. Our chickens have been laying around 3 dozen eggs per week and our bees are building up their hives so that we can harvest honey next spring.

Photo Caption: May is a month where the garden is transitioning between cool weather to warm weather crops. Our snow and snap peas are in full swing, but most other crops are either young seedlings or aging spring crops that need replacing.

Visitors can expect to see our budding summer garden with warm weather crops like tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, potatoes, peppers, eggplants, and squash. We’ve left the remnants of our cool weather crops in place even though they are starting to look a bit ratty. The brassicas and lettuce are bolting… but it looks pretty! Other food plants include mature figs, pears, Asian pears, peaches, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, asparagus, and herbs. We haven’t planted the pawpaws, goumi, goji berries, hardy citrus, loquats, hardy kiwi, gooseberries, elderberries, horseradish, sunchokes, hops, prickly pears, and persimmons but they’re sitting outside the back door in pots. We have planted the blueberries and pineapple guavas in our front yard, but they’re still very small.

We’re not sure how far along we’ll be with our irrigation goals, but we will have mushrooms, vermicomposting, composting, container planting, intensive space growing, vertical gardening, and displays on canning and beer brewing.

We’ve been working hard on our educational signage — the plant labels and printed blog posts we set out were popular last year so we’ve improved and increased them for this year’s tour. We’ll also have a “Ask the Site Owner” table where we’ll be socializing with guests.

Photo Caption: We may sell our extra vegetable transplants if the plant inspector shows up in time.

PLANT SALE INFO: It turns out we need a plant inspection to be allowed to sell veggie starts. I’m waiting to find out if the plant inspector assigned to check out my transplants will be able to get here before the tour. If he does, we’ll be selling oddball and heirloom tomato starts, passalong pomegranates, basil, and some odds and ends. We’ll also have some non-living items for purchase such as local honey and organic bay leaves. Bring cash or checks if you want to take something home.

*UPDATE* – The plant inspector came today and we’re good to go. We don’t have as many plants as last year so we’ll probably sell out.

It was so much fun showing everyone our urban farm last year! We hope you’ve already purchased your tickets and can’t wait to see you on Saturday!

Photo Caption: My husband named this chicken "LaZertron Eggonator" and insists we refer to her as "Ol' LaZertron." She's broody right now so my daughter wrote a [...]]]> My daughter just wrote a detailed blog post about our broody cuckoo maran hen. If you’d like to read her description of Ol’ LaZertron’s exploits, here’s the link!

Photo Caption: My husband named this chicken "LaZertron Eggonator" and insists we refer to her as "Ol' LaZertron." She's broody right now so my daughter wrote a blog post about her.

Pecha Kucha Greenville adds to the 20×20 theme by also scheduling their events at 20:20 (8:20pm). They [...]]]> What’s Pecha Kucha, anyway? You could describe it as TED Talks for people with short attention spans or a good way to get presenters to keep it short. Every Pecha Kucha is 20 slides long, 20 seconds each slide.

Pecha Kucha Greenville adds to the 20×20 theme by also scheduling their events at 20:20 (8:20pm). They have around 6 presenters and the audience gets to question them after the talks. Greenville’s is located at the wonderful Warehouse Theatre, with drinks available. It’s a perfect restaurant and a show evening.

Here’s my talk from the March 27th Pecha Kucha, on urban farming:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I came away from my run-in with the 6 minutes and 40 seconds format feeling intensely impressed with presenters who can make it look flawless. Those of you who do public speaking know that we’re rarely actors who memorize a script. Most of us are ramblers — we meander through the material until we manage to say everything.

I was thankful for the Q & A session afterward because it let me say some of the things I’d forgotten. Such as what a USDA hardiness zone is and why it mattered that Greenville has gone up in warmth from zone 7 to zone 8 in such a short time. Or that roosters are not required for chickens to make eggs and that noise ordinances prohibit them in the city. Hens are quieter than dogs and won’t wake you up in the early AM. I also forgot to mention that a diversely planted farm or garden creates more beneficial wildlife habitat than a monocrop system.

If you’re interested in the Greenville Urban Farm Tour mentioned in my presentation, click here for the link.

Speaking of diversity — literally — the evening I spoke the audience was also exposed to the art of persuasion, recreating Medieval harpsichords, two impressive teenagers explaining social design, and doodling (yep, this is my husband). You can view past Greenville Pecha Kucha talks on video here. Doesn’t look like they have all the recent ones up yet, but I suspect they will soon.

Back when the Organic Growers School was Saturday only, they did an experimental Sunday session in Burnsville, NC. Among skills like how to build hoop houses and grow through the winter, I mostly remember taste-testing the ‘Hakurei’ [...]]]> If you’ve never eaten a salad turnip, and you probably haven’t, it’s unlikely you think they sound very exciting.

Back when the Organic Growers School was Saturday only, they did an experimental Sunday session in Burnsville, NC. Among skills like how to build hoop houses and grow through the winter, I mostly remember taste-testing the ‘Hakurei’ turnips that Patryk Battle brought to share.

Photo Caption: 'Hakurei' is fast, delicious, and pretty. The entire plant is tender and sweet enough to be used raw in salads!

Since then I haven’t spent a season without them. My stepfather laughed when he dropped by the other day and caught my husband and I standing in the garden eating them like apples — but they really are that good!

They aren’t like traditional turnips. The main difference is that they are soft enough to be cut with a butter knife and lack the spicy flavor that lends itself to roasting. These turnips are meant to be eaten out-of-hand. Even the greens are fantastic! Sometimes I make a ‘Hakurei’ salad out of nothing but the tender raw greens with diced roots sprinkled on top.

Photo Caption: Turnips are great for intensive planting because they can be removed once surrounding crops get large.

They are so unusual that I only know of three varieties (if you know more, let me know in the comments). ‘Hakurei’ is a Japanese hybrid available from Kitazawa Seed Co. and Johnny’s Selected Seeds. This year I was surprised to see Ferry-Morse selling them on the seed racks at local nurseries in our area.

‘Oasis’ is also a hybrid. I’ve grown both ‘Oasis’ and ‘Hakurei’ for the past two seasons and admit that I can’t tell them apart. Fedco Seeds, Burpee, and Nichol’s Garden Nursery all carry this variety.

If you are a seed saver you can try the open pollinated ‘Tokyo Market’ available from Evergreen Asian Seeds, Kitazawa Seed Co., and Nichol’s Garden Nursery. It is slightly flattened in shape compared to the first two and has a comparable flavor. I like it, but found it was a bit more susceptible to getting hot when the weather warmed up.

Another open-pollinated option could be ‘White Egg’ (also called ‘Snowball’) which is available from Victory Seeds and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I’ve seen it recommended for this use — however, I’m pretty sure that ‘White Egg’ is just a white roasting turnip and not the salad variety.

I’ve heard of a salad turnip called ‘White Doll’ but I can’t find confirmation that it is actually a separate named variety — there doesn’t seem to be nurseries selling the seed.

Photo Caption: Most of the time our salad turnips end up sprinkled over mixed greens. We love these raw turnips so much that my husband wants to plant entire beds of them this winter.

Radishes are considered the benchmark of easy-to-grow vegetables but I think turnips deserve equal credit. A mulched bed of salad turnips takes little care and will be ready to eat in 30 – 60 days. Start harvesting when the roots are the size of ping pong balls.

I like to sow my turnips about 1″ apart and thin them as they grow — they are edible at any stage. If you want to pick large turnips, they need to be about 3″ apart in your beds. A nice habit of turnips is that the root grows above the soil so you can simply look at them to see when to pick. We eat baby turnips only weeks after sowing and softball-sized turnips later on. I’ve never had a salad turnip turn woody and hot.

Turnips will mature more slowly if grown in hot weather or without consistent water. As with most root vegetables, they are unlikely to form fat roots if their taproot is disturbed. Direct-seeding works much better than attempts to transplant turnips.

In the south, turnips should be sown 2 months before your frost-free date (if the soil can be worked) through up to 2 weeks after it. In the late summer to fall they can be started under shade cloth so they will mature as the weather cools off. If you use a row cover you can grow them right through the winter in most of the southeast (except in the highest altitudes). Try sowing new seeds every 2 weeks to get the most out of your growing season.

Turnips rarely have pest problems detrimental enough to bother over. A few holes in the leaves will disappear when you cook them and a nibbled spot on the root can be trimmed off. Their most destructive enemies includes rabbits, cabbage butterflies, and looper moths. The first can be excluded with a fence, the latter two with lightweight row covers since turnips do not need visits from pollinating insects.

The only preparation a salad turnip really needs before you eat it is a quick rinse and perhaps a sprinkling of salt. If you grow enough of them to crave some variety, here are some recipe options:

• Speedy Sautéed Hakurei Turnips and Greens from EveningEdge.com
• Sautéed Hakurei Turnips and Greens from Atlanta Magazine
• Sautéed Hakurei Turnips and Braised Greens at Food.com
• Hakurei Turnip Greens with Clementines at Eno River Farmers Market
• Butter Cooked Hakurei Turnips with Snap Peas from With Fork & Knife
• Braised Hakurei Turnips from Charleston Magazine
• Glazed Hakurei Turnips from Bon Appétit magazine
• Curried Hakurei Turnips from The Veggie Project
• Hakurei Turnip Gratin from GF-Zing!
• Hakurei Turnip Gratin from Lighter & Local @ Foodbuzz
• Roasted Radishes, Hakurei Turnips, and Scallions from Farmer Dave’s
• No Room in the Fridge Curried Greens Soup from Farmer Dave’s
• Shaved Vegetable Salad from Laura Calder @ The Cooking Channel
• Warm Grain Salad with Hakurei Turnips from Hearthstrung
• Greenhouse Salad with Hakurei Turnips from Shape magazine
• Radish & Hakurei Turnip Salad in Asian Dressing from Green Earth Institute
• Hakurei Turnip Salad with Orange Chile Mustard Vinaigrette at Dinner with Dilip
• Cucumber and Hakurei Turnip Salad from Elly Says Opa!
• Hakurei Turnips and Candied Pecan Salad from SparkRecipes
• Quinoa and Turnip Salad with Oranges from NC Preppers
• Orzo with Asparagus and Turnip from Cook It Yourself
• Turnip, Carrot, and Gruyère Salad from Culinate
• Hakurei Turnip Kimchi from Farmer Dave’s

I know some people would rather pay their taxes twice than be nice to snakes, but I owe this mundanely-named brown snake family some good publicity on account of I killed their brother.

Or sister. Or both. Specifically, a couple little specimens of [...]]]> Today’s blog post was inspired by the karma-themed TV show My Name Is Earl.

I know some people would rather pay their taxes twice than be nice to snakes, but I owe this mundanely-named brown snake family some good publicity on account of I killed their brother.

Or sister. Or both. Specifically, a couple little specimens of Storeria dekayi. It happened in two separate garden accidents, many years ago, but I still regret it. Maybe I will feel better if I convince a snake-hater that these little guys are as useful in the garden as earthworms. Since the adults max out at only 12″ long, they aren’t much bigger than an earthworm, either.

Photo Caption: Brown snakes may have a boring name, but it is pretty accurate. If only there weren't so many other brown colored snakes, too...

This is not even close to the same as an eastern brown snake. There go those confusing common names again! As far as snakes go, I can’t think of a more harmless species. Brown snakes have no poison and their best defense against grabby humans is to pee on them.

Not very imposing!

Guess what? Brown snakes are brown — a muddy, grayish brown with a lighter band of brown along the spine bordered by tiny black dots. The underbelly is a pale beige or tan.

In South Carolina, two subspecies can be found. The “midland” specimen (Storeria dekayi wrightorum) may fool people into thinking it is a young rattlesnake. It has connecting lines between the black dots that create a slight diamond pattern. For the “northern” subspecies (Storeria dekayi dekayi), the black spots have fewer connections which creates a more random pattern.

Both versions of this species give live birth.

Photo Caption: Some people may think the spots on a brown snake looks like a diamond pattern. But brown snakes are not baby rattlesnakes!

In reality, this snake is only dangerous to garden pests like snails and slugs. They prefer soft-bodied invertebrates and spend most of their time burrowing through leaf litter and debris in order to find them. Their digging aerates soil and their droppings help fertilize it.

Brown snakes are most common in areas with plenty of cover. Gardeners can encourage (or discourage) them based on the amount of compost, mulch, brushy plantings, stray flower pots, or other hiding places provided in the yard. I tend to leave some of these things on purpose to create habitat. The presence of reptiles and amphibians is the sign of a healthy ecosystem — be proud if you see them in your landscape!

Photo Caption: Humans are safe from brown snakes but they may not be safe from you -- handle their fragile bodies with care!

If brown snakes have a downside, it is that their hiding gets them into trouble. Both of my previously mentioned fatal garden accidents involved snakes I couldn’t see. Because of those experiences, I now flush out my overwintered hoses before I cap them with a spray nozzle. I also look inside hollow plant stems before I prune.

It’s important to remember that snakes hide because they don’t want you to find them any more than you want to find them. If you spook a snake, step back and wait — they’ll leave.

Photo Caption: Brown snakes rarely get larger than 12" long.

Brown snakes are commonly confused with juvenile rat snakes. One sure way to tell them apart is the belly. Black rat snakes have a checkerboard pattern on their belly instead of a solid pale color. Check out this blog post on how to identify juvenile rat snakes.

Still didn’t find it? This is a great link to identify South Carolina snakes. Most of these snakes can also be found in surrounding southern states.

But kudzu bugs (Megacopta cribraria) also attack other legumes. Especially soybeans, wisteria, and hyacinth beans (Lablab pupureus). The idea of something that successfully retards the growth of kudzu having a picnic on my soybeans is [...]]]> You’re probably having the initial reaction that I did, “Why would I want to control kudzu bugs? Just have at it!”

But kudzu bugs (Megacopta cribraria) also attack other legumes. Especially soybeans, wisteria, and hyacinth beans (Lablab pupureus). The idea of something that successfully retards the growth of kudzu having a picnic on my soybeans is not appealing.

It’s possible they will move on to other plant species as well. Last week I found swarms of them on my sage buddleia (Buddleia salviifolia) and am unsure if they were feeding or just attracted to rest in the pale leaves.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

If you haven’t heard that kudzu has natural pests until now, you’re correct. I first noticed these guys clustered all over the straw bales and outdoor walls at a local garden center last season and knew that they were something I hadn’t seen before. Turns out they’re an invasive exotic that was first discovered in Georgia in 2009.

They’ve quickly spread all over Georgia, South Carolina, and into most of North Carolina. It’s probably fair to assume they’ll move into the same areas that kudzu is able to inhabit.

In addition to legumes, they are attracted to light colors when the weather cools because they hibernate in the same manner as Asian lady beetles. It’s common to see them swarming together and landing all over walls, doors, and windows, as shown in this News 11 Atlanta video. People seem to be having a hysterical reaction to their presence, though they are largely benign. Other than looking a bit like boogers and smelling really bad, they’re harmless if you aren’t a plant.

When attacking plants, they tend to cluster like this (at the time this post was written this photo was mislabeled as tortoise beetles). Since they feed on plant juices through sucking mouthparts like we drink milkshakes with a straw, it can look like they are simply resting. Visible plant damage includes curling leaves or discolored spotting.

Kudzu bugs are so new to our area that the ideal method of control isn’t known yet. If management is necessary, use the same methods as for squash bugs, harlequin bugs, or Japanese beetles. Knocking them into buckets of soapy water on a repeated basis is probably the best solution.

If you are experiencing kudzu bug hibernation inside your home, try turning your vacuum on them. (Beware that this will probably make your vacuum bag smell like stink bugs — you may want to use a shop vac that is stored in the garage).

NC State University has a good fact sheet on kudzu bugs that may help.

I encourage readers to leave tried and tested solutions in the comment section. Especially if you know of natural kudzu bug predators that can be encouraged to move into the garden.

If you live in the Greenville, SC area and would like to be [...]]]> We started an Appalachian Feet Market email list last year for people who want to know when our urban farm products are for sale or when we are giving talks the public can attend. Then we planned a wedding… and never used it.

If you live in the Greenville, SC area and would like to be on the list, click on the contact page and send me the email address you’d like to subscribe with.

The market email list is not the same as the one you can sign up for to receive Appalachian Feet blog posts via email. Though if you’d like to do that as well, just look to the right of this text and find the “SUBSCRIBE with your email address:” box in the sidebar.

Our market list is managed directly by Eliza instead of automated by our blog. In addition to farm product availability, we’ll be updating you when Eliza or Nathaniel are scheduled for talks open to the public. If you missed last night’s organic gardening/permaculture talk, Eliza is likely to be teaching it again in the near future. You can also come see us since we’re slated to be on the Greenville Urban Farm Tour again on May 12th, 2012.

Photo Caption: Our girls are laying a dozen eggs every 2 - 3 days. As an aside: if you're the bicyclist who dropped this recycled egg carton on our front step, please tell us who you are. It's been a mild mystery to us ever since our chimney sweep (the only eyewitness that day) described you to us.

We aren’t sure of everything we’ll be selling yet. Our plan is to send a notice the morning we will be having a sale (or perhaps the day before). Lounging on the porch or back deck with a beverage is our style of commerce! Each sale will last for a specified window of time and the items we list will be first come, first serve. You can have a free garden tour as well!

Mostly we’ll have produce for sale, but eggs may be on the list from time to time. If you want a steady supply of true free-range eggs, we recommend the Swamp Rabbit Grocery, Upstate Locally Grown, the Greenville Saturday Market, the Slow Foods Earth Market, and Live Oak Farms as potential sources.

Photo Caption: We'll have a lot more produce now that the chickens aren't roaming free in the garden.

It’s looking good for produce production this year, though. We’re still working on our rabbit problem, but the garden is starting to come back to life.

Photo Caption: We're hoping to catch the rabbit that ate these transplants the first time around. The fence is protecting everything until we do.

In spite of 3 baited Havahart traps, these rabbits are eluding us. We’ve tried apples, carrots, lettuce, and remnants of the brassicas they devastated in the first place. Sneaky little things!

Photo Caption: We've moved the hives to the back of the yard near the Asian pear tree.

In addition to produce and occasional eggs, we’re working up to a 3 hive apiary in order to sell our honey (and make mead, of course).

Photo Caption: We're trying to fill the trenches between our raised beds to the brim with organic matter like leaves and bark mulch. As it decomposes, it will catch and retain water, improve the soil, and compost in place right where we need it.

Our garden is beginning to perk up from the chicken damage and human neglect I wrote about in our ugly garden post.

Photo Caption: We'll likely be selling our passalong pomegranates through our email list. This tree has been handed down through our family for 5 generations.

We hope to get a bumper harvest from our fruit trees this season. Excess pears, Asian pears, figs, pomegranates, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, prickly pears, and muscadines have the potential to end up at our porch market. We’re not expecting much from our peach tree in spite of it’s large size and prolific bloom this spring — the diseases have finally caught up with the fruit. If we can’t figure out an organic solution, we’ll be replacing it in the fall.

We’ve added blueberries, pawpaw, gooseberries, persimmons, goumi, goji berries, kiwi, pineapple guava, mandarin oranges, citrangequat limes, kumquats, loquats, and a handful of other fruits to our small-scale orchard this year.

Photo Caption: The early crop of figs, called "brebas" have already started to appear on our 'Celeste' fig tree.

We also plan to sell flower arrangements. This native columbine started blooming in February!

Photo Caption: This is one of those close-up moments that make the garden look better than reality. Our front yard is currently an eyesore other than patches of blooms here and there, but we have big plans for it this year.

All-in-all, 2012 is shaping up to be a great gardening year for us. We hope to see you on the UFT, at one of our lectures, or at our backyard market!

But I still shake my fist in anguish when they forage through my newly planted beds, [...]]]> I used to hate squirrels. Then my daughter raised and released some orphans and I began to recognize their charms and place in the ecosystem. They’re native and gardeners too — of forests. I can share my garden with them.

But I still shake my fist in anguish when they forage through my newly planted beds, uprooting seeds and plants all over the place. I can understand why they are attracted to the fresh, loose earth. Still, I need an alternative to having a 9′ x 3′ section of bed only produce 8 carrots.

Photo Caption: Scraps of fencing, mesh, and hardware cloth are perfect foils for digging animals.

This year I’ve skipped the heartache of all pits and no plants by placing segments of hardware cloth and chicken fencing over areas where I’ve direct-seeded. It’s working! The squirrels have dug next to the wire covers but the seedlings remain unmolested.

Photo Caption: If you plan to lift the covers off, do it before the leaves get much bigger than the holes in the mesh.

You can leave the mesh in place all season but I am choosing to remove mine once the plants are dense enough to handle mulching. Mulching protects the plants from digging, conserves water, and reduces my labor by allowing me to compost in place.

This technique has some success protecting roots from the tillage of chickens, too. However, anything green that pokes up through the mesh will get snacked on.

When I’m talking to people about gardening I often hear apologies that their yard or produce doesn’t look as perfect as mine. Some even give up trying to grow [...]]]> Garden Bloggers: I challenge you to post at least one photo of your garden at its worst and put a link to it in the comments here.

When I’m talking to people about gardening I often hear apologies that their yard or produce doesn’t look as perfect as mine. Some even give up trying to grow things because they feel so embarrassed by gardens they perceive as “better.”

Sometimes photos of stunning gardens inspire us, and sometimes it is just intimidating. No need for the latter! These days, most of us automatically know that fashion magazine spreads are faked. Still, we don’t realize that home improvement magazines also hire a team of professionals to manicure and tweak their glossy photo spreads. Even lower-budget garden bloggers like me utilize optimum lighting, staging, close-ups, and editing in order to look our best!

Now, if I’d wanted to do a nice looking post today, I probably could have pulled some of the capsized tomato cages off the back strawberry bed, cleaned it up, and written a post on starting strawberries early. You wouldn’t have known that the only reason my strawberries existed at all was that I never got around to staking the cages last season and that during a storm they blew over on top of the adjacent strawberry bed. You also wouldn’t know that the chickens we took our time fencing out of the garden ate every single plant except for the strawberries because they couldn’t get through the fallen cages.

Instead, let me pull back a little and show you the full picture:

Photo Caption: Our garden in mid-February, 2012. Planning a wedding, navigating the holidays, and procrastinating over building a chicken fence for 8 months aren't unique excuses for our garden to be looking so bad. Life happens -- to everyone! It's okay to have periods of weeds, drought, pests, disease, etc., you'll bounce back.

You can’t even find the strawberries, right? Nearly everyone has on and off again periods where the yard takes a back seat. If, like the majority of gardeners, you aren’t able to make your yard a full-time job, it’s unlikely it will be in top condition season to season. Don’t let it get you down or stop you from trying again!

One thing I recommend is to count your successes along the way and give yourself credit for them. Did you harvest snow peas in June or a few pints of cherry tomatoes before the hornworm ate it? Is your basil or rosemary so big you have to give clippings to friends? Did you pick zinnia bouquets to put in your kitchen window or watch butterflies landing on top of the buddleia blooms? Did your seedlings germinate (even if something happened to them later)? Those things count! You’ll build on those accomplishments every year.

Every single garden you grow, even the jungles and deserts, gets you closer to the Eden in your head.

Take photos early and often of your garden adventures (especially bouquets and harvests). When you get down on yourself, go back and look at the good times — it will help you to take yourself seriously as a gardener. You deserve it!

Photo Caption: Some results from lethal, chicken-ninja combination attacks -- digging up the roots of the plant/ eating the crowns down to nubs. The positive? They might have killed the poison ivy along the fence!

Last year I was so excited that I was done digging beds for a while. Shows what I know! Chickens are phenomenal little tillers, so I get to work out my arm muscles again this year to fix what they’ve leveled. It will also be a dent in the pocketbook to replace the significant quantity of perennial plants they murdered.

Oh well, the eggs sure are tasty…

Photo Caption: Chickens are the worst-ever gardeners. These rows of raised beds have been knocked almost flat and emptied of foliage by their foraging.

Most of us have goals for our gardens that we aren’t able to fulfill in a hurry. It’s important to remember that the garden is as much a process as a product so that you don’t get discouraged. There’s usually a silver lining to the setbacks (nearly always involving education — at the Organic Growers School this weekend I heard someone say that you don’t really know a plant until you’ve killed it 3 times).

Eventually, we’ll be composting in our branch-pattern bed pathways and using no-till methods. In the meantime, we have few backyard weeds because the chickens ate those, too! They’ve also done a good bit of on-site fertilizing and overwintering pest consumption.

Photo Caption: It had been over 2 months since the chickens annihilated every green item in the yard -- except for the parsley. I made the mistake of bragging to a friend, "At least they haven't eaten the parsley!" Next day? No parsley. And look! I even left that grungy plastic container sitting there when I took the photo -- pretty huh?

The best thing? All things come with time. We finally did find the right moment to build our chicken fence and free up the garden for spring transplants.  (Although the first thing I did was gleefully sweep all the poop off our back steps and deck).

The next day, I began the process of making the garden a productive and beautiful place (again):

Photo Caption: It didn't take that long to re-dig some of the raised beds and get them planted with winter greens and root veggies.

And then the rabbits ate the new transplants because the chickens already ate all the weeds they used to prefer.

Well, I’d been thinking it would be nice to own some Havahart traps…

Instead of feeling down, I’m looking forward to the day that I can write a more attractive garden post — and when you see it, you’ll know it doesn’t always look that good.

If you’re a garden blogger (or a gardener willing to put up a photo album) I heartily invite you to link to your garden’s “bad hair days” in the comments. Take the pressure off yourself, and everyone else!