Funky Chicken Coop Tour 2010

The tour was really fun again this year, but somehow I got home with a camera full of garden pictures and only a couple of chicken photos. Guess I'm in spring garden mode!

My favorite stop was on East 2nd Street: great landscaping, healthy vegetable garden, chicken coop mixed with compost area that the hens aerate. Plus, a great planter area made from the remains of a 90 year old clay sewer system.









I've driven by Springdale Farm many times wondering what it was, so I was excited to see it as a stop on the tour. And it was HUGE! The owners started it to grow food for themselves and friends but kept expanding. Lots of chickens and the coop was the nicest on the inside (lots of little chicken-sized "rooms"); there was a separate area for chicks and ducklings. You can go by weekdays and buy fresh eggs.




Flowers and veggies at Boggy Creek. These iris were the ones I planted in my garden last fall (still no blooms on mine).



Eastside Cafe: love the use of random materials in their garden and the way they use mint around some beds




Really nice shaded coop on Karen Ave.


One last garden for inspiration on Eva, across from a coop stop:

From the garden and around Austin

First freesia bloom from my garden; and from Walnut Creek: some sort of primrose (they were everywhere) and bluebonnets; at Mayfield Park: view from the trail and various blooms (the little white rose smelled amazing)

March Bloom Day

First, the blooms:


The mountain laurels in the front yard are in full swing.

The color on the autumn sage is great, but it needs to be pruned back.

The lantana's also in need of a drastic pruning, but the edges are starting to bloom.

Rosemary's got the same flowers it's had the past few months

Just moved the potted kolanchoe outside last week

Redbud

The remaining broccoli plants all have flowers...end of an era

First strawberry flower of this year

Pear blossom petals among the lettuce

Pear tree overhang from the neighbor's yard

Random tree or shrub in the fence line

And now the buds:

Soon to be evening primrose

Shallot buds

One of the few freesia plants to survive the freezes (the bulbs are 5 years old)

The dreaded sticky leaf buds of the cottonwood, soon to be brought in the house by shoes and kitty paws.

And view more gardens around the country at May Dreams Gardens.

Bird's nest

Somebody's building a nest up in the hackberry tree.

Walk in the park

Spring happening along various dogwalks this past week

Sunny morning

From the top: remains of yesterday's snow in my mint, a redbud branch (not too many buds this year due to the summer of aphids raining sap down on everything), honeysuckle coming back strong after the drought, eve's necklace beginning to leaf out






Pineapple sage which didn't die after all, curly parsley (all the parley's looking so big and healthy right now), one of several broccoli plants, shallots (when should I harvest??), my garden "helper" watching over the onions





The square foot garden, beet greens, baby lettuce, lacinato kale