I'm on staycation this week and am enjoying just the kind of morning I love. Stayed in bed until 8:30...LUXURY!!. It's cold outside (for Texas), but it's bright and sunny, which puts me in a cheery mood. I just checked on my seedlings...the lettuce is sprouting eagerly while the tomato seeds sit in stubborn refusal. I have yet to dig out my seed heating mat from the many still unpacked boxes in the garage. Those tomato seeds will sit there stubborn until I warm them up. For all you newbies out there, you really do need a heat mat for your tomato seedlings! I just picked up my new issue of Urban Farm magazine, made some strong chicory coffee and am browsing through articles about beekeeping and all sorts of other fun stuff. I'll be headed out to check on the girls (my chickens) here in a bit to make sure their water isn't frozen and they get their daily salad green buffet. It's mornings like these that really get me excited about spring. JOY.

PC: Leslie F. Halleck

Because I'm in a new home, with yet again an empty landscape to start with, I'm full of itch to garden. While I have cultivated one large bed that was pre-existing, it will take quite a while to get everything built back up to my prior level of urban farm food production. I do always love a challenge though. I have many raised beds moved from my old house still waiting to be situated and filled...and many ornamental beds to be built and planted, which will take a back seat to the veggie beds. My first big project will be planting what I named "Fruitopia". I have one fenced in side yard, which is street side that will become home to my small fruit orchard and beehives. I'm choosing a well thought out list of small and dwarf variety fruit trees as well as some berry plants. I imagine I'll start planting Fruitopia in early February, once all my varieties have arrived. I'll post the list of selections once it's finalized.

I start my 5-month beekeeping course this coming Saturday and couldn't be more excited! Not only will my bees be much needed pollinators for my own orchard and vegetable garden (and those of my neighbors), but I hope that my tiny effort will help boost what are devastating crashes in honey bee populations over the last 6 years. Colony collapse, brought on by a combination of invertebrate iridescent virus and a fungal organism called Nosema ceranae, are decimating bee populations everywhere and seriously threatening our entire food supply system. If you want to help out the population of pollinators, but keeping hives of honeybees is just to much for you to handle, you can encourage the presence of Mason bees in your garden. Mason bees are excellent pollinators and all you need to do is provide a simple nesting box. Check your local garden center for supplies!

Hope you're getting your veggie beds prepped, your seeds started and are excited about spring!

I'm often asked if there is any difference between my fresh backyard eggs and eggs purchased at the grocery store (from mass production facilities). My answer is always "YES!!" Fresh eggs from hens that are raised with with access to the outdoors, organic feed, fresh greens, insects, sunlight and low population pressure are healthier for you. They have higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, beta carotene and have a denser texture than mass production eggs. Here is a photo of an egg from one of my Ameraucanas and an organic cage-free egg from the grocery store. I think you can tell which one is the yard egg!

What with the heavy molt they went through last fall, plus the move to the new house, plus the short winter days, my girls quit laying eggs for me for the last 3 months. I knew that with the lengthening days that I'd probably be seeing an egg or two any day now. Sure enough, Pecker started squawking up a storm yesterday morning (which they tend to do right before they lay an egg...) Sure enough, I was rewarded with these two big beauties this morning!

For those of you new to the blog, Pecker is one of my Ameraucanas so she lays beautiful blue eggs.

On a happier chicken note, I've ordered my new day-olds. They are to ship the second week of March. On my order list are:

2 Salmon Faverolles
1 blue Cochin
1 White crested blue Polish
1 White crested black Polish
1 blue Hamburg
1 silver laced Wyandotte

Yay! So excited for the new gang to arrive! Happy New Year!

Well, I took the day off today so that after all this house moving and family holiday craziness I could have a day of doing nothing. That was not in the cards...this morning when I went to check on the girls, I noticed a patch of blood in the hay inside the coop. I checked each hen and found that Honkers had a very pasty and impacted vent. Poor thing, it looked terrible. I spent quite a while bathing her to try to clear the vent - warm water, soap followed by peroxide to try and break down the poop a bit more. Then olive oil to try and lubricate the vent. Unfortunately, she was bleeding a lot and it looked like her oviduct was actually prolapsing. Such are the realities of keeping livestock. Because of the prolapse and bleeding, we decided it was best to put her down. RIP Honkers...

Just happened to be sifting through some photos from the Ohio Short Course last year and came across this beauty: Begonia 'Gryphon', a new variety that will be available in 2011

It's HUGE!!! And how gorgeous. North Haven Gardens will carry limited quantities of this new beauty March/April of 2011. Just thought you might like a teaser!

Now that we've had our first light frost, we are on our way to tulip planting time in North Texas. Soil temperatures need to be consistently below 50F and that usually happens the 2nd or 3rd week of December. You can still find a wonderful selection of pre-chilled tulips at your local garden center right now so don't wait or you'll miss out on your favorite varieties.You can go HERE to a previous post for more info on the ins and outs of successful tulps!

Ok...WHEEWWWWWW! You may remember me posting photos a couple of months ago about the removal of our veggie garden in preparation for selling our home. Well, we got an offer in 3 weeks and had only 3 weeks after that to tie down a new house and move. Somehow...I think I've managed to come out the other side of that ordeal alive and have just finished moving in to the new place. It was really tough leaving my garden and sweet little house behind, but I'm ready to get started on my next gardening adventure. As with the last house, the new landscape we've inherited is a blank slate. It needs a lot of work, but also has a lot of potential.The first task on the list was getting the fence up and the chickens and chicken coop moved over this past weekend.Here are the girls making their first foray into their new digs...

Soon I'll post "before" photos of the new yard space...