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...

A lovely new variety of salvia is blooming its head off right now in Texas. Salvia 'Wendy's Wish' has huge striking rose-colored blooms. Plants grow to 3'-4' tall and 2'-3' wide in full sun.

They are cold hard to about 25 F so should make it through winter in much of the state. We'll occasionally lose them here in winter in the DFW area, but we'll call it a tender perennial. This is definitely going to be a must for the hummingbird garden next year! Now is a great time to plant perennial salvias, along with many other perennials such as heuchera, hellebore, stachys, Mexican bush sage, scabiosa, etc.

Now is a Great Time to Seed Lettuce

Really, it's just about one of the easiest veggies to grow! In the DFW area, you can grow salad greens from September through May of the following year! And growing your own beats paying $7.99 a pound for organic greens at the store.

You'll want to direct seed lettuce into the garden now. Lettuce seeds need light to germinate so just sprinkle them onto moist soil surface and press down gently. Do not cover with soil! Because seeds are exposed, you'll need to be diligent about keeping the soil surface moist until germination (consistency of a wrung out sponge). As seedlings sprout and put on their first set of true leaves, you'll then want to thin out seedlings so that remaining seedlings have room to grow.

While you may want to harvest entire heads of lettuces such as Romain or Butterhead, it's not necessary. You can do what is called loose-leaf haresting on these plants from fall through spring. New leaves emgerge from the center of the plant and then splay outwards. Simply snip off leaves as they reach about 4-inches and continue harvesting around the plant as it grows.If you do want to harvest the entire head, then do what is called "succession planting". Sow new seeds in the garden every 2-3 weeks.

Lettuces are biennials, meaning they will grow foliage the first season, and then bolt, or flower, the next. So after warm temperatures hit in late spring/early summer, your greens will bolt and you'll need to stop harvesting. Pitch leftover plants into the compost bin! Feed your greens with an organic veggie food every couple of weeks (liquid) or monthly (granular).

Well, I don't want to jinx anything, especially considering what we experienced last October, but this month has just about been the nicest we've seen in a long time! The weather is great, night temperatures cool...it's a great time for planting just about anything.

It's an especially good time to get Narcissus (Daffodils), Lycoris, Anemone, Leucojum, Muscari, Hyacinthoides, Dutch Iris and many other perennial bulbs in the ground. The next couple of weeks will be peak availability at the local garden centers so you'll have the best selection of bulbs to choose from. Don't wait until December because many varieties will be long gone.