To Soon to Think of the Fair???

Not at all.  In fact, there's a few plants that might not make it.  Timing-wise, that is.  There's a few things we have to get in the ground this week if we want it to be ribbon winning produce. We can't help ourselves.  It was so much fun last year.

We made it out of the cool weather no worse for wear.  Well, most of my aloe plants look limp and sad but we're pretty sure they'll be alright.  The plants that had just sprouted before the freeze are continuing to grow.

Carrots, Chinese Cabbage, and Radishes.

This last week we received our new seeds.  The only thing we haven't seen in the mailbox yet are the potato starts we ordered from Maine.  We had received a catalog in the mail that was a little different than the others.  It had so many potato varieties that we couldn't help giving them a try.

We spread the love through several seed companies.

Celery. We actually didn't even plant these.  Last summer a
random celery grew in the strawberry bed.  We let it do it's own
thing and apparently it's thing was to drop some seed. 

Cauliflower and fennel.

Peas on the left in the carrot and beet bed.

Another thing we got in the mail this week was ladybugs.

Peas in the patio box.  Which I guess we'll have to start calling
the "little" patio box, since we added another planter in the patio.

 This weekend was spent planning...

...and building.  We added three new planters.

In the front.

On the back patio.  We pulled up the block that we had so lovingly placed 10 years
ago as we were getting ready for our wedding.  We're thinking of using them as
stepping stones around the planters.

Oh, and that dirt that is already in the planters...  we made that.  One of the best things we started doing quite a while ago was composting our scraps and leaves.  The addition of the chicken poop and the hay we use under the roosts has helped speed the process along.  We'll still have to head to the nursery top the boxes off, but we saved a truck load by using our own compost.

Where is January Going?

Seeds.  We've gotten our shipments of seeds.  It's so exciting!!  So fun to get them in the mail.  One of the companies we ordered from sent us "Thank you" carrot seeds.  Hee!  They look like strange little ball carrots, but hey, they're free!

Hubby redid some of the irrigation on the upper deck and turned over the soil so we can plant some of the cover crops and some of the seed I got to, hopefully, grow into things to feed the birds.  I don't see us growing so much that we won't need to go to the feed store anymore, but I think they need more greens.  I also got Millet and Sorghum, which should be interesting to see grow.  Maybe.  I'm not really sure what to expect, but I can't help but be excited.  Now that all eight are laying, Hubby's looking at the catalogs for new birds.  We're trying to figure out the best way to get a small amount of birds, different than the others.  Most hatcheries ship 25 chicks.  A bit much for our yard, even if we didn't already have the eight.  We found one that will go down as low as 5, but it's either all of one kind or a mix of their choosing.  Three of their seven choices are Reds and Rocks, while we'd want Orpingtons and Wyandottes.  Should we hit up the local feed store and see when and what they'll be getting?  Probably.  Those ladies seem pretty nice there.  I kinda want another Americana in the mix to be the "delegate" for the little ones.  Halo is the "red" of the babies and kinda fits in both groups of birds.  The older girls accept her more (maybe because she's the same color as them?), but she's still one of the little ones.  I don't know.  I guess we'll see.

Hubby's in the garage, getting the seed area ready.  I just know the power company's going to note our surge of power usage and we're going to get visited by the cops, thinking we're a grow house or something.  We've got a couple of folding tables stacked with our newspaper pots to grow our starters.  We got the lights.  We need to put the seeds in the pots, now that we're working out how much of what we'll need.  We are excited to start growing our own tomatoes and peppers.  From seed.  I hope it works.  It will be one more step closer to being in the black.  Harvesting enough veggies to compensate the cost of building the planters, amending the soil, buying the seed (cheaper than buying starters from the nursery), yadda, yadda...

Alrighty, to the photos of the week...

Today's Harvest.

We cleared the bulk of the carrots to make room
 for the Dragon Carrot seeds we just got.

On the small side of the yard, we added two new planters(for cucumbers and tomatoes),
are reusing the boys' planter (for basil, maybe some oregano),
and will be setting up the pots for Blueberries.

In place of the boys' old planter, we built this one.

New planter number 3.  Probably more tomatoes.

Fennel's getting sparse on the left, good thing there's more on the right!

Cabbage, potato, and Romaine.

Cauliflower, brocolli, and we've got some leeks on the left.  We moved
the spinach that was being shaded by the romaine over here.

Those peas we planted a little while back... they're starting to break through the topsoil.

How long do we have to wait for signs of life from the onions?

 And, yes...  Chicken!!