Blooming rosemary; new aloe growth

The color of this week's Rosemary blooms are amazing against the dark green leaves, aren't they? Compare the pale, pale green of new aloe shoots, nestled in the brown remains of last summer's lemongrass. I feel like I am deep in winter, but things are changing all over in my garden. My Indian Hawthorne shrubs have large, swelling buds at the tips of every branch. The winter weeds in the lawn are starting to really put on some growth. I found an excellent use for the mouse ear chickweed: the hens think it is candy. Yesterday my apple and pear trees were pruned pretty severely. I had help from a true fruit tree expert, as I am trying to get them to the central leader shape that is best for production, light penetration, and air movement through the trees. They were in bad enough shape that not all the pruning could be done in one year. I will make some additional shaping cuts this summer, and then complete the rest of the major pruning next winter. The trees are about 5 years old, so they still have plenty of time to recover and start producing again.

Hen personality close up

It has been a few days now, and even though we have not had many daylight hours with the new hens, we are starting to recognize their individual personalities. As you can tell from the photo, Pauline, the Black Star, is the inquisitive one of the bunch. She is very people friendly and always the first to check out anything new. Lou, the cream and red hen (I now think she is probably a Red Star, but still don't know for sure), is the pretty, mean girl. She pecks at the others and even will fly at them a bit if she thinks they are getting something she wants. Hilda is our big Rhode Island Red girl who just minds her own business.

Because of the big dogs and the cold weather they have been spending lots of time packed into the one small nesting box, so when I went to clean it out today there was a solid layer of chicken manure. I was surprised to see, however, that the manure was just sitting on top of the straw. Once I removed the very top layer, all the straw underneath was clean and dry. I felt pretty badly about those conditions, but they had a lovely clean coop as well. I do keep seeing HIlda on the perch in the house, so hopefully they soon will be comfortable enough to spend their time in the coop rather than the nest. I want that nest nice and clean when it comes time to lay those eggs. The hens make very soothing noises; it feels nice to spend time near their run. They are waiting in line in the morning when we open the door from the coop to the run. It's a pretty sight to watch them march out one by one. I hope they are as happy with us as we are with them.

Brussel sprouts; bolted arugula

I have only 2 brussel sprout plants in the garden, but I wanted to show you how they grow. For those of you who haven't grown brussel sprouts, they are a cool season crop; these plants haven't shown any stress from our bouts of weather in the low 20s. As a matter of fact, one of the plants has a leaf positioned perfectly to catch and hold rain, and each time it freezes there is a beautiful shimmering teardrop of ice cupped in that leaf. You can't see the sprouts themselves unless you pull the leaves aside and look at the main stalk; they form at the base of each leaf. The sprouts at the bottom of the plant mature first, then the next ones up, and so on. You simply cut or twist the sprouts off the plant as they mature, leaving the rest of the plant to keep growing and producing.

My arugula, however, is telling me that it is done and needs to be removed from the garden. It has started to bolt (send up flower stalks instead of leaves). Now all of its energy will go into flower stalks, flowers and seeds. At this stage it will not provide any more good greens, so I will pull it out and prepare that spot for spring planting. I wonder if the hens will like the spent arugula plants? The arugula photo is on the top, the brussel sprout on the bottom.