Green Things! Chickens! More!

Having spent the entirety of last weekend installing--and completing a flagstone pathway, we were in a race against time to locate a suitable ground cover before the soil was reclaimed by grass and weeds. To the right of this image, you can see the grass attempting to creep upon our freshly laid stones, and we certainly couldn't have that.

After some research, we decided to place Irish Moss between the stones due in part to its natural heartiness and the fact it can stand quite a bit of exposure to the sun. One car trip to Portland Nursery later, our moss was procured.

Have you ever wondered what nearly $70 of moss looked like? There you go!

Here, Valentina and Drucilla express their approval of our Moss selection. They love to eat the grass and weeds we tear out, and are more than happy to help 'garden' with us when we are in the yard!

Speaking of chickens, here are a few shots of the girls since I haven't talked about them in awhile. They love their side yard and now that we have the appropriate height of fencing, are free to run around all day long.

 A few weeks ago, our neighbour Pete gave us this new chicken house. Isn't it beautiful? It is completely weather-stripped, roofed and insulated. The roof opens with a latch for easy egg access and we have a little ramp for them to clamber inside. We don't know if we are going to 'retire' our ark design or keep it a bit longer. This new chicken house seems much more effective with the small space we have, but the ark is still fully functional.

 Unfortunately, the girls haven't quite figured out what to do with this new space, and poor Gwendolyn is a tad too large to fit inside of the entry. She weighs nearly 7 pounds!! We will have to use a jigsaw to cut the door large enough to accommodate her size.

On account of the nice weather, the seedlings inside of our greenhouse are doing very well. We've planted many additional peat pots with our friends in mind. In the last week of April, we are going to have a little seed swap party with snacks, boozy drinks and many, many plants. We thought this was a creative solution to sharing heirloom varieties with friends and neighbours!

Many green things are coming up in our yard. Here are a few shots of the things growing for us right now.

Tulips...

Lilac...

Comfrey..

'Casablanca' Lilies....

'Jackmanii' Clematis and Hollyhocks..

And my front garden is finally moving and shaking! I want the Agapanthus to thrive this year and effectively screen  that hideous gas meter, it looks like it is off to a good start! It, like my Delphinium has been getting very generous applications of fish emulsion and manure tea since January. Let's hope that is all it needs!

Our front beds have been busy too. Here, you can see the 'Lavewa' Spinach and 'Purple Globe' Turnip varieties finally emerging from seed. Everything but the 'Russian Red' Kale I planted has germinated. I wonder what the hold up is?

Lastly, The Husband built me this little work bench for washing and prepping vegetables during harvest time. The flat surface will be eventually covered with a self-healing plastic so I can clean, cut or peel vegetables without dragging mud and dirt into the tiny kitchen. The peg board behind it will have hooks for various kitchen utensils such as knives, peelers and whatever else I fancy! This table should be a huge help during bean and tomato harvests or  for general outdoor entertaining!