but not to plan and start. Amazingly, UPS showed up today with the hydroponic seed started that I just purchased 2 days ago and that got me in the mood to get busy, indoors. I set it up to make sure the light, pump, and fan all worked, but I have to await the ordered seed to arrive.
After the tomato seeds arrive and grow to transplant size, the new garden will stay beside the herb garden on the counter and will be sown with salad mix and spinach for when the weather gets too hot for it to be grown outdoors. Since it is a 12 cell garden, I may start half and wait a few weeks to start the second half so there is a continuous year round supply of fresh salad greens. After the set up and testing, I pulled the mint plant from the unit that Son2 and family gave me for Christmas and put it in a pot because it was taking over the garden and it’s roots were beginning to come up in the holes the other herbs were in. Since I use a lot of basil in cooking and this is a particularly good one, the same that I put in the garden last year, I started a second basil plant in that hole. While I was prepping, I started a small flat of salad mix and some spinach seed that will go in the garden when it has enough size on it and can be protected from cold nights.
Last night I sat down with the garden plan from last year, planned out the planting sequence for this year on graph paper, including the new beds that need to be created. I did get 4 bags of Black Kow yesterday when we got the straw to clean the hen’s coop, but I didn’t get that bed started. I really want to frame the boxes and not just use open beds, but haven’t gone out looking for them.
I have grown very fond of Sweet Thai basil in the hydroponic herb garden, so today I ordered some seed for it and for the popcorn I will plant when it is warm enough.
We did return to Rural King yesterday and they replaced two more chicks and discounted any more that I wanted to purchase, so I replaced 3 of the Buff Orpingtons and the Maran that died, plus added 2 Marans. One of the Buffs didn’t survive the night, but the rest look like they are doing well so far and there seems no issue having added them to the week old chicks.
The new ones are smaller, it is amazing how much they grow in a week. There are 15 chicks in the brooder, 4 Buff Orpingtons, 5 Midnight Marans, and a mix of 6 Easter eggers, Olive eggers, and NH Reds. Because they are still so young and because the nights are still going down into the 20’s, they are still in the basement with the heat lamp on them, though I notice that the week old ones are staying farther away from the heat source already. I will switch it out with the heat table when I find most of them sleeping away from it.
The hen’s coop got a good cleaning yesterday, adding two wheel barrows of spoiled hay to the compost pile that is building for next year’s soil supplementation.
My planning mindset, sent me to Staples website to order a couple of binders, dividers, and storage pockets and I have set up a reliable system to use with my spreadsheets to keep track of Cabincraftedshop.com. I thought I was organized in the past, but had a stress filled day when we were preparing our taxes because some info wasn’t handy. I don’t want that to happen again, so there is a place for everything and I can lay my hands on it easily. The second binder was for my garden plan and reference sheets, again, so I can find it when I need it. It has a section for granddaughter’s garden as well. I’m not quite sure why I need paper seed catalogs except to create wish lists, because I buy all of my seed from a company here in Virginia when possible and if not, one of two others, and all of them are easily accessible online. Now that all the seed is ordered and sorted out with Daughter, I will recycle this year’s catalogs. I wish there was a way to secure my Square Foot Garden book in the binder so it was all in one place.
I think all 8 remaining adult hens are finally laying. I got 4 or 5 eggs every day this week and just pulled 6 from the nesting box and I think I disturbed one hen who was about to lay, so there may be a 7th when I go out to lock them in tonight. It is nice to be getting eggs directly from the hen house and not having to buy them at the Farmer’s Market.