New Home, New Coop, New Garden.

The new (to us) house is littered with boxes. There are various utensils on the counter, furniture in various states of disassemble. There's a litter box in the closet- no, it doesn't belong there- but we're too afraid to move it lest the cat gets confused.

Bodies ache. Feet hurt. I've got cuts, scratches, bruises that I don't remember getting. Val has cracked his head an innumerable amount of times in the last 4 days. I'm not sure how he doesn't have a concussion by now.

But, we're getting close. Rio, the unfinished sailboat, will be making her journey south in three days. After that, we'll be entirely moved in.

The past few weekends have been a blur. We've been racing to build a chicken coop. Our salmon Faverolles hens have been laying religiously for us, and we've grown attached to their silly little fluffy butts, so we decided to make our grand migration along with them. (Let me tell you, a three hour car ride with stinky chickens is.. um.. quite an adventure).

Chickens were moved in yesterday. They're adjusting- the first egg was laid within 5 hours of arriving 'home.' And while we have a bunch of boxes that have yet to be unpacked, I can't stand the thought of being completely garden-less this year, so I started a small square foot garden bed.

Just a little one, mind you. 4x8. I had some leftover lumber lounging around- I think it was from cutting apart stringers for the boat. They needed a purpose.

Enough talk. Let's see the photos already!

The new coop + freshly planted garden.

(The coop design we used is called the Garden Coop- plans can be found here)

Here's the square foot garden bed layout:

And another view of the garden: 

The tarp you see in the photos is used to kill off the grass. I'll be installing more garden beds in the future (once we actually unpack, sell the other house, and really move in!).

Grow garden, grow! Curious to know what it'll be like to have a garden with actual sunlight..

Mason Bees - Summary of 2012 Season and Preparing for Spring

I've just returned from the Northwest Flower & Garden Show.  My haul included a gorgeous blue zebra striped primrose (I didn't take a photo before I gave it to my neighbor- she loves primroses AND purple, and this pretty plant had her name written all over it), along with 7 dahlias, and, the pièce de résistance- more mason bee cocoons.

Mason bees are my current insect obsession.  I think we all should have one indigenous insect species to champion, and the blue western mason bee has impressed me so much that it's now a priority for my 2013 garden.  

Last year, I started with 20 cocoons and one small house.  Here's what it looked like at the end of the season:

There are two plugged tubes on the bottom of the nest box, which indicates that I have some sort of bee larvae waiting to be harvested.

There was significant water damage to my house though- water seeped into the bolts holding the house together, and along the roof.

Despite the issues, I still had some cocoons to harvest- 8 in total.

Behold, the contents of the tubes- I had 8 cocoons (3 female, 5 male), a dead mason bee, and a bunch of miscellaneous debris.

Here's a close up of the bee who decided to use my bee nest.  I promised her that I'd take care of her offspring to the best of my ability before burying her unceremoniously in the compost pile. 

A close up of the bee tube debris- the concave brown things are mud plugs- the yellow stuff is pollen- and the teeny tiny little bits are feces.

I made several mistakes in 2012 that I hope that I won't repeat in 2013:

1.  I didn't put my house in a sheltered area.  I had falsely assumed that the home would be sheltered well enough on its own.  Building something like this is a priority for me before putting out my cocoons:

2.  I'm going to release my cocoons in two different batches, perhaps 2 weeks apart.  My first 20 cocoons were soaked and soggy due to some crazy cold rain and due to the exposure issue I mentioned above- I can't imagine it was great to emerge under such chilly and wet conditions.

3.  Don't kill before you know what it is.  I thought I had a yellow jacket in my house (it was silhouetted against a bright window) and I killed it.  Afterwards, I discovered that I had murdered one of my own mason bees.  Whoops.  

Now I have a total of 37 cocoons in my fridge, thanks to Beediverse and Wild Birds Unlimited.  I'll be building a mason bee lodge here soon, and will have photos for you as soon as I'm finished!

 This is the perfect time of year to start a mason bee colony.  If you're so inclined, I highly recommend Crown Bees and Beediverse for both cocoons and information.

Garden Update

Things are a little hectic this week, so there's not really a whole lot to report on the boat front.  While I've been slacking off, my plants have been busy.

Here's what I'm growing this year in my 4'x16' bed:

We had a lot of rain at the beginning of the week, and as the forecast called for wind and heavy rain, I wanted to do what I could to salvage my freshly planted tomato seedlings.

So I put together a little hoop house:

 

And everything survived beautifully.  I think I would have probably been just fine without the cover, but I was so impressed by how toasty it kept my little seedlings,  I may just have to make a little hoop greenhouse in the backyard to extend my growing season. 

My potato plants are growing like weeds.  What you see here, from left to right:
Bintje potatoes, Ozette potatoes, and some random potato from an Amazon Fresh grocery order. I had particularly enjoyed its siblings, so I thought it was worth attempting to grow.  I think it's an early type, as it isn't getting the lankiness of its late season companions.

My little 3'x3' herb garden is also flourishing.  The empty space in front will be used for a petite, round basil plant known as Finissimo Verde a Palla. 

I've also had a lot of success with the winter sown seeds I planted.  Every type of plant I planted has had at least a 50% germination rate, and the seedlings look strong.  I transplanted cucumber, eggplant, two types of pumpkins and zucchini today from my winter sown containers.  I'm very excited to see how they progress.   If they do well, I doubt I'll ever start seedlings inside again.

In other news, yesterday marked the one year anniversary of buying our house.  I can't believe it has been a year already!  Happy anniversary, Casa Crustante!  

Something I Didn't Know About Dahlias.

Something ate my dahlia tubers!

And it looks suspiciously like rabbit tracks. Or it could be the naughty squirrels that are in the neighborhood.  Regardless, it's a bit of a tragedy. 

Being curious as to why only my dahlia tubers were touched, I did some digging around and discovered that not only are dahlias edible, some of them are actually tasty. 

As someone who is keen on stuffing my garden with as many edibles as possible, this comes as a delightful surprise. Apparently, the heirloom varieties tend to be the tastiest. So I threw in some Bishop's Children dahlia seeds I had left over from Seed Saver's Exchange from my garden last year.  Let's hope they grow! 

The Calm Before the Spring

I love this time of year.

In the raised bed, my garlic, chives, and fava beans are growing like weeds. Because of our new puppy, I may be moving my garlic, chives, and herbs to the backyard.

On the right side of our yard, my precious rhubarb managed to survive. I bought it late last year, and I wasn't certain it'd make it.


We have a volunteer primrose. It wasn't here last year, so I'm not really sure where it came from. It's absolutely welcome to stay, however.

Just behind the gnome is a rose bush. I aggressively cut back and transplanted our roses. They were long and scraggly and battle worn. I figured a fresh start would be good for them. All three of them have lush green foliage starting to emerge.

I'll be planting potatoes this weekend! I'm excited to show you how I'm going to do it. I've made two more raised beds (3x3) from left over lumber from a picnic table I'm building. I can't decide if I want to plant even more beans, or if I want to branch out and perhaps get a dedicated asparagus bed going. Decisions, decisions!

There is very little better in life than having a garden to plan. :)

March Madness... Or is it Starch Madness?

I have just received a box via UPS. I bet you can't guess what's inside.

Are you a mind reader or something? How did you guess?

Why, yes, those are Ozette potatoes on the left. Yes, it is probably the oldest potato cultivar in North America. And yes, a small percentage of my ancestors devoured them.

And while you mention it, the Bintje potato on the right IS indeed the most popular potato in Belgium.

And in the form of the lowly potato, I see an opportunity to celebrate my husband's ancestors and my own. There's something wildly, tuberly romantic about knowing that these late season varieties will grow old together.

Ah, romance.

The Bee Chronicles

Due to city code I am not allowed to keep honey bees. But that doesn't mean I've sworn off having bees completely. I firmly believe in doing what I can to encourage pollinators in my garden, and I figured that there's no better way to do that than to foster our own native blue orchard mason bees.

We bought them a house last year. Unfortunately the sale of our home closed after mason bee season, so we couldn't start our bee stewardship last year. The good news was that we managed to get this little chateau on sale!


Apparently mason bees can have difficulty figuring out which hole is their own, so I figured I'd add a little color to the mix to help them locate their individual apartments. Personally, I'd live in the teal row, third hobbit hole from the left.


While I was waiting for the paint to dry, I figured a little gnome surgery was in order.

We've been on a bit of a gnome killing spree lately. For some reason, every gnome that's in the house ends up shattered. I think this is their way of informing us they need to be in the wild.

So with a little love and care, our little gnome was made whole again. He has been ordained as Patron Gnome of the Bees, so I figured a little handmade bee was fitting for the situation.


All that's left to do is station the house and the gnome outside when the weather warms up.

My 20 little mason bee cocoons have arrived, and they're hanging out in the refrigerator, waiting patiently for spring. The females bees are the largest cocoons. They're about the size of a coffee bean.

I'm so excited to watch them emerge. I think they'll be a delightful addition to our little garden.

I ordered my bees from Crown Bees, a local company in Woodinville, WA. If you've ever been tempted to help our indigenous pollinators, this is the perfect time of year to do it.

Happy Autumnal Equinox!

What a gorgeous first day of fall, no? Makes you think about gardening, doesn't it?

I've decided to grow fava beans over the fall and winter for a spring harvest. I figure that I'm not going to get much else out of my garden in the meantime... and these guys looks like they'll be worth the wait. Fava beans make a great alternative to chickpeas in hummus, and if you pick them young enough you can eat this particular variety ('statissa') just like a fresh green bean. Which, for the record, is the #1 daily consumed vegetable in our household.

What's great about this variety is that it only grows up to 24" tall, half as high as other fava beans. And that means a lot to me, given that my garden is in our front yard. I want to keep everything as neat as possible.

Looks like.... Compost.

Let me introduce to you my just built pallet and cinder block compost bin:

The front panel slides into the holes in the cinder block, so it's very easy to remove the front for easy access.

It's a little Red Greenish, but at this point I'm just delighted to have a designated place for our compostable table scraps and trash. Hurry up, black gold!

Food from my Front Yard

Thank you, my little garden. Tomorrow we'll dine on Zucchini Parmesan.

Turnips.

You know what's even better than having my groceries delivered?

Growing my own food! Let me introduce to you tomorrow's dinner. Hello, pretty turnips!

Pulling these lovelies out of the ground felt a bit like unwrapping a gift at Christmas time. Anticipation, surprise, gratitude.

A Brief Photo Tour

Husband took these photos today of our house. Let's take a tour!

This is what the interior of our house looks like at this moment: New framing, new insulation, new pipes, new electrical.

Photo of our hallway.

Our zucchini plant has zucchinis!

Roses are blooming in the front yard. I pruned them back a bit aggressively, and they've responded by bursting into blooms.

My little garden is my favorite 64 square feet so far. :) Grow plants, grow!

Chickspiration

I should be in bed, but I'm not. I'm too hyped up on caffeine and inspiration. Chicken inspiration. Chickspiration? Okay, so that's a word now.

Anyway, guess who is totally chickspired, especially after participating in Seattle Tilth's Urban Farm and Coop Tour today? This gal!

One of the highlights for me was this little New Orleans styled coop:

And the inside, complete with cocoa husk bedding. This coop smelled like a brownie! I was skeptical when the owner urged me to stick my head in there and breathe, but was pleasantly surprised!


And after hanging out with nearly every chicken breed imaginable, I've discovered that I'm a huge fan of ear tufts (apparently they're called 'muffs') and toe feathers. Who would have known?

I think I may just end up with a flock of salmon faverolles ladies. Adorable, gentle, great layers even in the winter months- I think we might have found a winner.

And seriously, those muffs? Priceless.

Photo from Faverolles Fanciers of America,
as I'm not awesome enough to have any of my own... yet.

And in other, none chicken news, my garden is growing and growing and growing. When I'm at the house I could swear that I hear the plants grow.


And speaking of the house, our new plumbing and electrical has been inspected. Drywall will be going in on Wednesday! New gutters on Thursday. Things are moving along. I can't wait to live in our new home. Patience. Patience. Patience.

This is what our front yard has looked like for the past week or so:

I should really just be thankful that the Grand Canyon in our front yard is gone as of Friday. Not having to leap to my garden over a 4 foot deep chasm with 4 gallons of water? Priceless.

Flyte so Fancy

It's not a secret that I want chickens. Some women are experiencing maternal urges toward children, while I'm nesting in an entirely different and perhaps more literal way.

I want to attempt to build my own coop. My goal is to have it done by Easter, so I can have little chickens first thing in the spring. Of course, the house will have to be finished by then, and there are only 50 other things that are of a higher priority... but the heart wants what the heart wants.

Of course, this doesn't stop me from obsessing from what they'll live in. But I have to say, my jaw dropped when I found these:

The Gypsy Willow £3250.00,

The Gypsy Wayfarer £2750.00

The Gypsy Daydream £3900.00

Each of these amazing little hen houses can be found at Flyte So Fancy. They have more 'typical' coops, as well, but even those are extraordinarily lovely. Perhaps when (if) we head back to Europe in the fall we can swing by Dorchester and ship one of these back... I wonder how much beer it would take to convince the husband that we neeeeeeed something like this in our lives?

Hobby Hen House

Ah, pipe dreams. :)

Permits Secured - Moving Forward!

This weekend actually felt like summer. So we spent all day Sunday doing yard work. I can't get over how nice it is to spend time outside in a place that is our own. Living in a condo really is a horrible fate for someone who loves to be outdoors.
It's so rewarding to watch the backyard evolve. We're taking back the land with each slaying of a blackberry or english ivy plant. We've gained at least 300 sq/f back!
As far as the house goes, we're moving along! New pipes/plumbing have been installed, the attic has been insulated, our closets have been framed, the bathroom vanity has been picked out. Our roof has been freshly patched and is now leak free!

The garden seems to be happy- we've had our first produce.

I planted strawberries on Father's Day in memory of my dad, and had a fresh strawberry to snack on by Thursday! Most of my other plants seem to be content and are growing steadily.

Have I mentioned that I'm SO EXCITED about this house?? I can't wait to move in!