garden update

this photo was taken a week after the beans were planted. 

and this photo was taken just a week later! it's amazing how much change can take place in one week.

cucumbers! can't wait to turn these into pickles.

i planted these in may, before we had our raised beds. they are on the side of the yard and were hastily planted. this is our first spring and summer in this house. i didn't realize when i planted these peas here that they weren't going to get much morning sun, now that the apple tree above it has really filled in with leaves, but so far the peas seem to be doing well.

we spent part of sunday stringing up trellises for the beans and cucumbers. i'm especially excited about the bean tepee/archway. i can't wait to see it all filled in with vines!

oh, and off to the right you can see the lovely chicken coop that my husband finished building last weekend. it's called the garden ark and was designed by people here in portland. next saturday we'll head to pistils nursery for pullet day to pick up some chickens! i've made a list of breeds that i'm interested in. they have to be cold-hardy and good with children: amercauna, araucana, chochin, cornish, dominique, dorking, faverolle, java, langshan, orpington, plymouth rock and wyandotte.

ideally, i'd love to get one that laid white eggs, one that laid brown eggs, and one that laid green/blue eggs. not only would it be easy to tell which chickens were laying, but it would be pretty! ultimately i'll go for function over fashion, but if my food can be delicious and beautiful, why not, right?

now that the coop is finished i need to pick up the supplies so we are ready for them: feeder, waterer, hay etc. that means that gigi and i will take a trip to naomi's organic farm supply, one of our favorite stores! in addition to having everything we need and being really nice and helpful, they their own goats, chickens and ducks which live there. we've been teaching her sign language, since a 14 month old just doesn't have much verbal capacity, and she loves to point at the animals and then make the sign for each one. it's pretty much the cutest thing ever.