Saturday in the Garden – Mud pies anyone? Our first strawberry harvest and more

I should really rename this weekly post to Saturday in my backyard since the garden isn’t doing much of anything right now. But thanks to the sunny weather we have spent a LOT of time playing in the dirt and running around the yard.

In fact, since I haven’t planted my pumpkin patch yet, I’ve been letting the kids fill the dirt patch with water. All winter long I feel like I’m telling them not to jump in mud puddles for fear of them getting cold and wet – but when the sun is shining – they can be hosed off before they go inside. It was all fun and games until. . .

. . .my daughter decided she didn’t want to be muddy anymore. Which I think is really hilarious since she was jumping up and down in the mud minutes before this photo was taken. But that’s okay, we rinsed off and headed for the tub.

And someone sent the chickens a memo that the strawberries are ripe, because they are on a mission to eat them. And they are fast, too. Must faster than I am.

But we can’t be too mad at the chickens, they continue to deliver. . . every day.

We have five laying hens and are averaging about 3-4 eggs a day. We would probably have 4-5, but we just finished having a broody chicken and I think she really slowed the other ladies down. Can’t wait until the babies start laying – we’ll really be rolling in the eggs. We eat eggs for breakfast most days of the week and when we have a surplus of eggs a carton goes to Grandmas or the neighbors.

Here’s one of the “baby” chickens. . Isn’t she beautiful? She’s getting so big! This is Chima or Cleo (depending on who you talk to). You can see her “baby” photos here, she had the most amazing eyeliner. Here she is around 4 weeks. And then again around 8 weeks. She’s an Ameraucana and she will lay blue or green eggs! She’s now around 14 weeks old or about 3.5 months old. This breed starts laying eggs around 5 to 6 months old.

And check out my snap peas – they are climbing!! This is about the most exciting thing I have going on in the garden right now. Last weekend I planted a bunch of lettuce and radishes. Then my sweet daughter decided to water the raised beds with the pressure-washing setting on the hose, uprooting most all of the seeds. Bless her sweet heart – how helpful. 🙂 We’ll see what still ends up growing. I’m telling you, the garden just isn’t in the cards for me this year! But I’m not going to give up.  . . .

There is some hope. Last night I did harvest this beautiful pile of strawberries. These are the ones that persevered! I find myself always so humbled to harvest food from my own yard – Mother Nature is a beautiful thing and I’m grateful to partake!

So that’s what’s happening in my backyard. Humor me and tell me what’s happening in yours.   What’s going on in your yard this week?