General Status

Work progresses on the chicken coop. Here DSR is screwing down the plywood that will be the underlayment for the roof. It's so nice to have the chickens out of the laundry room on a permanent bases, now.
Of course, major work on the coop means that the chickens spent all day hanging out in the tattered remains of the garden. The corn patch, of course, is still a favorite. But the chickies have also discovered that sunflower leaves also make delectable eating greens. One of the brown Easter Eggers caught a small lizard and made off like the winner of The Grand Prize. She ate it down in one bite. Of course, I didn't have my camera handy, but it sure was funny to watch.
This Yellow Pear did not fare as well as the last one, so it was tossed to a lucky chicken this afternoon. At least I got to eat the other one myself. I suspect that the green tomatoes on the vine now will not make it to ripening as the nights will soon become too cold. First hard frost should be coming 'round soon.
Harvested another Eight Ball zuke this afternoon. Procrastination meant that it is quite a bit bigger than the last one. Still, should be good for stuffing. There are 4 more that are now growing bigger - indicating that they were successfully pollinated. This is a photo of a female flower - you can see the baby fruit at her base. If pollinated, it will darken and start to increase in size. If not, it will yellow and wither. Since I hand pollinated this one, it will hopefully grow and get eaten in a few days.

Some lessons learned this year

• What chickens don't eat, they will trample to death
  
• Watering and covering the compost pile really speeds up decomposition
  
• Eight Ball zukes are cute, but Black Beauty (a "regular zuke") is much more productive for the space and water
  
• Tomatoes continue to be a challenge to get to fruit - lots of lovely bush, lots of cute little yellow flowers, but not much pollination
  
• The wild birds and other critters have learned about sunflowers - need to "bag" the heads well before seed formation now
  
• Need to plant a lot more sunflowers if we are going to supplement the chickens' diet with seeds and leaves
  
• Young zucchini leaves are relished by young chickens, even if they are prickly
  
• I will need to make a chicken wire "cage" for the garlic prior to planting it in the ground
  
• Only going to plant two types of garlic this year - Georgia Crystal and Siberian. Besides the distinct color differerence of the bulb wrappers, I'm going to plant only one type to a bed. This will help with identification when it comes time to harvest. The smaller cloves I will plant together so I can let the scapes mature - the chickens loved the tiny bulbils and garlic is supposed to be good to help clean out their systems.
  
• I still cannot keep up with pinching back basil flowers when the heat of summer gets here.
  
• Lemon balm and oregano should be harvested early in the spring before the summer heat makes them bloom.
  
• Rosemary needs full sun - even in the desert. When the basils start shading it, then it slows down in growth. When I pinch back the basils, the rosemary starts growing vigorously again.
  
• Strawberries will take over, given lots of food, water and desert sun.
  
• Do not procrastinate in taking photos of flowers in the spring - today might be a perfect day, but tomorrow a hard frost could destroy all the blooms and buds.
  
• Baby chickens are all consuming
  
• The trees need lots of watering in the summer - once a week for the young ones is not enough
  

Garden Update

What chickens don't eat, they will trample or tear up just for fun. So, between hail in June and ever growing chicken feet and beaks, not many of the dozen tomato plants have survived. I am convinced, however, that nothing short of pulling the plant out will kill Yellow Pear. This hardy soul only has one tomato on it right now, but it is turning that lovely yellow color, and if I get to it before the chickens, I could have a sweet bit of tomato heaven in the next day or two.

Male flower buds on the Eight Ball Zucchini plant. The one that is coloring up is ready to use for pollination. I rarely wait until they are actually open these days.
This is a Mexico Midget tomato. The seed is several years old and I was surprised it was so viable. I set out several, but this plant is the lone survivor of this type. There are a few thumbnail sized green tomatoes on it. Unlike Yellow Pear, it does not seem to set fruit when the temps are in the mid to high 90s.

I know, I know, I'm not supposed to let basil flower. Still, I had some basil in my (still store-bought) eggs this morning along with some of the rosemary that you can almost see in this photo. Also added a pinch of fresh oregano. Yum!

Eight Ball Zucchini Report

What would summer be like without zucchini? Generally speaking, I was expecting an overload of zucchini this year. I had doubled the number of zukes that I planted out this season, and while they have to be hand pollinated to foil Mother Nature, generally speaking, they are more than prolific. In fact, in places with a higher density of pollinators, they are known to take over whole city blocks. And other than the pollinator issue, if you give it some amended sand and copious amounts of water, it loves the desert. 90 degree days, doesn't bat an eye. 100 degrees, are you kidding, that's barely warming up. True, last year when we got to 108, it wasn't really happy, but hey, it was 108. ... but then along came 27 ravenous young chickens... and instead of a dozen zucchini plants (people would shudder and say in disbelief, "You planted a dozen zucchini plants?! Are you crazy?!"), I ended up with just two healthy plants and one that I really should just put out of it's misery.

My main crop of zukes was going to be the standard Black Beauty. She performed well for me in humid Georgia and the hot San Joaquin Valley. With pollination help, she did fine in the High Desert. Unfortunately, she was planted on the ground and was not equipped to deal with chickens. As a result, the only survivors were a few of my trial of Eight Ball Zucchini plants. And here is the first one to come to harvest - about the size of my fist.
This shows it in relation to my SLR camera lense cover for a size comparison. Generally, when the chickens are out, the raised bed is covered in chicken wire so they can't destroy the last of my zucchini plants.

And, of course, the obligatory Super Model Harvest Pose on the corner of the raised bed.
This is a baby Eight Ball, about an inch and a half in diameter right now. You can see where I cut off the top of the flower so that I could take a male flower and pollinate her. The high temps kill the pollen on the male flowers, so pollination has to take place between right before the male flowers open until it starts warming up around 10 a.m.

All in all, the Eight Ball Zukes don't produce nearly as many female flowers as Black Beauty, and the zukes don't have as much mass as a Black Beauty of comprable age - but they are cute and I think I will grow them again next year. Germination was good, but they have to have lots of water and shade their first few days if the temps are over 90*F. Plants are bushy, not viny, and tend to be pretty open. The stems and leaves have the traditional zucchini spines. I hope to have enough to make stuffed zucchini with them some day.