Garden Daddy

ONE OF THE STANDARD COCHIN PULLETS LAYS HER FIRST EGG

2011-09-12T03:27:00.005-05:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I just thought I would take a moment and mention to you that one of the two Standard Cochin pullets FINALLY laid yesterday, Sunday. I have been waiting on these spring pullets to get started and one finally got down to business. It was a nice, pinkish color, rather small, like a little pullet should be with a very rounded small end. It was not large enough to think of eating, having just one. So I fed it to the dog in his food. Now, I wait on the other Cochin, one Ameraucana pullet and the remaining 6-Welsummers to start laying I will be happy.
By the way, I still have the 3-Cuckoo Marans hens I reared from day old chicks last year. They have stopped laying for a bit as one is in molt and the other two just stopped after it got so terribly hot this summer. Those 3 hens are being donated to the St. Jude Chicken Chase that will take place the end of this month on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2011, in Alamo, TN. Small kids will chase some chickens and they keep all they catch. It is for a good cause of course as well as a good way to move some birds out of your flock you might like to cull and NOT harvest!
URBAN FARM UPDATE ON VEGETABLES: Just about gone. Getting some few small tomatoes from this garden home and still getting a little okra from the community garden. Hoping to clear off the urban farm next week one day, then add some lime, triple 13 then till up, water in good then maybe plant something cool weather tolerant...either some turnips or go ahead and start some more sugar peas I think. My luffa gourds NEVER did even bloom to date and I think I held them in their starter pots too long and they just got messed up is really what happened. I plan to make sure I have some next year and start them really early. I want to get some luffa sponges out of them at some point. It takes over 100 days for them to even bloom I hear and start making a pod so we will hopefully see next year.
I leave you today with our ongoing urban farming affirmation in mind and hoping for more eggs very soon: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

MAMA DOROTHY AND HER BROOD OF 4 CUCKOO MARANS CHICKS

2011-09-02T13:06:00.005-05:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! Well, my little Buff Orpington hen ended up hatching only 4-chicks out of an 8-egg clutch. Two eggs were infertile, one was not viable after breaking through the shell in the 100-degree heat yesterday afternoon and the last was abandoned too early, and appeared to need a good 2-days more to be ready to hatch. Little Mama was ready to go this morning with her small brood of 4-chicks and get out of the enclosed space for her nesting area and she got off the nest, started covering up the unhatched eggs and looking to get her and the brood out of that area and into the rabbit cage - converted into brooder run.
Below in the top photo, you will see two of the new hatches of Cuckoo Marans chicks. MOST of the time, in these Marans and some other breeds one can almost sex the chicks based on coloring as mentioned before...not always. But it appears in a lot of cases, that with the Cuckoo Marans, the lighter, more grey chicks like the one in the foreground of this top photo is more than likely a little rooster. You can see his silvery-grey coloring. This is probably true in the Barred Plymouth Rocks as well, as they are very similar in chick coloration. See the darker chick in the background...that is probably a little pullet.

In the second photo, below, you can see two darker chicks and they are most likely also little pullets. Even though, the one in back MIGHT be slightly lighter, I feel if you see it in real life/time is is still darker than the one in the upper photo.

Now in this last photo, you can see the little roo-boy (probably) in the foreground again with the 3-darker little pullets in the back...can you see the difference? You can really see the grey on him in this picture. Of course there is Mama Dorothy, the little Buff Orpington hen that did such a good and faithful job of keeping them warm for 3-weeks to get them here

UPDATE: ALL 18 NEW CHICKS ARE WELL AND VERY (!) HAPPY TODAY. I gave them a little heat last night, a 60watt light bulb hanging in one corner, as it got down to around 82 when I was heading to bed after Master Gardener meeting last night. It bottomed out to 71-degrees this morning and they were all in the heating area and warm and snug in their new digs this morning. After my early breakfast today, I went and unplugged their heat as it was already way up in the 80's by then and they were happy with the natural heat. I think once they get more real feathers grown out and less fluff in about two weeks I may not need heat if we do not get any really cool nights...though there is some talk of next week a few nights into the 50's in which case they will surely need some night time heating for a little while.

On to gardening updates...the urban farm remains in drought conditions and I am working hard to not overwhelm my utility bill again next month with watering, as we have to pay waste water even when there is none that is going into the system...you pay a percentage of what water you use as in most city utility systems. But then again, if I want ANYTHING left to either freeze or eat I must do some watering. Not wishing ANY bad luck or problems on anyone, but we sure could use SOME of the rain from the east coast and what appears to be heading to NOLA from the Gulf. If you earlier followers remember, I moved back to Tennessee 5-years ago after a 2-year stay in Pensacola, Florida, and that was because of the 4-hurricanes and 2-tropical storms affected the area so much both housing cost and rentals and insurance made it nearly impossible to remain in the area and have anything left to live on! I am hoping we get a break in this late summer heat and drought we are in again this year. As for the community garden, it has been a disappointing season there, with many external issues stemming from the area of town it is in and the community we are working so hard to help and teach gardening skills to. We have been able, between this urban farm and the community garden, give to our local soup kitchen at least a small amount of produce, mostly squash earlier in the summer, and some tomatoes and okra and peppers as well. Not as much as last year of course. Most ended up coming from this urban farm and I am glad I planted some 34-tomato plants and was able to share with neighbors and the RIFA Soup Kitchen as well as enough for my freezer and some even went to an assisted living facility in Millington, TN, and to some employees in Humboldt, TN, at the TN. State Veteran's Home there. So even though the community garden ended up this season not as I had hoped it would, my own garden was able to assist many and that in itself is well worth the effort.

I will leave you followers and newcomers then with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

(I apologize, but my spell check here on this site is not working properly today so forgive any misspellings you might find in this posting...I will check it later and correct any errors!)

NEW CHICKS ARRIVED TODAY AS WELL AS SOME HATCHLINGS

2011-09-01T21:17:00.003-05:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I got a nice doorbell ring this morning early from the USPS delivery of my 18 new babies...they arrived and it was already getting hot. I took them out to their new brooding home, removed each, dipped their beaks into the water fount to give them the idea to drink, then turned them loose to watch all those little things start stretching those legs and fluttering their wings. Those tiny bantam Mille Fleur d'Uccle chicks are so small that the larger standard chicks almost seem like a truck when they run into the little things. All are happy and enjoying the larger space now more than the shipping box tonight! In the bottom photo, you can see one of the tiny banty chicks that has fallen asleep. The truck trip from the hatchery wore them out I guess and after filling up on cool water, several heads were bobbing in a sleepy state....they were so sweet this morning!

And with the arrival of these chicks, I was out looking in on the little broody Mother, the Buff Orpington hen, Dorothy, and low and behold out pops 4 little heads from under her! Talk about a surprise...I did not expect anything to happen until late tomorrow or on Saturday even maybe into Sunday morning early. But what a big chick day. Unfortunately, during the hottest part of today, when we reached 100-degrees here in Jackson today, hatch # 5 was breaking out and had pecked its' way all around the shell but when I found it, it was too late and I think the heat did not allow the membrane to break completely on the inside of the shell and it had stopped moving when I found it. I tried rubbing it and even put it between my hands and blew on its face some, trying to revive it. I had been looking in every little bit and when I first saw it, it was still peeping with most of the shell still around it. Then the next time I looked, it was already gone. Then tonight here about 8:45pm I went to look at all the babies after returning from my Master Gardener monthly meeting and think I saw a tiny peck hole in another of the 3 remaining eggs. I cannot interfere with what nature will do and will just hope for at least another one or two hatches by morning or later tomorrow. We will see! Mama will be ready soon to move her babies off the nest and into the other part of her confined area to start feeding them better and allowing them room to grow. She will not wait much longer if no hatches happen after tonight I feel.

I leave you today, a chicken-rich man with good, healthy and evidently happy chicks and a little Mama as well, with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG (AND LOTS OF NEW BABIES) AT A TIME!"

YES...I ORDERED MORE (!) CHICKENS...MILLE FLEUR d'UCCLE BANTY CHICKS

2011-08-23T09:59:00.005-05:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! Yes I can hear you all now...screaming at the top of your lungs as to what am I thinking. But I called yesterday, Monday, to verify my order last week of the Black Sex Links & Rhode Island Reds (6-each) and was on the hatchery website at the time of the call, looking at the pretty Belgian Bearded Mille Fleur d'Uccle chickens and just "shot the moon" and added 6-bantams of the breed.

Isn't she beautiful? (online stock photo - NOT MINE!) Feathered legged, bearded and oh so pretty! By the way, "MILLE FLEUR" means "a thousand flowers" OR "tapestry of flowers" depending on which definition you go with. And of course looking at the little hen above, is that not one thousand flowers on her? Roos of this breed on average run around 26oz. while the hens run about 22oz. I am hoping for some small little pullets...I have threatened on my club site, West TN Poultry Club, that I might have to move one or two roosters, if there are any in the order, to either my spare room upstairs or to the basement so I can have a rooster to breed the hens to. Don't think I would not try that too. But I have some fellow club members who will take any roos I get in the order of straight run chicks. This hatchery only allows straight run orders of all bantams. As a reminder to you, most hatcheries allow either rooster orders, pullet orders or straight run chicks which are you get what you get...no sexing will be done on the chicks to give you all roosters or all pullets, etc. I should be saying "cockerels" meaning young rooster, like a young hen UNDER one year old is a pullet UNTIL they are a year old.

Also, we are still on day 11 or 12 of "hatch watch" depending on how you are counting. I think the full 21st day will be Saturday, September 3rd around noonish or so is my take but will keep a close eye on the little Buff Orp hen all Friday and Saturday morning. But remember, Friday, Sept. 2nd, all these chicks are arriving...let's see, I currently have 13 hens, 8 eggs being brooded, 18 chicks on the way...that totals : 39 chickens here at the urban farm...WHAT AM I THINKING? Really it is not that bad, as the 8 eggs a'hatchin' are going back to the person who gave them to me are just for the hen to brood over, the 3 Cuckoo Marans are being sold (I hope) this coming weekend, the banty Mille Fleur d'Uccle chicks I am planning to put into the current compost bin that I will convert, as I have mostly been putting the compost stuff straight into the garden anyay.

So I will leave you today with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

MORE CHICKS ON THE WAY...I KNOW, I KNOW!

2011-08-19T11:01:00.007-05:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! As I said in the title...I KNOW, I KNOW...I have just this morning ordered MORE chicks from IDEAL POULTRY in Texas, set to hatch on August 31 and arrive here at the urban farm on Friday morning, September 2nd. But guess what? My little Buff Orpington hen is still faithfully sitting on her little clutch of 8 fertile Cuckoo Marans eggs and her 2-golf balls and they are due to hatch either late on September 2nd or early on Saturday, September 3. If they hatch on Friday afternoon I will give her the new chicks I have ordered or hold them under some heat until Saturday after her hatch is complete and then slip them in as well. And remember, I am not keeping any of those 8 chicks she is trying to hatch..."not counting my chicks before they hatch" by any means!
What I decided to do is go ahead and order 6-Black Sex Link pullets and 6-Rhode Island Red pullets, again due to hatch on August 31st. That way, when the Welsummer pullets are really laying over the winter and into spring, these new fall chicks will just be starting to lay in January or so 2012. I plan to move the 3-Cuckoo Marans hens I currently have off to the West TN Poultry Club sale on Saturday, August 27th @ TSC here in Jackson and make at least some room for getting these chicks in later on. If they do not sell I might just put them in the freezer! They lay a very nice large dark brown egg, really about the color of milk chocolate or a lighter brown with dark spots on them, either of which is really pretty but their laying to feed ratio is really terrible.
Why you ask have I done this? After thinking I would get some meat birds all along and after talking with some family and neighbors, and after getting no good response to anyone going in on halves with me on around 25 chicks to brood off for freezing, I decided to add more efficient layers to the mix and just stick with eggs till spring. I will order some meat birds, as many or few as I want, from my local feed store that has been so helpful with this urban farm obtaining all its' birds.
I would like to explain to those novice keepers out there exactly what a "sex link" chicken is. I will use these Black Sex Link chickens as an example here: You take a Barred Rock hen and cross it with a Rhode Island Red rooster and you ONLY GET these Black Sex Links. But the best part about these crosses, whether they be Black, Red or White crosses, the males and females are distinguishable at hatch. The Black Sex Links are all black but ONLY THE MALES have a white spot on the top of their heads, otherwise both males and females are all black. When the Black Sex Links grow to maturity, the females are black with SOME red on the hackles (feathers around the neck) and the males take on the appearance of the original Barred Rock hen with lighter colored hackles. But if you breed these hybrids you will NOT get another sex link offspring. They will revert to some kind of other cross or back to the original, more or less.
These Black Sex Link pullets are very vigorous and rugged brown egg layers and are often the layer of choice for commercial production. They do well in confinement as well as free range and are a dual purpose bird, in that once egg production is over for them, they can be harvested for meat. I have added below a link from YOUTUBE that was loaded from CACKLE HATCHERY with information about this Black Sex Link bird for your convenience:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkBvm_IEOTc&feature=player_embedded#! In this video, you will notice what I mentioned about telling the males, or roosters, from the pullets, or hens, by the males having the white or yellowish spot on top of their head.
That will give this urban farm a total of 6-Welsummers, 6-Rhode Island Reds, 6-Black Sex Links, 2-Standard Cochins, 1-Blue Wheaten Ameraucana & of course, Dorothy, the pet Buff Orpington setting mother hen.
So, I leave you today not only on day 8 of "hatch watch" but also on chick delivery count down with our ongoing urban farming affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG (really 8-fertile eggs & 2-golf balls) AT A TIME!"

CHICKEN PHOTOS TO SHARE TODAY FROM THE URBAN FARM

2011-08-15T12:31:00.007-05:00

HELLO & Welcome to GARDEN DADDY here at the urban farm! I thought you might like to see some new photos of Spring 2011 chicks, now almost all grown up. But the first photo to share with you is of my favorite little hen and the most calm of all, "DOROTHY", the Mother-To-BE Buff Orpington hen that is now on day 4 of "hatch watch", while she sits on her 8 Cuckoo Marans eggs and 2-golf balls. I made her a nice nest myself of some wheat straw I keep on hand for the chicken house nest boxes and she has barely moved since putting her on the nest of eggs.

The photo below is of the white Standard Cochin pullet that was in the spring bunch of chicks I ordered in March this year. The Cochin breed is very slow to mature so she is lagging behind the Dutch Welsummers' a bit. I thought you might like to see though she is larger than the other pullets and also get a kick out of the large feathers on her feet. I call her and her buff sister, "clown chickens", as it looks like a clown in large shoes trying to walk

The photo below is of the Standard Buff Cochin, also born in March of this year. She is the same age as the white one above. She is a darker gold color than the Buff Orpington breed. Behind her, is the back end of one of the three Cuckoo Marans...they are called Cuckoo because of that mottled black and white color..as in all mixed up and not like a Barred Rock hen, where there is a more definite pattern. Thus the term, "cuckoo"....meaning "crazy or mixed up" pattern!

The bottom photo shows again the White Cochin pecking along with some of the 5-Dutch Welsummers (named for the town of Welsum in Holland) which are really getting close to laying for 2 or 3 of them. They are an attractive bird, with golds and rich brownish walnut colors on them along with some tones of mahogany in places.

Otherwise, today I cooked some turnip greens, frozen store-bought over this weekend, and a friend gave me some south Alabama water ground corn meal. I plan to make some "fried bread" in a few minutes to go with it. In other words, like a fried hoe cake. Continuing some recipes, I would like to share with you an "okra pancake" recipe I think is just wonderful and another way to use okra. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE okra...I like to add a small amount of oil in a pan, get it hot, add some chopped onion and okra, salt & pepper, add about a teaspoon full of lemon juice and a little crushed garlic and then stir fry it until it almost gets blackish on the edges and tender....yummy! Well, I tried to add the okra pancake in a download but it would not cooperate for some reason. I will try to add it later and just type it in freehand in another posting.

So, I leave you today with our ongoing urban farming affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

TWO GALLONS OF TOMATO SOUP MIX PROCESSED TODAY

2011-08-13T14:07:00.003-05:00

HELLO & Welcome to GARDEN DADDY here at the urban farm! I told you yesterday I had a HUGE tomato harvest yesterday morning that I would have to process today. Well, boy-oh-boy did I ever. I ended up with right at two gallons of the best sauce/soup mix I ever made I believe. It is so rich with tomato aroma and taste and I strained the seeds out of this batch to see the difference. You know, gardening is ALWAYS a testing ground of everything, right? So is preserving. Again, this will cool down then be boxed up in freezer containers and then added to the winter larder for soup stock, spaghetti sauce, chili fixin's and the like.
I just wanted to share this with you while I had a quick moment and stopped to eat a late lunch sandwich. I will let you know how many freezer boxes I get from this batch. I might have to start giving some to neighbors for their freezer as mine is about to overflow at this posting. I tried to find some bush green bean seeds (well, I hate to call them true seeds but I guess for now I will as they are called "seeds" and that meaning is "anything that can be sown, e.g. "seed" potatoes, "seeds" of corn, sunflower "seeds", etc....another whole posting I fear) today earlier but was shot down on every turn. I had planned to put in a late crop of bush beans this next week but it appears that will not happen. So off to the feed store again next week and thinking of just going ahead and getting some turnips/greens started...I like both tops and roots. I can cook the roots and eat them alone or cut up into the greens. But the roots are also good if you "quarter" them in chunks or even slice them about like you would potatoes for an 'Au gratin dish, put in a large bowl and add some olive oil, salt and pepper, a little garlic powder to taste, stir till all is covered then put in a single layer on a large cookie sheet and roast at 400-degrees for a bit, watching from time to time especially if you slice then and not in larger chunks to keep from burning the edges, but then bake till a nice roasted color and aroma...stirring occasionally. Basically do like you would if you were "roasting" any winter vegetables...what was I thinking?!?
This Garden Daddy has been giving so many recipes over the course of this site that "me thinks" maybe your Garden Daddy needs to stir around the idea of a future "THE URBAN FARM COOKBOOK" by Garden Daddy....thinking....huh? Laughing all the way to my next seasonal project...
I leave you today again with our ongoing affirmation in mind as always: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG (& RECIPE) AT A TIME!"

GARDEN DADDY TEES TO ARRIVE NEXT WEEK

2011-08-13T07:47:00.004-05:00

HELLO & Welcome to GARDEN DADDY here at the urban farm! I just wanted to share with you that I finally was able to run up on a decent deal on getting a few Garden Daddy tee shirts printed up. My order says they will arrive this next Tuesday, 08-16-11, and I cannot wait! I know you are probably thinking "how foolish" but thought it might be nice to pass around to family and close friends...maybe later if I got enough request I could put some up on this site if anyone was interested in making another order.
Well, we are on DAY #2 of "hatch watch" as we wait on the 8-eggs and two golf balls to hatch...kidding of course about the golf balls! I do not know the exact "laying date" of the 8-fertile eggs but knowing the person I got them from, who happens to be one our of poultry club officers, I am sure they are very viable and fertile. In case some of you did not know, one can gather and hold fertile eggs for up to around two weeks before setting or incubating. 7 to 10 days is the IDEAL optimum time and after that your mortality rate decreases a little each day. Also, you should store with a temperature of no more than 66-degrees F, as any higher temps will start the development of the embryo BEFORE you are truly ready to set. Also they should be stored IDEALLY on a 45-degree angle and turned daily, with pointed end DOWN. This keeps the air sack on the large end. You should also store your own eating eggs in the refrigerator with the small or pointed end "down" in the storage container or carton.
By the way, if you need egg cartons, all you have to do is tell a few friends or church folk and you will have all you can ever hope for. Seems people every where are looking for something to do with those little cartons and are more than happy to save them for you...trust me, I know!
So I will leave you this Saturday morning, looking forward to tomato processing today, with our ongoing city farming affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

DOROTHY, THE BUFF ORPINGTON HEN, DOES IT AGAIN

2011-08-12T14:54:00.003-05:00

HELLO & Welcome to GARDEN DADDY here at the urban farm! For the past 5 days, counting today, Dorothy, my pet and favorite hen, has stayed in a bottom level nest box and has gone broody again! She is the Buff Orpington hen that went broody in the spring and was sitting on the golf balls that I then swapped out for nine 2-day old chicks I ordered from the feed store after 23 days, which are now almost ready to start laying that I mentioned earlier this week. I got busy yesterday and emailed a member of the West TN Poultry Club and today she brought me 8-fertile Cuckoo Marans eggs. I do not want any more birds here but this will make the little Mama happy again, won't really cost me anything, except she is not laying anyway and this will break her from being broody and fulfill her motherhood need once again.
At least I know she will always be a good brooder for future need if she will hang on for a few years and nothing out of the ordinary happens to her. We will see how she does with real eggs now instead of golf balls. When I took her from the chicken house this morning and isolated her back into the converted rabbit cage and add on secluded nesting area, I took the two golf balls she was sitting on with her and added them to the nest I made of wheat straw & 8-eggs and she sat straight down on the entire thing just as happy as she could be and went to work to hatch her "brood"! So you are now assigned to "hatchery watch" with me...today is day one...mark your calendars! 20 or so to go now.
I also harvested just at 127 tomatoes today...I have not had time to process anything today but will tomorrow. I am free all day and can concentrate on that. I have given away a lot of them today to neighbors and yesterday, having picked around 47 then, gave most of them away as well. That has been the point here at the urban farm of planting so many plants almost to overcrowding is to help feed so many neighbors as well as give some to the local soup kitchen. Next year though, I am not looking to plant so much but to make the garden a little more formal and less FULL and crowded...giving less to share but ease of tending for me is my plan.
So I will leave you today with day one of hatch watch underway with our ongoing affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

HEADING BACK TO TOMATO PROCESSING AGAIN

2011-08-10T10:12:00.006-05:00

HELLO & Welcome to GARDEN DADDY here at the urban farm! For the last two days I have harvested another large batch of tomatoes. It appears that I am heading back into the kitchen to process more sauce for the freezer for winter soup mix and sauce. Not complaining by any means. In fact, quite looking forward to the cold weather to come now. I have been able to put back some good bit of frozen product of green beans, corn, some squash, snow peas from early spring, and tomato sauce. At least this gives a basis for some good winter soups, fresh-frozen vegetables and some savings from the grocery store and of course the envy of some neighbors when I take them some vegetable soup or some good hearty minestrone! I am thinking of trying a late green bean crop even now with all the heat we are still having to get a little more to eat now and for later. And of course a fall crop of snow peas for the cooler weather and then maybe a few greens then as well....planning anyway, depending on how long the tomato crop lasts.

Still waiting on the new pullets raised from day old chicks to start laying. There is one of the Welsummer pullets that is really showing her comb and wattles now and her ear color is starting to turn as well and hopefully it should not be too long till she will start laying now and others soon to follow. I have shared with you that I had two standard Cochin pullets and they are somewhat slow to mature so I do not expect them to start laying until on into September at least. In fact it will probably be September I imagine before any of the new "girls" start laying. These type of birds are a little slower to mature and so taking longer to begin laying. My plan for next spring is to get some of the Cornish Rock X chicks that will be so fat and large by about 6 or 8-weeks old that they cannot even hardly move and get them ready for the freezer...I am thinking maybe around 25 or so early in the spring. My middle brother and I have talked about splitting the flock for each of our freezers if I will raise them...I say no problem. Then if these new pullets are not the layers of the egg color I am looking for from them, then they will go the way of a poultry club swap sometime and be replaced back with what I have already decided if the need arises, a whole flock of Wyandottes, either Golden Laced or Silver Laced. Remember, I had them last year and they were excellent layers even all winter.

SORRY....I just stopped posting and looked at the IDEAL POULTRY site for fall availability dates and now the thought comes I might like some good, non-medicated & steroid-free chickens for the freezer. For all you poultry keepers out there, they can be ready to "dress" at around 6-lbs in around 6 to 7 weeks. It would not cost much, some high protein/high fat broiler feed and with this time of year so warm still, not much heat in a brooder and with supplement from garden refuse, cost would be minimum. Jumbo Cornish Rock X ("X" means cross or hybrid) broiler flock photo below (not mine of course)...notice they put more energy into growth and not much in feathering, etc. And they grow so fast they often have trouble even walking and moving. Grow, baby, grow!

I will leave you today with our ongoing urban farming affirmation in mind as I think more about this late summer/fall broiler idea....hmmm, let's see, by the first week of October for sure I could be dressing out a freezer FULL of chickens...hmmmm: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

FOURTH & FINAL GREEN BEEN HARVEST TODAY

2011-07-29T12:20:00.003-05:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I wanted to share with you that today was the last of my green beans here in the backyard garden. I was able with the first three pickings of beans to freeze some 15-quarts or so of product. I also ate about 5 meals along the way with what I cooked through for serving. But after watering during the past week to make the vines bloom again even in this heat we are going through, one nice rain shower in the mix as well, when I went to the garden this morning at 6:30am to harvest beans, banana peppers and tomatoes, I found very few green beans, few blooms and vines barely hanging on. HEAT...HEAT...HEAT...It is just not letting up here. So I started pulling them up, hill by hill, then picking what ever was hanging on them, large or smallest of the small. I ended up with a nice pot full, enough for dinner tonight and leftovers it looks like. Adding a little cut up salt pork to the cooking and they taste really great. I am adding some mashed potatoes and going to grill some sliced pork loin I bought this week, whole, and cut up into boneless steak size slices...are you hungry yet? Oh yes and of course, some tomato and basil salad!
You know what this Garden Daddy did with the bean vines don't you? RIGHT...straight to the chicken coop, along with any cull tomatoes, grass I pulled and any other garden refuse I thought would be a treat for the "girls"! That will keep them busy today...rummaging through that pile. Speaking of my "girls"...for those of you who generally feed commercial feed, medicated or not, most suppliers claim that if you feed their product exclusively there is no need to supplement with grit or oyster shell if using their feed. BUT...if YOU supplement your commercial feed at all with ANY garden culls, kitchen trimmings, grass clippings....anything other than commercial feed and your chickens are NOT free range, then please remember to add some grit to their diet. It is a must for the addition of products other than commercial feed. Some of my buddies in the West TN Poultry Club (plug here...of course I am a member!) mix it in their bulk feed and some just scatter on the ground in the coop, etc. Personally, I have an extra small feeder with an open top that I use sometimes when I am raising chicks in a brooder that I generally use to hold grit. I use hen-size crushed granite that you can get anywhere you get your layer feed...be it Tractor Supply, your local co-op, local feed store, etc.
And speaking of chickens...here is new photo of a few of my little spring pullets you have seen in March and April as little chicks with their foster Mom who sat on golf balls and I slipped these chicks under after about 22 -days of sitting...the one on the left is a Blue Wheaten Ameraucana, the middle one is a Standard White Cochin (white with the feathers on their feet and legs, I also have a nice Buff Cochin to go with her) and the third in the back is one of the Dutch Welsummers that are SUPPOSED to lay the terracotta dark brown eggs with speckles on them hopefully! You can just make out their little combs starting to come in as well as the wattles. But the Ameraucana never does really get either comb or wattles...but you can see the "beard & ear tufts" on this one pretty well. You can see in this photo why the are called BLUE WHEATEN, because of the gray-blue coloring around the beard (could be anywhere really) along with the caramel/wheat-color on a basic white body. The Welsummers of course here at the urban farm are all pullets/hens but if I had a rooster it would be what was used as the mascot for Kellogg's Corn Flakes rooster. Welsummers lay about 160 eggs per year. Not GREAT by any standards but a pretty egg that is generally just shy of large to extra large by FDA standards. We will see by next summer how well they lay or it is off to a spring club sale for them and new chicks coming in to replace them. I am already making plans for next spring to get some "Cornish Rock X" birds for the freezer I think at his point and maybe a few more for family or another club swap/sale. And maybe if the Welsummers are not what I want in layers or managable birds over the winter, might just go back with all Buff Orpington's or all Barred Rocks, which last year were TREMENDOUS layers as well as the Silver Laced & Golden Laced Wyandottes. I still have three of the Cuckoo Marans, which are probably not the best layers at all to have but their eggs are so dark and that is what I want and like the best. So do not think this urban farm is settled on the topic of layers yet. I have had many varieties this past two seasons, and as in all farming and gardening, it is an ever growing and learning experience with it all. Experimentation, planning, planting, and trying and re-trying EVERYTHING!

I had an inquiry about when I was processing my soup mix from last weeks tomato harvest did I have boiling water handy and dip my tomatoes and remove the skins BEFORE I put them in the food processor. The answer is NO...I just quartered them up, put them in and ran it until it was slush. Then I poured it into my stewing pot and brought the entire thing to a boil, seeds and all. After all when you buy stewed tomatoes in a can at the store they are whole but without skins. By the time that food processor gets through with everything, it is all chopped up anyway and when it cooks down for a few hours to reduce and thicken you cannot tell any difference anyway. I try to make things as simple as possible these days.
I thought you might find a fat old man hiding in the garden here at the urban farm and a few days ago, someone did...ME! Me in my Amish farmer's hat. It looks like I have a white beard but only a goatee...but after seeing this photo, am giving SERIOUS THOUGHT to that fact come fall to grow a full beard again, like I use to wear in my younger days, only this one will be white for sure!

I am already working on a new plan for the layout of the garden here at the urban farm for fall and into next spring. I am planning to add an arbor to the entrance after all harvest and garden clean up is over this fall. I will give you a photo layout of what my plan is when going in...nothing fancy at all but will make quite a statement. If you remember the one I put in last year at the Jackson Community Garden will give you an idea....by the way, please keep in your gardening minds that the life of the JCG will continue. My site is plagued with problems from the neighborhood it is in due to the fact the whole idea was to transform areas in need with not only a facelift and something to be proud of and to teach people how to feed themselves. That is why they are mostly in areas of crisis. It appears that it may be in naught after this year...I personally will not participate in the JCG next season but only wish the project success. It is not that I do not believe in the project but I can only do so much and am only one person and I simply do not have any more time to offer that project after this season. So if you have the opportunity to ever participate in a community garden, please give it a chance...help others learn to grow their own food, have a plot for yourself, and grow a plot or two for your local soup kitchen as well...EVERYONE needs healthy, fresh vegetables and what better way to get them than to plant the seeds, watch them grow and then serve them to your family...no better way, I promise you. That is the essence of THIS urban farm. I will leave you today with our ongoing urban farming affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

LARGE TOMATO HARVEST TODAY HERE AT THE URBAN FARM

2011-07-25T14:24:00.003-05:00

HELLO & Welcome to GARDEN DADDY here at the urban farm! WOW...Today I harvested 78 full size or at least NEARLY full size tomatoes, cut them up, put in the food processor and as I am writing this the results, over 2-gallons, are in a HUGE POT and simmering down to thicken and reduce. I added some small amount of salt and a little sugar for acid reduction and other than that (this year anyway) that is all I am doing. I decided to NOT add any herbs or other spice to this year's tomato processing and avoid the need to use only as dedicated meals. I believe if I leave it basically "just tomato" that it will give me the advantage to use it in EVERYTHING over the winter...soups, chili, spaghetti, etc.

Of course here at the urban farm...what did I do with the tomato trimmings, caps, culls, etc.? If you know me at all you are correct if you said I fed them to the chickens. You bet I did! Those 4 older hens and this spring's 9 pullets did a head dive right into the pile when I dumped them in the chicken run. Here you will see the pile of trimmings as well as some of the now almost fully grown spring chicks that are equal in size with their foster Mother, the light golden Buff Orpington hen in the middle/right side in the upper photo and the once little day old chick that is now more golden than her Mother, is really a standard Buff Cochin. The other photo is just more of the now nearly grown spring chicks, mostly the Dutch Wellsummers, enjoying the tomato culls and caps. I just cut off the stem area and am not too picky about any loss as we have had so much intense heat that even though you cannot see it here, there are a lot of them that had some cracks on top of them from fast growth and intense heat.

I have some other photos to share with you but will wait for another day. By the way, I just got some new business cards so if I ever meet you or you request one, I will mail one or just hand it to you...nice cards for sure, with a chicken on it even. I also ordered a few hats with GARDEN DADDY on it! I leave you today with our ongoing urban farming affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

TOMATO HARVEST GREETING FROM THE URBAN FARM

2011-07-19T12:16:00.002-05:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I know, I know...again, where have I been? All I can say is too busy...so sorry. A lot has been going on here both with the urban farm and in Jackson, TN and mostly just "life" has been happening really. I hope to remedy that soon. I am giving up some commitments I have had over the summer and hope to have more time for you in the future. Sometimes it is so hard to tell people no, again not my strongest strength.
Last week I took a few days and visited my middle brother & his wife in Giles County, TN and he and I had a good time running the roads of his rural area of Tennessee. He lives very close to a large Amish community, found in the Etheridge area, Lawrence County I think. But we spent one whole day driving through that area, viewing some wonderfully productive and very lush farms, both thriving and moving ahead without the aid of many of our so called "modern" machines and other conveniences we THINK we must have to make our gardens grow and our front lawns green. These good people use a lot of real horsepower in the way of large draft horses, mules and the like. We saw bee hives, tomato plants of all stages of growth, including some new plants just being set out for a late harvest. Lets see...if you plant tomatoes the second week of July, give them 65 to 70 days to start blooming and fruiting that would make them harvesting in September which is still in the very-very high 80's and often still in the 90's here so YES, a late harvest for them is very viable.
We also were able to stop and chat with some of these good people and found them not only hard working but friendly and willing to assist us "ENGLISH" where needed. I love to hear their heavy accents, often some with what seems like a heavy Dutch accent or other close to something like that. TRULY GOOD PEOPLE!
I had a request from a follower who wanted to know how I introduced my spring chicks to the rest of the grown flock. When the little pullets were about 10-weeks old, I took some of the green plastic 1" fencing and used some plastic electrical ties and attached the fence to about1/3rd of the chicken house, added their own water fount and feed container and then took them in and added them into that section of the house. I left them there for about 4-weeks and in that time the grown hens got to check them out and they got used to each other. Then I went in and removed the fencing, leaving the separate food and water for the chicks in the same area where they had been staying. It took a few days but soon the little pullets started coming out into the outside run, often seeing a grown hen and returning to the safety of their original area, only to find there was really no place to hide now. But soon, they were eating together, roosting together and mingled just fine. It worked GREAT! I had already returned their foster Mom a few weeks earlier and it took a few days for her to even be re-accepted back into the flock, as she had been gone herself for those first really almost 12 weeks while if you remember sat on the golf balls, then brooded the store bought chicks I had ordered. It took about a week for her to be added back to the flock again without any fights or chasing.
I have been harvesting and freezing green beans from this urban farm. I planted both "Blue Lake" and "Contender" varieties. I gave some away and heard they were the best the folks had eaten...they were a mixed bag of both varieties I had blanched and froze first. I also have been harvesting many tomatoes and have made some cooked down and made some soup mix already. It looks like later this week I will really be in the midst of a huge tomato harvest but looks of things, more than I could ever eat before spoilage, so my kitchen will be alive again with chopping, adding to the food processor, then cooking down then mashing through a sieve to remove seeds and the bulk stuff (including any skins that did not cook down) then slow cooking to reduce and thicken, then cooling, then placing into freezer bags, cooling down in ice water then FINALLY.....adding to my freezer for next winter soup stock, chili base and other good winter cooking.
I also have been to the local farmer's market here in Jackson and got some "Peaches -N-Cream" corn, which I cut off the cob, fried in a little butter and salt, then cooled down and put in freezer bags and that also went into the freezer. Of course I have eaten some of that fresh when I first cut it off the cob. Boy...was it ever good! I need to make some cornbread, get more fresh corn and cook up a mess of fresh green beans from this garden home, slice a tomato and get to eating, right? ARE YOU HUNGRY YET?
Back to speaking of chickens...did I tell you I sold all but 4 of last year's laying hens? I had to make a decision as to keeping a large amount of hens with up and coming pullets eating me out of house and home, way too many eggs to be given away again this fall and winter when the pullets start to lay or culling down the flock to a more manageable size. I now only have 4-grown hens that are laying, with the 9-pullets who should I think start laying in late August or early September. I only kept the 3-Cuckoo Marans and the little Buff Orpington hen that was the little pullets' foster Mother. I am only getting a minimum amount of eggs now, as due to summer heat and the fact the Cuckoo's are not the best and most dependable layers. Now waiting on the 6-Wellsummer pullets, the two standard Cochin pullets and the new Blue-Wheaten Ameraucana to start laying later this summer or fall.
I will leave you today then with our ongoing urban farming affirmation: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

VIEWS FROM THE URBAN FARM TODAY

2011-06-21T15:17:00.003-05:00

HELLO & Welcome to GARDEN DADDY here at the urban farm! I thought you would like to see a few shots of the 2011 urban garden as well as a promised photo of the now nearly grown little pullets mentioned in earlier posts. As you can see, I try to use EVERY available space in the garden site. I have enough tomato plants to eat fresh from, give lots away, and then even have enough to make sauce to freeze later on as well. I always try to keep my neighbors in fresh summer veggies as I have available as well as adding to what I harvest at the community garden to donate to our local soup kitchen, RIFA. The first photo shows a basic overall shot of the bulk of the garden, the second shows another view and the third shows you those little, nearly grown pullets.
It might not look like it in these badly taken photos, but I have the garden laid out in a certain pattern as I had space and in trying to give some element of moving room as well. It is somewhat tight, but not where I cannot get in and out from between all the rows. You can see as well that I have used wheat straw between the rows. Like I mentioned last year, this not only helps with mulching for weed control, it helps with holding in moisture to a point and it keeps one from having to walk in mud on all these stormy days that we are finally getting. We did have a lot of dry weather for about two weeks but now have had rain for several-several days. By the way, again I have my squash on the outside of the chain link fencing on the driveway side and my cucumbers are on the back of the fence facing the adjoining alley...remember...I live IN-TOWN Jackson, TN.

I leave you today with our ongoing urban farming affirmation and again from yesterday, thanks to you all for following GARDEN DADDY: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

LONG OVERDUE HELLO FROM GARDEN DADDY

2011-06-20T19:45:00.005-05:00

HELLO & Welcome to GARDEN DADDY here at the urban farm! I would like to take a moment and say THANK YOU to my regular followers for your patience and often WORRY by my long absence. Thank you all! I will not go into details other than I have been busier than a cat in a sand box during these last many weeks. Between the severe, damaging storms and subsequent cleanup here in West TN in late April and many more in May and into this month as well, trying to get the community garden project going, working like a mad man here at the urban farm and my regular job and the fact I joined the choir at church, taking up one night for rehearsals as well as other rehearsals for some solo work I have been asked to do (ah-ha....another surprise about your Garden Daddy...I do TRY to sing a little) my time has truly been used up but I am taking this week off for the most part from at least part of my regular chores and working on some things I want and need to do.
I thought I would at least here this late afternoon catch you up on at least one project from earlier an post this spring. Below is a photo of the little Buff Orpington hen that went broody and set on a nest full of golf balls. Remember, I slipped the golf balls out and inserted, one at a time, day chicks I had already ordered from the feed store. She was so THRILLED with her brood and quite the mother as well. I do not have a current photo today but will add one in a few days but the chicks below are about 10 weeks old in this photo. I had moved Mom and biddies to a larger area, actually into one side of my compost bin I had cleaned out in this photo and glad I did with all the rain we had at that time. I kept them covered for weeks with a tarp. But now, today, these same chicks are really no longer chicks but real little pullets. They are about 15 weeks old now I think is right. They are now integrated into the regular chicken coop with the year old hens and have blended well. I will relate that story later along with the fact I have also raised off a few more chicks the same way as well from the Golden Laced Wyandotte that went broody and sold them & mother and a few more hens to some fellow poultry club members. So as you can see just from this catch up posting that my time has just not been my own for a while.

I will leave you this evening with again, many-many thanks to everyone who follows Garden Daddy and hopefully this new post will start things back again. And as always, remember our ongoing gardening affirmation: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

SOUTHERN STORMS KNOCK OUT THIS URBAN FARM

2011-04-29T13:42:00.002-05:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! After a full day earlier in the week without power, a flooded basement, losing my hot water heater for a day as well and loss of all internet usage from Monday night until only moments ago here on Friday afternoon, I am about to get all the limbs and branches and trash up out of this urban farm area. I have worked on helping other friends and neighbors with their issues and effects of this weeks storms. I am not even really traumatized in the least by my issues...other than the loss of internet service. But now I want to give great THANKS for good health, safe living conditions and everything being in tack. I want to also give out my sympathy and sorrow to all of those suffering both loss of life and property in my area and those surrounding states.
Sending all of you my best and a safe weekend. More urban farming updates to follow in a few days....Your GARDEN DADDY...

OOPS, I DID IT AGAIN!

2011-04-05T17:03:00.009-05:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! You know how I love my chickens and everyone I know who keeps them or is involved in the West Tennessee Poultry Club and is again, CRAZY about their chickens...well, last Friday, one week after introducing the new chicks to my broody Buff Oprington hen and removing her nest full of golf balls she had been sitting on, I found one chick had not survived. So this Garden Daddy decided to replace my little lost chick with another one so as to have the full compliment I had planned on.

After arriving at my local feed store to look over the chick selection, I came home with not only a replacement but 2-additional chicks. I slipped the trio under little mother and she could not tell the difference in how many she actually had. So again as previously stated, and all you flock keepers out there do not be offended, but chickens are a little on the dumb side, she could not tell any difference in one week old chicks and day old chicks...literally birds of a different feather. These little critters are just thriving, growing and fluttering around their enclosure and following Mother in her scratching and foraging, learning how to be chickens in a natural setting. My best friend keeps calling it my "science experiment" but if it is, it is working! The top two photos below are of Mama Dorothy, the Buff Orpington hen with her babies. I ended up with 2011 chicks to date, 6-Wellsummers, 1-white Chochin, 1-buff Chochin & 1 what appears to be a blue-wheaten Ameraucana, all seem happy and doing well. I am still threatening to add a duckling or two to the mix...or other if I thought I could keep animal control out of my hair here in center city Jackson, TN.

I also thought I would show you two of the molting birds in the coop. I have more than two in molt at present or ending molt in various stages of severity. The bottom photo is of a Silver Lace Wyandotte and the 2nd one up from bottom is a Barred Rock or also called Barred Plymouth Rock. Don't let this scare you but it is a natural occurrence. Not to be confused with parasite issues, which can also cause feather loss. But this is their first year of age and are no longer just pullets...but full fledged HENS! Egg laying has picked up again with molt nearing the end for the most part and now getting 10-12 eggs a day once again, still looking back to getting another 14 or so a day from my 16 full grown hens (I won't mention that I ended up with 9 new chicks under Dorothy...by the way that name came from Dorothy off the tv show, "The Golden Girls").

This Garden Daddy has the community garden well under way this spring, with greens of different varieties, lettuces, cabbages and onions in the mix. Things are in a satisfactory state there with many hours volunteered already on that project. So I leave you today with out our ongoing urban farming affirmation forever in our mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

MOTHERING BUFF ORPINGTON HEN AND HER NEW CHICKS ALL DOING FINE

2011-03-26T12:57:00.003-05:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! As you can see, mother Dorothy and her babies are all doing fine some 30 hours after putting these chicks under her. She has clucked and clucked and mothered one and all. It is raining and cool here today, in the 50's or so but they are nice and dry and very warm. She allows her chicks to run out and feed and drink and run around a bit but she soon clucks a little louder and they come running back under her wings. I could not ask for a better mother out of her. As she has always been friendly and sociable with me she allows me to move her around, pick up her chicks, pet them and reassure her as well that she is a good mother. All the while, she is clucking softly, day and night to her chicks.
I think probably tomorrow they will venture out a bit more I am thinking into the rabbit cage I have attached to this little wooden box as a make-shift run for them. She is alone with her brood and away from the rest of the flock. This seems to be working just fine and hopefully the raccoons and opossums will not find them where I have them in the yard to cause problems for them. Yes, we have both here in the center of midtown Jackson, TN. Lots of raccoons for sure. I see a lot that are coming and going from around the sewer openings in my neighborhood especially. And you regular followers will remember I had some make a home a few years ago in the chimney here. I even had a baby abandoned and had a professor from Union University sent some students out to retrieve it, as he was already raising a litter of orphaned raccoon kits.
Otherwise, things are the same here this weekend at the urban farm, with much rain for several days in the forecast or cloudy skies at least. So any further spring planting is on hold for now. Just waiting to have what is planted both here and at the community garden start to come up. So, I will leave you this day under rainy skies and baby chick watch with our ongoing urban farming affirmation: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

BROODY HEN GETS NEW CHICKS TODAY

2011-03-25T09:42:00.003-05:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! The day has arrived, today, when I got my 5-new little Wellsummer day old chicks. My broody Buff Orpington hen has been sitting on her nest of 6 plastic golf balls for almost a full month now. This morning I decided not to wait until tonight to slip her the little hatchlings. It has been dark, cold and cloudy here today and so at around 8:00 am this morning I slipped in a chick - took out a golf ball. She put her beak to it, turned around in the nest, started preening her back feathers and pulling downy feathers up to make her whole back fluffed up. Then out came another golf ball and in went another chick...this went on till all 6 golf balls where gone and 6 chicks where under her and she was clucking and mothering one and all!
DID I SAY 6 CHICKS? Oops...You know this Garden Daddy cannot resist little chicks. So I added an unplanned baby to the mix, a little yellow chick that will grow up into a standard white Chochin hen hopefully one day. I covered up mother and babies and left them alone only to find myself slipping out there again about an hour later to find one and all doing just fine. As I said, it is rather cool here today, about 30 degrees this morning, warming slowly to lower 50's I think is scheduled but now without having to artificially brood chicks, saving both room and electricity, I think I will take a break from what has been a busy week here, with working at the community garden and planting some snow peas here at the urban farm for my freezer later on as well as fresh stir fry...YUM!
I leave you today with our ongoing urban farming affirmation with a twist: "URBAN FARMING: FIVE CHICKS -PLUS ONE EXTRA - AT A TIME!".....OH MY!

SPRING HAS ARRIVED HERE AT THE URBAN FARM

2011-03-16T13:17:00.003-05:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm. I have several things to share with you for a few moments this afternoon. First, I know that true spring must have arrived as my "usual suspect" Mr. & Mrs Robin Red Breast have once again for the 5th season in a row built their nest on my front porch pier tops. I have had around 14 total fledglings soar from off my porch over the last few years. She always starts to build her nest in a high March wind, working through a strong storm, only to have the storm aid her in allowing the nesting material enough wetness with the mud she provides to make it finally stick to the top of the pillar. For several days the couple works and works, only to have another gust of dry wind blow off all materials. Then it starts raining and the material FINALLY starts to stick and then it is nearly concreted to the ledge. Every year I wait anxiously for this sign of some true spring here at the urban farm.

Also I would like to share with you a gift this garden home received from a good friend and co-worker on Monday. I was so surprised to see this lovely gift. I was at work and this wonderful and very talented person came up to me and showed me something in a bag. It was a wonderful concrete leaf she had decorated with glass chips and stones in the shape of a flower. But the very part was she had stamped "GARDEN DADDY" in the center of it! I was so very thrilled to get it and it meant more to me because of the special person who thought enough to make it special for this Garden Daddy. THANK YOU SHERRY R.!

Finally on to my little Buff Orpington hen, sitting all alone in the mostly darkened hen house on her little clutch of now 12 plastic golf balls. I felt sorry for her with her one lonely golf ball and decided that since the other hens had slowed down laying so much due to an extended molt that I would take the "nest eggs" (I told you how dumb they are that they cannot tell a golf ball from an egg) from the other nest and give her a whole nest full of "eggs". Again, I am hoping she will stay broody for another 8 or 9 days till my new Wellsummer chicks arrive on March 25 so that night I can slip them under her at night and hopefully she will accept the little peepers as her own little brood. That is my plan anyway...good luck to me! So I leave you this sunny afternoon with our ongoing urban farming affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

SOME THOUGHTS ON A BROODY HEN TODAY

2011-03-11T13:29:00.004-06:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I must share with you that I have a broody Buff Orpington hen. She currently sits and clucks on her one lonely plastic golf ball in her nest box she is guarding from the use of other hens. So I have decided that if she will stay put on her little clutch of the lone golf ball for a few more weeks I will slip in one night and ease some day old chicks under her.
Two weeks from today, March 25, I have 5-Wellsummer chicks arriving at my local feed store and if I can keep her broody till then and in the mean time get her confined in last years' brooder cage then I think the night the chicks arrive I will slip them under her and hopefully in the next morning all will be right with her world. As I have mentioned many times in these posts over the last year and a half, chickens are kind of dumb if you will excuse the slang language. They cannot tell a golf ball from an egg or a baby chick from a duckling. Hey maybe I need to slip a little quacker or two under her as well. I have been promising my middle brother to brood off a few ducks for his lake home and this might be a good time to try two or three along with the chicks.
Anyway, I thought you might like to know of my broody girl and hopefully she will continue to brood for a bit longer, two weeks at least I hope and that will cut down on the power of having to run a brooder light as well or worry about keeping a close eye on the new arrivals OR keeping them in the house for the first 5 or 6 weeks anyway. She will warm them and help them eat and they will fare fine with her and separated from the older hens till the get feathered out some and she will then even protect them from predatory habits from the other birds when introduced to the rest of the flock.
I will leave you today with our ongoing urban farm affirmation: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

NO BEES FOR THIS HIVE IT APPEARS HERE AT THE URBAN FARM

2011-03-09T14:24:00.002-06:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! Well it appears I will not be having bees here at this urban farm. There is NO LAW about having bees or not in the city of Jackson but out of courtesy for my neighbors in such close proximity here in center city Jackson I have chosen to return the hive body I won back to the Jackson Area Beekeepers Association for regiving next year. It is not really feasable for this garden home and urban farm to keep something I feel would be intrusive into my very close neighbors and after much thought and concern and talk about it, I feel I should withdraw my idea of actually using the hive to cause the slightest possibility of angry neighbors, who I am fond of all of them and in good standing with at this time.
Other than that and lots and lots of rain for many days on and off there has been a slow start to the community garden but we are on the way much better than last year. The same holds true for the urban farm here at the garden home. I think it will be soon though that I can get the spring garden in for both. Otherwise, things remain constant here and I leave you today with our ongoing gardening affirmation: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

GARDEN DADDY & URBAN FARM WIN BEE HIVE AT LOCAL BEEKEEPER'S SHORT COURSE TODAY

2011-02-26T16:43:00.002-06:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! Today I attended the Jackson Area Beekeeper's Association annual keepers short course. I must say I learned all I ever thought I wanted to know about beekeeping. It was very interesting and I had no idea some of the problems facing not only the bees themselves but for keepers as well.
I have long known about the hive issues going on as far as hive collapse, mite problems and really total disappearance of feral bees as a whole. Beekeepers are in a huge dilemma with keeping so many diseases and just pests in general from destroying the hive and total hive loss. I have learned that the cost of getting honey is about the same as this urban farm's cost of a dozen of this Garden Daddy's eggs...about $10.00 a dozen...and thus around $10.00 per pint. Just kidding on both counts but the "cost per" is not the issue but what real cost is worth the price of pure, fresh and home grown food stuffs. Truly, the eggs from this urban farm are NOT $10.00/dozen but are almost equal with store bought "natural eggs". Of course ALL EGGS ARE NATURAL! But with the ones I have here I consider them basically free range (they range free in their enclosure outside), completely steroid free, non-medicated in no way at all and I only use the natural product of Diatomaceous Earth for both worming and for mite control. We have discussed DE before on this site and you can search online for more information or go back to some earlier blogs regarding that product.
I had to agree to obtain bees this spring, take on a mentor, and give monthly reports for one year at the local JABA meetings, held the first Tuesday of each month. That is the partial running cost of the win. Not to mention I need to order my 3-lbs of bees plus a queen, then some other needed equipment and then I will be only feeding sugar and water to start till weather permits more blooms to arrive in the summer. Then other than weekly checks, they are and can basically take care a lot of themselves. Some maintenance and then yearly medications and you are good to go till fall honey harvest. I will have to add more "supers" later on as they build and add their need for more space for the hive brood and the honey they will make. I am thinking now of hot biscuits and lots of real butter and now...fresh, pure honey!
I will write more later on the subject of bees. If you remember I wrote last summer that I had not seen any bees really here all last year and I blamed my poor cucumber harvest on that fact. So hopefully this summer my home garden here at the urban farm will improve AND give up some good honey as well. So till later, I leave you today with our ongoing urban farming affirmation....and coming yet another step closer to our goal here: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

WORKING ON COMMUNITY GARDEN SITE AS WE PREPARE FOR COOL WEATHER PLANTINGS

2011-02-18T10:46:00.002-06:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! So nice to be able to get online and actually have a good system to visit with you through. I finally got my old system...desktop, old printer, large monitor, many-many cords, etc. out of the way, cleaned off & cleaned up and FINALLY got my new WIFI system up and running. This includes a new wireless mouse for the laptop, a new WIRELESS PRINTER and got the wireless router installed. Your Garden Daddy finally came into the 21st century. With all that said I will move on into urban farm business.
I made a stop over at the Jackson Community Garden Site #4 this week, where I dropped off I think it was exactly 30 landscape timbers that I got from my big box job site for around $0.51 each that had been trimmed down due to being in the cull/cut lumber pile. I plan to use them as bed outline markers to make a neater edge in the garden and make the mulching on the bed perimeters easier as well. I am not making raised beds with these timbers but rather using for aesthetics mostly.
I may however as I can procure more of these timbers for some raised potato beds. Now do not think your Garden Daddy is getting away from his firm belief in row gardening but if you will bear with me I will share with you my thoughts on this process. I say "raised potato beds" loosely as I really should say more like a "potato tower"! Either plan a trench or square or triangle shaped bed. Work the dirt in the base of the tower to loosen soil, probably do this BEFORE placing your planting "box" in the area. Then push your potato eyes about 1/2" into the soil and cover with about 6" of wheat straw or other weed free hay. Keep wet - not flooded but moist. In about 2-weeks you should have some green shoots popping up and then cover these with more straw. Keep this up all season. About 2-weeks after the tops die off it is time to pull the straw back and reveal where your potatoes have grown up and out into the straw and harvest your bounty. You can even start earlier with this process, when the earth reaches around 50-degrees, and then replant in mid-summer for a later fall crop.
The urban chickens continue in their early molt. Or at least half of them are or so. They are really a messy sight now as many of them are bare on their backs and bums. I would be freezing if I was bare like that out in the cold weather we have had the past two months. But at least they will be back feathered in by the heat of summer I hope. My egg production is about 8-eggs a day from the 16 hens now. So at least I am getting enough to eat and still give some away.
I will leave you today now with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

NEW COMPUTER ARRIVES AT GARDEN HOME

2011-02-13T16:44:00.002-06:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! It is nice today, nay...this very instant...to make this my very first thing I am doing on my new HP laptop. WHEW...I have waited patiently with frustration and ill will for my old desktop that had more issues than I care to relate at this writing. But I wanted to just mention, as this Garden Daddy promised to you all, that once I got the new unit I would be faithful in my writing again to you but still give me a few days to get used to everything. I was looking for the 10-key pad as I am in such a habit of using it, almost by touch, and this smaller keyboard will take some effort to re-adjust!
Allow me a day or two for some relearning and then this Garden Daddy will be at your service again. So I leave you this day with our ongoing affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

MASTER GARDENER GRADUATION BEHIND ME NOW AND ANOTHER WEEK OF DEEP WINTER SNOW

2011-02-07T17:51:00.003-06:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm. I would like to share the photos that were in the local paper, The Jackson Sun, from our Master Gardener graduation last Thursday evening, Feb. 03, 2011. My graduation group is in the lower picture with me in the back-left in the cream colored sweater (I look and felt like a stuffed baked potato!) and in the top picture is my group of volunteer who logged in at least 100 or more hours this past year to commemorate the University of Tennessee and the activities of the UT Ag Extension Service being in existence and active. I was named as "leading the pack", having logged in about 158 hours of volunteer service this past year. To those of you who are dedicated followers of this Garden Daddy know where that time was spent...that work of love and effort...the Jackson Community Garden Site #4! I am sure time will be well spent there again this season, starting I hope during the end of this month of February 2011.

I would like to share with you the events of today and that we got somewhere over 3 or 4 inches of heavy, wet snow today. I went to my job this morning early as usual on Monday with rain starting around 4:00am. By 9:00am when I left for the day, it was in a driving, blinding snow storm with heavy winds driving the snow so hard I almost could not see the road in front of me. I hope this weather sees some break in the next week or so and I can get back outside very soon. I am chomping at the bit to get out and do something. I have been in all I can stand. Of course I am out every day with the chickens, which remain constant in their 7 to 12 eggs a day from the remaining 16-hens. I will call them hens now even though they are not OFFICIALLY hens till they are a full 1-year old. I am making some plans, if they finish their molt in time for our first poultry club swap and meet to look decent to sell all the Black Austraulorps, the Buff Orph, the Silver Laced Wyandottes and maybe another or two in the plan to exchange for some new chicks of the Welsummer breed and maybe another Ameraucana or two. The black birds have been good layers this winter but I am looking for the darkest egg layers I can get as well as the tinted green layers which have been VERY GOOD and CONSISTENT egg providers.

I leave you then today with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

GARDEN DADDY PREPARES FOR FULL MASTER GARDENER CERTIFICATON GRADUATION

2011-01-27T18:34:00.002-06:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! One more week, next Thursday Feb. 03, 2011, will be our intern class graduation to full Master Gardener status. I am so excited to be included with my group of graduates this season. It has been over a year since the fall of 2009 when my intern class sat for our classroom studies and then over these past 17 months of volunteer work to complete our needed time and devotion to our chosen projects to get us to this point. Many of my class have logged over 100-plus hours of volunteer time during the 2010 service year. My work with the Jackson Community Garden project has afforded that opportunity to me as well. The work with JCG became more though than just another service project to log hours through. The JCG has given me the opportunity to work with a group of volunteers who for the love of gardening and the love of teaching others how to garden and a chance to serve my community. But in the most real way, I feel that the community garden project gives us in the Master Gardener group a chance to do what really embodies what our goal and pure essence of being a MG...in my own mind, it is that service & education through gardening that reflects the MG mission statement. I should have some photos of the graduation ceremony next week to share with you. To say excited is not even close. I am elated!
I continue to get eggs daily, anywhere from 7 or 8 to a full dozen. About half of the birds continue to be in molt, even in this frigid cold weather and with lots of snow and below average temps. I have received the chick order list from my favorite feed store and one of the owners, Ginger, at R & J Feed for this springs delivery. Temptation...temptation...temptation! The West TN Poultry Club I am associated with is having our first 2011 Chicken Swap in Millington, TN on March 5th at Tractor Supply and I am very tempted to move about 5 or so birds on down the road in a swap for outright sale. I am wanting to get some of the Welsummers birds one of our group has incubating even now. I would also like a few more of the Ameraucana pullets, the tinted egg layers. They have been the most consistent layers I have really had other than the Speckled Sussex, Silver Laced Wyandottes and the Barred Rocks. My problem is I want them all and even more. I have always enjoyed being around chickens and have longed for a while now for more room to have what I want.
I often think as you have heard me say in the past, how I would love to have about 5-acres to spread out on and really become more self sufficient and have more place to "play" with my critters, more garden space, etc. But in this economy I plan to just stay put for now and keep my little urban farm as it is.
I leave you this evening with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

THEN THERE WERE 16...

2011-01-17T12:48:00.004-06:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I would just like to relate to you that I have found one of my Black Austraulorp pullets STIFF AS A BOARD today and not from the cold either! I mean...T...I...M...B...E...R.........! I am down to 16-birds now. Between the gifting and the two natural deaths and the one I had to put down with the cross beak, I have reduced my own flock naturally really. That is not bad though that in about 10-plus months I have really only had two (2) fatalities. I think from all indications that both "natural deaths" were from being egg bound really. If not egg bound, as they really have not had those symptoms, I understand it could be that they had developed liver problems that lead to heart failure. With them being perfectly healthy, red combs, laying well, etc. one day and just stiff as a poker the next the heart attack sounds good to me. I know it is not worms, mites or other poultry issues and this sounds the most likely at this point.
So with 10-eggs delivered today and now down to 16 birds I leave you with our ongoing garden affirmation: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

MID-WINTER GARDEN CHORES

2011-01-13T07:59:00.002-06:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm. I would like to share with you in advance an article that is scheduled to appear in the February Madison County Master Gardener Newsletter in February 2011. I was asked to submit some ideas as often as possible to help out with some gaps there have been in trying to fill space. Who knows...this Garden Daddy may get a "URBAN FARM" corner in some publication sometime! For those of you who are wanting some winter gardening tips...here it is as submitted (how it gets published is another story):

MID-WINTER GARDEN CHORES

Welcome to the world of mid-winter gardening tips to get us ready for an early spring gardening session. These a few things we already know but can all use some reminders. January & February always seems to be so cold and very lack luster with the holidays just behind us and the pace has slowed down. That is true but not in the gardening world. There are many projects to occupy those days when it seems the sun will never shine again and the grass will never green back up
For those of us who have not cleaned off last summers' garden leftovers this can be the perfect time to clean off the now dried up debris and tidy up a bit. For those of us with compost bins, we have probably have already added most everything into that or otherwise discarded. No use waiting and thinking you have run out of time to clear off your vegetable garden site and now it is time to replant for this spring. Get it done now. Also in February, you can go ahead and add some lime to your gardening sites as in most forms we use it (either pelleted or ground) it takes some few months actually for it to break down for usable purposes. Actually liming could have been done this past fall and worked a few inches into the top of the soil.
February is also a good time for us to build or repair our cold frame & raised beds, order seeds, and get your lawn equipment serviced (most repair shops are a little slower this time of year and you can usually get in and out sooner than later with repairs & tuneups). It is time to prune some of your woody plants like grapevines, lilacs and fruit trees. You can paint your lawn furniture on warmer days, get your seed flats ready. One of our least favorite chores is tool sharpening. When doing this project yourself, remember to wear a good pair of leather palm gloves to protect your hands when using a file on hoes or mower blades, etc.
In February you can actually go ahead and start your cool season seeds in the prepared flats. These would include cabbages, broccoli, onions, etc. For the last week of February you can get your garden patch ready for some warmer weather veggies and cover with plastic or add to the cold frame. These would include carrots, lettuce, other leafy vegetables. I have even heard of some folks planting some potato "eyes" by the last week of February, planting around 8" deep, adding a layer of wheat straw UNDER the potato eyes, covering with the 8" of soil, then adding a heavy layer of wheat straw mulch on top of soil then adding another 1" of soil on top of the thicker wheat straw mulch and they were harvesting by the middle of the summer. Of course here in our often unpredictable Zone 7 in the mid-south we can have a good freeze late in the season. But with the 8" planting and heavy mulch on the potatoes you should just make it here. I might have to try this one in the near future myself.
So get out there, put on an extra layer of clothing and get some crisp, fresh, winter air and get a jump on things to come and let your garden shine and provide you with an early harvest that extends your growing season into almost a 9-month event with a spring, mid-summer and fall gardening session. And with any results at all, your freezer and pantry could be over run with good, healthy, home grown produce. In some cases I know of as well, some of our number have added a small backyard flock of laying hens, even in mid-town Jackson, where not only do we have our home gardens but where the eggs are fresh, non-medicated, steroid free and there is always LOTS of fertilizer mixed with straw, garden refuse and natural elements that can go back into the garden as well. I just threw that in for your thoughts on these long, gloomy winter days when our mind wanders through the seed catalogs and poultry supply catalogs and we place our orders from both! And as I say in my blog with our ongoing affirmation:"URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

So to all you regular Garden Daddy followers I say happy winter gardening and keep up with your chores and keep your own URBAN FARM a star in your own neighborhood!

BACKYARD CHICKEN KEEPERS WORRYING ABOUT FROZEN EGGS THIS WINTER

2011-01-12T13:21:00.003-06:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I have heard your murmurings and concerns about finding FROZEN eggs in your chicken houses and coops these extra cold days we are having this year. Funny thing about eggs though. Unless the shell is cracked due to the freezing, the contents are still perfectly fine. If the shell is cracked because it has frozen then this Garden Daddy will throw it out or feed it to the furry critters here...namely "Max" the Silky Terrier here at the urban farm, mixed in with his food. If it is frozen and NOT cracked, it can be put in a zip lock freezer bag with others you might collect during a certain period and then used for cooking, baking, etc. You CAN still eat as regular cooked eggs but the yolks might not stand as tall and the slight change in taste might be noticeable. But you can still use any frozen eggs you might collect. If you are selling them you might try just warming them a little at the time and be sure to mention they MIGHT have been frozen at some point to your customers.
I will also mention again that the only reason I have been using a heat lamp in my coop this year is that about one half of my 10-month old laying pullets are in an early molt situation. They re shedding their original adult feathers and getting in new ones. The only problem this creates is that a lot of bare skin is showing and the new feathers have not come in yet as quickly as they need to during this cold weather. The heat lamp just protects against some frostbite I think anyway and gives them at least the opportunity to try to warm their backs for a bit. And the extra heat in the coop helps keep the water fount thawed as well.
So I leave you today with our ongoing affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

GARDEN DADDY WORRIED ABOUT YOUR BACKYARD FLOCKS

2011-01-10T17:28:00.002-06:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I would like to state at the beginning today that I am in full apology for still depending on this old computer and having been so far from you all at this time. I have not abandoned you but am simply having to keep my computer usage very limited to basically email and personal business. It is VERY-VERY SLOW and even tries to open programs all by itself. I have taken the original one that crashed to the "GEEK SQUAD" for a check up and it was not repairable for under a huge fortune of money. Then I reconnected the OLD desktop back up and this has as many problems and again I am making plans and researching a new system that hopefully will arrive shortly after my income tax refund does this year, probably in late February.
Now on to my REAL business...I have some concerns that have been raised by a phone call today that some of you out there in the backyard chicken flock keepers are getting a little either concerned or disheartened by the fact you have stopped getting any eggs, even from supposedly good winter layer birds. I must remind everyone that these flocks have little real requirements...food, water & daylight! A good worming and de-licing occasionally doesn't hurt either. That can be done with something I have mentioned before...something called "DE" or food grade DIATOMACEOUS EARTH. Sounds a little like a Star Trek thing right? DE is the remains of microscopic one-celled plants that were once under water and that are now mined and processed. Make sure it is FOOD GRADE! See below for more information.
http://wolfcreekranch1.tripod.com/defaq.html
You can get it at your local feed store or co-op. That CAN be one cause of laying stoppage. But most likely you must take into account that as I have often spoken of in past postings that a good general diet, including fresh greens, maybe a few more whole grains in cold weather and a MINIMUM of 12 to 15 hours of light a day, either natural or artificial will make a difference. It takes light to make your birds feed...feed turns to protein...protein turns into egg production. You MUST provide adequate lighting.
It might also be that your birds are in the stages of an early molt. I have 17 remaining birds from the original flock after donations and 2-losses. I have about 1/2 of the flock now in a heavy molt...YES right here in the midst of winter with snow on the ground today even and them about 10-months old. I am not only running an infra-red heat light but an additional flood light pointed on the water fount that keeps the water thawed and adds a little "daylight" as well, forcing them to eat a bit more and then keeps at least some laying. I have like I said about half of the flock molting, a little early I think, but I have several friends in my Master Gardener group with birds who are going through the same thing. I have the extra clear flood light on a timer that gives me an extra 4-hours lighting each day and on freezing nights have even left it on all night. But the molt will cause an egg laying hiatus all on its own.
Keeping backyard chickens is a wonderful hobby and lots of fun and a good conversation topic among folks who are clueless to anything "barnyard-ish"! But it is not like keeping a cat or a dog who you can ignore and life goes on. It does take some thought, planning, a strong stomach to a certain point (dealing with illnesses, chicken fights, poop everywhere, etc.) and more than just something you "THINK" might be fun. You must spend time with them daily and keep them in a tame mode otherwise you will end up with basically feral chickens or just another flower pot to water. Keeping something alive and truly living takes a little more than that. My middle brother would LOVE to have chickens, goats and more but he and his wife travel so much it is just not realistic for them to add those projects to their life. It is nice and a nice thought...but the facts are that they are like children, pets, keeping ANY living thing.....it takes some kind of commitment on ones part to make it work and work well.
Not to again blow my own horn (I promise, no more shofars!) but in all the molting, loss of natural daylight and the colder weather, I am averaging still about 5-1/2 dozen eggs a week from my 17 birds. I have been providing extra whole grains in the way of extra scratch being fed, buying some marked down lettuce heads from the grocery, some sunflower seeds (large 40# bags from the Home Depot for around $8.00/bag) some dried oat meal (whole rolled oats - long cooking type) and adding the DE to the regular chicken layer crumbles...just in case! I also did a coop and bird dusting to keep down and prevent mite infestation. I have not found any upon inspection of any birds but if one has it they will all have them. So far - so good - but not taking any chances.
Now to those of you who think backyard keeping has turned out to be less like Foghorn Leghorn and more like Green Acres and you all feel more like Zsa Zsa, my suggestion is to invite some friends over on one of these weekends and fire up the grill for some Bar-B-Que chicken or some fried chicken for the preacher on Sunday. So I leave you today after missing you all so much (& please bear with me on my computer issues) with our ongoing affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

WISHING EVERYONE A HAPPY NEW YEAR

2010-12-31T07:37:00.004-06:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I am taking a moment to wish everyone a very Happy New Year and a great 2011! Remember to garden with purpose and mostly for FUN! And as always..."URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

2010-12-24T07:03:00.003-06:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! So sorry there have not been postings this holiday season but due to some computer issues I am still laying low on daily computer use. But I could not let the day pass without wishing all of you a VERY VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

I must share with you that this garden home has won 2nd place in the city-wide Jackson Beautiful Holiday Lights for my mid-town area! I did not know it was even going on but was voted by call ins to the local paper, The Jackson Sun: http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/jacksonsun/access/2219358481.html?FMT=FT&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&fmac=25fd50c58792390b235beb3ec27ff3d3&date=Dec+22%2C+2010&author=JACQUE+HILLMAN&desc=City+announces+winners+of+Holiday+Beautiful+contest

Just to update on the progress of chickens and their laying in these cold days...I did a good thing by choosing good, hearty winter layers as I have been getting anywhere from 10 to 14 eggs from some 17-pullets this year so far. I could not be more pleased.

So I leave you this lovely holiday with our ongoing affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

(NOTE: Photo above NOT from this garden home!)

GARDEN DADDY HAS CRASHED THE COMPUTER

2010-12-10T09:35:00.003-06:00

HELLO & WELCOME to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I want to report a short posting that I am not online just now due to the tremendous crash of the office computer. There will be minimum postings till I get a new unit - sometime AFTER New Years this year. I apologize for this problem but budgetary limits require I wait till after the holidays to try to replace the computer. It will take more to repair the old one than to purchase a whole new unit so I am waiting to replace it.
I want to say a HAPPY HOLIDAYS to you all and hopefully can give you a Christmas Eve note at least. Love to all and see you soon! And remember..."URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

GARDEN DADDY HITS NEWS PRINT BY WAY OF COUNTY MASTER GARDENER NEWSLETTER

2010-11-28T07:26:00.003-06:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I must share with you the fact today that I have found myself in print in the December 2010 Madison County (Tennessee) Master Gardener Newsletter! I was asked to do an article on some of the pallet deconstruction/re-construction projects I have done over the past two years. If you regular followers remember, we have seen projects in the works here at the urban farm by way of the pallet compost bin, the potting bench for re-potting plants/storage, the garden bench seat for the community garden project this past summer. And do not forget the chicken coop nest boxes that were built last spring for the now laying pullets that use it daily with joy.

To access the article, go to: www.madisoncountymg.org/newsletters/Dec2010.pdf

This might be a little bit of again, "blowing my own shofar" , but as my Mother used to say... "why have a dog and bark yourself"!

So I leave you today with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE

2010-11-25T16:57:00.002-06:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! UGH...Boy am I full! We went to eat today over at Chickasaw State Park Lodge Restaurant where for a good price you can get very filled up on all the Thanksgiving standards plus MUCH MORE and get up and leave the dishes and the 2-days worth of cooking behind for others to worry about. Not to mention sit in the restaurant on a hill and overlook the beautiful lake below through the now bare tree limbs and as we did today, watch a beautiful Cooper's Hawk swoop around the treetops and then glide down over to the lake below looking for a washed up fish or a mouse in the grasses.
But I could not let this next to the last holiday of 2010 end without sending out my warmest wishes for you and your family to have a wonderful evening and hope all your blessings and needs are met. HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM THE URBAN FARM...A 13-EGG DAY TODAY!

MUCKED OUT CHICKEN COOP GETS TILLED UP INTO URBAN FARM GARDEN SITE

2010-11-21T08:50:00.005-06:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! Yesterday, I mucked out the now quite wet chicken yard due to some damp, wet days here in Jackson this week. I had not cleaned it out for about 2-months, which has been the norm here. I could go longer but due to the close proximity of my neighbors here in the city center of Jackson, TN., I try to be a little more courteous to the neighborhood and keep it pretty cleaned out. I want you to look at how rich my already black soil is in the garden site and now with this addition and with the next 5 or so months to "cook off" during this winter and early next spring and be less toxic to the plants that will go in then. I can probably start in late February 2011 and put in some spring greens that will tolerate the nitrogen well enough to get some early plantings started.

Hopefully, if you are working with your own urban flocks or even your small farming operations and have fresh manure available, you will follow this Garden Daddy and add your own fertilizer to your garden site. I may have mentioned before that if one has enough room for a hog or two, you should make some temporary paddocks for them, with some shelter available, in an area you would like to garden in next year. Put them in the area with temporary fencing in place, let them dig and root around and get out roots, brambles and brush and along with fertilizer they will add and then next year you will have a wonderful, worked up garden site that is all ready to go. Then move them to another area. This will give you some rotation areas and then go on and on. You can do the same in your backyard with a "chicken tractor", a coop that is mobile on wheels and moves from place to place, clearing bugs, weeds, seeds, etc. and then adding fertilizer at a new place each day. That was my original plan here but decided on more birds and that would not work then.

Enough...enough...So I leave you today with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE (or 1-dozen) EGG AT A TIME!"

GARDEN DADDY ASKED TO MAKE HOLIDAY DECOR DONATION FOR HOME TOUR LUNCHEON DOOR PRIZE

2010-11-20T08:40:00.004-06:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I do not remember if I have shared with you that I am on the advising committee for the LANA Holiday Home Tour this year. I guess after my success last year with this very garden home being such a hit, it was thought I might give my advice and support to the "newbies" this year. In our meeting last weekend, I was asked to do a "Mike Millson Original" for a door prize donation to be given away during the home tour luncheon.
Since it is the holiday season now, with Thanksgiving less than a week away, I thought anyone in the LANA area would appreciate a traditional Holiday wreath with reds, greens and gold with traditional plaid ribbon. Red berries add some bling to the otherwise plain green wreath and make it stand out with more width and bring your eye to the entire framework of the piece. I hope it does not embarrass this garden home/Garden Daddy with its simplicity but I made something I would like to get so I figured someone else would like it as well. Again, due to our historic area here with our older homes, hopefully whoever wins this will feel the same way about something traditional.
I leave you with today's garden home affirmation: "THE GARDEN HOME: ONE WREATH AT A TIME!"

YET ANOTHER RECORD EGG DAY HERE AT THE URBAN FARM

2010-11-19T18:01:00.003-06:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! Can you believe it? Here at this time of the year, when most pullets SHOULD be slowing down laying, my little girls are picking up the pace. But those of you who have been following my postings all along since the chicks started arriving last April will remember that I made the plans and ordered good, winter/cold weather laying hens that would lay all winter long. Unlike some of the Leghorns and other layers that slow down in winter, most of my birds should keep laying well all winter. I just love the colors I get now, especially the dark ones from the Cuckoo Marans which you see one very dark one a lighter one that is not quite as dark but has darker specks on it. I love those best of all...at least the egg colors. I have some birds I think are more attractive but love those dark eggs!

Not much other news today here at the urban farm. I remain busy helping with the LANA Holiday Home Tour efforts as time nears for that and will be busy till after about the middle of December. Other than that, things are slow here and I leave you today with our ongoing gardening affirmation: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

RECORD BREAKING EGG DAY HERE AT THE URBAN FARM

2010-11-17T16:08:00.002-06:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm. I would like to tell you that as of today, Wednesday, I have gotten a total of 14-eggs this afternoon! With 18-pullets in the flock, it is a pretty good average to get that many eggs from them at this point as winter gets started and we are just one week out from Thanksgiving 2010. I had imagined back last April on the day I brought home the first batch of chicks from the feed store where I had ordered them that I would some day actually maybe get some 12 to 15 eggs a day from my chicks. I have given away 3-pullets and had to put one down as you know so I have gone from 22 birds down to my current total of 18.
I have donated some to our local soup kitchen, where their eyes lite up with joy and surprise with the thought of fresh, healthy, non-medicated/steroid free eggs for their clients. I have given some to every neighbor, friends at work and some other acquaintances here in town. As of today, I feel the work, worry, feed and every drama has been worth it now in the large payoff. This batch is going to Memphis tomorrow to some elderly friends in an independent living home. I had plans to try to make at least feed money from them and might still in the future but the reward otherwise in all the joy I get in giving these eggs away more than makes up for any other reward that might be gotten from selling any.
Sorry I have not been with you for several days but after the past few weeks of having all this garden home's plumbing replaced and upgraded and the installation of my first dishwasher here in the house - EVER - I hopefully am back with you, even if in word and not pictures at this time of the start of the hibernating season. So I leave you, as always, with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind, especially with the record setting number of eggs today: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

URBAN FARM HEADS INTO WINTER SLEEP

2010-11-04T08:51:00.002-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! While gathering eggs at a steady pace now of anywhere from 10 to 12 eggs a day now, the remainder of my center city operation of gardening and urban farming heads into a "winter sleep" as I have cleaned off all gardening debris and tilled the remainder into the earth for "on-site" composting to take place over these dark, cold winter months.
I am making plans for the holiday season fast approaching as far as decorating both inside and out are concerned. Of course, it will not be like last year with the LANA Holiday Home Tour decorating. If you have been following GARDEN DADDY this past year or so, you will remember that this garden home was the feature home during that holiday home tour season. And of course to brag a little...it was not only a feature home but the tour favorite of everyone who made the tour of all the homes. Anyway, I plan to put up only one tree this year and it will be a fresh cut tree this year. I am putting it up in the living room area. It will be a large, 9-ft Frasier Fir tree with plans at this time to make it, I think anyway, blue, silver, white and natural forest &/or apple-green on it. And of course clear lights as well. I have all the exterior decor in mind as well and have that pretty set in stone as to that decor. You will have to just keep reading and following future postings to see what this Garden Daddy comes up with.
Otherwise, in chicken news...on Saturday, Nov. 13, 2010, there will be a "chicken swap" here in Jackson at the local Tractor Supply, starting around 8-ish o'clock in the morning. I will not have any chickens to sell or trade but will be there to show support for the West TN Poultry Club and to show off some of the Cuckoo Marans dark brown eggs to the breeder I purchased them from and brag on my flock. I have some other winterizing things to share with you for education on winter preps for both the garden home and your backyard chicken flock. That is in upcoming postings. I have been busy here otherwise with the preps for all new plumbing to be installed this week under this garden home from the bottom up to all fixtures as well as the first dishwasher this home has ever had. YEAH....No more dishpan hands for this Garden Daddy after this weekend!
So this almost ready to hibernate Garden Daddy says goodbye for today and as always leaving you with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

AND THEN THERE WERE 18...SAD DAY AT THE URBAN FARM

2010-10-28T18:13:00.002-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! A rather sad afternoon here at the urban farm as after having made a quick trip over to Nashville, TN. today and returning home I made a mad dash to the back yard and check the egg count from the little pullets (not so LITTLE now!). I did not notice anything amiss at first and went about gathering a record number of an exact even ONE DOZEN eggs in I think it was my second Easter basket I got as a 2-year old in the spring of 1955. I use that basket to gather eggs in now. Anyway, I digress. I gathered the eggs and started looking at every bird as I always do and found "BESSIE", one of the Ameraucana pullets I named after my own Mother, with an issue. I named her BESSIE because as I have mentioned in these rantings before that when the pullet was only 4-weeks old she fell victim to a gene defect and her beak became crossed almost overnight literally, and has gotten steadily worse and worse all the time.
Again, digressing with the name thing...My Mother had an accident when she was "expecting a new baby" (yes, THIS very Garden Daddy) and in the long term suffered a life altering and life long handicap with an artificial right leg. But the pullet Bessie has gotten worse and not eating and drinking as well as she was & I knew it was not going to be long till I would indeed have to put her down. Today, I noticed blood dripping from her top, long and very curled under beak and she was acting very-very withdrawn with her head down. I have noticed all along that the other birds often pick at her crossed beak, as when she has food sticking out of her mouth or bits and pieces of food stuck on it where she is unable to adequately clean it off as the others do. I imagine that the other pullets probably were pecking at her beak, damaging the inside of her mouth and now with blood dripping out of her mouth and down her beak they were almost mauling her to get to the blood.
I knew what must be done. I will not go into details but with sad goodbyes, sad hearts and solemn words, I did the deed and she rest now in the urban farm garden site in one corner. She will go back to the earth and feed the next years' garden site and I will know she lives on in that and is not suffering now or hungry.
It has already been suggested I replace her but I think that will not happen. I have plenty with the remaining 18-pullets and will just make it fine. "Bessie" had not started laying and I predicted long ago that due to being smaller and probably somewhat deficient in egg-making sustenance, I was really keeping her as a pet and that is not wise urban farming for this or any operation and just postponing the obvious need of eliminating her from the flock. Not sounding rough but just facing the honest truth of what our domesticated gifts from the Creator are for. I love my pets, my chickens, my little Max-dog...but facts are facts and I did what I had to do. But one must deal with "livestock" as such. If it was a 20-year old pet dog I can understand feeling like my best friend just passed away. But in this case I was just showing true compassion for a suffering member of this urban farmstead and took care of the problem.
So on this less than productive (other than eggs) day, THIS Garden Daddy leaves you with our gardening and urban farming affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE (DOZEN) EGG AT A TIME!"

CUCKOO MARANS LAYS HER CHOCOLATE EGG

2010-10-24T12:29:00.003-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! Another landmark egg day today here at the urban farm. As I stated a few days ago, I believe the little micro egg from last week was the first little dark egg from one of the Cuckoo Marans and today's gift proved my right. This is the offering today and look at the dark, milk chocolate difference between my regular brown egg laying pullets and this very-very dark egg.
It is written by Ian Fleming in the James Bond 007 series that the Cuckoo Marans eggs (in French, pronounced Muh-ran) are the only eggs he would eat. It is also reported that 'Martha Stewart' only eats Marans eggs as well. It is often stated that these darker egg shells are thicker and thus either store or travel better and if placed on a flat surface the yolk has a tendency to spread out less and retains a rounder form. Of course for my part, I think the darker brown eggs are just beautiful all on their own just as they are. I have enjoyed my "celadon-green" eggs already, seeing they are green all the way to the inside of the shell as well.
Things remain dry here...drought conditions and a burn advisory as well. I see though today on the national weather as well as local that we might FINALLY get some badly needed rain late today through Wednesday this week. I wish it would rain every day this week for my my part. And on that, I leave you today with our ongoing garden affirmation in mind and as always, thank you for following Garden Daddy: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG (chocolate or brown) AT A TIME!"

SMALLEST EGG CONTEST UNDER WAY AT URBAN FARM

2010-10-17T17:19:00.003-05:00

HELLO & Welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! Another landmark occasion here today when I just went out to put the pullets to "bed" for the night and close them up and secure for the evening. We had a slow egg day today, gathering 8-eggs. Day before yesterday I got 10-eggs. But I digress...Included in this 8-egg day was the little dark brown egg shown above (top photo and bottom photo - right). I put it alongside the "original" winner (bottom photo - left) of the Urban Farm Smallest Egg Contest so you can see it is even SMALLER. It was not in a nest box but just on the ground by the 5-gallon water fount. I thought it was a piece of pine cone when I first saw it and had to look several times to make sure it was what I thought I saw.

I also believe it might be a "first" for one of the French Cuckoo Marans (pronounced Ma-rans). I am hoping anyway. It is pretty dark, not as dark as I was hoping for or SHOULD get but think it might be a start at least. I am looking any day now to go out and have a full dozen eggs or more to gather. Many of the 19-pullets have fully developed combs and wattles now, including the Wyandottes, the Speckled Sussex and the Marans. That will give almost all birds laying except for 2 of the Ameraucanas still do not seem to have been "on the nest" as I have seen. I have seen about every pullet that has been in the boxes at some point and have gotten eggs from under them while laying. They are all fairly friendly or at least "civil" to my approach, except for a few. Not to say all are laying but of all the ones I know that are laying I have seen on a nest at some point.

I have cleared off the garden site here at the urban farm and turned it all under with the tiller, running over it several times in different directions, to work in both some chicken house mucking as well as some of the dried up garden discards, straw, etc., that was mulching the rows and getting it ready to be "put to bed" for this year. It remains very dry here, not having rain for over 6-weeks now. I gave up trying to have a fall garden this time due to this untimely heat and continued drought.

It is late Sunday afternoon/early evening and I must leave you now with our ongoing gardening affirmation: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG, EVEN TINY ONES, AT A TIME!"

GARDEN HOME WINS AUTUMN "MOST BEAUTIFUL YARD" AWARD

2010-10-15T15:03:00.005-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! "I'd like to thank the Academy, my fans...I am just speechless! I love you...I love you all!" That is just this Garden Daddy quoting Corporal Klinger from the TV series "MASH" when he thought an article was being written about him being crazy dressed like Scarlett O'Hara. What a great surprise this morning when someone from the neighborhood association came around and rang the doorbell and when I got there it was one of the ladies from the committee and gave me the LANA Most Beautiful Yard Award sign. Now in the 4-years I have been here in this garden home I have won 4 different awards. That is pretty good I would say.

Of course now that means I am probably out of the running for a good while. But now that they are just doing "seasonal awards" it will take more to win I am sure. I think then I have won for the fall season from what I understand. Anyway...WOW!!! That is all I am saying.....WOW!!! I do get folks just driving by or walking by all the time though and commenting on my yard. And I do try to not only make it nice for myself but to instill in others or give an idea that might spark some interest in the neighborhood that could help others become interested in maybe making a little more effort in their yards that would not only help their own property value but that of the entire neighborhood as well.

So get out and get to work and tune up your own garden home and make yourself proud and others as well and give a neighbor a hand if necessary. So I will leave you today with our ongoing garden affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

CANADIAN GEESE (ARE THEY LIVE OR IS IT MEMOREX?) MAKE A STOP AT URBAN FARM

2010-10-11T14:58:00.004-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! As this garden home attempts to make itself more fall-like and decorative for the longest season we really have (Labor Day through Thanksgiving for our fall season) I came up with the idea to add a little whimsy to the process. I looked at one of my local sporting goods stores and found a good pre-season buy on single goose decoys. I thought a pair of Canadian Geese might add the idea and feeling of the Fall season and placed them around the yard flag which says, "Autumn Splendor". What better way to express that feeling than with this idea of fall migration and relatively inexpensive decor. I understand I am up and in the running and nominated for another "Yard of The Month" award, now given out seasonally instead of monthly. Of course, that is only neighborhood hearsay!

To update you on the pullets that are laying...Today, I got 2-celadon green eggs, which means that 2 of the Ameraucana pullets are now laying and may have been all this week and alternating days. Still getting around 6 or seven eggs daily now and lookin' & hopin' & prayin' for at least 15 daily in the foreseeable future out of my 19-pullets.

Weather still unseasonably warm and very-very dry. We have not had rain here for over

1-month and I am watering almost daily in my front yard to keep things growing and green during this warmer weather and keep the mums alive and looking as lovely as they are at full bloom out this week. They are truly beautiful here and I get daily comments from neighbors and drive-by's and walkers in the neighborhood. On this note, I will leave you today with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

GREEN EGGS & HAM...OR AT LEAST GREENISH EGGS

2010-10-06T15:39:00.003-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! It has been a while since I was with you last but you are not forgotten by any means. Yesterday, Tuesday, the little pullets really got busy. They delivered a total of 9-eggs including the greenish egg above that had to come from one of the Ameraucana pullets. I believe it was from the one named "Frances" that is a Brown-Red pullet. She was almost guarding the nest box area late yesterday afternoon when the egg gathering was going on and acting a little over protective in a way. But I thought you might like to see the "gifts" as they are coming in, especially for those of you who have never seen the tinted eggs other than the brownish tones most are used to seeing.

This give this Garden Daddy an idea about a future brunch theme..."Green Eggs & Ham" will be the theme I will use and make it work with these lovely, smooth and these almost moss green beauties. I can see a whole basket of them used as decor along with some sheet moss and maybe some other natural items...either berries or something like that.

I hope you are enjoying these little pictures and stories about the pullets. But I have really enjoyed having them here at the urban farm. So I leave you today with out ongoing gardening affirmation: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

FULL GROWN PULLETS HERE NOW

2010-09-29T10:44:00.002-05:00

HELLO and welcome to GARDEN DADDY here at the urban farm! I want to take a moment this morning and share with you some photos of the basically fully grown pullets I have here at center city Jackson, TN. I just came in from giving them their corn scratch and then added an over ripe watermelon a neighbor gave me to feed to the "girls". The first two photos are of the flock as a whole and the last two show two of the four, 2-Brown Red & 2-Blue Wheaten, Ameraucana pullets who will one day soon be giving this Garden Daddy the blue and green tinted eggs. The white Ameraucanas are called "Blue Wheaten" due to the cream main body with brown (or Wheat colored feathering) and some hints of gray-blue, which you can see under her neck on the "beard" of this breed. You can also easily see the "ear tufts" on both the Red Brown & Blue Wheaten in these photos.
You can get a nice idea of the coloration I have in my little backyard flock, some being the Barred Rocks, the Cuckoo Marans (that look similar to the Barred Rocks), both Silver Lace and Golden Lace Wyandottes (2 remaining SL & 1 GL, having given away 2-SL to a near & dear relative), Black Jersey Giants (& this Garden Daddy does mean GIANTS too!), Black Australorps, big Buff Orpingtons...hey, I think I got them all! And of course previously mentioned Ameraucanas. Going to the Jersey Giants...they are doing well by giving this garden home several double yolk eggs even this early in their laying career..."WELL DONE GIRLS"!
Not much other news. Still very-very dry here but cooler temps have arrived. Around 47-48 degrees in the mornings and in the mid to upper 70's for daytime temps but no rain to go with it so the fall gardening is on hold till we get some rain. Useless to plant greens or anything else till we get some wet weather. So the community garden is sitting there in "wait mode"! On that, I leave you today with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

EGG BREAKING RECORD ON FRIDAY

2010-09-25T09:28:00.003-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! Yesterday, Friday, was a record egg day here at the urban farm. I evidently got another pullet that has started to lay now. I got a whole seven - 7 - eggs! Three were in the same nest even. So that is a bit over 1/3rd of the pullets are laying now. Again, I have 19 birds so we are slowly getting to a full complement of layers here. I am still waiting on the Cuckoo Marans to start their laying to see just how dark their eggs are going to be. WAITING...WAITING...PATIENTLY WAITING!
I had another set of "visitors" this week as well. A set of raccoon babies has decided to winter over in the soffit under the eaves of the garden home. I was woken from a deep end of sleep cycle this morning around 5:30am when I heard a baby that was climbing up the side of the house fall and hit the top of the air conditioner condenser with a huge "thud". He tried several times to restart his climb. He ended up on the front porch and then when I went out there he climbed over the wall of the porch and successfully up to the roof and ran over and into the chimney...OH NO...NOT AGAIN! I have set a trap for them with some cat food in it but no catches yet...hopefully soon so I can repair their entrance area(s).
Sorry I have not been with you for some days but this Garden Daddy was taking the last of my vacation off from work and then back again. I was getting back into the swing of the work week as well as working on the lawn/turf here at the urban farm and over at the community garden as well. So I will leave you today with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

SURPRISE MICRO EGG TODAY AS FALL ADORNS THE GARDEN HOME

2010-09-14T17:47:00.005-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I have been getting some small eggs now for about 2-1/2 weeks and last week I even got a very large egg, which I ate this past Saturday that had double yolks. That in itself was a surprise but today when out to do my afternoon check on the pullets and give them some strawberries that I was discarding from being abandoned in the fridge too long I got a SMALL surprise. As you can see above, it was a tiny, micro egg that was not much larger than a standard $0.25-cent piece. I also put it along side two other eggs I got today at the same time. Later on I got a fifth egg, dark brown and regular pullet size. I think the last egg came from one of the Black Jersey Giants that has started laying now. So glad they are now laying. But I thought you followers might like to see this little treat. Almost round and not much of a point on either end. I hope this is the only one of these I get and am surprised I have not gotten more already.

This garden home has transformed its face on to autumn splendor. Summer decor and flowers are about gone and I have adorned the exterior with fall colors. I have placed bushel basket size yellow mums in large pots I already had but painted them to match the exterior trim work. I also added some cone shaped baskets that are faced with green moss and added some fall mums, mixed grasses and some late ferns and berries. Fall flags are also waving in early fall breezes. All in all, we are set till about Thanksgiving now and can finish winterizing the yard over the next 2-months or so. My banana trees will be dug up and put in the basement as well as digging up the large elephant ear tubers and drying them and putting them in winter basement storage.

Other work here remains constant. We are still harvesting okra from the community garden and working to plant some fall greens before putting that garden to be after this planting and late fall harvesting. Leaves are falling all over Jackson here in the third week of September but this Garden Daddy believes that it is from our still dry weather and unusually above 90-degree temps we are having. We had a slight rain over this past weekend but not enough to even make the ground get wet and take away the dusty ground and grass.

I leave you then today with our ongoing gardening affirmation: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

EGGS GALORE THIS LABOR DAY

2010-09-06T12:35:00.003-05:00

HAPPY LABOR DAY & HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I know, I know...I promised you over and over I would NOT get too "EGG-CITED" over this egg laying going on by the little pullets. But after being out of town from Friday afternoon this past week and returning home on Sunday afternoon, I had 3-more eggs in the nest boxes, 1 in one box and 2 in another out of the 8 nest boxes I have. i had already gotten one on Thursday and one on Friday. This is a good time to remind you that one nest box is good for 3 to 4 hens to share. Having 20 pullets that makes plenty enough to go around.
Well after work this morning, I went out to feed and give fresh water to the pullets and there were no eggs. It was still early, around 9 o'clock or so this morning. I went over to the community garden to pick okra, spray for Japanese Beetles, pick up garbage blown in or thrown out into the street area...general look-see and make a showing. When I got back I had a little garden insect spray left in my pump up sprayer so I used it and sprayed out under the pine trees in the shade to help rid some mosquitoes and I also sprayed on the OUTSIDE ONLY around the sides and back of the chicken coop, as this will prevent some unwanted crawly critters from entering that are not welcome...certain mites, etc. I heard one of the pullets just start cackling and really making a huge ruckus and went in and found one of the friendly Barred Rocks getting off a nest with a pale brown egg in it (one of the suspected culprits) and then one pullet, Miss Prissy, a Buff Orpington, still on a nest box. I gave her a little privacy and then went on with other projects. I then started to go back in the coop and when she heard me coming in she jumped off he nest and came running...remember, she is the pullet that has a strong affection for this Garden Daddy! So she abandoned her egg she just laid to come to get me to pet her and rub her head. She and the Barred Rock that are laying are the most friendly, other than one of the Ameraucana pullets. I think now I have had enough of the newness of it all and will just keep you updated at I start to get the bulk of the eggs. Lets see...with 20-pullets...that should be between 15 to 16 eggs per day on the average...that will be about what...say 15 per day for sure multiplied by 7-days per week...equals...105 eggs per week divided by 12 (1-dozen) equals about 8.75 dozen per week or around 9 dozen a week. I am glad I have a lot of neighbors, co-workers and friends who are wanting eggs. I will eat about a dozen a week so that will leave about 8 dozen to get rid of. No problem as I see it for sure. I know what I will be taking to any neighborhood association meeting or Master Gardener meetings...that's right, deviled eggs!
On to other news. The community garden I oversee is still putting out okra and lots of it. I would be getting even more if we would get some good rain here. It is still very dry, though somewhat milder and not as humid as most of the summer has been. I am waiting on some rain to plant some greens for the fall. I hope we do have a nice long fall. It has been so hot a nice fall would be lovely this year. In fact this being Labor Day, I plan to start later today or tomorrow to set up my fall garden home decor and I will post some photos on this site later this week. I have a new fall garden flag and lamp post flag that are a set and will show them later as well. So I will leave you this holiday with our ongoing gardening affirmation: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

I PROMISE NOT TO MAKE THE EGG-ISTENCE HABIT FORMING

2010-09-03T12:52:00.003-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! Like my headline today reads, I promise to not give you an "egg-by-egg play" of the happenings with the start up of the little pullets laying. But since this is still so new and egg-citing here at the urban farm and like a discovery now every day, I will tell you that Miss Prissy has blessed us again with another gifting of a lovely, dark brown egg this morning. Nicely shaded and even of color. She is about the most vocal of the pullets to date and she is always "talking" to the others. I think she is very much at the top of the pecking order anyway, along with maybe one of the Cuckoo Marans, who really thinks she is the top of the flock.
I will not detain you long but for you dedicated followers, I am just letting you know as stated yesterday, that the egg madness had started in earnest and now just waiting on some of the other 19-pullets to follow in her little steps. I am anxious to see how dark my Marans pullets eggs are, after seeing the result of their parents very dark, nearly chocolate eggs I shared with you earlier in the spring, actually on the day I got them. So I leave you today with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

EGG MADNESS IN THE MAKING

2010-09-02T20:32:00.002-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I just had to take a moment at the end of this busy day and tell you that a second egg appeared today. I found out earlier this week from a long time flock owner that you can tell by looking at the hen's "vent" who is starting to lay. And this week and again this morning I believe the delivery of both eggs has been "Miss Prissy", guilty on both counts. She is the Buff Orpington I put up on photos this week taking the test drive in one of the nest boxes, clucking softly and making a little nest around her and feeling all grown up and "motherly" it appears.
So, with that first egg last Saturday, I am going to assume the others are soon to follow and one of my neighbors told me today that one day I will just go out to the coop and start screaming with both joy and the overwhelming feeling I have too many eggs...NOT LIKELY I SAY! In fact tonight I attended our monthly meeting of the Madison County UT Master Gardeners at the West TN Research & Education Center here in Jackson, and sat with my former intern friends from last year and as we talked about the little hens I have and was asked if I would be interested in sharing some with them in the future. I said of course I would. So the need and desire for fresh, basically organic, non-medicated, non-steroidal, home grown and home fed by grasses & fruit/vegetable trimmings & good grains, causing happy producing laying hens giving good eggs is high and the demand for these products stands the test of any monetary value I hear. That very reason is why I hope and plan and imagine my future with a little more land in a little more rural area and enough room for me and my birds to roam a little more freely.
So I leave you this evening with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!" .....and waiting on MORE!

BUFF ORPINGTON PULLET TAKES A TEST DRIVE

2010-09-01T10:00:00.004-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! Yesterday afternoon, Tuesday, I thought I was getting a second egg when I went into the chicken coop and found Miss Prissy in one of the next boxes. Do you remember Miss Prissy? She was the skinny little hen on the cartoon of "Foghorn Leghorn" who Foghorn always tried to move in with to winter over. That is why I call this Buff Orpington pullet Miss Prissy. She sat in this nest the whole time I was giving my daily treat of scratch and looked out onto the others eating and "scratching" around. After taking several photos of her on the nest I left thinking I would return to find another egg. After about an hour I returned to find nothing other than the plastic golf ball I have placed in each nest box for incentive. I guess Miss Prissy was just doing a test drive. She was sitting in their, pulling wheat straw up around her and making quiet little clucking sounds and I just knew there was another egg on the way. But alas it was not to be...not yet anyway. Not even one today, Wednesday.

I will continue to wait...wait...& wait...patiently! Thank you for following Garden Daddy & I leave you today with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

HARVESTING FRESH BASIL

2010-08-30T13:52:00.002-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! We finally had almost a full day yesterday of "off and on" rain which we badly needed. But we still need much more really. It has and will help finish off the summer gardening, helping some tomatoes linger a bit longer here at the urban farm. The bell peppers and eggplant hopefully will get another surge of production I hope from this rain. I am almost ready to put in fall greens over at the community garden, hopefully later this very week.
I was out today here at the urban farm, gathering what few tomatoes there are now, even though they are very small. While out, I also picked some hot Cayenne peppers and two eggplant. I gave most of the tomatoes and Cayenne peppers to a neighbor to share what I had but I was also able to harvest some pretty good Basil for this time of year I feel. It has not been a good year here for me as usual in the Basil and herb area. I think the tremendously long heat wave we had along with the humidity just harmed so much of the entire plan and attempt here to have the usual over abundant garden I normally have had in years past. The Basil was a bit small where usually the leaves have been really huge and it did not take many to make a very nice Basil and Tomato salad, which I love greatly, adding some red onion and either Greek or Italian dressing or just vinegar and olive oil or other sort of vinaigrette-type dressing as well as some Feta cheese and maybe some good olives. But I got enough I plan to let it dry a little more after washing and have laid between some paper towels to take up more water then I will put in the food processor, add a little drizzle of olive oil and about 2-tablespoons of lemon juice (this acts as a preservative actually) and then put in small containers and freeze. You can do most any herb this way that you would normally put in cooked, hot dishes. If you plan to use it for anything other than as in a cooked dish it is better to dry it first, store in airtight containers and then crush just before using it. This is very similar to a pesto sauce but not really. I will leave the Basil in oil in rather larger pieces, not making it completely blended to the point of a paste, but more of a chunkier if you please type of cooking additive for sauces, soups or other such winter time feasting. This can even be thawed and added to a cut up baguette with a tomato slice and some cheese and then either toasted under the broiler or eaten with some paper thin smoked Salmon or with something you like for your own taste and recipe mix.
I leave you then this lite-harvesting day, steeping a pot of afternoon hot Black Indian tea, with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind & waiting on the next egg(s): "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

THE FIRST EGG!

2010-08-28T17:22:00.003-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! WHAT A GREAT SURPRISE today when I got home from my short overnight run to Nashville, TN. I went out to the chicken coop to check on the pullets and give them a little treat for the day around 2pm this afternoon. As usual, I walked into the coop and then into the hen house. I have been looking into the nest boxes for so many weeks now, only to walk back out with nothing but my head shaking, "No Eggs Yet". But today...TODAY...I found most all of the plastic golf balls I had put into the nest boxes (to give the little girls the idea of where to do the laying deed) kicked out of all but about two nest boxes and in one of the upper boxes I found this little pullet egg...AN EGG! I just about screamed loud enough to scare any neighbor who might have been outside. I felt like a grandfather who just saw his first grandchild nearly, even though on that front I am still waiting and my daughter turned 31 years old TODAY, by the way! I took it across the street to show my neighbors who were out on their porch and one of the ladies said she heard the biggest cackling going on over here at the urban farm today and that was the reason why I told her.

I am so thrilled to know that all these months of work and worry and trying to keep little newly hatched chicks warm in the spring and keep them from drowning rains and floods we had in early May this year...all this has and is about to pay off. It was a pretty little dark brownish-pink egg, about the size of or almost the size of if you remember those little "Silly Putty" eggs, about that size. All the grass clippings, melon rinds, chicken scratch, grower feed and layer mash, along with crushed oyster shells and crushed granite...all the planning and BEGGING has now come to fruition.

Now am I glad I have been saving egg cartons for months and months as soon I should be getting some 15 +/- eggs per day I am guessing. But of course that will take some time. All the birds will not start laying at the same time but at various stages of development just as humans develope at different levels. And of course they will not lay regularly at first but hit and miss. It might be a week before that same little pullet lays again. But hard to say with all the nutrition and protein I give them as they are well fed and basically spoiled. I have been trying to figure out who laid that egg but you cannot really tell except for looking at the vent of each bird. I am NOT doing that at this stage. I know it was NOT one of the 4-Ameraucanas, as they lay pale blue or greenish eggs.

But a good day overall and glad to finally get some hope for things to come. I will leave you late in the day this Saturday afternoon with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind for REAL this time: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!" FINALLY!

UPDATE ON COMMUNITY GARDEN SITE #4

2010-08-25T08:20:00.005-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! We are finally getting a little break from the tremendous heat wave we have had this summer. It is around 90-degrees and even down to 89-degrees for some daytime heat. It has dropped down to the 60's for night time temps even. On that, things here at the urban farm have already gone down hill as far as gardening is concerned. The massive heat has either burned up most every thing or kept it so dry I could never have watered enough to keep it going. Things are finishing up here. I am trying to keep the tomatoes, bell peppers and eggplant going for as long as possible along with the hot peppers and banana peppers with watering every few days. We have needed rain for weeks and with the exception of a very few afternoon pop up showers we have not really had the summer we had last year.

But I am heading over to talk about the community garden. I have really concentrated so much time on that site this year, almost to the detriment of my own garden. That is because that garden is feeding a lot of folks. We have taken right at 175-lbs of produce to the RIFA Soup Kitchen here in Jackson, TN. this summer. That garden got a very late planting and start but has ended up helping feed a bunch of folks from it. I have gone through over-heating, hard bone crushing work and the only thought I have had was the end result. My plan all along with my limited gardener of ONE really from the community was to give the bulk to the soup kitchen. But the community "AT LARGE" has been helping themselves to a lot of the produce as well. I have heard from all the neighbors around the garden that some folks even come in during the dark with flashlights to get vegetables from the garden. Now some of you might think this would be considered as "theft" but I see it as a "neighborhood in need" helping themselves to much needed fresh produce. If I am around when someone does a "walk-in" to pick off the street I try to chat with them about the chance of them gardening with the project in an official capacity, signing up to garden a plot, invest their time and energy and be a part of the process as a whole. That way they are part of the solution and not continue the cycle as part of the problem.

A community garden is not to be designed to be a "hand out" or "give-away" project. The Chinese proverb goes: "GIVE A MAN A FISH AND HE WILL EAT FOR A DAY. TEACH A MAN TO FISH AND HE WILL EAT FOR A LIFETIME." For me and my gardening house, I say "KNOWLEDGE IS THE BEST CHARITY" and if in my UT Master Gardener way I can share my gardening knowledge with others and teach someone how to garden and feed themselves and this space can give the satisfaction that they themselves have not only put food on their table but added some sense of pride and accomplishment to their lives then my goal as a Master Gardener and as a man has been met. Not blowing my own "shofar" but is that not our goal as human-kind toward each other? Man helping man to help themselves.

OK, enough "hot air" and on to other topics here at the urban farm. The bulk of the pullets turned 20-weeks old on Monday this week and the remainder are between 17 & 18 weeks old. I recently gave two of the four of my Silver Laced Wyandotte pullets to my brother to go with the other birds I already gave him that I picked up at one of the local chicken swaps. That brought my flock down to 20-birds. They have developed very nicely and are looking like real chickens now. Combs, wattles and that dinstinct cackle have come into play now and the golf balls are in the nest boxes to give a hint and the layer feed and fresh waster and greens are given and their little lives are full of good eats and I am waiting...waiting...waiting on that first egg! Any day I keep saying and hopefully that is truly the case from all I have learned in this process. Truly any day!

I will leave you then with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

JACKSON, TN FARMERS MARKET YEILDS LARGE CORN CROP

2010-08-14T12:12:00.002-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! An interesting morning here at the urban farm where my best friend, who is visiting to see after aging parents, and I strolled the local farmers market and found the wonderful "Peaches & Cream" corn selling from one local farmer for only $3.00/dozen ears. Well, we both got one dozen, mine for the freezer here at the garden home and the other dozen was processed for my friend's parents at their retirement community.
I shucked and silked my corn, cut off any bad and of course can you guess where it all went? You get the prize if you guessed it all went into the chicken coop, including the cobs after I cut the corn off the cob and milked it for the good juices. I will leave it in the coop for a day or two then go rake it out and add it to the compost bin. If I were on my (hopefully) future mini farm, I would be adding it all to the pigsty where everything would be eaten and adding to the more natural feed I hope to give them.
I dream of the day I sign this house off to new owners in a few years when I hope the market returns to some normalcy and I can find that perfect little "farmette" to start what I know in my own mind I can do and enjoy the very essence of a self perpetuating, self sustaining life. But I will catch you up to date in a few days and let you know how things are going in the gardens and here with garden home rehab, etc. STILL NO EGGS YET...any day now though!
So I leave you today with our ongoing gardening affirmation: URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

OPPRESSIVE HEAT WAVE SENDS URBAN FARM INTO BURNING TAILSPIN

2010-08-03T15:39:00.003-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! NEWSFLASH: Massive heat wave blankets the Mid-South like a turkey roasting under aluminum foil for Thanksgiving dinner. MAN...is it ever hot and miserable. I have continued to do my lawn maintenance daily here and at the Jackson Community Garden Site #4 where I work as the Master Gardener coordinator for that site. The heat is really bad but after being in it daily for months now I realize how built up to a tolerance of it I am. So as bad as it is, I stay hydrated by keeping 32oz bottles of frozen water handy, melting slowly for continued cooling water. I take several of these with me daily on my gardening duties around town and that is really a good idea for those of you out in this heat a lot. I take sports drink bottle and wash out and then fill with water and freeze every day and then take them out as needed or on the go, etc.

I am also keeping a box fan on the pullets at the interior wire door of the chicken coop. They are also getting fresh, cooling water daily. Those girls are really growing now and both combs and wattles are showing well and some starting to go red, meaning laying COULD start any day now on some of the early maturing birds. I so look forward to the first little pullet eggs. A good friend says I should take the first one and blow it out, clean it good and then put it in a shadow box frame and hang in the kitchen. I might just do that very thing! But the continue to eat a good, healthy diet of grass clippings, rinds, kitchen scraps and garden discards. They are particularly fond of damaged tomatoes or split ones I cannot use.

I have pulled up all the squash plants from the vegetable garden as the squash bugs completely decimated the main stems and thus the plants have died off. Not to mention again this heat wave. The tomatoes are also suffering as the heat I fear is causing them to burst and rot in place on the stems. I do not see how they are taking this 98, 99, 100+ temperatures like they have been. I have not been over watering so I know the splits are not from too much water as last summer with our cooler, wet year we had. So not much of a harvest has taken place this year compared to years past. I froze many-many gallon bags of tomato sauce/soup mix last year along with giving away many pounds almost daily as well as eating my fill at will. NOT THIS YEAR. I have not had near enough red balls of delicious acid nectar. My pullets have eaten more bad ones than I have any good ones. I could eat one now if I could find one decent enough to slice, salt and pepper and then tell you how great it is/was! But not in this climate this year. I might could find one or two for today. But it might be a little on the green side. I think I might have to start harvesting early, before they reach full ripeness to stop the sudden splitting upon that moment when they reach their peak. That might work and I will let you know in a day or two how that plan works out.

I continue work at the Jackson Community Garden Site #4 here in Jackson. I would like to report that as of last week that site has donated some 80-lbs of squash (plus some tomatoes form my home garden) to RIFA, our local soup kitchen. I am proud of that and the fact I have my only real gardener who is enjoying so much watching her very first garden give her fresh vegetables as well as her enjoying the flowers I added to her plot. I feel good that basically alone I took 2-vacant lots, donated to the JCG project by the First United Methodist Church of Jackson, and have turned it into a good space for gardening that is both productive, enhances the community and teaches others how to garden. That is the premise of what being a Master Gardener is all about and what I went through all the course training and study for and to boost up what I already knew. KUDOS to the UT Extension Service & the Madison County Master Gardeners and to all those who taught and directed the course for Fall 2009. I will graduate in February 2011 and should have over 150-volunteer hours to put me in good standing with my fellow graduating interns.

One more thing to share with you who have been with me for some time during last fall when I was doing some rehab on the old garden home. I have replace my old, solid wood back door that was sagging on the hinges and difficult to both open and close. I put in a new 15-pane steel door like I did on the front last fall. I also found the very same door handle set on sale at Home Depot and added that to make the front and back match, even though the set was a little over kill but with the back door being in the master bedroom, I wanted it to be a little nicer. I have really enjoyed having it in even for this one week alone. I no longer have to pick up on the door to open and close it and it closes with one finger really and the lock works for a nice change as well.

I will leave you then today with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

CHICKEN COOP GETS MUCK OUT

2010-07-25T07:52:00.003-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! This week was a good clean up time here at the urban farm. I worked on my own garden a bit (nice change from being all about the community garden and those others I am helping out in) and I was able to work some finished product out and prepare for a fall planting of greens. The summer squash is finished due to squash bug/borers that destroyed the main stems at the ground level and they are pulled up and gone now. Both summer and zucchini squash.
But the main project this past week was mucking out the backyard chicken coop. It was not bad for around 4-months worth of product. I had been putting all my grass clippings, other garden refuse, vegetable trimmings, melon rinds, etc. in the coop and about 3-weeks ago we had our last good rain. In the process and after the rain, we have had record heat and very high humidity. The remaining product in the coop did not dry out. I realized it was time for a mucking.
I removed everything from the coop I could, water founts, feeders...basically everything. Then I started in the chicken house. I had cypress wood chips in there and over time a good bit of wheat straw had made its way in as well due to feedings and the little pullets pulling it out of the nest boxes. So I got two good size plastic storage totes and proceeded to load them up to haul out. I backed my truck up almost to the coop door in the back yard and placed an old tarp in the bed. When I would fill up both totes I would move them to the coop gate then dump into the truck bed. I repeated this only twice in the house. So it took only 4-buckets of product to remove every thing and get it really cleaned out. Fresh chips were then added, food and water founts and I shooed the flock into the house and they stayed there while I started on the run.
Then I moved to the outside yard part. I started in the furthermost corner and took the flat shovel and started scooping out. I filled up the two totes quickly in this part. I took the product down to the bare ground. Originally, I had put in 6-bags of shredded hardwood mulch as a base and good drainage for the coop. I took all this out along with the other material that had built up along with the manure and other refuse in the coop...all the way to bare ground as originally started. After exactly 16-totes full of product dumped into my truck bed, I raked up with a fine metal lawn rake the remainder of loose manure, straw, mulch and other product that was left. This product was very small, fine particles of good usable material and I added this material straight into the area of this urban farm vegetable patch where I plan to plant a fall bed of greens in about another 10-days or so. I am watering it about every other day to help it burn off some of the nitrogen heat quickly.
After this complete mucking out, I added 6-bags of fresh shredded hardwood mulch back to the coop to start again. I have realized I could have put off mucking at this time if I had not put so much grass clippings in as well as the wheat straw and possible too much organic material. I have since this week put in a controlled amount of fresh organic material, using a garbage can lid with grass clipping in it instead of just dumping 2-plus bags full of clippings all in the coop and letting that build up. I will still give fresh material almost daily but will force more eating of the layer crumbles they are on and offer the green material in a more controlled way and not in bulk as I have been. They are by no means denied anything but given when I want them to have it and not "at will". At least for the time being. Then when I am able to reach my 2-year goal of moving to the mini-farm, I will have them more in a free range type of environment. Or at least some birds free ranging for eating bugs, etc.
My long term goal is to get enough of the breeds that are on the slide or endangered and try to produce enough fertile eggs and chicks to be able to provide them to other collectors and hobbyist and chicken fanciers. That would be my ideal situation. And in the plan I have, I look to become as self sufficient as possible. I was privileged to visit a fellow UT Master Gardener yesterday and her husband about 20-miles east of Jackson down I-40 who live on 15-acres and saw their operation and was very impressed. I was also generously given a pint of their freshly gathered honey from their hives. Did I say I was IMPRESSED? VERY IMPRESSED! I thought I had died and arrived in nirvana it was so wonderful there. There were only 2-miles off the interstate highway but you felt like you were miles from now where really. Lovely area and well hidden from view. Makes me think of my future and where to look for "the farm"! KUDOS to my new friends!
Things continue about the same at the Jackson Community Garden Site #4. I have added some fencing around the tomatoes as the local squirrel population seems to have located the main tomato patch that has been deemed for donation to the local soup kitchen, RIFA, and carry off half eaten green produce all over the garden site, leaving nothing to ripen for donation. Other than that, the rest of the garden is in full tilt and the cantaloupes and watermelons continue to add vines and small melons under the DAILY watchful eye of my only real gardener, "Mrs. G.". She has threatened bodily harm to anyone who touches the melons in the garden she says. I call her the Mayor of N. Fairgrounds & Hatton Street here in Jackson! Of course she gets a kick out of that.
I will leave you today with a few shots of the mucking of the backyard chicken coop and did I mention I put the manure product in the compost bin and will let it cook off a few months and then add it back into the garden for spring planting next year. Two photos of the mucked out product and the refreshed coop in shot #3. Have a good week and stay hydrated as we are still due for more scorching heat, up to 99-degrees here today. Still waiting on that first egg anytime now. And remember our ongoing gardening affirmation: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

BACKYARD PULLETS GET A VINEY TREAT

2010-07-17T09:36:00.010-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! The field peas have finished here and turning yellow, mostly from no rain or rain at the wrong time and they have just flat played out. So instead of letting 22-pullets loose in the garden with exposure to city hawks and the chance to escape over the short chain link fence in the yard here in center city Jackson, TN I just pulled the pea vines up and dumped them...YES, DUMPED THEM...over into the coop for their dining pleasure. And boy are they ever thrilled. They will eat these things down to stalks, then pick and play with them as well, leaving "stem skeletons" and with the watermelon & cantaloupe rinds already in there from a day or two ago, I will then go in and just rake off the top and add to my compost bin, not only adding green material but adding the top layer of fresh fertilizer to the pile as well that will eventually cook off and be added back into the garden, probably next spring. The worst time, if you call it worst at all since the pullets arrived at 2-days of age here at the urban farm has been the first few weeks, about 4-weeks I guess. They were really no trouble then except for the fact I had them in a large recycled rabbit cage I shared with you early on in this backyard chicken process. That required weekly cleaning and other than that they are and have been nothing but joy, laughter and lots of fun and really no trouble at all. They eat ANYTHING...I mean ANYTHING literally. I give them all my grass clippings from mowing the lawn, usually 2 to 2-1/2 mower bags full about every 6-days. Then they are getting any kind of fruit peels and rinds, cleaned lettuce greens as well as damaged vegetables from the garden here at the center city farm and even some generous neighbors as well, waiting patiently for their first fresh eggs I will share for their patience with me having them in the first place in their back yards so to speak.
I have enjoyed this urban farming idea very much since the inception of turning some flower beds into more of a self producing plot of city lot. HA, you scoff...farm indeed! Well, MY urban farm anyway. I have a vegetable garden, flower garden(s), raise chickens to feed myself and others...so YES I SAY...FARM! URBAN FARM! Farm definition: "FARM: A tract of land devoted to the production of agricultural products and the raising and breeding of domestic animals". I rest my case from this point on for you scoffers and naysayers out there.
The pullets started this week on their new rations of oyster shell and layer crumbles, along with grit for digestion, to prepare the way for egg production for the early maturing birds. I have some breeds that do have moderately early maturing times...Speckled Sussex, the Wyandottes (both Silver Laced & Golden Laced), Ameraucanas (the tinted blue & green egg layers), Black Austraulorps, Buff Orpingtons, and the Barred Rocks which are rather early maturing birds. The earliest eggs could be as soon as the next week or two from some of these. The 2-Black Jersey Giants I have are very slow to mature due to their huge size, being the largest of the domesticated chickens for layers. They do not have a good feed-to-egg conversion but I got them mainly for a conversation piece...they are really large already and if they top out like I think, they will be a head at least about the crowd for sure! Then there are the the 3-Cuckoo Marans...the chocolate egg layers. I have found that even though the name "cuckoo" is supposed to represent the color pattern (similar to the Barred Rocks but more disorganized white stripes on black background) the name really represents the character and temperament, as they are a little cuckoo if you ask me. They truly run around like "a chicken with their heads cut off" if you excuse the quote. Quite the little clowns they are.
I leave you today then with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

RECYCLED PALLET BECOMES GARDEN BENCH

2010-07-16T09:41:00.003-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I finally found a couple of hours this week to make the pallet bench I have been planning and thought about for a long time. I wanted to make this for the Jackson Community Garden site I oversee. I worked about 2-hours on this project and the only supplies I needed was 2-shipping pallets, one (1) 2 x 4 x 8-ft long (cut to fit leg lengths) and a few 3"-deck screws. I would like to share the project with you today and now one of my gardeners over at the site has insisted we paint it white. So we are planning to do that today if the rain holds off a little longer this morning.
I am trying to spruce up a little over there as I hear through the gossip lines that there is to be community garden tour this next weekend. I want to show that even without any help from outside sources my site has literally grown into a really community show stopper...like out of the void something was created. We have already delivered close to 50-lbs of fresh vegetables from the community garden to our local soup kitchen, RIFA, here in Jackson. That was my main goal all along anyway as much as helping some folks in a neighborhood enhance their community as well as teaching others how to grow and raise there own food and be proud of the end result. The old saying about "Teaching others to fish feeds them a lifetime" is certainly true and quite fulfilling.
Now to find time for my own garden here at the urban farm. WOW...what a summer it has been. Drastic heat waves, weeks without rain, yards to maintain...my time has been used up this year. But all in all at least I have not been bored or without things to do by any means. To update the city chicken story, I finished feeding the grower feed yesterday and have started the pullets on layer crumbles with oyster shell made available. The oldest ones will be 15-weeks old next Monday and some of the early maturing birds COULD possibly start laying soon. So I wanted to give them the extra boost of the 16% protein and oyster shell needed if this happens in the near future. They are really looking good now, with combs and wattles starting to really come in on many of the birds. I think they are all pretty but of course I have my favorites. So I will leave you today with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind...but remember, recycle and keep those pallets from our landfills! "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

MANY PROJECTS UNDERWAY HERE AT THE URBAN FARM

2010-07-02T15:59:00.006-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! What a busy week we have had! Not only here at the urban farm but over at the Jackson Community Garden. I have added a good bit of "curb appeal" over at the community garden I oversee. I have added several plants there that are already in bloom now, but that will add some perennial returns in years to come such as some yellow cannas and some purple cone flower as well as the pink "Potomac" crape myrtles I had already planted.
I also took a few days off this week and visited my middle brother and his lovely wife in south-central Tennessee, close to the Alabama state line. We had a good time as always going "farm hunting" as well as a little fishing and some "picking" through some countryside farm yard sales. We also went to Fayetteville, TN to a well known fabric store where I got some outdoor fabric to make some new covers for my front porch furniture to update and add a new look with a very colorful fabric I will work on in the near future to recover those cushions.
I have had a little better week this week in the garden here at the urban farm where the summer yellow squash and zucchini have really gotten down to producing finally as well as many-many tomatoes and bell peppers have come. I have picked field peas once and froze some containers and they are ready for a second harvest really as of today...or yesterday. Also, I got some good field corn from R & J Feed this week while getting my last bag of chick grower feed. I cut it off the cob, fried it in a little butter and bacon drippings, salt & pepper and then ate a little fresh and then froze most of it for later use.
Speaking of squash, the Jackson Community Garden project I oversee has delivered a large mess of yellow summer squash to the RIFA Soup Kitchen this past week as well. Between the JCG and my own garden here I was able to give them a nice picking and have more today to send them on Monday as well of my own yellow and zucchini squash from this urban farm and then add to it from the JCG. Over at the JCG I saw this week that I actually have some cantaloupe and watermelons starting to grow and make a little showing. It was very exciting for my gardeners there to see the little melons showing up on the vines. We also had another visitor there this week...a little fledgling dove has made its home in the tomato bed where the ground is covered with wheat straw for mulch and has been eating some of the wheat straw heads with the seeds on them and feeling somewhat protected under the canopy of the large tomato plants.
This past week I also stained the deck on the back of this garden home and tried to do some weather proofing there. I am in the process of having a new back door installed on this home to match the front door I had installed last fall. I have a solid wood door now that is dragging some and I cannot seem to do enough myself to make it right and I already know I wanted another single 15-pane French door there and I am also adding a vinyl screen door on the outside of that so that I can leave the main door open when weather allows for more ventilation and for general comfort and the additional features that would take this home back to a more original theme.
I have added a photo here of Max, guarding his little pullets. They are growing so much and will be 14-weeks old on July 12, 2010 and could start laying by age 15-weeks. Max thinks he is part of the flock and the pullets could care less that he is so close to them, as he has been part of their little lives from the age of two days old when they arrived here at the urban farm.

Here is some of the corn I processed for the freezer. I put the silks and shucks in the chicken coop along with the cobs after the corn was cut off and of course there was not much left but bare, clean picked cobs when the pullets got finished with it all. In fact, I even put my field pea shells in there and of course I add all my grass clippings now as they love the cut up tender grass tips from mowing. I also always add any other vegetable greens or trimmings in there...tomato, watermelon, cantaloupe...anything really that is edible for us is edible for them plus much more. I will even add the pea vines when they have finished producing and I pull them from the garden for a fall planting of greens in that spot.

Here is the deck after staining a nice cedar color of "Behr" waterproofing semitransparent stain. I am please with the outcome here and it has made the back really stand out in a better way as well as weather proofing the wood. This should last from 2 to 4 years from these 2-gallons of stain.

Here is a look at the community garden and an arbor I built there this about two weeks ago. It came out OK and for a quick addition, it will do for some added curb appeal. As you can see from the main front area it will add a sense of a more permanent space and give some "garden entry" feel to make this spot seem like it was meant to be and not a chance happening. I have enough pallets now to make some park benches and will post them when they are finished, painted and installed at the garden there.

I apologize for being away from you for so long but even Garden Daddy's need a break sometime! I leave you today then with our ongoing urban farming affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

UPDATING VEGETABLE PATCH PRODUCTION

2010-06-29T03:21:00.005-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! WHEW...has it been hot & humid! We are experiencing above normal temps here in the Jackson, TN area and it has taken its tole on the vegetable garden. We had floods the first weekend of May this year and lots more rain in May as well. Then June hit and it went dry...dry...dry. The garden has looked beautiful though. Huge, dark green plants, larger than life themselves. I have looked and looked almost daily for produce as this time usually in the season I have harvested many cucumbers and a few tomatoes already. But then this past weekend I realized I have no bees like last year. The summer of 2009 my garden was inundated with bees and the blooms were covered and they floated from plant to plant and the harvest was on in a big way.
This year I have seen NO BEES at all and it seems there is nothing going on in the garden but a tremendous plant growth and blooms but no fruiting. I think the lack of bees and the humid heat are turning this years garden to just a lush greenery factory. Generally by now I have harvested many cucumbers and a few tomatoes before July 4th, but not this year. In fact, my sweet banana peppers are tall, bushy and vibrant green plants but there has been a single pepper show up on a single plant out of 12 plants. Again, I am growing a lush greenery garden.
I hope July shows some improvement and soon. I did see today that I must pick some purple hull peas tomorrow. There are not that many yet but a few and enough for a quick mess for one meal anyway. So at least something is coming in.
To update you on the little pullets I would just say that they are fast becoming LARGE little hens. Not chicks anymore by any means. They cluck when they hear me coming to the coop every day to open the door and let them have more air circulation and when they are watching me work in the yard. There are a few that even literally run over to me and cannot wait for a scratch on the back or under the breast when they see I am coming in to feed and water every day. I think I told you in a previous posting that I no longer give oatmeal as the main treat and they are now getting regular "scratch" feed for a treat along with their usual grower feed. Other treats they are getting are watermelon and cantaloupe rinds and trimmings, lettuce leaves from cleaning lettuces, etc. and I also am giving them almost all the grass clippings that I catch in the mower bag every week. They will eat two full bags in a very short time. If there were completely free and loose in a barnyard or larger area they would be foraging anyway for everything and this way they can stay a little more private and more controlled were they travel to in the yard and still have that sense of the digging and eating the tender leaves of grass and leaves.
So I leave you today with our ongoing gardening affirmation: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

HISTORIC DAY HERE AT THE GARDEN HOME

2010-06-23T09:56:00.003-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! WOW...What a wonderful day that took place here yesterday, Tuesday. I played host to some former owners of this garden home who lived here with their parents from around 1941 till around late in the 1980's, around 1988 or 1989. It was two sisters and their brother. I allowed them to roam and take pictures from all angles and we all talked and laughed and I heard marvelous stories of some of the past changes that have taken place in this house and home as well as their family history and the love, the grief, the laughter and the tears that have been in this garden home. Two sisters and a brother lived here along with their parents and often other family members, coming and going through life together! Isn't that the way it should be anyway? The day ended with a few weepy eyes and many-many happy memories brought back to mind and new ones to take with them for the future as well I hope. I also ended up with many answered questions regarding certain aspects of the house I had been curious about as well.

We all seemed to come to a like mindedness that we even felt like we had a connection and love for this house and at the end of the day, a fondness and friendship with each other. I provided a lite lunch by way of some homemade chicken salad (loaded with good red onion, bacon, celery and eggs and some Cajun spice) on a bed of lettuce and mesculin greens from out of the urban farm here, some strawberries and grapes on the side and some cantaloupe with scoops of lemon-lime-orange sherbet for dessert. We enjoyed a long visit and I had contacted a friend that is a writer for local magazines and articles for the local paper as well and she put me in touch with a columnist of the Jackson Sun daily paper and she came and did an interview with me on Monday and then sent a photographer during their visit and did a photo shoot to once again put this garden home/urban farm in the Homes Galore section of the paper again this next week.

There are only 52-issues of that Homes Galore and this will be the 2nd time in about 6-months that this garden home will be featured on the cover. That is just unheard of and quite a treat for this Garden Daddy to have this home featured and shown off to this community. I really wanted the paper to do an article on the visitors I had and their history and re-connection in this house. That was my intention in all this but something else happened along WITH the history connection. So I will have that little feature in my stock pile when time comes if and when I try to ever sell this urban home! I thought I would share a few of the fresh flower arrangements I made for the photo shoot.

I must leave you today to head over to water at the Jackson Community Garden site and take a look at that progress then I have another scheduled appointment with a friend to look at their garden and offer some "expert advice" but in a friendly way of course! Advice maybe...expert, well I don't know about that now! I hope you all are staying as cool as possible in this record heat wave we are going through in our region. It has really been sweltering, reaching 100-degrees here a day or two this past week with very high humidity. I leave you then with our ongoing urban farming affirmation: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

JACKSON COMMUNITY GARDEN TURNS A DIFFERENT CORNER

2010-06-18T08:29:00.007-05:00

HELLO & welcome to GARDEN DADDY here at the urban farm! After many-many weeks of your patience with my worry & major concerns regarding my site over at the Jackson Community Garden, I feel this week has made huge difference and that my site has turned a new corner and I must say for the better. I attended a meeting this week with our entire community garden group of coordinators and directors and advisers and after vocalizing my main concerns and getting some issues "off my chest" I think I see a new direction for at least my site over at N. Fairgrounds & Hatton St. I was able to transplant a Jackson Community Garden sign from another site that is no longer in use from last year and I think that the addition of the sign not only gave credence to the project but made it seem real to myself and to the neighborhood in general instead of just "something happening" down the street. I think this made the difference as well as seeing things really starting to grow and bloom and fruiting and putting some signs out there that the garden will help bring this neighborhood not only to life but maybe together as well.
I am completely tilled and planted for the most part and I have a little more space to put a few late summer things in for late tomatoes, a 2nd squash crop for late season, and then prep for a fall planting of some mixed greens of mustard, turnips (greens and roots), spinach & collards. This is my plan for my site. August 1st will the time to start planting the fall garden crop.
My plan is to add a nice scarecrow just for fun and add a few benches in the shady areas of the garden, made of course from recycled shipping pallets. I will show you these projects as they come to completion. I think I will put one seat on each side of the sign as well and maybe some sort of arbor as an entryway into the garden and then plant some roses or something to run up on the arbor, either blooming or edible, or a combination of both low bloomers with edible vines on them for a real entry effect as well. I hope to make this site the standard for our local community garden project as a whole. With me being somewhat of a perfectionist, where else could this go but over the top right?
So I leave you with these photos to update you on the looks of the garden at this posting and hope to follow up this next week with some benches, new floral bed around the new community garden sign I added and then maybe as time and "gifting" allows, a possible new arbor addition as well. I also leave you today with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind: "GARDENING: ONE YARD AT A TIME!

VEGGIE PATCH & PULLET UPDATE

2010-06-15T17:09:00.003-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! It has been several days since I have been able to spend a moment with you either in mind or to take time to update you on the happenings here at the urban farm. This garden home is being blessed with the largest plants I have ever seen to date here at the urban farm. I have never seen field peas or zucchini so large in my life and my sunflowers are already about 10ft in height. My tomato plants are loaded with green tomatoes and lots more blooms are coming on as well. My bell peppers are loaded and the eggplant is just starting to really bloom this week. But I say all that to say that I am hoping that all energy is not going into plant growth and not into produce. The pea plants are really huge. I mean huge, over 3-feet in all directions as well as the zucchini and many tomato plants are already over 4-feet as well.
I have about 4-pots of mixed greens on my deck here at the urban farm. I have 2-pots of mixed mesculin greens and 2-pots of bib lettuce, all of which are doing well. I thought you might get an idea of using some empty pots you have laying around to add an additional ingredient to your backyard menu of adding more fresh produce to your own table. For you "Provencale" at heart, the mesculin mix if often called Mache' or Lamb's Lettuce. It is a rather spicy mix of Arugula, Red Mustard, Endive and Raddichio...sometimes other varieties of lettuces. Add some goat cheese, croutons, pears and some Walnuts and you are set for some wonderful flavors. Add a piece of medium rare beef or lamb, a few oven roasted new potatoes with rosemary and olive oil and you are set for a feast for any guest or just yourself...who deserves it more, right? I need to stop as this menu could send me into orbit of flavor and taste "Nirvana". Okay, I see it now. A "Garden Daddy From The Urban Farm" cookbook & entertainment guide, right?
Here are some updated photos of the garden this week and a new look at how grown the little pullets are getting. I am a minimum of 5-weeks away from the earliest eggs I could be getting, as the oldest chickens will be about 15-weeks old then. But most likely it will be some time later but that would be the absolute earliest I could see the odd one or two pullet eggs. Also things continue on a regular pace over at the community garden. I will leave you today with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

INTERNET ISSUES AND SNAKES HAVE KEPT ME AWAY

2010-06-12T12:08:00.004-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I have waited for several days to be able to be with you here but due to a terrible storm we had on Wednesday night not only has my phone been out but my internet has been out as well. The lightning was so severe that it was hitting really in my back yard and I just knew that some of my huge pine trees would be hit for sure. It did not get them but came in the garden home and knocked out my phone service and fried my internet box outside as well at the "nic card" on my computer where you plug in the connection. I have been having "withdrawal" for several days and can finally breath a sigh of relief this morning.
Yesterday morning, I was in the veggie patch, tying up my field peas a little where this week of much rain had beat them down a little. I knew it would be hard to harvest and get in among them in a few days with they start to bloom and then pick if I did not do something. Well, I was picking up some of the vines and there lay a coiled and ready to strike snake here in center-city Jackson! You can imagine, with it being a totally unexpected find, that I not only cleared the picket fence surrounding the garden in one great leap but I squealed like a little girl as well. Of course then I had to look around to see if anyone had seen or heard me of course. I came yelling across the yard and ran and got a hoe and the hatchet as well. I saw him again and then he was moving so fast I lost him and he was gone. I did not see him clearly enough to know what he was but to me it was just a snake and that is all I know. That was enough to know anyway.
Daily work and maintenance continue here at the urban farm on the vegetable garden and flower beds as well as over at the community garden site.
I would like to update you on the little pullets here at the urban farm. They are growing leaps and bounds. Their feathering has been in for a good while and they have turned into some good looking birds. The will be 10-weeks old on Monday, June 14th. It will be another 6-8 weeks before I get any eggs. The earliest we could see an egg here and there is around 15-16 weeks I think and then they will be starting anytime after that. But I did introduce them to scratch feed yesterday. "Scratch" is a mixture of cracked corn and other grains and they seemed to really enjoy that treat. I have now stopped the oatmeal treat every day and substituted the scratch feed but am of course still giving them the grower/starter feed as well as the chick grit. I will all some new shots of them next week.
I will leave you today with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

GARDEN DADDY ADDS WORKSHOP LEADER TO RESUME

2010-06-04T07:09:00.003-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm. Last evening, this Garden Daddy was the leader and coordinator of a small workshop over at my place of employment on some of my favorite topics: Sustainable-edible gardens, composting, raised bed gardening, rain water collection as well as some added information I brought about how to read a fertilizer bag information & how to build a Lasagna garden (layered raised bed). I also planted what I call an Italian kitchen garden in a resin 1/2-whiskey barrel planter. I showed the group, small as it was due to a tornado watch in the area, how I recommend one should plant a container garden of any kind really. I showed how I use bark mulch in the bottom for the drainage instead of stones or broken pots, etc. Then for expediency sake, instead of mixing my own potting soil mixture, I used a bag of "Miracle Gro Potting Soil" to fill the container. Then I planted the items I had chosen earlier for the workshop. I put 1-Goliath tomato plant in the back, then I added 1-eggplant, 1-bell pepper, 1-sweet banana pepper, 1-pot of basil (I split this in to 2-plantings due to multiple plants in the seedling pot), 1-pot of rosemary, 1-pot of parsley and 1-yellow summer squash plant opposite the tomato so it would hang over the side of the planter like a vine with the weight of the plant and fruit on it. This went over well and the group stood up to watch how I planted it all in a certain order, according to height, etc., in the container and added the plant tags back to the planter so one would know what was what. The best part of this project was that I knew in advance that we were going to give this away to a participant by random drawing and it was the best thing to watch how excited everyone got when I told them we were giving it away.

I told them by no means was I a public speaker and I just basically talked WITH them - not TO them - and answered questions like it was a one-on-one situation. I went through the program for the most part but with the "Garden Daddy Twist" and basically just talked about what I knew and what worked best for me and my tried and true methods that have either worked or failed over the years. I had hoped for more people but the small group was fun and we used all but the last 10-minutes of the class period. This would normally have been taken up by questions and discussions about the participant's individual problems and with trying to solve them and to talk about their issues. But all in all I would say I was pretty pleased with the outcome and glad to have it out of the way and off my schedule now. I knew one of the class members and asked them to use my camera to make some shots that I could share with you here.

I know this is a little bit of "blowing my own horn" but being that this is really my first of possibly many events in the future and in my area of knowledge I just had to share with you where I hope this evolved, well not really vocation but AVOCATION, has taken me and I hope will take me in the future. My current plan has been & is to sell my current garden home and buy something more like a mini farm in the southern middle Tennessee area between Nashville & the Alabama line somewhere and have the REAL FARM feed me full time in the way of enough land to have a garden that could sustain milk goats, a feeder piglet, a feeder calf and produce and enough different fowl to raise and grow about 90% of what I eat in a natural, non-medicated and non-steroidal way. And in this way become as self sufficient as possible and then this Garden Daddy will really be able to discuss with you life on "The Farm" and not the "urban farm" in center-city Jackson, TN. The idea that I could maybe have a teaching "farmette" instead of a teaching "backyard" would be my ideal situation. Or maybe where folks can come out and see, learn, experience and first hand milk a goat, gather eggs, harvest produce and learn the "how to" of it all would be my long term goal. Dreaming...absolutely! Realistic...most probably! Time frame...18-months-2-years!

So this Garden Daddy will leave you today with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind for you this Friday morning: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

DAILY CHORES CONTINUE AT THE URBAN FARM

2010-06-02T15:59:00.006-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I want to take a moment today and stop and cool down and catch you up to date on the progress of the garden and backyard chickens here at the urban farm. After many warm, no really now hot days and the past two days in the 90's here in Jackson, I finally closed the windows and turned on the air conditioning inside the garden home. When I saw my little dog inside and calm and quiet and laying still and panting, I knew it was time for some cool air. I know it is summer now. I always try to make it till June 1st till I turn on the a/c. I made it till the 2nd anyway.
But on to the urban farm and back out doors. I thought I would share some progress photos on the vegetable patch in the back yard. I even found a zucchini that is ready to pick today. But I will give it about one more good day in this heat and it should be ready for sure. The variety of zucchini I planted this year is called "Black Beauty". It is a very-very dark green and hopefully as described on the seed package as tasty as it is lovely. But things look really good and I will share some photos below.

As you can see by these photos, once again this year I have used every available space inside and outside the fence of my yard to make the most of usable, viable growing space. I have addressed almost every issue I can think of in prevention of disease and insect control and in the weed control in the main garden. I have had more than one person, neighbor or otherwise, mention when viewing my garden that, "You really have this weed problem licked". BOY, little do they know that weeding goes on here on a daily basis and I do mean DAILY! It is not a "once and then done thing" but a true daily chore here at the urban farm. We have been getting enough rain every day or two and that has prevented the need for much watering to speak of except newly planted seedlings, etc. At this time, I also have 24-more tomato plants up and staked over at the community garden as well. Okra will follow shortly this week. As you know due to delays on tilling, etc. there, that garden will run a little late this summer.

To bring you up to speed with the little pullets I would also like to share some photos of some of the little girls, as they now truly look like small full grown chickens. I have reworked the main door to the run and coop a little to allow it to remain opened during the worst heat of the day in order to allow a little more air flow on a larger scale than just coming in from the top of the pen and run. It is like a screen door inside the main fence door. But take a look at the little hens below. You can see "MAX" checking out his little flock...they are not afraid of him even when he barks, as they have had him around since day-#1 when they first arrived here and now they think he is just another chicken I guess. In fact when they see him they run up to the screen door and try get his attention, which is really no trouble for that little Terrier! You may can see in this first picture where I threw a watermelon rind in the coop this afternoon and those chickens have stripped it down to the rind, seeds included! Thus the organic ideas of what I am feeding and giving them as supplement to their grower feed. And they are basically free and not kept in small cages.

You see in the immediate photo above these two hens, the one on the left is a little Buff Orpington pullet and you can see her comb starting to turn a little rose pink. The little pullet on the right is a Blue-Wheaten Ameraucana pullet, the tinted egg layer (1 of 4 Ameraucanas I have in the backyard flock) and you can really see her ear tufts and beard coming in nicely, a sign of a purebred Ameraucana. She also has green feet just as her 3-sisters do as well (another sign).

I have really enjoyed having these little pullets as a wonderful addition here at the urban farm. It has brought this homestead, small as it is and in the city center of Jackson, TN., into an almost ideal situation. I get free manure for the compost bin and garden, I will get (shortly I hope in starting in about two more months) all the eggs I could hope for and then enough to share with neighbors as I do the garden produce and it also gives one a true feeling that I am in control of maybe a little more of my life and living and taking that control away from others and giving this Garden Daddy back some independence and a sense of freedom, I am sure much like my ancestors must have felt in times past on their own farms in the rural areas of South Alabama and North Florida.

I will leave you today then with our ongoing daily gardening affirmation: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

"PERPETUAL HARVEST" - YEAR ROUND GARDENING FOUND IN JACKSON, TN

2010-05-29T14:44:00.006-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I usually do not try to offer my referrals to business ventures but I have found one I think you would thoroughly enjoy and that I believe fits into today's busy world and limited outdoor space.

I would like to introduce you to a business that has been here in Jackson, TN since January 02, 2007. It called "PERPETUAL HARVEST", located at 75 Riverport Dr, Jackson, TN 38301. Perpetual Harvest is a family owned business that features the advantages of year round gardening indoors as well as out. From hydroponics to portable grow rooms, from lighting to air pumps, from liquid natural & synthetic fertilizers to soil & soil-less mixes you will find a wealth of new and exciting information that can open a new world of gardening for us all.

I went there today and had a long, enchanted visit with the owner, Emily Atkeison, who came to Jackson to open this marvelous company from Memphis, TN. Emily showed me around the store and shared a lot of her knowledge and her commitment to not only growing her own food for immediate consumption but I enjoyed the fact that she can teach one how make it work for year round use. But with the idea of her 365-days a year gardening techniques one can eat fresh vegetables and herbs all year round without the need for canning or freezing or other preserving. Her hands on type of business allows close contact with her customer base and she is quite knowledgable and helpful and I found her to be a consumer-minded person, making sure she tells you what you actually NEED rather than just selling you something.

As an "outside gardener" at heart here at the urban farm, I was jolted by the sight of the large, outside "SMART POTS". These are soft sided pots, made from fibrous recycled materials that naturally aerates and "air prunes" the plant roots to create a better root system and allow more cooling than plastic or even clay pots. I was very impressed with these and see a good use for them not only if one would be dealing with nursery stock but in the home garden as well. I can see these being used to not only stop the need for weeding all together but as a way to make your vegetable garden into a series of raised-type of specialty beds that can be used to keep certain elements from causing problems such as pets (or even pest I think) and other issues from flooding rains and the need to till or dig an "in ground" garden and create a more specific area for gardening. I was very impressed with this item seen below from the side of the entrance to "Perpetual Harvest".

I was also impressed with the truly space age item called the "Grow Lab". I did not take a photo of that on the inside of the store but you can find it "in store" or see it online at http://www.aghydroponics.com/. I tried to copy and paste an online photo to this posting but it is a copyright infringement to do so. But those of you close to Jackson MUST go see this indoor growing "tent" actually. I holds heat and uses LED lighting as well as fan driven fresh air to keep all elements needed for a specific growing status. Quite impressive. I spoke with Emily about the evident use in space exploration and she told me that indeed it had been used and tested on some space flights over the years. I could truly see it on the space station to grow food and create some oxygen as well, used on a larger basis of course.

I think anyone within driving distance of Jackson would greatly benefit from a visit and RETURN visits to "PERPETUAL HARVEST" and this Garden Daddy gives "PH" 2-thumbs up for a job well done! Again, I usually do not promote businesses on my postings but felt compelled to do so in this case. A truly awesome, must-see place to shop and visit! Thanks, Emily, for a tour and all the information! You can find "PERPETUAL HARVEST" on a link at the top of this site for your convenience.

Things remain constant with the addition of tomato plants going in over at my site at the Jackson Community Gardens. Almost daily tilling continues of new plots and I planted 26-tomato plants yesterday as well as some okra and several kinds of flower seeds. It seems there are problems with keeping the gardeners interested and due to the nature and area of this site it will be difficult to NOT have it become the GARDEN DADDY garden site in the long run I fear! But I made a commitment to see it through and will do just that until at least the end of October. Here is the result of this weeks work there.

This Garden Daddy will leave you then with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

WORK CONTINUES ON THE JACKSON COMMUNITY GARDEN PROJECT AS WELL AS URBAN FARM GARDEN

2010-05-28T07:05:00.003-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! It has been a few days since I have been able to visit with you and a busy few days it has been. I have been working on the Jackson Community Garden sites, both mine and helping another coordinator till over at his site over on Glendale St. here in Jackson, TN. It has been a HUGE, time consuming and daunting task to got from bare, raw land loaded with grass roots, brick, broken glass, even broken sewer pipes and small pieces of lumber long buried after the houses have been demolished and bulldozed down and covered.

My comrade I was assisting worked his site last year and it was in pretty good, easy shape to get tilled up and we now have it looking great and he has it marked off and ready for planting this weekend. Over at my bare ground site, having NEVER been tilled, I am working many-many hours in this unseasonable heat and humidity to get it ready to plant. Then this morning I find out that some of my gardeners have said it has taken too long and have lost interest and I am having trouble finding others to replace them. I can only say that between all the problems that have arisen here over at my site, with the issue of the City of Jackson deciding NOT to be involved on property that they, the City, do not own outright has set this particular project back to almost day one back last winter in the planning stages. I do not see any way to make this work unless I go FULL-TILT myself and just make it work and then just plant it and let the "community at large " and NOT the individual gardeners go in and just harvest what ever they want.

Here are some shots of what was done over at the other site at Glendale St. and what it looks like and ready for planting. Here is your Garden Daddy out running the tiller over there and then the outcome of almost 3-hours of tilling.

After finishing up at this site I went over around the corner and worked on my site, walking distance from here around the block a little. I have several small plots tilled up so far. I am not tilling the entire site but only plots I have or had gardeners for. I cannot do it all alone as the task is just too much for me. I realize that my 56-years of age does not allow me to keep running like I was still 30 y/o any longer. It just cannot be done by myself without some added gardeners. But I will do what I can and keep the positive outlook and try to make it into something and full fill my obligation I agreed to do and make it work for this summer anyway.

The garden here at the urban farm is coming in nicely, of course, with young yellow squash and zucchini already forming and most every thing else blooming, except the purple hull peas. I have harvested the last of the snow peas this week and have them strung, tipped and cleaned and washed and in the fridge, ready to blanch and freeze. It looks like a good, productive harvest here at the urban farm this summer.

I leave you today with our ongoing gardening affirmation: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

...AND THE BAND PLAYED ON...OR...THE ROOSTER CROWED ON!

2010-05-23T04:31:00.003-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! Well, I wrote yesterday I had gotten a set of banty hens and a "non-crowing" rooster from a chicken swap here in Jackson, TN at Tractor Supply. I found out there is no such thing as a NON-CROWING rooster. Believe me...he crows! At 3:05am this morning, I woke from a deep sleep and dreams to the sound of myself screaming out loud, "OH NO"! I jumped out of bed like I had been shot and realized the little roo was going to town with his crow. I know my in-town neighbors are loving me this morning. I have some tall apologies to make today..."Lucy, you got some splainin' to do" is what it will be. But they are going to a new home today. I think my youngest brother is taking them for his new retreat & get-away home he has built.
They are good birds but I just cannot have the noise here in town. I wish I could as the little hens both laid eggs yesterday after I brought them home. They are good, quiet and easily handled but that darn rooster just had to learn to crow over night, right? I think because he was around a more dominate rooster that he just didn't crow...it was not that he couldn't crow! It was not that loud but it was very evident what it was. He only crowd about 5 or 6 times this morning but it was, of course, unmistakable as to what and where it was coming from and that was my back yard here in the city center of Jackson, TN.
So, a good lesson learned, boys & girls. ALL ROOSTERS CROW. I leave you this morning here at 4:40am with our on going gardening affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG (& NO ROOSTER) AT A TIME!"

GUILTY AS CHARGED: CHICKEN OBSESSED NOW!

2010-05-22T16:15:00.003-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! As this posting title suggest, yes I am guilty of becoming chicken obsessed now. I attended a "chicken swap" this morning here in Jackson, TN at my local Tractor Supply, meeting up with other members of the West TN Poultry Club and again, asking many questions and soaking up information like a sponge. While there, one of the originators of the local group had several birds for sale. He and his family had some ducks, baby chicks and some grown hens and roosters for sale. I hung around for a couple of hours and some folks from a local Chinese restaurant came over and purchased some grown birds and we jokingly commented that they were heading for the buffet and "today's special"!

When all was said and done and most everything else had been sold, I kept thinking about the one black and one white Cochin hens and one lovely Silky rooster that were left. The odd thing about that little rooster was he kept trying to crow but nothing came out. He kept trying and trying and still nothing. I often commented to the owners who were selling him that he is exactly what I needed here in the city as I cannot have a "noise violation" here. And after a few hours I could stand it no longer and brought the trio home here to the urban farm.

I worked them up into my old brooder cage, turning it upside down and letting the larger openings in the top become the bottom for ease of ground foraging and then added some layer crumbles, water founts, crushed oyster shells and some grit (crushed granite). I also cut up a left over milk crate, taking one side down a little with a jig saw, added some fresh wheat straw and put a shade top on it and fixed an area where my little dog, MAX, could not access them and scare them to death with his barking. My little chicks are used to him but these new arrivals were not and made a huge noise when he approached the cage.

Then what do you think happened about 2 or so hours after getting them set up and left alone? I when out to look at them again and finish up some other projects before my shower time and early dinner and the little black hen was up in the nest box. Then I went out about 30- minutes later and there was a small egg! I was elated. I left them alone about another 30-minutes and went out to get the egg and there was a 2nd egg as well - two eggs from two little hens in their first day here. I just could not believe it. I have taken some photos for your enjoyment and even put the little eggs beside a store bought "jumbo" egg for comparison. I think they are small pullets, even though some of my little pullets are almost that size so I am starting to think they are really Bantam Cochins. These eggs are really small and that is OK in itself. But the thrill I have had today here at the urban farm out weights any "egg-sizing" one would worry about any way! Look below for the new arrivals today.

The vegetable patch here at the urban farm continues to thrive and plants are growing and giving hope for a nice harvest of much produce. My neighbors are patiently waiting for eggplant, tomatoes, squash (yellow & zucchini), cucumbers, peppers (bell, sweet banana & hot) and then the other things I am planting over at the Jackson Community Garden site as well. That has yet to be planted due to many obstacles but hopefully I have gotten most of them fixed for now.

So I leave you today with our ongoing gardening affirmation and invite you back to visit with me again: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

SOMETHING FROM THE PERENNIAL BED

2010-05-15T15:36:00.003-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I would like to share with you something I have been growing in my perennial bed in the front-side of this garden home. It is a Penstemon digitalis "Husker Red". I think you will find this to be a true show stopper in your garden with its lovely spikes of white to pale lavender tubular flowers on top of rigid stems, reaching almost 3-feet tall . The name gives this little beauty its name of "Husker Red" in that the leaves are under shaded, along with stems, in deep maroon. The name "Penstemon" in Greek means 5-stamens, 4-fertile & 1-sterile. Penstemon is also often called "beard tongue" as the sterile stamen has a tuft of hairs on it.

With blooms from April through June, this specimen is hardy in Zones 3 to 8. This is a clump forming perennial spreading to about 2-feet and one should avoid wet, poorly drained soil. This plant is good in borders or as a single specimen like I have in my garden. I like the odd and strange items that the average home gardener does not have in their collections. I want something to draw your eye and bring on the comments like, "Have you ever seen this?" or "This is very unusual!". You should shop around and find things that are unusual and you might not see in just every ones garden. But be sure that it is a good choice in your growing zone or for your soil type. It does no good to spend your money on something just to have it either drown in a boggy area or burn up in too much sun if either is not a match for that species or variety. By the way, both of these photos were taken by this Garden Daddy here at the urban farm. I think they came out great and hope you enjoy getting to know this plant and maybe try it in your garden.
I leave you today with our ongoing gardening affirmation: "GARDENING: ONE YARD AT A TIME!"

POTTING BENCH MADE FROM SHIPPING PALLETS

2010-05-14T14:18:00.003-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I wanted to share with you something I made for use here at the garden home. It is a potting bench that one can stand up and work on re-potting or planting seeds into flats or anything one must do when working on potting or seeding into containers, etc. I saw the idea, though somewhat different, on a website and took the general idea and ran on with it, making it into something I could make and use here. I got it painted today with some exterior grade glossy brown paint and have it close to my compost bay, all set and ready to use to re-pot plants or just work on general garden projects. I have hung my spade and watering sprayers and nozzles on it and have a few pots already stored in the bottom shelf area.

I hope this gives you some ideas of what you can do with usable recyclables, keeping more product from your local landfills. Here is my result and I hope you can see my vision here. I still plan to make a garden seat from two more pallets but time has not allowed that project yet. I have been overwhelmed with community garden things this week and between my yard, my vegetable garden, flower beds & chicken raising here at the urban farm and then making several trips over to Alamo, TN to retrieve some wheat straw for the Jackson Community Garden site I oversee and for another garden site that is making raised layered beds I have not had time to start anything else new this week.

Here is a load of the wet wheat straw I retrieved for the community gardens. It had to be broken up into pieces of the bales due to the additional weight from being saturated from recent flooding we had here in Tennessee. But it will certainly work on the projects we are doing where it will be used as mulch between the vegetable rows for weed prevention and moisture control. This wheat straw was donated free of charge for use in the community gardens or any garden site, private or public, just for the getting. Thanks to the folks who have given it but I am sorry your hay was ruined in the flooding but your loss is our gain for another good use and

re-purpose.

I leave you today with our ongoing gardening affirmation here at the garden home: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

HALLELUJAH...FREE AT LAST AS CHICKENS GET TURNED LOOSE IN HEN HOUSE

2010-05-08T09:00:00.004-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! The little pullets have finally been turned out of their brooder and loose into their chicken house and secure run area. They have been having a wonderful time being able to run around and jump up and stretch their wings and do a little "flying" around and run and play chase with each other. The pullets have almost all their adult feathering in at now 4+ weeks of age, even though in miniature size still, they look like real hens now. I was able to put their new next boxes in the house and made them a short roosting area just their size till they are more mature and able to jump and fly up to larger roosting quarters later on when they get larger. I would like to show you some things I did in the coop and run for their better usage attached below.

I know this is not professional but it is definitely serviceable and usable and makes the chicken house seem more like a real urban farmstead...remember: reuse, reclaim, re-purpose & recycle! I still have 6 (six) 10-day old chicks in the upstairs of my place here at the urban farm. They are a little too small to mix in with the older little pullets as the older ones are too rambunctious and would run over the little ones and possibly cause injury. I will introduce them later on one night after the older ones have gone to roost and when they wake up they will not know the difference in who is who. That prevents some pecking and picking on the little ones.
I leave you today with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind: "GARDENING" ONE YARD AT A TIME!"

NEST BOXES READY FOR THE COOP-D'VILLA

2010-05-06T07:16:00.003-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I plan to turn the little pullets loose from the brooder tomorrow, Friday, May 7th, 2010. I am trying to have most everything in the coop as I want it so no new introductions will cause any stress on their lives and their future laying abilities and to keep them as calm as possible. I made a 6-bay nest box yesterday out of recycled materials. You know your Garden Daddy...reclaim, reuse, re-purpose & recycle! I will need at least 2-more nesting spots for my "girls" due to the ratio of nest-to-hens required allotment that is often suggested for stress free and aggression free stability. That is 1-nest box for every 4-hens. As I have some hens that will be rather heavy birds and larger than others, I am making a stacked set of 2-nest out of two large plastic flower pots I am no longer using, turned on their side and a short front mounted to hold in nesting material. My Black Jersey Giant pullets could top out at around 10 or 11-lbs when mature this fall and they might like a larger space and also the Buff Orpingtons as well, might like a larger space due to their body width, feather fluff, etc.

I chose to use milk crates and recycled shipping pallets I cut up for two reasons: ONE: Milk crates are heavy plastic and can be easily cleaned up with the pressure washer in the future. TWO: Shipping pallets are FREE and can be easily cut up with a reciprocating saw and made into anything as well as keeping more trash out of the local land fill. Here is the outcome below. I thought you might like to see this to get some ideas of your own. This past week I also made a new potting bench out of a shipping pallet I have not yet painted but made it high enough one does not have to bend over to work on re-potting plants or while working on a garden project. The slots in the table top allow for dirt to just fall through and recycle back to the earth again. And cleanup is almost non existent.

You can see I added a sloped "roof" on the crates. And you often see nest boxes with sloped roofs on them in garden and farm photos. This is easy to explain. The sloped roof keeps the hens from roosting on top and manure build up on or in their laying area. Yes, I know this might not be the best looking next box set up but it will not only get the job done on a frugal budget but it will also be easy to maintain and clean up when needed. Now all I have to do is add some straw in each nest, a golf ball to each (a golf ball gives the pullets the idea what the boxes are for - an egg, a golf ball...they do not know the difference) and the hens will do the rest. In case you did not know, chickens are a little on the dumb side. Did I say "a little"? I should have said a lot! I know that might ruffle some feathers out there in backyard chicken keeping but they eat, poop and lay eggs and offer meat. They are not that smart about getting themselves in and out of trouble or trying to "think through" a problem like say a dog or cat or horse or some other of our creatures we are charged with their care. But all in all, they are such a pleasure to watch and you can definitely get a lift in your day often with watching their antics and the way they chase a bug or run from each other when one finds a real prize in the grass and others want it from them. They will cause an out loud chuckle from anyone who keeps them and you will never be sorry for taking on a flock, even if it is just a few. Remember, NEVER-NEVER have just one hen. That is why our farmstead birds are called "flocks" as they need the flock to help each other. The old saying, "Birds of a feather, flock together" holds true. Always have at least 3-hens. I think in my own mind, that being strictly my opinion, the minimum one should have. You might have breeds that do not lay every single day, and most do not anyway. So 3-hens will give you an average of about 4-5 eggs per week, and that way you will have about 12 to possibly 16 eggs per week and if you are a household of 2 or 3 that would be plenty. I am a household of 1 (one) and I easily eat 1-dozen eggs per week myself. Eggs are FULL of protein, not as much cholesterol as the "red meat" producers would like you to think and these hens of mine will have the advantage of free range, organic, non-steroid/medicated and natural Omega-3 and the best taste...I cannot wait. Eggs are a great meat substitute for those of us that DO NOT eat much meat as I myself do not, and they make a great "pot luck" item for outings and go-to dinners, where you can not only have deviled eggs but egg salad sandwiches, quiches, any number of baked goods, etc.

This is Thursday and I have a lot to do. I have my own garden to weed a little, go look in on my community garden site and some yards to mow and so this is a busy day for this Garden Daddy and I must leave you now. And I do it with our strong and ongoing farmstead affirmation in mind for you: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

FYI: PURINA FEED RECALL ALERT FOR ALL YOU POULTRY KEEPERS

2010-04-30T11:10:00.003-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! This is something I found yesterday and added to the http://www.backyardchickens.com/ forum and the West Tennessee Poultry Club forum as well. It is about a recall on certain types of poultry feed from "Purina". I found this on our local TV station online news website yesterday morning. I cannot seem to get the link to copy here for some reason...sorry readers. I have tried every way I can to link this. Just go to www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/unc208975.htm and see if that will get you there. It is for Purina "LAYENA" Sun fresh Recipe Pellet #0056922. Evidently they discovered some metal fragments in a few isolated bags but are doing a recall on that batch in several Southern states.

I know this is something all of us "farmers", urban or otherwise, always want to know about and need to keep up with on our animals in our care. They are like children as they are totally dependent on us for care and upkeep.

I will leave you again today with this ongoing gardening affirmation: "GARDENING: ONE YARD AT A TIME!"

JACKSON COMMUNITY GARDEN SITE GETS A FACE LIFT & COMPOST BAY

2010-04-30T10:39:00.003-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I would like to update you on my site over at the Jackson Community Garden. At the last posting regarding this project, I was somewhat, well I would not say "down" about it but feeling a little frustrated about the way things seemed to be going. So what did I say...but that I would become renewed and get things done or it would not be worth doing for this Garden Daddy. I did just that. I made my case to the "powers that be" in no uncertain terms and got a straight answer and the CORRECT answer at that. I will have a water hook up available on my site from my own meter on that lot. That is all I wanted but could not get a straight answer. I finally said that would be the only way there would be a community garden at that location. When the thought and possibility of losing a good worker who has true interest and drive and the chance of losing a chance to expand the project, I think it hit home and the right decision was made.

On that, I will say this has been a very busy week there and I have put in just at 6-hours this week on that site. Wednesday & Thursday I mowed and weed whacked , picked up branches and rocks and bricks and today I went to The Home Depot and obtained 4-shipping pallets. I took them over to the community garden site and built a large, open compost bay. This is for my gardeners to add their garden refuse, weeds, bad vegetables and any other "natural" product that will turn into good, viable compost over this next year. I will also be adding my own home garden compost from not only the chicken house and run but from any garden refuse my own 3-bay compost bin cannot handle. I have made some photos here to share this weeks work there on that project and update you on that progress. These photos are before mowing and after and of the compost bay.

Our area is reporting storms for the next 4-days. The local news & weather is also telling that we are scheduled to get up to 9-inches, THAT'S RIGHT, 9-INCHES, of rain in the next 3-4 days. I truly hope it is not that much as I might lose some of my potted tomatoes I am holding for this community garden site or even have some in-ground vegetables could not only wash up but end rotting right in the ground as well. So wish us well and I hope it is only a worst case scenario they are reporting on. So this Garden Daddy will leave you today with the our ongoing center city gardening affirmation: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

CHICKEN ADDICTION HAS BEGUN

2010-04-28T11:34:00.003-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! The day has finally arrived and the remainder of my urban farm flock has arrived from R & J Feed here in Jackson, TN. I had put my name in the pot for 4-each of the Silver Laced Wyandotte chicks that were to arrive today and sure enough when I got off of work this morning, came by my homestead and walked little "MAX" I headed straight to the feed store. When I got there, Ginger Kemp (one of the owners of R & J) showed me two more breeds of chickens she had gotten in this morning that were not on her ordering list I had seen earlier.

So, what can I say other than like I told her today, it has almost become a drug for me on these chickens now. She said then you have "chicken fever" and few every survive it appears! I ended up bringing home 6-each instead of my order of 4-each. I ended up with 1-each of a Golden Laced Wyandotte & 1-each of a Speckled Sussex, both of which are not very common and I understand the Speckled Sussex even a little rare in the U.S. They came from England and are a fairly older breed, over one hundred years in the breeding process. I will share the two added breed photos with you here in this posting. I also have some shots of the lot of the 6 together. With these only about 2-days old and the remainder of my little brood around 2-3 weeks old and now rather rambunctious and bouncing all over the place I did not put these new, tender hatchlings in with the older birds. They need to get some age, size and stamina on them before they meet their brood mates or should I call them the other "raptors" that are a little dinosauric at this stage.

Here are my little bunch today that are separated, actually in the house in my upstairs room I am only using for storage just now. I cannot wait till all are out of their brooders and into the hen house and then outside in the run and then at large in the extended run area. Aren't they cute?

Here is the Speckled Sussex hen like my new 1-chick.

And here is the Golden Laced Wyandotte like my other "unplanned blessed event"!

Garden Daddy will leave you today as I am heading over to my Jackson Community Garden site to do a little cleaning up of the site in preparation of the hopefully soon to be tilling that will be going on. And I give you our ongoing homesteading affirmation from center city Jackson, TN: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

SINCE I HAVE BEEN ASKED...

2010-04-26T08:13:00.006-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! It seems I get the same question over and over and more even this past week/weekend as to what and where GARDEN DADDY is going as far as ideas, future endeavors, long range plans. I think and hope you who are regular readers have noticed that all along I have not too subtly mentioned I hope in the future to make this little homestead in the center city of Jackson, TN into a teaching garden and urban farm. I need to get more "critters" I feel in the future in the way of possible bee keeping, raising rabbits for meat and salable pelts (for the craft trade, etc.) and maybe beyond.
I have plans for future garden expansion as far as my blooming plants are concerned. Remember I have a goal to have something in bloom from spring through late fall/early winter. I have not quite accomplished that goal yet. Most everything is spring, early-middle-late summer and then I have mums in the fall along with the hydrangeas that keep blooming almost till the first frost really. I also have to work on the shade area where the expanded & uncovered chicken run will be. Just now, I have mostly ferns and azaleas. I WANT to do so much, but I WANT to first get past this new addition of these chicks getting raised to self-grazing and where they are no longer in the brooder and are able to be in the hen house and coop without supervision. Get them started laying and go from there. I am hoping to have a few pullets, the lighter weight and faster growing ones, to start laying a few eggs by about 15-16 weeks of age - around the end of July I hope or early August. I know that is young but not unheard of in smaller birds that do not require more growth toward maturity like the Black Jersey Giants, etc. that I have which take many months to reach full growth.
So where is GARDEN DADDY going? I hope that in about 2-more years I am able to start doing home garden tours of this urban farm in conjunction with not only the Madison County Master Gardener intern classes as a teaching garden/urban farm but for this community at large or maybe in some relationship with the WTREC (University of TN/West TN Research & Education Center) that I volunteer at often with my fellow Master Gardeners. I have, in my mind (a very scary place, right?), the thought and ideas for many uses of this garden home and urban farm but it is getting the resources needed to put these thoughts into action. So Garden Daddy works on his schedule and budget plans and goes ahead...one day, one yard and one egg at a time!
I leave you once again with our ongoing urban gardening affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

LITTLE HENS MAKE BACKYARD FORAGING DEBUT

2010-04-25T14:52:00.003-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! My little flock or at least half of them (8) got to go into some temporary fencing I put up this afternoon to let them get a taste of the real outdoors. They figured it out in no time and those little girls were soon scratching and chasing flying insects and eating grass seeds and looking for more.

Soon I had my little pound rescue Silky Terrier out there and he was wanting to get a mouthful of chicken so badly he could not stand it. But they just seemed to be unfazed by his barking and begging to get in with them. I have let him in the run with them where he could see them in the brooder and they still be safe from his grasp. But none the less, he definitely wants to get at them. I thought you might like to see their progress along with MAX and I tried to load a video on this posting for your enjoyment and amusement below.

I will leave you today then with our ongoing gardening affirmation: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

GARDEN DADDY LOADS UP ON SEED PACKETS ON SALE HERE IN JACKSON, TN

2010-04-24T08:18:00.007-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I had to get out early this morning for milk and creamer for my morning hot tea as well as dog food and long cooking oatmeal for the little hens out in the coop here at the urban farm. I was told yesterday that our local LOWE'S was offering their garden seed packets on sale, 'buy one - get one free". Well that was just too good for this Garden Daddy to resist! Especially when I still have to get plants, seeds, wheat straw, fertilizer, etc. for my site I am coordinating for the Jackson Community Gardens. I got a good assortment of seeds...bush green beans, carrots, turnips with roots & not just to make the green tops (there are different varieties that have been hybridized to grow good tops and some that make tops AND roots), cantaloupe, yellow squash and a few other packets. It should have been about $20.00 but I got many packs for 79-cents each or about $9.67 for all I got.
Not to plug any store over another one but if you are looking for seeds at this date you might visit your local LOWE'S today while the sale is still on and load up on seeds.
In case you are not aware, one can put these seeds packets in a zippered storage freezer bag and put them in the freezer for NEXT year actually. I did not know that for many-many years but that is how it is done at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway. It is holding seeds from around the world in cold storage in case of a global disaster to basically reseed the planet

So this Garden Daddy will leave you today as another round of severe thunderstorms is heading in here. I have already gone and tucked in the little hens for the rest of the day, fed and watered and added some fresh dry oatmeal for a treat and made sure all were running and breathing and looking well this morning. Yep...time to get off of here with that large hit of lightning...I leave you with our ongoing garden and urban farming affirmation: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"
POST SCRIPT: I saw where The Home Depot also had their seed packets the same as our local Lowe's did, buy one - get one free!

CHICKS TURNING INTO LITTLE HENS HERE AT THE URBAN FARM

2010-04-21T16:53:00.005-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! Every day when I go to feed and give fresh water and morning dry oatmeal to the little chicks here at the urban farm I see a difference. Today I realized I almost have little hens now. They are really taking on the characteristics of hens and less and less like little chicks. They are fluttering all over the brooder and I have put a tree limb in the brooder and they are even sitting on it and often taking naps during the day there. They are eating and drinking very well and the feathering is replacing the little down they had at arrival.
I often go out and sit on a bale of hay beside the brooder and "chicky-chicky-chicky" to them and talk to them and tell them to eat well and grow big and fast and that one day soon they will start earning their keep! They enjoy daily dust baths in a tray of sawdust I provide them and today I added a 2nd water fount as I cannot keep the original one filled fast enough for those thirsty "girls".

There is one little pullet by the way, a little Buff Orpington who is really starting to fill out and get some buff colored REAL feathers instead of her little yellow downy ones, who is already acting a little motherly and broody to some of the smaller and younger ones. She often sits close to the heat lamp and then fluffs out her incoming feathers and opens up her little wings and then lets some of the other smaller brood mates come in around her and she tries to drawn them in to her like a real mother hen. This might be good and might be bad in case she is already prone to "go broody" on a regular basis. But the person who I got my newest arrivals from last Saturday, the Cuckoo Marans, has said if I get broody hens in the future she would be happy to provide a few hatching eggs for them to set on. She said they are just as happy with 2 or 3 as they are 12 or thirteen. So that is a possibility for the both of us. I get to resolve future broodiness and she gets some good incubation and chick raising and then I get some future egg layers and she can get the roosters back! Or I might just swap, trade or sell the chicks at one of the poultry club meets of something.

Since I cannot have a rooster along with my little hens here at the urban farm in the City of Jackson, TN. I have added my own version next to the hen house and not only has it added interest but a burst of color as well, just as a live one would in any barnyard. My neighbors are loving the addition and it brings a little light and life to the understory area of my pine trees.

I thought I would add that I completed the planting of the vegetable patch here at the urban farm with the addition of a row of "Black Beauty" eggplant. I purchased seeds this year as none of the plants I saw have been that great and the ones that were good were the Japanese variety that are long and slender and I do not care for those. They are not that great when trying to put on the gas grill outside, in the "Foreman" grill machine or even in a casserole but of course that is strictly this Garden Daddy's opinion.

I will leave you today with our gardening affirmation in mind for your pondering: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

STILL WORKING ON THE JACKSON COMMUNITY GARDEN SITE...BUT WHERE IS IT GOING?

2010-04-18T18:47:00.002-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I am still so pumped up about the community garden project for the City of Jackson, TN. but there have been a few obstacles that seem to be - not stopping it but at least slowing it down a little. From my point of view it seems that several factors are slowing progress on my site at least. One is that it is a new site, never been tilled or anything other than occasionally mowed. Two, it seems that too many of us are unable to get together at the same time to get the things done that need attention. Three, it appears that some issues I keep asking about such as a water source, has never really been addressed and left up to "chance" and "speculation" that a neighbor to the site will "donate" his outside water faucet to our cause!
I am a man of action and few words in these my later years and I do not see that problem of just hooking a new meter up to the old, existing water meter box that is on the street on my site. They did that around the corner from me on another site and it worked just fine, putting a lift handle spigot on the meter box at the street. That is all I am asking for! GIVE ME WATER METER OR GIVE ME DEATH!!! If I am to plan, plant and work and help others feed themselves and the local soup kitchen for the homeless and needy, RIFA, then I am at a stand still till my plot is not only re-poisoned, then tilled, then finding a water source. Well, you know this Garden Daddy well enough by now to know I do not fight with one hand tied up behind me...I will give it to you out right, right? So I am still working on trying to negotiate with the neighbor to my site for us to use his water availability and will do so till I have some satisfaction with this issue. I am sorry I am using my garden and farming site for this small stance on my needs in the community garden but a lot is at stake here in that if I cannot guarantee having water to water the garden plots with then I will have NO GARDENERS to need the plots for in the first place and the whole process and at least my site and my time will have been wasted for about the last 6-weeks and many hours I have already put into this project with planning and fundraising, donation begging (!) and road time as well.
So, as I start a new week I will let this opportunity I have taken here to release a little steam over this refresh and renew this Garden Daddy with a new fight this week and renewed commitment to this good and worthy cause to feed the needy here in my community and help bring a little bright corner to an otherwise depressed and often neglected area of this community. I leave you tonight with this affirmation in mind: "I am enthusiastic about life. My enthusiasm is like a bubbling brook, that waters a thirsty world!"...Anonymous

MY FIRST CHICKEN SWAP MEET TODAY AT TSC

2010-04-17T12:05:00.005-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! Today I attended my first "chicken swap meet" of the West TN. Poultry Club at our local Tractor Supply Co. here in Jackson, TN. It was quite something to see all the different varieties folks brought along with hatching eggs, chicks, etc. Someone even had turkey eggs for hatching. I met the person I was getting my Cuckoo Marens from, the French pullets I had arranged to add to my little brood that lay the chocolate colored eggs. I have a picture of her hens and eggs she was selling and will post that here now for you to see what this Garden Daddy is looking forward to....just look at these eggs laid by the parents of my new chicks:

Aren't these just amazing! The ones on the left are a little lighter than the others and those are like the ones I will have, as my young hens have the feathers on their feet and they tend to lay a little lighter egg than those without the feathers. I chose the feathered footed ones as they are the only Cuckoo Maren recognized by the APA (American Poultry Association) and would be necessary if I were to start going to exibitions, fair entries, etc. But I was able to "peck" the brains of some good, experienced flock owners and get a feel for what is ahead of me. Granted, I may have more birds than I want to deal with down the road but I feel like once I go through and see the different breeds grown up and how they lay, production rates vs. food intake, temperament, and get the egg colors I am looking for, etc. I think I will have no trouble either trading off the ones I do not want and also I got a few extras in case of "casualty", which has NOT happened yet. I also plan to give them a good expanded foraging area that will give more of a "free range" effort and that will add to the better development of their ability to be more self feeding and the quality of their products they give every day. I am going to add some more privacy fencing to the back yard on my property line and then use some temporary fencing on the side-interior under all those pine trees and let then out of their coop & existing run to free range in that thick pine straw bedding. Here are some shots of the chicken swap. The upper photo is more of the eggs laid by the flock my new chicks (Cuckoo Marens) came from today. The other two shots are some of the other cages of birds that were for sale today.

This Garden Daddy will leave you again today with out ongoing city farm affirmation: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

URBAN FARM GETS VEGETABLE GARDEN SET IN

2010-04-17T11:17:00.007-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I thought I would share with you an update on the vegetable plot here at this garden home. I have all the vegetables planted here I am having at the urban farm with the exception of 1-row of eggplant yet to be added. I have planted the following:
Purple hull field peas = 2-rows @ 15ft long
Sweet bell pepper plants - 10-plants
Sweet banana pepper plants - 12-plants
Yellow crooked neck summer squash - 8-hills
Zucchini - 1-15ft row (about 8-hills)
Cucumber - 10-hills (2-varieties mixed together then planted)
Jet Star tomato - 3-plants
Better Boy tomato - 6-plants
Rutgers tomato - 4-plants
Snow peas - 18-hills
Yet to plant here at the urban farm again is the eggplant and a few sweet white onion sets. Of course, I have my usual herbs already planted as well - basil, rosemary, lavender, sage, chives (I have lots of chives this year!). Besides the planting here at "the farm", I must remind you of the Jackson Community Garden site I am coordinating here in the city of Jackson, TN. I have already pre-potted in larger pots to transfer when that site is ready the following tomato plants:
Better Boy - 9-plants
Rutgers - 10-plants
Jet Star - 9-plants
At that site, I will put some of these in for our local soup kitchen plot we are growing, RIFA, as well as share with some of the other gardeners and put a few more out for my freezer there for this urban farm to add to our larder for next winter on our effort to become more self sufficient here at this location. One of my brothers, really BOTH brothers, have have suggested in jest I think that I should also go into the rabbit raising business for good white meat. I have eaten farm raised rabbit before and found I really like it better that chicken...I think with the addition of my little brood I might not eat as much poultry as I used to. So the idea of the rabbits might come in handy, right? Send me your opinions!!! WOW, that would really put this urban farm right up there with a huge self sufficiency bonus in that about the only things I would have to buy would remind one of "LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE" where all they went to town for was tea, sugar, tobacco and dress fabric, right?!?!? I am kidding about getting rabbits, right? OK I take the hint, enough already. Here are some scenes of the vegetable garden as it stands today and lacking the eggplant and onion sets. I just have not had time this week to get it all done. In these photos you cannot see the the yellow squash, snow peas or cucumbers as they are on the outside of my fenced in back yard (You can see the pine straw that is on the outer side of the fencing and that is where the other vegetables are). You can however see how I have used the great pine straw I have saved last year as a mulch between the rows as well as around my tomato plants to not only keep the area weed free but it also cuts down on the amount of mud to bring in the house as well as gives you a good place to kneel and do weeding in the row or just to pick or service the area. Remember, keep that straw you rake up and do not worry about leaves that are in it as that is just extra composting material as well in the garden.

This Garden Daddy will leave you today with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind then: "GARDENING: ONE YARD AT A TIME!"

AMERAUCANAS ARRIVE YESTERDAY & CHICKS TAKE FIRST DUST BATH TODAY

2010-04-15T14:39:00.003-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! The little Ameraucana chicks (they were listed as Auracaunas, but are really Ameraucanas) arrived yesterday here at the urban farm and were introduced to their brood mates. Then today, Thursday, I took all the chicks out and put them in another holding container with some sawdust in it with their food and water while I removed the brooder cage from the hen house and put the pressure washer to it to give it a thorough cleaning. When I looked in at the little buggers to see what they were doing I saw the most wonderful site! Without a mother hen for teaching or encouragement those little things were buried up in the sawdust taking their first dust baths. They were covered in sawdust and it must have felt good to them, as they just sprawled out, spread out everywhere and were having the time of their short lives. Here they are, caught in the act of their "morning constitutionals":

Your Garden Daddy has been very busy getting the garden set in here at the urban farm and also working on the other gardening project with the Jackson City Gardens site I am in charge of this year for the community. There are several issues with my site and that will wait for another posting. But all in all this spring is quickly turning into a very busy time here at the urban farm and with the addition of the little brood, it has added another dimension to the task at hand. I know I am going to enjoy having them and they are not any problem. I cannot wait to get them up enough to have them just loose in the hen house and outside run as well as have them in temporary fencing in the back yard at times.

So this Garden Daddy leaves you with our ongoing city farm affirmation today: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

HARDY ORCHID RETURNS IT LOVELY BLOOMS TO THIS GARDEN HOME

2010-04-13T18:57:00.003-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the garden home on the urban farm! I just had to share with you this sweet little thing that I was given by a neighbor who is an avid gardener in her own right as well as published author and contributing writer for Tennessee Gardener Magazine. It is this lovely little hardy orchid, which I think if you could see it in person is a REALLY orchid color. I will not hold you long on this post but wanted you to see this tiny thing that appears year after year since I acquired it and is now adding a few companions along the way this year in the way of self propagation. Here it is...wait...wait...hold your breath and......

NOW BREATHE....! You can see the first of a series of blooms to come as it unfolds a single bloom at a time, then when this one is finished the next is in full splendor. Pale orchid background, outlined in a darker orchid shading. You can see my thumb and forefinger in the bottom of the photo and judge this delicate size according to my hand. The bloom is so small but isn't is just wonderful. I appreciate this garden gifting from "A.S." so much and hope she and I remain gardening friends for many years to come!

I leave you today with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind this evening: "GARDENING: ONE YARD AT A TIME!"

THE "COOP-DE' VILLA" IS FINALLY A REALITY

2010-04-12T13:07:00.004-05:00

HELLO and welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! After nearly three full weeks of fuss & worry and continuous labor I have finally finished the new coop & run for my little brood. I have sealed every possible entrance to and exit from this pen and have even covered the top with chicken wire to prevent "air attacks" as well as dug down about 10" and added old chain link fencing to prevent "digging in or digging out" and then even have a space to plant some fresh greens for the little buggers for when they are ready to leave the brooder. I plan to keep at least part of that area in continuous greens of something growing for them to have for treats. I can section it off with wire and keep them out from one side while part of it is re-growing and one is in use. I will share some photos with you here below.

The first photo shows the chain link fence pieces being buried about 10-12" below grade. The 2nd photo shows looking toward the house at the shade awning, the 3rd shot is standing in the doorway of the hen house looking out and up and the final shot is from the middle of the house looking out to see the run and the little "fresh greens" area that I will plant today. The photo below is of the entrance and decking I added for the little hens to get out under the awning even in "fowl weather" and at least get some air or to just rest in the shade on. I added about 6" of hardwood mulch to the bed of the entire run as a filter to help with drainage as well as to add a layer of hay on top of that which will make clean up easier I think.

I am so very thrilled with the outcome and now just to get these little things up and basically on their own except of course for the regular care and get them out of the brooder. I have several more weeks of brooding to go as I have some chicks that have not arrived yet or even hatched to receive. I hope this gives you followers and readers an idea of where I am heading and what my intention is here...to get the freshest, best tasting eggs with bright yellows that stand up tall on the whites and know what they are eating and that are CHEMICAL & STEROID FREE! Free range and good healthy birds that will lay for several years and give us all much satisfaction and fun.

Garden Daddy leaves you today as I have a lot going on this time of year here at the urban farm as well as in my Jackson Community Garden project, which has a meeting tonight as well as Wednesday afternoon this week. I send you on your gardening way with the following thoughts in mind: "It has been written that even GOD loved a garden once, and so I will love my garden once...once today, once tomorrow & forever!"...Garden Daddy

PULLETS ARRIVE AT URBAN FARM!

2010-04-07T18:36:00.005-05:00

HELLO and welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! What a great day here at this garden home & urban farm here in Jackson, TN. I would like to introduce you to my little flock of chicks. I am thrilled with everything other than I was substituted my little Delaware hens that were not delivered to the feed store due to unsuccessful hatching and the feed stores' order was not filled due to this issue. BUT...the problem was resolved with the substitution of the Delawares with Black Jersey Giants. These are very large, heavy, very-very docile birds that are good layers of good large to extra large brown eggs. The hens can often weigh around 10-lbs when mature but are a little slow to mature due to their size, but good consistent layers through winter. Often showing a little white on the underside until their final adult molt, these all shiny black chickens have black legs and feet with a rather large showy comb, making them excellent exhibition birds.
SO, WELCOME HOME, LITTLE GIRLS:

I hope these little darlings grow healthy, happy and into very productive egg layers and give this Garden Daddy here at the urban farm some working environment for my future garden tours and possible teaching through my UT Master Gardener outlets as well as in Jackson, TN. in general. It is a little after 7:00pm here this evening and I am going to check on the "girls" and put them to "roost" for the night. And tomorrow will just "hang with my peeps"!
I leave you this eventful day with the our 2nd ongoing gardening affirmation: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

CHICKEN COOP & RUN COME TO COMPLETION IN TIME FOR CHICKS ARRIVAL

2010-04-06T18:28:00.005-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I can FINALLY breath a sigh of relief and near exhaustion with the completion of the chicken coop and run. All I really have to do is add wire to the top of the open run area, add a shade awning I got (a green fiberglass corrugated material) and dig down about 6-8"and add some chicken wire buried at the base of the fence. The wire on top is to prevent the hawk and other "air" predators as well as raccoons from climbing over the fence, the awning is for shade and the wire dug in at the bottom is for the "critters" that will either try to dig in for a drumstick or to keep the chickens from digging out when they do their "scratch"!

You see here your Garden Daddy mixing concrete to set post, then another shot of the finished shed before the floor is put in and then the finished project except for the overhead screening to keep the predators out and hens in. I am very please with the outcome of this project and hope you will be encouraged to let your mind wander through childhood memories of life in simpler times and when "eggs at the door" were the norm. By the way this was written yesterday but I only had time today, Wednesday 04/07/10, to add the photos. Another post will follow this one with a surprise!
So I leave you this day with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind: "GARDENING: ONE YARD AT A TIME!"

THE ADDITION OF COW MANURE TO THE VEGGIE PATCH THIS EASTER MORNING

2010-04-04T07:48:00.004-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! It was 48-degrees this beautiful Easter morning at 6:50am but this Garden Daddy was out in the veggie patch adding some cow manure and watching this beautiful sunrise reach up and announce itself. A neighbor & friend behind me must really be listening when I talk because one day I casually mentioned I wanted to go to a co-workers house that was really pretty far away, about an hour, to go get some cow manure for the garden but it had been too wet to get into his barn to get it yet. In a day or two, I had 2-100# feed corn bags filled with what looks like sifted and very-very clean cow manure! Then in a day or two later there was another bag...it was like Christmas for this Garden Daddy. Better than any store bought gift for sure and better than any chemical fertilizers. I have not had time until this morning to get it added into the vegetable patch due to the work on the new chicken coop. But it sure is going to be a boost to the growth and production of this urban farms' produce here in center city Jackson, Tennessee.

Speaking of chickens, this Garden Daddy has been consumed this past week with prepping this urban farm for the arrival of the first 9-baby chicks on Wednesday this next week. Then the following week I get 2-more on April 14th then on April 21st I will get the final 3-pullets, the Silver Laced Wyandott chicks. I did mention that these are ALL PULLETS, as you cannot have roosters (Roos) in the city due to the "noise violation". But the coop is on schedule and I should have it finished today and then start the run either late today or tomorrow after my stint at my "big-box" home improvement store.

A longtime friend has been here since this past Thursday and as of yesterday we finally were able to get outside and get the coop started and about two-thirds complete. All we lack today is the roof and doors. I already had the floor assembled and the base prepared and ready and any thing else pre-assembled as I could. But I was to the point it was going to take two people to finish and he has been a real trooper in his assistance! THANK YOU!

So I will leave you this marvelous Easter Sunday with the following thoughts this morning: "A morning surprise, an earthquake, a stone rolled away, "men" robed in white, women caught off guard, men's heads hanging low with fear and grief. ...JOY, WORSHIP, SURRENDER, RECEIVING ORDERS, DISCIPLESHIP!"...Garden Daddy

HAPPY EASTER!

NEW JACKSON COMMUNITY GARDEN SITE LOOKS GOOD

2010-04-03T13:19:00.008-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm. I went by the new proposed site for the Jackson Community Garden over at Burkett & Hollywood. Plenty of sunlight wide open space, on a nice triangle shape lot on a good corner with side street parking and in a really better spot than the original site. The only draw back I see today is the city will have to install a water faucet for watering, etc. So I said to the "powers that be" with JCG that is sounds great-let's do it! So here is the NEW site for my community gardeners to work on below.

So hope this new site is the best one available and the tilling and planting can begin in the near future and we can not only have a good yield personally but the plot we plant for the soup kitchen donations will produce as well!

I leave you again today with the new affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

JACKSON COMMUNITY GARDEN SITE CHANGING

2010-04-03T09:10:00.002-05:00

HELLO and welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I got an email this morning notifying me that my garden site to coordinate will probably be changing due to the access of water & too much shade from trees on the current site. I shared photos of this site with you in earlier post. I will go over to see that new site this morning and then notify the managers of this city project and give my official "okie-dokie" and post some photos of the new site later today as I can get to it.
First this morning I am heading out to R & J Feed to get my feeding supplies, fount and other equipment to put in the brooder on Tuesday and get it preheated to warm up the area for the little chicks to arrive on Wednesday morning.
I leave you this quick stop in with you this morning...and as always, leave you with your ongoing original gardening affirmation: "GARDENING: ONE YARD AT A TIME!"

THE FINISHED BROODER

2010-04-02T07:31:00.006-05:00

HELLO and welcome back to GARDEN DADDY here at the urban farm! I thought you might like to see the finished product and view my chicken brooder made from a reclaimed rabbit cage. I added casters to the bottom so I can roll it out of the sawdust material under the cage to catch the manure and then roll it outside on the warmer days to get some sun on the little girls.
AND FINALLY....FINISHED...From rabbit cage to chicken brooder:

So now on with the chicken house & run but tomorrow we are expecting rain early then clearing later in the day then clear Sunday and Monday then I can put everything in the assigned spaces and THEN this urban farm will be off and running (& running over) with baby chicks! I am so excited as I have wanted to get some chicks for many-many years and now this is coming to fruition. I once dreamed a dream with another member of my family of the both of us living close by each other and growing our gardens, raising our chickens and living out our lives in the quiet of the country life on some acreage somewhere. That did not work out but I can make this work as well. The old saying about "Home Is Where The Heart Is" is definitely true then isn't it if I can be happy and content on my lot in town on this urban farm then that is assuredly true!

I cannot remember if I have told you this very important information about brooding newly hatched chicks. One must use, in this Garden Daddy's opinion, an infrared heat lamp (RED!!!) when brooding the little things. This not only gives then the darkness for the many little naps they take often during the day off and on but it also keeps them sedate and more docile and helps almost completely STOP any cannibalism among them from becoming nervous and anxious. This is a MUST in my book of brooding information.

So on this busy day I leave you with this gardening affirmation in mind for all you chicken lovers out there: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

A VOID (& RECLAIMED) RABBIT HUTCH BECOMES A CHICK BROODER

2010-04-01T11:12:00.005-05:00

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! Off and running I would say in preparation for the arrival of my little brood next week, or at least the first 9-chicks to arrive, expecting a total of 14. I thought you might like to see the brooder coming together in the first stages. I worked on it as much as time allowed yesterday and again this morning. This Garden Daddy is getting VERY BUST now that real spring has arrived here at the urban farm. I have been in meetings with the Jackson Community Gardens, a "feed the needy" type of program, and I have been over at the site I am managing/coordinating to do some measuring, "sipherin", and some estimates on sizes, directions of rows, chatting with the neighbors and out beating the bushes to get about another 5-plot "owners" to work their plot in the site. Each site in the city is also asked to go in together with all the "plot owners" to have a plot that is donated to our local soup kitchen & food bank which is called RIFA which is Regional-InterFaith Association.
But here are some photos of the rabbit cage conversion to a chick brooder. I have made it to where there are NO SHARP WIRES OR CORNERS (!)...remember, little feet are tender and injuries are most likely fatal at this 1 or 2-day old point. Injuries in general in such young birds will result in the same for the most part. It is a must to make sure to take all precautions with your little pullets as your future laying flock is at stake here and the very food that will go in your mouth. I am showing you the stages I used to remake the cage. I also have a photo of some tools and safety items, mostly gloves to protect your hands from cuts and to fold over sharp edges, for your convenience.

You can see here I added some short casters to roll the cage around for ease of cleaning the area that will be under the area that will be loaded with sawdust in order to soak up wet discharge as well as water spills, etc. The 1/4" mesh floor will allow the little feet to remain in good condition but will allow the small manure to sift through to the sawdust below. This in turn will be added here at the urban farm to the garden as well as added to my site over at the community garden for fertilizer. Since the sawdust is MIXED with the chicken manure, after one or two rains it will have broken down enough to be added and what a difference will be made to the vegetable outcome! It will not only fertilize but the sawdust will add a lightness to the heavy clay soil so often found in these older home sites where my city garden will be. I think I have hit on a winner in all phases of this gardening as not only can I control my eggs I am eating and eventually have some kind of break even point but I can use the manure as the fertilizer and if you have bought any lately and seen the price you will know that since the first of this year the cost has almost doubled.
So your Garden Daddy will leave you today with with this gardening affirmation: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"

CHICKEN BREEDS COMING TO THIS URBAN FARM

2010-03-31T03:20:00.011-05:00

HELLO and welcome to Garden Daddy here at the Urban Farm! I thought I would share with you some of my research and in depth study I have done in preparation for the selecting the six (6) breeds of chickens I am adding to this endeavor of the urban farm and become more self sufficient and self reliant. I did not say "economical" necessarily as I doubt the COST vs EGG PRODUCTION will ever balance or come even, maybe way down the road but the added benefits of self sufficiency and knowing what you are eating is the REAL PAYOFF!

When looking into keeping backyard chickens in an urban setting, I was looking for calm, easy going, friendly, non-skittish and good winter layers/good layers all around and the main criteria I wanted was an ALL BROWN EGG FLOCK. So the hunt was really intense, reading everything I could on the different birds, asking some fellow Master Gardener Interns I was in class with that have flocks and just really burning up the internet search.

I would like to introduce you to some of the "girls" I will be getting. Here is a Barred Plymouth Rock or more commonly called just Barred Rock. These are layers of large brown eggs, good winter layers, large full bodies and very calm & docile hens, often topping out at maturity often at around 7+ lbs. and I present it here below.

Now here is another choice I have made. This is the Black Australorp. They mature early and often laying between 5-6 months. They top out as well around 7lbs., lay large brown eggs and in unlighted conditions in winter have even been known in barnyard testing to lay 364 eggs in 365 days. Bred in Australia in the early 1900's it was introduced in the USA around 1920. Bred for large, prolific egg producers without sacrificing the meat utility as well, these lovely black ladies have a green to purple-black sheen in sunlight and they show well at most county fairs.

Third on Garden Daddy's list for this urban farm is the Silver Laced Wyandotte. I think this hen is one of the prettiest around. It has been one of the best American bred varieties that has been around for some time now. Good sized eggs from light to rich brown, these as well are great winter layers due to their small, rose comb that is not affected by cold weather. In case you are not aware of it, the larger a hen's comb is, the less of a winter layer she is and any hen that has a colored ear is a brown egg layer. This variety is very much a show or exhibition bird and maybe this Garden Daddy will have a fall fair entry if these look half way decent! Look below for this wonderful bird.

Fourth on this urban farm list of chickens is the Buff Orphington. Breed history says to "take out your gold pocket watch and that is the true color of the Buff Orphington". Introduced here from England in the late 1800's, these are large, stately birds with a very quiet disposition. Again a brown egg machine through winter as well, these "Golden Girls", with their heavy, full plumage are a barnyard favorite and "shell" out eggs for years and definitely are worth their weight in "gold"! Here are these beauties below.

Fifth and next to last on the list of what this Garden Daddy is adding to this urban farm garden is the Delaware. This mostly white bird with barring on the tail and in the hackle, will be another lovely addition to this flock. This breed was founded in the state of Delaware of course, from crossing a Barred Rock with a New Hampshire cross. A heavy breed of bird which lays a nice large to JUMBO brown egg, the hens will reach about 6lbs. and are considered a nice "stewing" bird when their time in the nest is done, about 4-years for most all chickens. Enjoy the pic below and think of those double yolk eggs going into your next cake mix!

Last on this Garden Daddy's list is the one I have always wanted for most of my adult life since thinking about raising chickens. Welcome to the world of the Ameraucanas. This great bird lays "tinted" or pastel eggs, due to the crosses made with the jungle type of foul from the Auracana Indians in South America. Often mistakenly called "Easter Eggers" and different from the Auracana chickens that have no tail due to not having the last few vertebrae in the spine, these lighter weight wonders are mostly just for fun and possible exhibition later on as well. Not prolific but efficient layers, these birds have "beards" or "muffs" around/under their neck and often ear tuffs that are a throw back to the jungle birds. These are calm, friendly and curious but can be picky about their nest box. I am looking forward to this addition to the flock as you can see below! This is a "buff" colored one but the range of color is amazing and often very vivid as well.

(For the record, NONE of these photos are from this urban farm, but from public sites or hatcheries for public use. I make no claim to these photos.)

Garden Daddy hopes you find this both informative and as much fun as I do when I actually get my little birds. I am working on the brooder today and should have it finished in the morning. I will post something about it then. For now I leave you with thoughts of lots of egg salad sandwiches, bright yolks of fun (deep, rich ones I hope) and thoughts of some good fertilizer for this urban farm garden site(s). I give you over to our ongoing daily gardening affirmation: "GARDENING: ONE YARD AT A TIME!"

NEW NAME + DIRECTION FOR THIS GARDEN HOME!

2010-03-29T03:16:00.013-05:00

WELCOME BACK to your Garden Daddy here at the garden home! I am doing much investigating and research and I am almost there today. I am RENAMING this "garden home" the "URBAN FARM" if my plan goes into place this week. I am checking with the city as we speak with emails and calls waiting to be returned to me about the zoning codes for keeping "city chickens" here at the garden home! I know that Tennessee cities, like Nashville & Knoxville, have already addressed this issue and it works well. You have to give proper reasoning for noise, smell and cleanliness.

I started this early this morning before I went to work and since I have gotten home I have the answer that there is NO CODE regarding chickens in general, but again as I mentioned earlier above about smell, noise & sanitation! So it appears that this Garden Daddy and the newly inspired "URBAN FARM" are on our way to getting our brood. This will make this city farm all the more of a teaching opportunity in the future for my plans with the Madison County Master Gardener program and future interns as well as my own personal use and pleasure of knowing the best possible effort is going into not only my eggs but to future "harvesting" of older birds as needed.

This new addition will add a new dimension to our times together and give another outlet for those summer vegetables that are not worth saving for harvest or busted squash and tomatoes and even a place that will get use from fruit rinds such as watermelon and cantaloupe as well as kitchen discards and also the addition of some few fresh grass clipping from time to time. I will share with you in the stages of building my coop and run from my well researched and thoroughly planned out ideas. AND HERE IT GOES

This is the "coop" in little puzzle pieces for now and then you see the "coop home site" I have written to you over the past two days and it started early Monday morning about 3:00am and it is now Tuesday mid-morning. I just got my email confirmation on my chick request and it has been processed by my local feed store, R & J Feed, that is getting in the shipments. I will have three delivery dates I can go pick up my pullet chicks. The first batch will be here on April 7th, 2nd on April 14 and lastly on April 28th. That will give this urban farm the compliment of 14 hens I am looking for. I will share with you in a future posting the 6-breeds I am acquiring and hope you will enjoy their color and variety as much as I think I will. This will be the "end in sight" of what I have wanted to do for many years and finally making it come true! This spring is especially exciting with the addition of this flock of "layers in training" and hopefully in about 16-20 weeks I will have my first egg if all goes well and things play out like they should!

I must leave today to go try to round up some donations for the Jackson Community Gardens project I am working with now and we are looking for lumber, supplies, MONEY....anything that will help the project get "planted" this year so to speak. By the way, I have designed a GARDEN DADDY tee shirt and could be taking orders soon. I need to order about 20 per order and they run about $18.00/per shirt - cost. Let me know if any followers or readers would be interested in putting together an order and I will see if we can get you into becoming a "walking billboard" for your Garden Daddy! I will send you on your gardening way with our ongoing gardening affirmation: "GARDENING: ONE YARD AT A TIME!"