Green Family Urban Homestead: October Garden Update!

Footsteps towards freedom.

Fall is certainly showing itself here in the garden and we are looking up at grey skies on and off. A few sprinklings of rain here and there is keeping the garden moist and the wild grasses and weeds are germinating. It has been a busy busy month for our entire family and our planting schedule is a bit off kilter but we are pressing on and doing all we can.

A sudden seed casualty set us back a few days when we discovered that the entire box of seed packets we've accumulated over the past year had somehow gotten wet and the seeds had sprouted and were damaged beyond salvaging. Justin and I are going to the local nurseries and farm supplies to restock the few varieties we'll be planting this fall/winter.

The brassicas have gotten a late start but we have onion starts and peas in at last! We've decided to splurge on some row covers (small hoop houses) for our new raised beds and we think it will extend our season allowing us to plant later and harvest later in the year too.

On the urban chicken front, we recently downsized our little flock and relocated 5 of the Buff Orpington hens that made up the bulk of our egg laying brigade so now there are far far fewer eggs than usual. We now have mostly cochin and easter egger bantam hens who don't lay as much but they are wonderful to have around anyhow. There are also a few standard blue cochin pullets who will be laying soon and are just the dearest things. And finally, there's Brownie Buttons who came to us from a good friend of ours who's daughter brought a chick (mystery breed) home from her school chick incubating project. We miss our golden Belina's but it has been a heck of a lot more peaceful around here and those big girls needed more space to roam.

One bit of sad news, Vivian, one of our little Easter Egger bantams has been showing signs of some sort of illness and we have had to separate her from the rest, gave her a warm box, lamp, clean bedding and are watching her for any signs of recovery. So far, nothing has changed in her condition and it has been about a week and a half since she became lethargic and fluffed up like she had a chill. Thankfully she is still eating and we think she is drinking water as well. Of all the research we've done, sadly, nothing has been very helpful. There seem to be a great deal of illnesses that can effect chickens and, since do not have enough experience in dealing with chickens, we are investigating the possibility of finding a professional specializing in holistic animal husbandry as soon as possible.

All in all, it has been quite a month here at the Urban Farm and I thought I would post a few pictures of the recent events and happenings. I would have liked to post a separate blog for each group of photos but there are far too many! (Well, you can never really have too many photos!) Here they are: