Garden Goodness: Work in Progress

I am thinking of the garden this year as a huge improvisation. I just have to plant things. I don't know what the arrangement of my garden plots will be long term, but I am putting things here and there by feel. I need to see how things do in the dappled shade and the semi sunny and the sunniest spots before I can make any drawings or definite plans. I need the plants' and animals' reactions to tell me whether I am on the right track or not.  

The little dogwood island in the backyard is a dappled shade spot.  I have been arranging my herbs there.  Sage, fennel, St Johns Wort, yarrow, lots of lavender, cilantro, oregano, and parsley are all in the ground here. A lot of them are starts gifted from friends' gardens. All the lavender and yarrow I grew from seeds this winter. 

 My garden is directly sown.  I hand turned the rows and mixed in rabbit manure or bags of garden soil. This is the tomato patch.   That chicken tunnel in the background is 12 feet long - so this bed is a lot bigger than it looks.

And the cabbage patch, half eaten by gophers:

I planted 2 blueberry bushes where the pine trees used to stand.  They are loving that acidic soil and the top dressings of rabbit manure.  Looking forward to lots of berries from these and making plans to plant more in this spot.

 The home inspector told us that both the holly bushes in front were way too close to the house. The huge roots extending towards the foundation prove his advice was correct.
 Hubby and Gpa J cut them down for me, but the stumps and roots have been a battle ground.  I have spent about 10-12 hours so far shoveling and hacking away at this monster with the hatchet and it still won't budge. The roots are all interwoven with rocks too. It's really slow going.

Also in the front yard - my new strawberry patch is taking off... The rhubarb did not make it though.

Two hazelnut trees and an apple tree planted to mark the first outlines of what I hope will be our orchard area.

I wish you could smell this picture.  This is the mulch that my new favorite tool made.

Here is our new wood chipper. I love machines that can multi-task.  This one is cleaning up the debris from the logging, making mulch for the garden, and making bedding for all the poultry. Plus it smells lovely.

 Hubby chipped up a lot of the pine branches directly into the wheel barrow. It smelled just like Christmas as I spread it around the duck house, chicken coop, and duck brooder.