Farm Fresh: Harvest and Hatching Guineas

 We've been eating as many fresh tomatoes as we want and there's still plenty. Loads of things are growing and ready or nearly ready to harvest. Canning and preserving are about to become a full time job. This week we had some delicious fresh garden meals of pasta salad, basil nettle pesto on homemade pasta, and roasted beets and fennel with beet green omelet (duck eggs).

I saw lots of goodies, but didn't have a basket -- so shirt to the rescue. These became pasta salad. 

Pesto pasta for eating and as a skin cream. Haha.

My peppers have become like little palm trees from the muscovies nibbling on them.

I'm increasingly convinced that one can never have too many zinnias in the garden.  These are interspersed with the tomatillos and I love this row. 

The bee house has its first occupant... not sure whether it is an actual mason bee or something else. 

This poor mama duck found a hiding spot behind some rabbit cages.  Unfortunately, her plan and mine were not in sync. I had to kick her out.  I moved her eggs into the incubator, as she probably would not continue sitting on them in a new location. 

This is what I was working on -- getting all the rabbit cages up on cinder blocks instead of bricks.  The bricks' surface area is too small and the cages were tipping and wobbling.  Now they are much more stable.

We moved our first group of guineas out to the white chicken coop.  I cleaned it all out and put in nice clean mulch for them. There are 9 in that group. 

My neighbor also gave us 20 guinea eggs that I put into the incubator.  They have now started to hatch and are moving into the brooder.

I added some plants to my shade gardens this week.  We took down a holly close to the house (again). I chopped up the stump as best I could. Digging out the last one took me a week and I definitely don't want to waste any time on that, plus it's right on top of some electrical lines. I planted Angelica, which will grow to about 7-9ft tall, at the back and Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) down in front. 

I've been slowly creating a woodland herb garden.  I have a Spice Bush, Black and Blue Cohosh, Baical Skullcap, and now added some of the same Skullcap mentioned above (official variety, some call it American Skullcap). 

I also planted several clusters of Sweet Woodruff at the base of a large oak tree along the driveway.  A lot of the front garden is a wild mess.  Zinnias, artichokes, cardoons, hot peppers, and basil down in front make me smile each time I pass by though.