Potato Pro, Raspberry Pro

I'm not tooting my own horn here.  I'm not a professional anything.  This is all about keeping things safe.  We've talked about garden pro not that long ago when the girls were still on the loose in the yard and when the squirrels were digging me an opportunity to plant onions twice.

Keeping busy feet at bay

Big-hearted chicken lover that I am, I suffer a twinge (is it guilt?) when the hens do not have full free range of all our property.  Well, not the front yard--there's no fence there.  So recently my extra tomato cages became potato pro(tection).   Two by two lumber from an old bean trellis found itself in the Things I get to do today to hinder the frenzied feet of the girls at the base of my raspberry rows.

Cages just laid on the bed--spaces too open and vulnerable

But back to the tomato cages.  I'm very opinionated on this subject, I'll warn you up front.  The round wire funnel cages, in my opinion, are nothing short of a nuisance, especially in the off season.  My preference is the kind that are about three and a half feet tall and 14 inches square.  At the end of the season, they fold flat.  15 of them take not space at all, it seems.  But even this kind can be worthless if they are made cheaply with light-weight wire.  A good wind will take them and your tomatoes right over like a pile of angry coat hangers in a wrestling match.

Cages opened, linked and offset with 6-7" openings.

Somehow I acquired half a dozen or so of this cheapo kind.  And when the potatoes needed help these worthless wires were shanghaied into service.  I unlinked the hooks that made them square, creating a flat open mesh, then linked half of them all together to cover the long bed.  Did the same with the rest and laid them offset so that the "mesh" has about 6" openings in instead of 12".


There's a use for everything if you let your creativity ramble about in the vicinity of an idea that's looking for an answer.

Blissed on My Butt

It's been awhile since I've sung any hymns.  Yesterday this old one sprang out of nowhere, drawn by the glorious bright orb in the clearest of blue overhead.  "Heavenly sunshine, heavenly sunshine, filling my soul with Glory Divine."  That's as far as my memory would take me, and that was enough. It was straight from heaven, no matter what your religious views, and it filled my soul, my heart and my body.  It was bliss.  You can tell we have been seriously missing the sun in Portland.

Gloriously healthy peony in its protective support

I was sitting on the earth making the beds of collected flowers, shrubs and various plants look prettier.  Some of you would call it weeding, but the emphasis and the spirit of my task is entirely different from the drudgery that is associated with that term.  I was taking my time and taking my time all at once.  It was bliss.  It doesn't get any better than this in the Things I get to do today--play in the earth, rearrange for my pleasure the beauty of these that grow, and bless each with my heart and love as they are seen and touched.

OMG (in the very best sense)

Shock and awe!  What to my wondering eyes did appear?  I discovered that the lovely twig cages used to protect perennial shoots from spring-loaded chicken feet were still very much alive.  They are sprouting leaves.  Next puzzle for Handy Andy:  plan for keeping the twig cages but not have them grow into vigorous variegated Dog Wood bushes around my favorite flowers!

Chicken Pro/Garden Pro

Blue Scotch Kale
stripped to the ribs by hens with good taste

"Short speak" can be confusing.  Pro means professional or pro can be short speak for protection.  Chicken pro means protecting the chickens. I may give that up for spring planting.  Just to drop a hint, here is a close-up of what my previous "Instant Gratification" Garden looks like since the hens have had full run.

Peas ready to cover with 1" of earth

Soft, freshly turned earth calls to a hen like nothing else in the universe.  The worms send out a special tractor beam that just draws them in.  The girls, knowing that I create soft, freshly turned earth, follow me around the yard ready to spring into action.  So right after I planted peas and potatoes, Installing Garden Pro was on my list of Things I get to do today.

Peas planted and pro-tected

I want the peas to come up naturally as a result of earth, water and time causing them to send roots down and stems up.  Chickens can make peas come up faster than anything else I know--up and all over the place in less than ten minutes after planting.

Half-planted potato bed well protected

The potato garden is in the back corner, a place the chickens currently call their own.  They can have it for another couple of weeks, and then the fence goes back up.  Until then it potato pro trumps chicken pro.