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Is Your Mailbox Full of Seed Catalogs?

New seed catalogs come while I am busiest with the
activities of Christmas, and I always look forward to post-Christmas peace and
time to sit before the fire and read them. 
It is easy to let my gardening dreams grow out of proportion to the real
limits of my time and space as I peruse the beautiful photographs and eloquent
descriptions of perfect vegetables. 
My favorite catalogs remain the same year after year.  I usually order seeds from Johnny’s Selected
Seeds, at www.johnnyseeds.com or
877.564.6697.  They give cultural
information and sell many disease-resistant tomato seeds. Heavenly Seed LLC (www.heavenlyseed.net or 864.209.8283),
based in Anderson, provides the least glamorous catalog but the most generous
amounts of seed for the money; I buy most of my seeds from Heavenly Seed.
I may order from Territorial Seed Company, www.TerritorialSeed.com or
800.626.0866 this year; they have some heirloom tomato varieties that are grafted
onto disease-resistant rootstock.  The
rootstock is supposed to resist many of the diseases that plague my garden,
while the heirloom tomato variety grafted onto the rootstock will give me great
tomatoes. 
 Three years ago, I
ordered some fruit trees and bushes from Stark Bro’s (www.starkbros.com or 1.800.325.4180) and I
am pleased with their products and service. 
Last fall, I ordered, for spring delivery, some grape vines from Ison’s
Nursery (www.isons.com or 800.733.0324) in
Georgia. 
I do not think I have room to cram in any more perennials
now, but perennials from Bluestone Perennials, (www.bluestoneperennials.com or
1.800.852.5243) fill my garden. The catalog gives cultural information on
nearly any perennial commonly grown in the US.
Peaceful Valley Farm and Garden Supply (www.GrowOrganic.com or 1.888.784.1722), is
a California company with nearly every gardening/farming item imaginable.  Peaceful Valley’s catalog is good for information,
obscure organic pest control products, and season-extension products. 
I sometimes order seeds from Seed Savers Exchange, (www.seedsaversexchange.org or (562)
382.5990), a nonprofit organization from Iowa which sells exclusively heirloom
seeds and John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds (www.kitchengardenseeds.com or
(860) 567.6086), a catalog that is a work of art and provides detailed planting
and culinary information.  I may also
order from Renee’s Garden (www.reneesgarden.com or 888.880.7728).    
 
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, (417.924.8917 or www.rareseeds.com, has one of the largest
collections of heirloom seeds around.  Pinetree
Garden Seeds (207.926.3400 or www.superseeds.com)
sells small, inexpensive packets of seeds that are useful for small gardens or
for trying out many varieties of seeds. 
Visit these websites and request catalogs, or peruse the catalogs
online, and you will be able to imagine and to plan the garden of your dreams,
unmolested by insects, disease, heat, or drought. 
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Chickens in Chicken Heaven

The temperature is in the seventies here in South Carolina today, and I let the chickens out while I moved their pen. They haven’t had a proper dust bath in awhile because it’s been rainy, and because I have had their pen in a place that lacked dry, loose soil. One found the ideal dust-bathing spot, and they all came for a dip. Chickens in confinement don’t get to enjoy this perfect chicken-happiness. Mr. Cuteypants, the guinea who comes across the screen about midway through the video, enjoyed his (her) dust-bath earlier.

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A Book for the Chicken-Loving Gardener: “Free-Range Chicken Gardens” by Jessi Bloom

As I have bemoaned many times in this blog, chickens can
make a mess of your flowerbeds.  They remove the mulch from around plants with astonishing speed, and they love to  peck
holes in green leafy plants faster than Japanese beetles can chew holes. 

Free-ranging chickens may interrupt dinner

When I began my garden, I did not plan to have chickens, and
my main concerns were keeping out the deer, minimizing weeding chores, and
conserving water.  I put plants in my
garden that deer dislike and put down heavy layers of mulch to retard weeds and
retain moisture. 
Fortunately, many of the plants deer dislike are also
unpalatable to chickens.  However, beds
with thick layers of mulch covering earthworm-rich soil are chicken
heaven.  Because of the mess they create,
my chickens do not free-range all the time; instead, I keep them inside
portable electrified netting that I move every couple of weeks.
In her book, Free-Range Chicken Gardens: How to Create a Beautiful, Chicken-Friendly Yard, Jessi Bloom tells
the reader how to create a garden that welcomes chickens.  With planning, gardeners can incorporate
chickens into their gardens, and can allow them to roam free while also
minimizing damage to the plants. 
Bloom advises the gardener to think about which areas will
be chicken-friendly, and which areas need constant protection from poultry.  A permanent fence encloses my vegetable
garden, and I can allow my chickens into sections of my vegetable garden when
no plants are actively growing in the area, or when I have a mature cover crop
in the area, but close the main gate to the garden to prevent unrestricted access.

New plants, especially seedlings, are most vulnerable to
chicken attack; a chicken could kill newly sprouted zinnia plants in seconds,
but they might peck at a few leaves of a mature plant and move on.  Chickens could dig up newly transplanted
perennials in search of a new dust-bathing spot, but they won’t remove
established plants.   

Chickens can roam the fruit orchard most of the year, but they
need restriction from ripening fruit within chicken-jumping range.  Bloom tells gardeners to use plastic poultry
netting and temporary stakes to keep birds out of sensitive plantings.

Ground covers, according to Bloom, can retard weeds and
conserve moisture, but, unlike mulch, chickens cannot scratch it into a
mess.  I plan to put out more ground covers
in lieu of mulch.

One remaining problem is the chicken poo.  In the garden, it quickly decomposes into
wonderful fertilizer, but on the patio chairs, it is not pleasant.  A squirt of water washes it away, but if you
are planning a new garden that will include chickens, it is helpful to plan a
way to keep the chickens off the patio. 
Motion-activated sprinklers may help deter chicken activity in undesired
areas.
   
Filled with pictures of happy chickens roaming in beautiful
gardens, as well as useful suggestions about managing the chicken’s needs,
Bloom’s book offers the gardener many ideas about incorporating chickens into
the garden.