My garden is growing like gangbusters!  I would describe it as "profuse and delightful" :~)

I have glorious golden blossoms on everything and many of the climbing plants have grown into a serious jungle.  My cucumbers are an enormous mountain of green and gold vines, gourds that I never imagined would need trellising have cascaded over the fence in a colossal drift of squash leaves and tricky sticky tendrils threatening to overtake the nearby shrubs, and the melons have also escaped their corral like wild horses striking fast for the hills.  I love the jumble of cosmos that I planted to line the garden path with cheerful orange flowers to attract pollinators - but have promptly become an exuberent pile of honey colored surge spilling over the lane.  

I've really got to take the time out of my already packed schedule to get out there...

Things around here have been crazy... breeding yards to manage, baby ducks and chickens hatching out every day, an upcoming meat harvest to prepare for and, of course, the market garden to tend (oh, yeah... and that pesky full time job that pays the mortgage).  If I had actually been able to wedge in the time, I probably should have put my beans, peas, and beets in the ground in March instead of April but, other than the peas, everthing seems to be doing well anyway.

June slammed down on Southern Maryland with August temperatures...

The cherry blossoms are a bloomin’ and the Canada Geese are honking overhead… time to get those early tomatoes started!

I’m getting a better early start this year than I did last spring but I’m still two months behind.  I guess it-is-what-it-is but I do soooo disapprove of lateness.  Just this past weekend I (with the help of wonderful friends) was able to get my market garden plowed for planting and build out my duck breeding yards.  I’m way behind on my spring duck production!  I’ve currently got my Welsh Harlequins and my Black Cayuga ducks sectioned off for breeding.  At this point, it looks like my Cayuga harvest won’t be until the end of July *bleh*.  I should have had them in their yards by the first of February instead of the end of March.  *sigh*  Next year…

The Muscovy will be a staggered harvest this year since one of my hens couldn’t decide if she wanted to set that giant clutch of eggs she’d laid or not.  Little Miss Queeny went broody in December but I wouldn’t let her brood any duck eggs until February (so she wasn’t trying to raise warm weather Amazon waterfowl babies in January).  I replaced them all with infertile chicken eggs instead.  By February I think she was just tuckered out and sick of being inside all the time.  I’m crossing my fingers now… she’s gathered herself a clutch of 15 eggs in a new nesting spot and for the past two days has been more committed to them than the last batch.  If this is the real deal then I’m looking for babies in 35 days.

My Pretty Girl Muscovy has been broody since November!  Oh my, but that girl is committed to the nest… In February I ordered eight American Blue & Lavender-ice Goose eggs for her to set but it’s turned out that not a single one was fertile (sure hope I can find some more this year).  Poor Pretty Girl.  She’s been such a good little momma-wannabe that I broke down and ordered 15 Muscovy ducklings from Hoffman Hatchery in Gratz, PA for her to raise.  I’m hoping they’re able to fill my order this week so I can get them to her… she deserves to have some babies for goodness sake!  I’ll keep two girls from that hatch to add to my breeding flock and harvest the rest at 12 weeks.  Looks like a mid-June harvest.  I’ll have my Cornish chickens arrive to correspond with that harvest and do them both together.

As far as my veggie garden is concerned, I plan to get my peas in the ground and get everything else into their peat pots ASAP.  By the last week of April I should be able to get my pole and snap bean seedlings in the ground along with my short season tomatoes and beets.  Maybe even a few others depending on how much my plastic mulch and cold frames are able to raise the soil temperatures.

Permaculture is the word here at Moose Manor: chickens, ducks & geese are all welcome in the garden at the appropriate time for each of them to do their happy little jobs. 

Chickens first.  They scratch, scratch, scratch at the soil.  Dump in the spring cleaning from the poultry houses and the chickens will spread it all around for you.  They'll also scratch up weeds, eat weed seeds and bugs; all the while depositing nitrogen rich fertilizer right where you need it.  You can use a chicken tractor or just fence them in.

Waddle, chortle, quack! Plant your seeds or seedlings out of scratching range!  Once fully established, trade those chickens in for some ducks (I'm sending in the Indian Runners).  Those broad billed bug busters will keep all the slugs, snails, cutworms, ect. and their eggs from eating your garden before you get a chance to.  No need for chemicals or even hand picking... the ducks are more than happy to help.  You can just dump their wading pools right out on the veggies... duck poop soup is the best fertilizer around!

What's good for the goose is... good for the lazy gardener!  It's also unnecessary to weed if you bring in a few geese.  They'll eat up your weeds for you.  Careful with your cabbages and lettuce though... they'll scarf that up too.  Just herd the geese to the pasture once your strawberries start to ripen so they don't ruin your plans for pie!

I reckon the agenda for this weekend is to move the chickens into the garden plot, clean the duckbarns so I can spread all that nutrient rich composted manure and straw around for the kickin' chickin's to till in, and get my farm-stand signs made for the Moyaone Market (3rd Saturday every month at 2311 Bryan Point Road, Accokeek, MD). 

I’m very excited about the veggie selections I’ve made.  I hope Mother Nature cooperates and that my California green-thumb has accompanied me the 3,000 miles to the mid-Atlantic!  I’ll keep you posted.

I'm so excited about my Market Garden!  My farm-stand at the Moyaone Market will be totally awesome! 

The software I used to plan out my gardens is a web-based application at www.plangarden.com.  It's super easy to use... you can create odd-shaped beds, container plantings, raised beds, and even square-foot garden beds.

There are drag-and-drop graphics, text labels, spacing requirements, and a journal area where you can write notes about each crop. The harvest estimator can help you stagger your harvest. You can also invite comments from other Plangarden users about your garden design.