God is the Gardener

Genesis 2:8 The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.

I am reading through Genesis again, and noticed for the first time, that God is a gardener, too.  Better to say, God is THE Gardener.  He planted the Tree of Life in His garden.  I plant the food that sustains my life in mine.  I find all kinds of life there, and death.  That, too, came first to Eden.  He planted the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil there, and that knowledge came to Man by man's own doing.  I learn the right and wrong of my garden by doing, as well.  If I do it right, I will have good fruit.  If I do it wrong, I will have bad fruit, or no fruit at all.  The fact that I have to  sweat so much doing it?  See Genesis 3:17b

          "Cursed is the ground for your sake;
           In toil you shall eat of it
          All the days of your life."

I am grateful that God cursed the ground, and not man directly.  And I am grateful for my garden, and all I am gaining from it, in knowledge, wisdom, peace, and sustenance.

Monday Munchings

Not really.  Just gardening notes for future munching.  Twenty-four each of Broccoli (Waltham 29), Cabbages (Derby Day), and Cauliflower (Amazing) are finally in the Jiffy flats on my desk.  I will also direct seed these in the hoop house (twelve each) in March and outdoors in April.  If I get really motivated (and have enough seeds and containers), I will try Winter Seeding them outside on the deck, too.  It would be fun to see which way they do best.

Spa Day... for the Hens!

I went up to check on the condition of the hoop house yesterday afternoon, and was followed by four of the hens, who think I am the Great Giver of Food, for some reason.  Usually, they give up halfway there and go their own way, but this time, they followed me right in, and I swear their eyes got huge and they they ran down the aisle and jumped for joy in the dirt, rolling and scratching, and flinging dirt on each other and clucking like crazy.  Their favorite spots were right under my chair, the table, and between my feet and the last fig tree.  One of the four thought this was low class behavior and preferred the "improved" dirt in my actual garden.  I covered the areas where I have garlic planted, and put the cloches over the spinach and cabbage, and let them peck and eat everything else in sight. 
I went out and picked up Lucky and brought him in, figuring he'd appreciate time away from Drunken Chicken.  He was so excited he couldn't stop crowing, which eventually brought in Drunken Chicken... and all of a sudden the relaxed, happy atmosphere was gone.  He walked down one side and Lucky and three of the four of the six hens inside at that point all took off down the other side away from him.  So the truth is out.  Even the hens don't like the big bully.  He's headed for the stewpot.  When the Princess hollered to let me know it was time to take her to TaeKwonDo, I had to chase them all out.  The boys objected, but went eventually.  If the weather is not too nasty, I'll work in there this weekend, and take a hen to help me.

The Good, the Bad, and the Messy...

The good is I finally ordered this year's meat chickens (and some Wyandottes, which I can explain, really!).  The bad is I waited so long that I cannot get delivery until April 1, which is rather late for the Wyandottes to be ready for the County Fair (4-H project for the kiddos).  I admit I'm glad that I can keep the birds in the laundry room for the first month and then kick them out into the cold, cruel world - that would be the heated Chicken Ghetto (the mini-coop), and then free range them as soon as it is warm enough.  I wasn't looking forward to coming up with some way to keep them warm outside as one month old birds in April, when it inevitably snows one last time here... usually the weekend I'm hiving bees... which I'm going to order as soon as I'm done with this post.

The other bad is that we lost a Blue Andalusian hen today for no discernible reason.  Just dead in the coop this morning.  Still warm when the Princess went to let the chickens out, but dead.

The messy is that I've gotten the Jiffy greenhouses set up, the extra dirt for the larger containers and GARDENING SEASON HAS STARTED!  Right next to my computer...  Which may not be world's most intelligent location, but it's what I've got, so I'm going for it.