Day 22 - Working in the Garden

After all the rain over the weekend, today was beautiful - 60 degrees and lots of sunshine.  There was also a strong wind so it didn't get too hot working in the sun.  Heather and I decided to spend the day setting up and planting her vegetable garden.


First we had to enclose the garden plots since the chickens and turkeys are free to range over the entire yard and they love to eat fresh little green plants.  Mike had put the posts in for us already so we just had to put up the chicken wire fencing.  Here is Heather just beginning to attach the fencing to the posts.

And here is the plot completely fenced.

Next we leveled out the dirt in the boxes and covered each plot with top soil.  Heather then began planting the seedlings.  First the sweet peas.

There are also two rows of carrot seeds planted in front of the sweet peas.  Then the tomato plants.

And then the artichoke plants and asparagus crowns.

And here is the garden plot at the end of the day.

Unfortunately, late in the afternoon the wind picked up and blew down the temporary gate and one of the turkeys got into the garden.  She didn't do any damage but she was very upset that she could not get out and Heather had to go in and cox her over to the opening.  Heather says their eyesight is very poor and she just couldn't find the opening.

This enclosure is temporary as we are planning at least five more boxed plots and all will eventually be enclosed with permanent fencing.  In addition to what is already planted, we are also planting potatoes, green beans, cucumbers, zucchini, watermelon, pumpkins, strawberries, onions, and chives. There may be more but that's all I can think of now.  It is going to be quite a garden!!

Bromley is still sitting on her eggs, as you can see below.

But a very strange thing happened this afternoon.  As I was putting the gardening tools away, I noticed Bromley walking up to the house with a broken egg in her beak.  I called Heather out to take a look and when Heather got into the yard, Bromley dropped the egg at her feet and then turned around and headed back to her nest. We ran to the nest to see if any other eggs were broken, but none were and surprisingly there were now 11 eggs in the nest - there had been only nine. The broken egg was actually one of the fertilized eggs Heather had put in the nest a couple of days ago.  We're not sure if she broke the egg on purpose or if there were just too many eggs for her to sit on and she broke one while trying to get them all under her body.  At least there are seven fertilized eggs left.  

And let's end the post with a video of Romeo.  Male turkeys do a little ritual when trying to attract a female turkey, or, in Romeo's world, a female human. He is quite enamored with Heather and every time she talks to him, or he even sees her in the yard, he does his little ritual.  Here is a video of Romeo putting the make on Heather : )