Greetings fellow carbon units!

I thought I would give you a quick update on my dwarf fruit trees.  If you will recall, I planted a peach tree, an apple tree and a plum tree last fall.  I also had a couple of fig trees, but in order to not keep you in suspense, I can tell you right now that they did not make it through the winter.  I'm going to try again with them at a later time.

Getting back to the three fruit trees.  Well... I ended up buying another apple tree, peach tree, apricot tree and a nectarine tree.  That's a lot of trees to cram into one tiny backyard, but I managed.  Besides, they're dwarf and won't get too big, as long as I keep them under control.

As for varieties - well, the peaches are Intrepid and Elberta.  I grew up in Tucson and have fond memories of picking Elberta peaches in the hot sun and biting into them, right there in the orchard. The sweet sticky peach juice usually ended up all over my face and shirt, but man was it worth it.

Intrepid  Peach

The apples are a Honey crisp spin off and an Cox;s Orange Pippin.  The Cox's Orange is an old variety and it is the only one that isn't a dwarf, but I haz plans for that one.  I intend on trellising it against the fence, but we'll see how that goes.  It is supposed to be a good all purpose apple and one that is used in a lot of the hybrid crosses we have today.  It is also supposed to be a good cider apple, and I lurve me some cider, I will tell you.

I don't remember what the apricot, the plum or the nectarine varieties are, but I'm looking forward to them fruiting in the next few years.  Apricot jam, might just be my favorite.

Apricot Tree

At any rate, they all made it through the winter with flying colors and are growing with astounding amounts of vigor.  I will do some summer pruning at the end of next month just so they don't get too big or leggy.  My goal is to have nice sturdy trees that can withstand a fruit load easily.

Now the next garden addition is pretty sweet and I've been enjoying the heck out of them.  Meet Susan Beak Eggthany and Mo Clucker.  Suzie is the dark red one and Mo, is the one with the whiter feathers around her neck.  They are about 10 months old and have been popping out an egg a day each since mid-January.

They're quiet, well behaved, love eating bugs and they eat the heck out of the dandelions!  Also, Mo has a serious thing for strawberries, so I'm always shooing her out of the strawberry bed. She was too fast for me here and played keep away with Suzie while gobbling up her ill gotten gains.

Chickens are a natural for any garden - free manure and it's supposed to be the best manure ever once you let it compost some.  Plus, can I tell you?  They have huge personalities!  Who knew?

They come running when I shake their treat bag and always follow me around checking out what I am doing and making sure I do it correctly.  They make this funny sorta soft clucky noise when they see me and I have just been having the best time.

Here, I was trying to get a picture of an intriguing weed.  Ran right over to investigate right as I was taking the picture.

The very best part is the fresh eggs.  You seriously have never baked something before if you have not used a fresh, laid 15 minutes ago egg.  Fluffy, light as air baked goods.  Did you know that most of the eggs you buy in the grocery store are about 3-6 months old when you buy them?  There really is no comparison at all.

Now, I am sure someone is going to ask, but the answer is "no."  You do NOT need a rooster in order to get eggs.  You need a rooster if you want fertilized eggs.   Just as a human woman produces an egg every month regardless of whether a man is present or not, so do hens.

I really think that if more people knew how fun and easy chickens are, more people would have them.

Okay, well, that's about it.  Until next time, please remember, Be Kind To Each Other.