One of the New Eden gardeners introduced us to this cool website. On growveg.com you can plan your garden, get reminders of when to plants your different veggies, good gardening tips and more. Click here to get more info.
Charlotte Dion preparing a sheet mulch garden at New Eden in 2010
Spring is finally here and it time for another round of New Eden’s Sustainable Living Classes. This spring we will be offering courses on a variety of “homesteading” skills and earth friendly practices from raising chickens to making strawberry preserves.
The list of courses include No Dig or Sheet Mulch Garden Beds, Compost Tea, Chicken 101, Shiitake Mushroom Cultivation, Creating Habitats for Pollinators and other Beneficial Insects, Strawberry Preserves Workshop and 2 classes on the Basics of Organic Gardening.
Saturday’s record turn out for a New Eden work party was an auspicious start to New Eden’s 2010 growing season!The weather was glorious and everybody was in goods spirits as we started the beginning of new friendships and reconnected with old garden buddies. More than 30 gardeners and their families showed up to build our wood chip paths, tighten the garden fences, hook up the hoses, and refurbish our compost piles. We got a lot of work done. Thanks to the efforts of Barbara V. and the donation of wood chips from Hatheway Landscaping, we have made a great start to creating beautiful paths through out the garden. Thank you JT for putting our compost in order.
The girls getting to know each other.
Our New Eden chicks were the guests of honor on their first foray outside. They seemed to have enjoyed themselves. I know that the young and the young at heart enjoyed playing with them.
Here are the girls… They don’t have names yet. This is a privilege we are reserving for the first term chicken co-op share holders. We hope you’ll get to know each of them and love them as we do. (I will be adding more information about each chick in time…Breed, qualities, likes, dislikes, etc…)
14 baby chickens, living in an old dog crate, what could be better. Today we went and purchased 14 baby chickens from the local Agway. 3 Aruacanas, 3 Rhode Island Reds, 3 White Leg Horns, 3 Gold Comets, and 2 Barred Rocks. We should have a rainbow of eggs in just 20 short weeks.
We took care to keep the chicks warm when setting up their temporary home in Erin’s basement. An old dog crate will create the perfect, cat free environment, complete with pine shavings, chick waterer, chick feeder, and an adjustable heat lamp. (Thanks Mike!)
Soon we will begin the process of finding share holders for our chicken co-op. I will post again soon with information about how to express an interest. Until then my to do list gets longer but more exciting by the minute…A coop raising, a chicken run, a chicken tractor, and of course lets not forget our ducks! (Coming in just a few weeks.)
Keep checking in to find out more about whats to come. We will of course need share holders for the Chicken-Co-op, but we will also be offering information here, as well as formal classes for those who are interested in raising chickens in their own back yard. More Soon… cluck, cluck, beGawk! -Mary
