Yes, we finally have some flowers here! It’s such a relief to be seeing some color in our yard. Not only are the flowers starting to bloom, but the grass is turning green quickly. All the April showers we’ve had are at least paying off. Before we get to the flowers:
Secret Project Reveal!
Luke shows you the raised bed frame for where we’re starting a new memorial garden!
Some of you guessed last week what it would be and some of you didn’t come out and say it but I know that you had guessed correctly! For those that don’t know, I had created a special garden at our previous home around the area where most of our pets who had lived there with us and passed on were buried, or had their ashes scattered. It was the one thing I was most sad about leaving behind at our old home, and I even wrote a whole series about each pet who’s tag hung on the trellis that was there (and came with us). As the project comes along, I’ll be sharing more about it and how it came about this time.
The Flowers:
There’s a reason they say guinea hens aren’t good for your garden when you first start it. They can really take over a spot with their dust baths! You can see in the below photo the big area that Whitey messed up.
Farm Update
For those that have been paying attention and are wondering about the guineas being out after our fox scare; after about a week of keeping them penned up with the chickens we decided to let them loose again. There were several reasons for that:
- One of the points of having guinea hens is so that they can eat the ticks around the yard. Since I found the first tick on me this week, I knew it was time for them to get back to work on that.
- They were getting bored inside the pen and harassing the chickens, chasing them around and grabbing their tail feathers. I thought the girls needed a break.
- We’ve felt they were a bit safer from predators; they stick together better and put up a pretty good alarm when something strange comes into their territory. They can fly better than the chickens so can get away. We also had not seen the fox for almost a week, so I had hopes it had moved on. However, it showed up again this week. The good news is that the guineas started chasing it off before I heard their alarm and got to the window! When I looked out, the fox was already headed away; so I think the guineas had scared it. The previous time we saw it, the guineas had been out but they didn’t seem to scare it away. I think that time it was just confused about the whole situation with the chickens being out of it’s reach in the pen, so it kind of froze in place until I got outside and started yelling. The guineas are earning their keep! I’m still concerned about them (there’s been a hawk around too, but they also put up an alarm when they see or hear that), so we are keeping a close eye outside when they’re loose.
We’re not going to be complacent. Unfortunately, the recent sighting of the fox means the chickens will continue to be penned up for a while. I always said our free range chickens are happy that way, and that means more eggs. They’ve been slacking in that department a bit so I think I’m right about that! The Dadz will be home all this weekend though so we may be able to let them out for a bit as long as we are right there keeping an eye on them the whole time. We’re hoping for a nice weekend so we’ll be outside a lot!
Are things finally blooming in your neighborhood?
Thank you to Living Laughing Barking in Our Backyard for hosting the Flower Friday blog hop!
Beautiful flowers and stunning photos with the guinea hens! I’ve been thinking about if I dare let mine out to roam.
Thank you! I’ll be honest….they make it challenging. They are like little kids on the loose sometimes! LOL
I love the idea of your memorial garden. I’m looking forward to hearing as it progresses.
Your daffodils are gorgeous, and that lone purple plant is too! I can see how the guinea fowl might not be good for a garden! Wow, that’s quite a dust bath!
It’s really funny when the chickens do it, and you watch them walk away….they then shake and put up a cloud of dust (like PigPen – LOL).
Great to see those flowers! Down here in Maryland the daffs are just about done, but the bleeding hearts are in full bloom, as is the lilac. The memorial garden is a great idea. 🙂
Everyone was talking about bleeding hearts, so I had to go out and find mine. They are just starting to come up now, but hopefully they’ll be blossoming soon along with the lilacs.
The memorial garden is going to be fabulous! Seems like the only thing blooming around here are the dandelions (no…that’s not true…there’re other flowers blooming too.)
This is the time of year my Mom would be digging up the dandelions for the greens! Ours aren’t quite blossoming yet.
I’m so glad that you are able to make another memorial garden. Your other one was so beautiful. ♥ Those guineas are hilarious! I can’t believe they were bullying the chickens. LOL!
They are like bratty little kids sometimes – LOL!
I can’t wait to see how the memorial garden turns out. I love all of the flower pictures–I’ve got a lone hyacinth by my shed that just popped up! A couple other bulbs have sprouted and I’m still waiting for them to open up because I don’t remember what they are since they were there when we moved in. I’m getting ready to head out to mow the lawn for the first time this spring now–in a few weeks, I’m sure I’ll be tired of that chore, but right now I’m so excited to have grass to mow that I’m almost looking forward to it.
That’s such a fun part of moving to a new home with gardens….just waiting to see what pops up! I think I’m going to move that hyacinth to the memorial garden.
Hubby does all of our lawn mowing, and I’m sure he’ll get tired of it quickly too! But it is so nice to see that green grass.
I like the memorial garden idea, I can’t wait to see it. I’m glad the guinea hens are doing their job and keeping the fox away.
The garden has the soil in it and is almost ready to go! Now we just have to wait a little longer, we could still get another frost so don’t want anything fragile in there yet. But I can at least plan and get the trellis and some of my garden statues in there!
We can’t wait to see the finished memorial garden! The guineas sound like such characters and your gardens are beautiful!
Thank you! The best part is they are just getting started!
We love seeing Spring coming up in your yard and can’t wait to follow the progress of your Memorial Garden!!!
I can’t wait to get started on it! Hubby filled it with soil today, so now we just have to wait for safe weather to start putting flowers in!
What a beautiful memorial
Such pawretty flowers!! I just nose your memorial garden is gonna be so beautiful!!
We started seeing ticks a couple months ago but fank goodness not at our house just in da woods we go fur walkies. Maybe they need to put some guinea hens out in the conservation area to eat them up 😉
xoxo,
Matt (& Matilda)
Luke and I walk in our woods too. I’m thinking I should take the hens for a field trip out there too! 🙂
I’m glad you have a plan in place to let them get a little roaming in.
This morning on Delilah’s walk, I stopped to smell a lilac bush. I love them so much, and I’m loving the bouquet of colors everywhere I look.
I thought I had made a comment on the project, (it was the memorial garden) but for some reason, I must not have. I can’t wait to see what you do with it.
I can’t wait for the lilacs! I don’t think they’ll bloom until late May/early June around here. They’re just barely getting their leaves now.
A memorial garden — what a brilliant idea! I have a sort of planter I created on top of one of our graves, but I like the idea of making an actual ‘garden’, bigger than what I have now, and also of the ‘memorial’ part — space for a marker of sorts (a trellis is excellent!) where the tags can be… I really, really love this! And I look forward to following the progress on yours. Maybe, if I manage to get on mine soonish, we can even compare notes… Though, to be honest, Curaçao isn’t the most hospitable environment for plants in general, let alone flowers, so we’re looking at a very different end result, hehe.
Oh, those flowers… How gorgeous! I’m glad your weather is finally warming up and that all this beauty surrounds you. And good that the guineas got their freedom back! Can’t imagine them chasing off the fox — yay, guineas! Keeping fingers crossed for lovely weekend weather for you, and for the chickens 🙂
Guilie @ Life In Dogs
Thank you! The weather has been quite good lately, so we’re getting more and more time outside. The garden is filled with soil now and getting ready for planting!
I got the trellis idea from a Facebook page….they talked of the tags hanging on it tinkling in the wind. I never could get mine to tinkle, but maybe in a new location they will! Either way, it’s so pretty, can’t wait for you to see it.
That’s a terrific project and hooray for the real Spring showing up. Oh those foxes, they don’t give up easily.
Love that image of the hens dusting themselves in the daffodils. Daffodils are Mother Nature’s way to make us smile in spring.
Definitely….there is nothing like that bright yellow to cheer us up after a long winter!
I know your new memorial garden will be just as lovely as the one left behind at the old house.
I also didn’t know guinea hens eat ticks.
I’m anxious to get started working on it. Hubby put the soil in today, so it’s just about ready!!
I’m glad the hens are doing a good job, and I hope they can scare the fox away for good.
We haven’t seen it since that day….fingers crossed!
Beautiful flowers. That is great that the hens eat the ticks. I would think of getting some, but we always have coyote tracks in our yard. My hubby had 2 ticks on him yesterday.
The ticks have been awful so far this year. Every day we’re both getting them on us! I think it will help when we can let the chickens back out too, because they will also eat them.
the hyacinth is beautiful… I had no clue that the guineas eat ticks… another reason to get this funny guys ;O)
But really, I’d get them again just purely for entertainment purposes! 🙂
We still don’t see many natural blooming flowers, but trees are budding, grass is turning green, and I’m sure flowers will be popping up soon. We never thought about leaving your memorial garden behind. That would be hard, but your new one will be wonderful.
It seems like one day everything was brown and drab and the next it was quickly turning green! Even some of our trees are starting to show their leaves now. I guess a couple summer-like days and then a lot of rain did the trick.
I’m really looking forward to creating a new garden for the pets. Losing Cricket really got me thinking about how much I missed the old one again.