I had to break the video into two parts so i could get the chickens out, which is not a particularly cinematic process and without a tripod, would have been a lowly affair. They are always ready and waiting to get out in the morning, especially since we don't always get to them early. This was about 10 am I think. Plus they are generally happy to see me because I usually bring some sort of treat. I'll either pull up something that is past its sell by date, mostly broccoli rabe right now, or bring some of the kitchen scraps. I hate wasting food, but at least it gets back to being food by either going into the compost pile to help grow other food or to the hens to help with future egg production.

Part two shows our three beds in the back, with lots going on right now. Potatoes are full guns, peas look like they are about to head out - getting too hot for them, melons and pumpkins are coming in. The carrots in the first bed are about to come out - they look good but don't taste as great as they could, I've heard carrots are a hard thing to get great. We'll have to do some experimenting, both with soil amendments and with types. We have some leaf mold, which is supposed to be great for carrots, so we'll put that into the bed they'll go into next year and let it overwinter.

The bush beans are flowering so we should see some beans in the next month and the lima beans are going a bit crazy. They have a bit of a learning curve. I picked one that looked big to me, but when we opened it up it was all fluff and tiny beans, so I think they have to be bigger than I think to be done. The broccoli has been pretty good this year, we get heads with some secondary small ones after the initial cutting. Last year all I got was these gigantic prehistoric looking leaves and one tiny little head. That was also the summer of the late plant and the ignoring of the garden due to the baby. So that may have had something to do with it.

The lettuce has been an amazingly abundant crop. Part of it was that we were a little over enthusiastic in our initial planting, and then the weather has been so weird and coastal like, which lettuce love. We'll see what happens, now that real Colorado weather has returned.

I can't say how excited I am about the asparagus bed. First I thought I had totally screwed it up by following the somewhat mystical direction on the package. I'm not sure why I didn't just stop and get one of our many books and double check how I should do it. A bit of Mommy brain I guess. But they are pretty hardy plants and managed to get themselves above ground even though I planted them sideways and probably too deep. It'll be another two years before we get a real crop but we should be able to take a small amount next year. This is just my kind of vegetable, plant it once and with a little water and attention get twenty years of produce.