Ducky and Greenhouse Update

Remember the little ugly duckling chicken that I hatched in the incubator, back at the beginning of February?  Well, she's practically a full grown chicken!  She will always be Ducky, but I don't think she's ugly any more.  She has some crooked toes, and hasn't learned to roost, or be part of the flock.  I don't think spending her early days alone was good for her confidence, because she seems content to cower in the coop all day and won't come out to play unless you go in to get her.  She also has problems getting back in the coop if you take her out.  But, she does have a unique way of getting mom's attention when she realizes it's getting dark and she's not where she should be - she jumps up and flaps on the living room window!  I think it gave mom quite a scare to have something attack the window right at dusk, but she obediently went out and picked Ducky up and placed her in the coop.  Maybe Ducky isn't as chicken brained as she seems. 

And remember all those paper flower pot cups we made?  Well, we finally got them filled with organic soil, which meets Joe's requirements for his future all organic garden, and they are planted with seeds.  Just for Joe's garden, we planted tomatoes, peppers, basil, squash, zucchini, and a few onions.  Probably 75 plants, or more.  We also started some tomato and pepper seeds for Joe's dad, who has been gardening for ages, but isn't organic.  It will interesting to compare the results of Joe's organic garden and his dad's non-organic garden, since they will be on the same farm.  I'm not sure it will be a fair test though, considering the value of experience, which Joe's dad already has.  Not that I don't have full confidence in you, Joe.  Good luck with your first garden (he's gonna need it!). 

So, the greenhouse is packed tight.  I managed to get everything in, but the top shelf collapsed once while I was loading it.  I hate to criticize the greenhouse since it was a gift to me from Santa Claus, and Santa worked so hard to assemble it in secret, and then assembled it again after it was blown apart by a storm, but this greenhouse isn't made very well.  I'm sure it was expensive, but it is hard to open and close the door, it is very difficult to reach the plants on the side where the door doesn't open, it doesn't have enough shelves and they are very hard to adjust the height, and it just seems flimsy.  I hope it doesn't implode before we get our plants ready to go in the ground. 

The plants aren't as picky as me, and seem to like the greenhouse just fine.