The Tulip Garden

02/17/2024

How about a Friday feather feature? This handsome boy is the product of our Wellsummer roo and broody Australorp mama. He looks just like his papa, Dale but with darker accents from his mama, Emerald. I inadvertently started calling him Dale, Jr. and now it stuck. 🤷🏻‍♀️
So far he is a great rooster just like his mentors. Last month a hawk swooped in and was nearly successful in scoring a free meal. Unfortunately we’ve lost many chickens to hawks over the years. On this day, I happened to hear commotion near the coop and in a flash caught glimpse of a hawk swooping down on one of our younger hens. It wrestled her around and I took off toward the coop. By the time I got my boots on and down there, the hawk had flown off and the hen was nowhere in sight. We looked for her for a while with no luck. A small scattering of feathers where the attack happened had my heart sinking that maybe it took off with her that fast. I went back to the house deflated at losing another chicken.
A couple hours later that hawk was back, pacing around very confused but determined to find its missing meal. Hope sprung - it hadn’t gotten her! So down to the coop yard I ran again. The hawk flew off and after a while, Dale Jr and his other girls came out from their huddled hiding area and he began to call to his missing misses. Then I heard it: her response. She had fled into a huge brush pile and was so deeply hidden that it took her a while to get herself out. But she did and they continued to cluck back and forth until she was safe at his side. (Second photo) 🥰
It’s not my ideal scenario to have three roosters, but when they’re so great (and the only roos I’ve ever had that didn’t inherit the mean gene), it’s hard to even consider getting rid of one. So the solution is simple right? Get more hens! 😬

02/14/2024

Happy Valentine’s Day 💝

Christmas Day gifted us with our first olive eggs! Home bred and home grown. I was hopeful at least one of the chicks that hatched from our broody girl over the summer last year would be an olive egger. We had a male and female of each breed needed to make one.
Our speckled layer has resumed after her moult and our color wheel is dreamy as ever. 🥰

It’s been giving early Spring and I’m both loving it but also praying Punxsutawney Phil was right this year because all my spring bulbs have broken ground and I’ll be so sad if a March winter rolls in and trashes their plans.

Hope your day is filled with love!

09/22/2023

Happy first day of fall! 🍁
Get your leaves in the shop!
>>> tulipgardengifts.com

08/16/2023

I lost my grandmother in July. She was the perfect Dutch oma. So much of my and my daughter’s life involved her. The past few months after entering a nursing home had not been great for her but (one positive side to her dementia), she remained mostly blissfully unaware of things and developed a survival skill out of her optimism.

I have not worked much in the garden this summer (and it shows). But since the week she passed, a pair of indigo buntings have visited the garden, enjoying the seeding foxtail. Their beautiful colors as bright as Oma’s eyes.

My aunt passed away last week and it just started feeling like a season of loss. My overgrown, untended flower beds and late-planted vegetable garden that hasn’t amounted to much aside from zucchini and greens.

Going through the motions and riding the waves of emotions as they come, I’m just trying to remind myself that it’s ok to take some time to just be. To process. To grieve.

The weeding can wait…and thankfully my garden friends don’t seem mind and still bring a comforting peace with their visits.

06/27/2023

Alaska! Our trip outside the lower 48 earlier this month was nothing short of amazing. The “land of the midnight sun” was everything we hoped. From the moment we touched down, Alaska delivered everything we asked. It was a slightly late start to summer so the temps averaged 50’s - which was perfect weather for hiking and exploring. I was anxious to see how light it actually stayed all night and, well, it definitely lived up to the midnight sun phrase. Surprisingly, it had zero affect on our ability to rest. We slept with the shades open every night wanting to soak up every second! We saw moose (with babies), whales (with babies), eagles galore, starfish, sea otters (with babies!), porcupine, puffins, sand cranes, ravens and magpies, bear, ptarmigan, glaciers, and just so much wild nature I was like a kid at Christmas! We ate amazing food, went out into open ocean and caught halibut, shopped, and had a blast. So grateful to have seen this amazing place in person! 💙

06/26/2023

Last time Emerald went broody we got her some chicks but it didn’t work out. She didn’t take to them and we ended up raising them in a brooder. This year we let her do her thing without interference. She staked claim to the popular nesting box (there’s always one everyone wants to lay in 🤣) and took some comb pecking from the other girls for not sharing the box. She’d rile up and make her pterodactyl noises anytime one of us would come in to collect eggs so we just let her have them and eventually the other girls started laying elsewhere.

This week we were greeted with tiny peeps. 🐣She’s got a collection of all different chicks under her with a new face or two every day and a few more eggs to go.

We moved her over to the brooder coop with her babes and eggs so she won’t be disturbed by anyone else and I’m so proud of how determined she is. We put her food and water right next to her since she was adamant on staying put - even if it meant going without. When we sprinkled some chick feed in the box she clucked and gave directions to the days-old chicks to come out from under her and eat. Her cluck, just like the roosters’ signal when they find food for the girls. Dale stood guard at the big coop like a proud papa. It’s all just really cute. Two didn’t make it so far, but ten have. I’m excited to see how many she ends up with! 🐥

04/05/2023

April 5th is Dandelion Day 💛

Fun Dandelion Facts:

Dandelions are the first primary food source for bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.

The dandelion is the only flower that represents the 3 celestial bodies of the sun, moon and stars. ☀️ 🌙 ⭐️ (The yellow flower resembles the sun, the puff ball resembles the moon and the dispersing seeds resemble the stars).

Every part of the dandelion is useful: root, leaves, and flower. It can be used for food, medicine, and natural dyes.

Up until the 1800s people would pull grass out of their lawns to make room for dandelions and other useful “weeds”.

The name dandelion is taken from the French word “dent de lion” meaning lion’s tooth, which refers to the coarsely-toothed leaves.

Dandelions have one of the longest flowering seasons of any plant.

Dandelion seeds are often transported away by a gust of wind and they travel like tiny parachutes. Seeds are carried as far as 5 miles!

Animals like birds, insects and butterflies consume nectar or seed of dandelion.

Dandelion flowers do not need to be pollinated to form seeds.

Dandelion can be used in the production of wine and root beer. Root of dandelion can also be used as a substitute for coffee.

Dandelions have sunk their roots deep into history. They were well known to ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans and have been used in Chinese traditional medicine for over a thousand years.

Dandelion is used in folk medicine to treat infections and liver disorders. Tea made of dandelion acts as diuretic.

If you mow dandelions, they’ll grow shorter stalks to spite you.

Dandelions are, quite possibly, the most successful plants that exist - masters of survival worldwide.

A not so fun fact: Every year people spend millions on lawn pesticides to have uniform lawns (of non-native grasses) and use 30% of the water supply to keep them green.

03/20/2023

Happy first day of Spring! My favorite...Because after all, without Spring there would be no tulips 💕🌷💕

03/17/2023

🍀

Happy St. Patricks Day!

01/28/2023

Our two mystics started laying this week…so you could basically say we hit the lottery 🤣 With over half of our girls being retired/semi-retired, it’s nice to have a few more steady layers again. Especially when they’re such lovely chocolate freckled gifts. 🥰

01/22/2023

As baby chick season approaches and the price of eggs keep rising, I’m sure a lot of people are tempted to raise chickens themselves. Before people flock (no pun intended 🤣) to their local farm store and start buying all the baby chicks please consider the following 10 fun facts….

1. Most hens do not start laying eggs until 18-22 weeks of age (that’s about 5 months give or take)

2. For the first few weeks of their lives baby chickens need to be kept at a temperature of around 95 degrees Fahrenheit

3. Chicks need to eat…SURPRISE! And like the price of everything else chicken feed has went up. A 50lb bag of layer is over $20.

4. Chickens molt…what does that mean? Your chicken will become ugly and stop laying eggs for a period of time.

5. Chickens don’t lay as many eggs in the winter months.

6. The average lifespan of a chicken is 5-10 years.

7. Predators such as foxes, coyotes, neighbor’s dogs and even raccoons will hunt your chickens.

8. Chickens will p**p EVERYWHERE and I mean everywhere so be prepared to clean their pen often or if they are free range be sure to check your step or look before you sit.

9. Chickens love to dig holes and destroy bedding around flowers in the yard, good luck keeping them from doing so.

10. Chickens can get medical issues just like any other animal.

I’m not trying to discourage anyone from raising their own food in fact I think it’s great. However chickens are animals, animals that require attention and proper care.

So while I get that you don’t want to spend $7 on a dozen eggs double think your decision before you go gung ho on being a chicken farmer. Just do your research, it’s not like getting a fish 🤦🏼‍♀️

Sincerely,
A fellow chicken owner

01/11/2023

As the rooster crows 😂