Pop Ups

Ah, the joys of making my own compost. The process isn't all that 'joyful', throw veggie scraps, weeds, etc. into a homemade composter and shovel it around now and then. Same process with chicken/rabbit manure. Neither, might I add, is a pleasant experience.

The end result, of course, is well worth it. Beautiful compost, rich and earthy smelling and free. Can't beat free. Now that I'm using my own exclusively, I'm getting what I call 'pop ups'. Plants that pop up in places where they have no business being. I discovered the first pop ups last year, they were all tomatoes. This year, more plants have gotten into the act. I still have the occasional tomato plant showing up but now there's the odd cucumber plant, a sunflower or two and the like.

This spring I had the idea to plant cosmos on either side of our driveway. I don't do much by the way of ornamental gardening and I would like to start doing a bit more and I thought this would be an easy way to start. Probably will be the only ornamental garden I'll do unless someone invents a day with 30 hours in it. Of course, when I put the plants in, I used my own compost. And so the most charming of the pop ups happened. A corn stalk grew right next to the cosmos. It even has a corncob. I think the effect is really cool and it does portray the essence of the DaM farm: Looks weird but it works.

Munch, Munch, Munch

One of my favorite chores is feeding the rabbits their daily fresh greens. When they see me coming with my bucket, everybody perks up with interest and excitement, ears get a little straighter, noses get twitchier, eyes brighten up and the heat of the day falls away from the rabbits as they anticipate their cool, moisture laden supper. I dump the greens in and see the scramble. Invariably some over-eager bunny is directly where I dump the food and gets covered in vegetation and has to munch her way out. Often two rabbits will 'share' a leaf or twig. Well, not exactly share, one will be eating it and another will decide that it looks mighty tasty and will start nibbling on it. The first rabbit will start chewing faster and the second will determinedly hang on to his end. In about 30 seconds the drama is over and both move on to other greener pastures.

There's a lot less waste in the garden because of the rabbits. They eat beet and carrot tops as well as any thinnings from those two crops. After the snow peas and beans are spent, they eat the plant. I dry the cornstalks for them after harvesting the corn. They also like sunflower, strawberry and nasturtium leaves, dill, basil, parsley, celery tops, lettuce, cilantro, parsley, mint, chard and raspberry canes. From the lawn, they'll devour dandelion, plantain and clover. And when the end result of their meal shows up, I dump it either in the worm bin or compost box and it will make its way back to the garden where the whole process will start again. Nice little 'circle of life' routine going on there.