rainy days

It has been raining in Memphis for what seems like two solid weeks- we may be going on a dozen straight days of gray skies and thunderstorms.  The ground is soggy and my chicken yard is a sopping mess.  But wet ground is an excellent time to remove things, so between showers early this morning, I pulled out my late run of radishes that were beginning to bolt and planted more bush beans and basil in their place.

 

There were a few radishes that were still edible, so I saved those for me and gave the rest to my girls.  The chicken yard, once dry and aged, is a fabulous source of compost materials, but today it was slick black mud.  I try to keep the soft bottoms of my girls' feet dry (I know chicken feet look scaly from the top, but the bottoms of their feet are almost as soft as our own!), so I laid down a new layer of straw before I threw down the spent radishes.  They consider both the seeds left in the straw and the radishes quite a treat.

 

Have you ever grown Alpine Strawberries?  They can be difficult to find, but a friend at one of our farmers market grew some a few years ago, and I've had this particular plant for three years.  One benefit to alpine strawberries, besides how tiny, delicious, and fragile the berries are, is that they clump and don't run like large traditional strawberry plants do.  But as I've been picking the berries near my top bar hive (I need to move the plant this fall, as it is right at the entrance to the hive and my presence there bothers the bees -- I'm blocking their flight path), I noticed little rootlets on some of the stems,  small runners:

  

The other day I trimmed a few of the plantlets and put them in the window box right outside my back door (so I can keep an eye on them).  This morning I pulled a half-dozen more and planted them (next the the green beans and basil) in the raised boxes alongside the back patio.  I hope I can keep them watered over the summer (should it ever stop raining) and watch them develop into decent-sized plants.   I've never had enough alpine strawberries for anything but eating out of hand- maybe next year?