Sunday, March 6, 2011

Garden Helpers

Besides my two sweet girlies and occasionaly Homestead Man, I have some other garden helpers I employ. Bunnies are fantastic for lightening fast composting! We give veggie peelings, roots, grass clippings, carrot tops, etc. to our bunnies and voila...by the end of the day (it seems!) there is a pile of fantastic fertilizer just waiting to be added to the garden! Here's our newest worker...we call him Stormy:


Also, if you recall, last summer I purchased two Praying Mantis egg cases online and we hatched them near our garden. It was so much fun to see all those tiny Mantis babies crawling around our garden and they eat all kinds of pesky pests, doncha know!? Anywho...I'd decided that we would order them each summer and had already searched a few websites looking for a good deal. Then, one day when we were planting peas in the garden I looked up on the pea trellises and saw THIS:


Yep, one of our mantis mamas decided that our humble garden would be a fantastic place for her babies to begin their lives! We are so excited and so flattered! We can't wait to welcome a new batch of mantis babies into our garden this summer!

Of course, our two chickens are some of the greatest garden helpers...but they deserve a post all their own! Stay tuned!

6 comments:

Jennifer said...

Nice post about the bunnies! We too keep a rabbit for gardening purposes only she gets to hop around the garden. This year we plan to keep her corraled in a 'rabbit tractor' to minimize the damage she would love to do to the fresh greens in the raised beds. How fun for you!

Anonymous said...

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ysa said...

Hi,
My lucky day..Nice and informative blog you have.I am seaching for ideas on what to do with my one acre land here in Malaysia. Right now i am staying in terrace hse 13 km frm the land.

What i do with my land??....plant fruit trees etc. Right now my land is abt 2 ft below road level.I am also refilling the land.The front portion 20,000 sq ft.Raise it to 2ft above road level.I intend to built wooden house as weekend gateaway.
I have a dedicated hidden blog at:

http://anasuka.blogspot.com/

(sorry it is in Malay)


Rgds,
ysa

American Home said...

This is a great post! I am hoping to get more bunnies soon. I always enjoy reading your post!
Blessings

Julie... said...

I so enjoyed clicking over and reading through a few of your posts!
We live close to Stillwater and know your friends the Owens. My sister-in-law and Ruth are big buddies. And you're so right about their nursery being a wonderful place. I've bought some wildflowers from them that are thriving out in my flower garden!
Gotta say, I love the mantis egg case...they're such wonderful little pest assassins :-)!

Ron said...

Don't the chickens EAT the mantis bugs? I would...if I were a chicken, ya know. Mmmm, mantisssss...