People always ask me about their hens and nesting boxes. How many nesting boxes to build for their number of hens. Why are all their hens using the same nesting box. Why does my hen lay her eggs outside and not in her nesting box. What are the best measurements for a hen's nesting box.

My response to everyone is borrowed from a wonderful framed poster I use to have of a colorful caricature of a big sassy reddish brown hen with the saying, "The sun has a right to set where it wants and so may I add as a hen." I use to interpret that poster as "follow your bliss in lIfe" and "be true to yourself."

Since I've experienced the wonderful world of backyard chickens for the last ten years or so, I realize that poster literally captured the essence of a happy laying hen. They naturally do their own thing, when it comes to laying their eggs.

Reaching into VintageGardenGal archives, I have written a detailed previous post on "Backyard Chicken Coop", "Nesting Boxes", with hen to nesting box ratios, measurements, ideal setting, and nesting box suggestions. However, when it come down to the personalities of your hens, they are literally going to lay their eggs where they please.

In general, if you provide a quiet clean side of your coop, protected from bright daylight sun, with nesting boxes slightly off of the chicken coop floor, your hens are naturally going to gravitate to a nesting box, and lay their eggs for you easily and effortlessly. Sometimes there is a favorite nesting box that your hens will prefer. Sometimes they will want to have a party, and all lay together in the same box. The point is with laying hens, just about anything is normal.

You might even have a hen that has a tendency to brood, a hen's natural way of incubating an egg by sitting on an egg(s) for days on end.  If  a hen has a healthy fertilized egg, and she sits on it faithfully for 21 days, she will hatch a chick. Hens can have brooding tendency  with or without a rooster in the flock, and without fertilized eggs. It is called natural maternal instinct.

Hens work for very hard to lay an egg. Give them the freedom to lay where they like. Please share if you have any funny egg-laying stories from your flock.

I want to share with you some of the exceptional places that I come across from time to time. These places are gems and not to be missed if you are in the area, or they could even be a destination. Most have a “garden thread” to them. “Places To Know” can be retail, restaurants, nurseries, and other. Whatever the place, expect the unusual.

You are probably familiar with picking your own blueberries at a blueberry farm, or picking your own strawberries at a farm stand, but have you heard of picking your own pumpkins out of a field-size pumpkin patch? That is exactly what Mike and Libby Pierce encourage you to do at their family pumpkin farm, Lavender Hill Pumpkins. Located in Fallbrook, California, Lavender Hill Pumpkins is within easy driving distance of San Diego, Riverside, and Los Angeles.

Mike Pierce and his family started growing their organic pumpkins in a serious way about 5 years ago, and the momentum continues. Nearly 3 dozen different types of pumpkin varieties are carefully started each year in June to July.  An empty fertile field nourished with well water, and lovingly tended to by the family quickly erupts into a maze of crazy vines, and eventually hundreds of pumpkins.

The Pierce Family endearingly name some of their prize pumpkins. These special pumpkins are set aside in a "museum gallery setting" for everyone to enjoy, and are eventually used for next year's seed starts and field of pumpkins. Lavender Hill Pumpkins has all types of pumpkins, and all sizes.

Every year, on the last weekend of September, Lavender Hill Pumpkins open up their artisan wood gates for every one's enjoyment. Lavender Hill Pumpkins is open every day this October, weekends 10am to 5pm, and weekdays 2pm -5pm. Special times are available by appointment for designers and special interest groups. Bright orange carts are available to walk the fields and collect your pumpkins. Reasonable prices are determined by the size of unique hose rings which straddle the girth of each pumpkin.

The afternoon I was there, with a dear friend and fellow pumpkin enthusiast, we happened upon a group of seasoned artists comfortably nestled under the trees, magically recreating beautiful pumpkins on their canvas.

Nothing says fall like pumpkins, and to see this mass of incredible pumpkins together is a visual euphoria whether you are an artist, gardener, pumpkin aficionado, passer by, or a lucky child anticipating Halloween. Or maybe I should say it another way, it is "all treat" and "no trick" at  Lavender Hill Pumpkins, 1509 East Mission Road, Fallbrook, California 92028, (tel) (760) 715-8495

Please share if you grow your own pumpkins. Please comment on where in your area you like to buy your fall pumpkins.

I want to share with you some of the exceptional places that I come across from time to time. These places are gems and not to be missed if you are in the area, or they could even be a destination. Most have a "garden thread" to them. "Places To Know" can be retail, restaurants, nurseries, and other. Whatever the place, expect the unusual.

If you are familiar with San Diego, than maybe you know about beautiful Solana Beach, 20 miles up the coast, with its shopping plethora, Cedros Design District on South Cedros. Well, North Cedros is starting to get some attention now thanks to Claire's On Cedros, a scrumptious breakfast and lunch hot spot. Hot, because of its natural ingredients and tasty menu. Hot, because it is a green and sustainable restaurant landscaped with edible gardens.

Claire's On Cedros is a successful collaboration of  friends, Terrie Boley, on the entrepreneur side, and Claire Allison, on the food side. Their menus are seasonal to take advantage of the freshest local ingredients in a classic bistro style. Breakfast is served all day, along with in-house baked goods. For lunch you have your choice of generous salads, sandwiches, and specials.

What once was a neglected cottage on North Cedros with a large lot and garages, has been transformed into a cottage style restaurant, edible landscape gardens, parking, and professional office space. Claire's On Cedros has been deemed a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) restaurant, and has been certified by the Green Restaurant Association.

The charm and footprint of the cottage has been kept, and been nicely  transformed into a jazzy, hip, happening bakery and cafe. Recycled and re-purposed materials, plus off-beat clever decor touches instantly invite you in. You enter Claire's On Cedros through the front porch, where in the fall, you might even be greeted by a Halloween scarecrow. Although, it seems Claire's is always bustling, you have your choice of eating inside or outside on the back patio.

That's not all. Claire's has been professionally landscaped-designed and installed  by Eco-Greenscape. You are encouraged to stroll the edible gardens, and are even provided with a "Strolling Garden Guide" and map. Mature trees kept, stand tall and proudly appreciate this property's transformation.

If you are looking for a great place to meet a friend, celebrate a birthday, or just indulge on a Sunday morning, try Claire's On Cedros. You will love it.  Claire's On Cedros, 246 North Cedros, Solana Beach, California  92075,     (tel) (858) 259-8597   Hours:   Monday - Friday, 6am -3pm, Saturday & Sunday, 7am-3pm.

Please share if you have a special spot in your community which serves local seasonal food, in a green sustainable-minded locale. Please comment if you have been to Claire's On Cedros.

Early last summer on a trip to Napa Valley with my garden friends, we all bought German Butterball potato seed starts to take home and grow in our own gardens. German Butterball potatoes are posh to potato growers and fancy chefs for their unique golden color, natural buttery taste, flaky texture, and easy storage. It was a challenge I had to try.

You can grow potatoes in the ground, but try growing them in a container, for more control and convenience.

How To Grow Potatoes In A Container:

1) Start with a container that is 20" to 30" tall with drainage. It can be a plastic nursery container like the one I used, or a plastic trash can, half wine barrel, etc.

If you do use old containers, be sure to clean, scrub, and rinse well your container. Use a one part bleach to five parts water mixture to sanitize your container against disease, fungus, and whatever was previously in your container. Never use a container that had been used for chemicals or pesticides previously.

2) Fill your container with several inches of loose clean organic soil mixed with peat moss.

3) Before planting, I left my German Potato seed starts in a cool dry area for a few weeks to develop nice eyes. Place your ready potato seed starts in your container several inches deep in your container.

4) Seed potatoes are best bought in late winter or early spring, either from your favorite nursery or seed catalogs like Seed Savers Exchange or Territorial Seed. Always use certified, disease-free potato seeds about the size of a chicken egg. You might be disappointed if you use store bought potatoes which have sprouted eyes for yield and diseases reasons.

5) Your potato starts will start to grow, and when they have about 6-8 inches of foliage, add more of your soil mix covering again 1/2 of your stems and foliage. Repeat this every time you see a burst of new growth with your foliage. Each time you add your soil mixture, top feed your potato plants with 1/2 cup of cotton seed meal or your favorite liquid fertilizer. By doing this you encourage your potato plants to flower. Once they flower, stop fertilizing them.

6) Keep your potato plants moist in their container, but not soggy. Always have them in full sun. During your growing process, you can poke around for your potatoes and dig up a few to look at your progress.

7) After your plants stop flowering and their foliage begins turning yellow, your potatoes are reaching maturity and their full size. At this point, stop watering, and let the foliage tops die back. Let your potatoes cure in their soil for a few weeks. Dig up your potatoes out by hand to harvest.

Garden-fresh potatoes delight your taste buds. Use your favorite potato recipe, and wow your family and friends.

I love to roast mine in the oven with a little olive oil, smoked sea salt, and freshly ground pepper. Yum.

Please share if you grow potatoes in your garden or in a container. Please share which potato favorites you like to grow.

It is Sunday morning and I'm cleaning out our chicken coop. Life just might be returning to normal after our remodel. On the way to our chicken coop I couldn't help but notice this garden spider art, a beautiful silk web gently swaying in the morning breeze amongst our grapevines. Take time to smell the roses. Take time to experience the little miracles in your garden, like these delicately spun architectural webs.

Spiders in your garden are a good sign that your garden is healthy. Spiders do not eat plants, but are voracious predators of insects. Their web art is an enlargement of their highly specialized sensory support system, and how they trap their prey. I looked but did not see this talented spider who created this delicately engineered web. Maybe this busy spider was fodder for something else in my garden.

Quickly my thoughts went to the classic story, Charlotte's Web. Could this be my Charlotte? How does she know how to create such an artistic web? How long does it take to spin her web? How long will this web serve her? What attracted Charlotte to our garden? Where did Charlotte go?

Spiders, in general, are not to be feared. Most spiders are not dangerous to people. Create an inviting environment for spiders, or your Charlotte, in your garden by following these steps. Use mulch in your garden which provides spiders protection and humidity. Provide tall plants or gates for ease of web attachment. Leave some open areas in your garden for their over-wintering habits. Grow plants that attract insects. Take a moment to realize, just like snakes are beneficial in your garden for eating gophers and rodents, spiders too, are beneficial. Don't use pesticides in your garden.

VintageGardenGal Tidbit Thyme....

VintageGardenGal, "a garden lifestyle blog" celebrated  its 2nd anniversary this week. Many thanks to all of my loyal and interested readers. I appreciate your support, comments. and interaction. My hope in writing VintageGardenGal, is that I can help, inspire, and provide you tips on intermingling more garden into your own lifestyle. Please tell your friends. Thank you!

Quite by chance, on a general "clean up mission" in my front yard, one of the last strongholds of our remodel process, I happened upon an abandoned, cleverly engineered bird's nest. I intuitively knew this nest had served its purpose well. I sensed right away the symbolism it represented. It was an immediate "deja vu" and an incredibly great omen, as we finish up our home remodel and make plans to move in.

Ten years ago, just weeks away from moving into our present home (we are currently remodeling), I was jogging in our quaint village, Cardiff-by-the-Sea, and found this rather large intricate bird's nest near the road. Strong winds must have sent it sailing from its anchored spot in near by eucalyptus trees. My husband John, and I were soon moving into our new home, but 1930's vintage.

This property had been neglected and needed a lot of tender loving care. We knew this property was special, but could we really transform it. I took that new-found bird nest home and placed it in a nurturing spot above our fireplace hearth. I still have it, and cherish it to this day.

Fast forward ten years, and I'm no longer jogging,  but enjoying swimming, walking, and sweep rowing instead.  My husband and I created  soothing gardens, a potager, an orchard, and backyard vineyard. It was time to turn our attention to our home, hence, our ensuing remodel this past year. In actuality, it has been many years in the planning and decision-making to make this dream come true. Now, we are closing in on the last week of our ten-month remodel. Once again, I find an incredible bird's nest, "out of the blue." It is a great omen, for our remodel, and our lives moving forward.

This beautiful bird's nest is an engineering feat. It has twigs, leaves, cotton-like puffs, and even snail shells, woven meticulously together with tender loving maternal care. It is strong, yet delicate. It speaks to me as a symbol of many things. The birds and wildlife are so much a part of our life here. This beautiful bird's nest  is a "welcome home" message, a new chapter in our lives, and symbolic meaning of "home is where the heart is."  I couldn't have asked for a better gift at this time, than this beautiful bird's nest omen.

Please share if you have had an experience like an omen that is so grand, it thumps you on the head. Please comment on the bird's nests you have found.

While attending Garden Blogger's Buffa10 in Buffalo, there were many exciting places on our itinerary. One of them was Urban Roots Community Garden Center, an innovative community garden co-op. With over 600 community owner-members and growing, this garden center is a mecca for Buffalo's gardeners. Urban Roots sells plants for the garden, tools, artwork, hosts a slew of garden workshops, and much more.

Urban Roots was a brain storm of a group of people who wanted to have a garden center for its community in the heart of buffalo. In 2005, in an up and coming neighborhood, literally minutes from any "Garden Walk" garden, they began modestly with a plant swap and heirloom seed sale.

Borrowing the "mission statement" right off of their website, Urban Roots, their mission is a beautiful idea which obviously is growing and flourishing for Buffalo. Perhaps, there are many garden co-ops across the country, but this is the first I have seen, and there are certainly not any in my neighborhood. Once again Buffalo, what an innovative garden idea. Hum....

Our Mission Urban Roots Community Garden Center is a consumer cooperative business whose mission is to provide quality products for gardening in the City of Buffalo and be an active and enriching member of the community. • We will offer affordable, unusual, heirloom, organic and local plants, and gardening supplies. • We will foster a working relationship with the greater neighborhood in order to encourage beautification and urban renewal. • We will engage the community through education, employment, outreach, expertise and volunteering efforts.

Although it was a rainy Friday afternoon, we all hopped off our bus, ready to eagerly explore this community garden co-op. It was busy, despite the rain. There were two lectures in progress, one on "backyard chickens" and the new city ordinance allowing chickens in Buffalo, and the second inside the Urban Roots shop and next to a sinfully-scented bakery, it appeared to be a well-attended "plant" lecture. Needless to say, my fellow garden bloggers and myself, generously spent and supported Urban Roots in our brief visit.

If you are ever in Buffalo, for Garden Walk, Urban Roots Community Garden Center is a must stop destination, and a "place for you to know". We all could benefit from an Urban Roots model in our communities.

Please share if you have a garden co-op in your community. Please comment on some of the innovative garden ideas you have ongoing in your community.

VintageGardenGal Tidbit Thyme....

If I have given you enough of a tease on on Buffalo's beauty and innovative garden sense and want more, check out Buffa10 for more beautiful writing and photos from my fellow garden bloggers.

Earlier this week I wrote Whoa, Buffalo! A post on Buffalo's Garden Walk from a "broad stroke" perspective. I described what Buffalo's "Garden Walk" is all about, who started it, when it is, how many gardens, and how the neighborhoods and homes are such a part of Buffalo's rich history and architecture. What I didn't mention, is that the beauty of these individual private gardens, is in the details. Incredible details.

The above photo is one of my favorite settings, I saw on my garden tour. This romantic sitting area is in the back garden of one of the Victoria homes which was built in 1845. This home is a perennial on "Garden Walk", and you can understand why. Wouldn't you like to be sharing wine and cheese or casual Sunday brunch with your friends in this garden room.

While strolling through "Garden Walk" you can see everything from antique to whimsical to zen in the gardens. It all works for everyone. The Victorian homes, often brightly painted to show off architectural details give homeowners freedom to repeat those colors in their gardens.

Garden spaces are generally small, yet densely planted and pleasing, which  adds a "secret garden" mystique element to them. With garden space at a premium, home owners are very resourceful where and how they garden. Spacing between two homes can still be a garden, small and beautiful. Home owners garden in the front, side, and back of properties.

Beautiful hanging baskets are plentiful, and punctuate once again style and color. Water features and koi ponds are abundant. Rain barrels are popular for collecting rain. Vegetables and fruit are intermingled in flower gardens.

I spoke to one person whose family has been living in their Victorian on a corner, and caring for their garden for forty years. Their garden was an utter sanctuary to one's eye. The busy robin in the garden (you could tell) was right at home, and was quite content to share its garden with visitors.

The beauty of Buffalo's "Garden Walk" is in the details, and actually so much more. It is a sharing of ideas. It is a sharing of plants. It is an interaction between gardener and visitor. It is a mutual appreciation of beauty, garden, and architecture. It is a beautiful thing.