Reading Once Upon a Flock What a cute title for a book . . . Once Upon a Flock: Life with My Soulful Chickens is Lauren Scheuer's loving memoir about raising her own chickens in her New England backyard. Although Lauren and I haven't met in person, we've bonded over our chickens on Facebook and on her blog, Scratch and Peck. I love her plucky attitude. Yes, pun intended. When she wanted a chicken coop, she built it. I like girls who wield power tools with aplomb. I remember when her Barred Plymouth Rock, Lucy, was sick, and all of us on Facebook fretted when the flock shunned her. Sometimes, chicken life is so hard, and chickens can be unconsciously cruel. You may argue that one cannot be unconsciously cruel, but I'd say you've never met a flock of chickens. It can have a mob mentality all its own. On...

Buff Orpington peep giving me the "stink eye." For all they do in our lives, chickens are undervalued as creatures and birds. I hate what factory farming has done to most things, but especially to animal husbandry. Companies may still advertise the "romance" of the family farm, but most animals are grown in large networks. Egg-laying chickens are kept in buildings in solitary cages all day to lay eggs--24 hours in bright, fluorescent light--365 days until they are worn out in one year. Just perform an image search on Google of factory chickens. Your first clue to their unhappiness is how pink and dull their combs are. Combs are naturally red. Then, look at their eyes. No spark or spirit, and chickens are spirited animals. I won't even go into what they do to meat birds. It's criminal really. If you want to know more, just watch Food, Inc.. There are other...

'Van Gogh' sunflower. I got the seeds from Renee's Seeds. She sent them to me to try. Last summer, in my vast garden full of flowering plants, there were none I enjoyed more than sunflowers. I wrote about them as easy seeds and as garden prejudices. I also took more photos of sunflowers than anything else. Perhaps, it's their majestic stature, but no--that can't be--'Teddy Bear' is only two feet tall--and even smaller in my garden. Maybe it's their standard coloration of yellow, gray, almost black and green. No, not that either. Sunflowers come in nearly every hue on the warm side of the color wheel. Helianthus 'Teddy Bear' sunflower is very small. Mine were shorter than the two feet on the package. I think it was how they anchored the new vegetable plot up against the split-rail fence. I loved how the pollinators flocked to their nectar filled blooms. I'm fascinated...

Lawn Gone book cover Pam Penick, who started the Garden Blogger Flings with the first one in Austin, TX, has some solutions for those of you conflicted about your water and chemical guzzling front lawns. She's written a new book, Lawn Gone!: Low-Maintenance, Sustainable, Attractive Alternatives for Your Yard, which offers great design ideas for lawn replacement that your neighbors won't mind. These include: • alternative grasses that seldom (or never) need mowing; • drought-tolerant, eco-friendly landscapes; • regional plant recommendations for all parts of the country; • artificial turf that looks like the real thing; • step-by-step lawn-removal methods; • strategies for dealing with neighbors and HOAs; and • ways to decrease your lawn if you’re not ready to go all the way. Living in Austin, TX, Pam understands what drought really means, and because I visited her former home, I can attest that the lawn-less area in front...