Chicken Rototillers, Spring Seeds, & the BIG FREEZE

It has been busy around here, even though we're in the middle of winter. I've been busy and the weather has been down right ridiculous. For the last five days the highs have been in the mid 40's and the thermometer on the back porch has read 26 degrees every morning. THIS IS PHOENIX!!! My brother in D.C. has had nicer weather. The garden hoses in the back yard are frozen solid but thankfully no pipes have burst. My chickens have weathered the hard freeze well, they got a new piece of garden to pick through, and the cold hasn't seemed to phase them at all. I've always wanted a chicken feather coat, I bet it would be super warm.

Chickens are great they're easy to keep, you get fresh eggs everyday (and yes they taste better), and they're always entertaining. BUT they are a menace to your garden, they spend there entire day trying to invade your garden to destroy everything they touch. BUT they also provide some great benefits, they scratch and turn over the ground and they add little bits of fertilizer every time they poop(and they poop alot). I finally figured out how to harness these little self fertilizing rototillers. I've cut chicken size holes in my garden fence that are closed off with gates most of the time. When one of my garden beds get's finished producing I cut it down, put up temporary fencing, and open up the gates. I really believe the beds are in better shape after a month of chicken rototilling.

 Temporary fence going up.

A view through the chicken gate.

The final setup the chickens are doing there thing but they aren't running wild in the garden.

I also started my spring tomatoes and peppers. This is the first year I've tried this and have high hopes for a bunch of different varieties. I used the Jiffy pods to plant in because they're easy to start seeds in. Overall I have over 100 different starts.

Here's my starts all planted up should be 7-10 days for germination. Peppers planted Serrano,Italian Pepperoncini, Poblano, & Anaheim. Tomatoes planted Prudens Purple, Better Boy Hybrid, Juliet Hybrid,Super Sweet 100, Glacier, Silver Fir Tree, & Early Girl Hybrid.

Finally THE BIG FREEZE
I haven't seen it get this cold here in a long time but everything outside froze and we had a few casualties here.

 My cape honeysuckle & potted peppers, pretty much dead.

This is what came out of my garden hose once water started flowing through it it was frozen solid for 5 days.

This is my passion fruit vine I'm pretty sure all it's foliage is dead but the vine will grow back. We'll see
booyah?