Harlow Carr Chickens and More

We made another visit to RHS Harlow Carr Gardens. This time they had some chickens in the kitchen garden section and were asking visitors to suggest names. We went to look but couldn't come up with anything original. They were pretty cute, though more full grown than we expected.

Chicken yard

Classic white hen

Eating out

The nearby signs explained a lot about the life, diet, and value of chickens. And how to grow an egg head, as seen in yesterday's post. All that I am reproducing from that treasure trove of information is the jokes they had as sidebars:

Q: How did the egg get up the mountain?
A: It scrambled up!

Q: What do chickens serve at birthday parties?
A: Coop-cakes!

Q: What do you get when you cross a chicken with a cement mixer?
A: A brick layer!

Q: What did the egg do when the other egg told it a joke?
A: It cracked up!

The kitchen garden also had a few useful plants.

Pear tree

Roughage

Portable greenhouse!

We saw a smattering of spring flowers too. First is the tulip sylvestris or mountain tulips as they are commonly known, lording it over some pansies.

Tulips and pansies in the greenhouse

Outside more interesting flowers were found, like fritillaria imperialis or aurea.

Aurea

L enjoyed some of the larger beds of flowers.

Colorful patch

L wanted to take some home!

Relaxing by the bench

We did go to the tree house and the playground, but the logness monster was the most popular kid attraction by far.

Bridge to logness

J and the logness monster arch

Green man tree decoration

We also saw a giant shovel which we thought belonged to a giant.

That metal bird is weird too.

We were glad to see Spring finally showing up after a long, cold, snowy winter.