This morning our garden was filled with hummingbirds, sparrows, yellow warblers, gnat catchers, finches, busy bees, and monarch butterflies.  This wasn’t always true of our yard.  Since planting our sustainable permaculture organic garden, our garden is bursting with life.  Our black adobe clay soil is now bursting with life rich in microbes, red and brown worms, and other living organisms.  The chickens and their wonderful manure had a lot to do with this along with faithful composting.  Our raised beds are full of flowers of many kinds as vegetables and fruits are producing.  We used to have awful tomato worm infestations when we first started home gardening ten years ago.  Today, the birds come every morning and carefully eat our unwanted insects.  Our yard actually smells earthy and is enjoyable to visit.  We are thankful for the cycles of life that we experience year round in our little growing space.  A little “tender loving care” goes a long way in a back yard garden.