We’ve been getting quite the down pours this spring. We had 2.5 inches last night. Last night.
I had already decided that the garden in the middle chicken run wasn’t going to work (mainly because it is quite shady in spring), and had moved the basil plants to pots. Last night’s rain finished washing away the garden area.
So now the plan is to sow some rye for the chickens and to help hold the soil. We’ll see how that goes.
On the chicks side, it seems Cloud would rather be an arm chicken.
We really don’t get ice here often, but growing up in the midwest I still carry an ice scraper in my vehicle. It came in handy this morning! Yesterday was beautiful until the front came through and we dropped 30 degrees. I’ll be waiting to see what plants made it through. It wasn’t a heavy frost, but there were some very sad daffodils on our way out the door this morning.
The “catnip” that grew yesterday wanted outside, felt the cold, and immediately changed her mind and came back inside where it is warm. Temperamental plants.
Here is a happy thing to find when you are turning over your garden!
Worms are good for the soil, aerating and fertilizing. I was glad to see a few of these little critters as I took advantage of the nice weather the other day to turn over the garden area. (Turning over a garden with a shovel is also a good workout, but I have to admit I did the digging after a day of rain, so the ground was pretty easy to dig.) I also put down some compost, sand, and a layer of garden soil from the hardware store. Then I covered the whole thing with black plastic until I’m ready to plant (we could still have a freeze or two).
But not bitten by a hen; our chicks aren’t hatched yet (or even laid), but there are several fields and yards around that are awash in gentle purple waves.
I believe the plants responsible for this breath of spring are called “henbit”, and it turns out they are edible and chickens love them! I think we have one or two in the yard, but I’m seriously thinking of obtaining some seeds. It may seem a little strange to sow “weed” seeds, but it wouldn’t be a first for us. Our goal with the yard is to have low-maintenance native species, which some consider “weeds”. We’ve sown clover and native grass seeds, so a few henbit seeds wouldn’t be amiss!
So today I started clearing the area where I want to put my garden. It is in the middle of the Chicken Fort Knox rotating runs. (I have three runs, one of which will be the garden, and I plan to rotate which areas the chickens have access to so they don’t completely clear out the runs, and have some enrichment activities when a new run is opened. Or go hog wild when I let them turn over my garden. Hehe.) I started with the hoe, chopping out the weeds and grass. This is great exercise, let me tell you what. Suddenly I feel a “clunk.”
I had hit a rock. No biggie. Turning over dirt in a place that has not been turned over before, that can be expected. I dug around the rock, lifted it up, and carried it over to the retaining wall I’m setting up by the side of the house.
Clunk. This time it was a brick. Easy. Bricks are easy to dig out.
Clunk. Are you kidding me? Clunk, clunk, clunk. How big is this thing? This is how big:
Ok, so it is hard to tell from that picture. How about this one?
That in the wheelbarrow is leftover concrete that was dumped in the field, probably when the house was built. It is approximately 2 feet by 3 feet. I can’t estimate the weight, but it was fairly thin (2-3″?). But in the middle of my garden. Now we have a few large rocks on the property that are native stone. Picking up large stones is not realistic or safe, so I tip them up using levers, and then tip them into my handy-dandy-favorite-wheel-barrow-ever, and roll the thing where I need it to go. Still hard work, but not back breaking (literally). I have been slowing moving rocks and making a path by the side of the house. This is definitely not native stone, but the back was nice and flat, so I hauled it over to the side of the house and shored it up with some of the dug up bricks, and it is now a stepping stone.
So when life hands you rocks, make a path! (Or a retaining wall. That works too.)
Critters and Craft 