A LITTLE MORE

There are So many things not getting done; and yet, there are a few that Are getting done.

This weekend I sent Oscar out to cut down the azalea bushes in front of the house. He was supposed to do them last weekend but didn’t. They have been looking ratty the past three years or so. Each year though, I didn’t think about them until it was too late, and the birds had established their springtime nests in them. He sawed the bushes out but still needs to deal with the roots. My intention is to put some raised beds in that area this season.

The temperatures started rising this week – no doubt to lull us into a false spring. It meant that I could open the greenhouse “door” and let fresh, cooling air in. Even when it’s cold outside, that greenhouse is toasty warm, so it definitely needs to be open when it gets above 50 degrees outside. The forecast indicates I will be able to leave it open until Friday and Saturday night when the temperatures drop below freezing again.

I planted over 90 pea seeds in the greenhouse in the one large, raised bed. I want more than a handful of peas this year. That should do it. In the empty Greenstock pockets, I planted more lettuce. Finally, in the smaller rectangular container in there, I planted kale. Let’s see if we can get fully grown kale before the chickens find and devour it this time.

The other project slated for this weekend was to uncover the area I tarped last fall for the Three Sister’s Garden, fence it in, and let the chickens start turning it over. Amazingly, that got done, though I was very disappointed that the grass under the tarp wasn’t killed off after so many months. Four of the chickens are currently scratching away and enjoying themselves thoroughly.

Why only four chickens? Well, there’s a story to that.

I saw this on Amazon:

“What a good idea for transferring the chickens from the coop in the back to the garden in the front!” I thought. Much easier than picking one chicken up, carrying it to the fenced area, walking back to get another one, repeat, repeat, repeat. So, I bought a pack of chicken harnesses and leashes.

Well, those chickens were having nothing to do with them. Not one bit. They would either plop themselves down on the ground and not budge or would try to back out of them (sometimes successfully).

We got $10 worth of entertainment out of them but certainly not the ability to walk four chickens from point A to point B. We might have been more successful if we had thought to provide a trail of corn – but we didn’t think of it until long after the laughing fits were over, and the chickens got their way and were carried to the garden space.