ONE SISTER IS DONE

The Three Sisters Garden is taking shape. We spent a few weekends putting up a chicken wire fence around the garden space, then transferring dirt into the fenced area and shaping it. We also lined the edges of the area with mulch to reduce the amount of lawn that tries to sneak back into the area.

This weekend, we planted Sister Corn. We planted 4 sets of corn seeds around a ten-inch circle at the top of our 11 raised mounds. We put two corn seeds per planting hole to ensure germination. If everything sprouts, we’ll have to do some thinning, but that’s okay, the chickens will eat the extras.

Once the corn is about knee high, I will plant the other two sisters: beans and squash.

Next weekend, though, I am going to add a fourth sister – sunflowers. It was something that was suggested to attract pollinators and distract birds. Besides, it will be nice to see that bright spot of yellow in that section of the yard.

I bought a couple of already started flowers (a little instant gratification is wonderful in the garden) and planted them at either end of the brick bed. In between the two flowers, I scattered various flower seeds. That bed is being used as a flower garden this year to give the area a break from vegetable-eating pests.

The apple trees and boysenberries are now fully leafed out. There were even flowers on one of the second year boysenberry bushes! Dare I hope for berries this year?

The Great Worm Rebellion

I received my moisture meter Monday, a couple days after I expressed concern about my ability to keep a happy worm habitat. When I opened their bin to check the moisture and Ph level, there were, what seemed like, a hundred worms (or more?) trying to get out!

The meter showed that the bin was on the high end of moist, but not wet. Nothing else was wrong / missing so, apparently, that was just too much, and they didn’t like it. There were too many squishy worm bodies than what I could handle bare-handed (shudder), so I got a glove and picked every one of them off and put them back on the dirt. Then, for a couple of hours, I left the lid off to help dry the area a bit while leaving the overhead light turned on so they wouldn’t climb out (they don’t like the light). The next evening, they were still climbing so I did the same thing. By Wednesday, they were apparently happy again as there was no one climbing the walls. They’ve been fine ever since.

The days have been steadily heating up and it won’t be long before we won’t be able to spend much time working on outside projects, so we are steadily chipping away at them. I have company coming in a few weeks though so maybe it’s not so bad that I pay a little attention to the inside of the house!