The sun is coming back out and things are starting to unfreeze.
With April a week away, I have started to clean up the yard and start
rebuilding my main raised bed I built last year. I borrowed a saws-all from
Brian at work (thanks buddy) and was able to prune a lot in a very small amount
of time. There was a bunch I could not get as I had to move stuff around and I didn’t
want to have to pull out the big ladder quite yet.
It seems my backyard brush pile is getting bigger and
bigger. I would like to rent a woodchipper, but $300 a day seems like a lot.
Perhaps I will dig out my back garden bed and burry a bunch of brush like I did
with my other bed.
Of course, with the nice weather I was able to pull out my
beloved knock off crocks. If you look closely these are Dawgs that I got at a
lovely cottage store a few years back. Being a guy who has a backyard that is
ransacked by 3 doggos all the time, the Dawgs are the best for easy cleaning of
dog poop and other gross things you do not want to step in.
This bed I built last year has a lot of organic matter in it.
The bed was framed, then dug out and filled with sticks, branches then filled
with leaves and covered in dirt and compost. This was inspired by hügelkultur,
but I am not sure if it is 100% hügelkultur. Close though. I also used some of
the old logs from downed trees to edge the garden on the sides. This was one of
the main weak points that rabbits and raccoons got in.
I am also working hard to make sure my fencing is more
secure than it was last year. Nothing hurts more then buying $50-100 worth of vegetables
from the garden center and have it ransacked that night by wildlife. Not again friends,
not again.
I also wanted to point out that gardening for the second year
in a row is much nicer then the first. When I reach for tools, I have them. I have
potting soil, mulch and Peat moss left over from last year. I also have a bunch
of tomato cages, garden wire and everything else I could need. So, my purchasing
is way less this year then the past one.
