Landscaping and Plantings for a Free Range Flock

[duluthralphie]

Ivie I would love hanging with you in gorgeous Hawaii. I think you and I have the same idea of fun and relaxation.

I should get on the look out with some seed catalogs and get some ideas.

It might be a more expensive year for gardening this year-- in materials and sweat value-- as I have plans to get that retaining wall cleaned out and put in raised beds. I also saw a pergola idea which can help trellis climbers for raised gardens....so I'm really dreaming big for this spring and somehow I'll need to carve out the time. I suppose I could do the boxes this year and the pergola climbing thing next year. Anyways....lots of sweat & Achy muscles pulling out the russian sage, dead honeycrisp tree and weeds. Lots of Fun building the Boxes. More sweat hauling in the black dirt and compost. Those boulders and rocks are also a haven for garter snakes. I'm okay with the snakes insecting and sunbathing on the rocks...I know they are good for a garden but I just don't want to stumble on a lair of their babies. Or have one get the jump on me....they always scare me...they are so well camoflaged; I never see them until I'm about stepping on them. Since it will be a veggie garden I will need to be clever with obstructing my feathered friends for a majority of the growing time. I also have deer who like to access my yard right by this spot. They will no doubt be interested.

Also want to try a different grass down by the coop in that little stone garden that has the zebra grass stuff in it. Or maybe just put in my Annabelle Hydrangea. That garden needs a WoW factor plant there.

ehhhh skip all that work and just go hunting fungi....

 

[Jiffyrocks]

Posting to subscribe! These pictures are beautiful! I'm jealous!

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Jiffy rocks I'm glad you're here. It seems to be a slow time right now. Yours truly is waiting for snow to disappear and planting season to comeback. But I'm looking at roughly 4 months for that.

Teila! We need some Southern Hemisphere photos. Or are you melted away? Lol.

 

[duluthralphie]

Jiffy rocks I'm glad you're here. It seems to be a slow time right now. Yours truly is waiting for snow to disappear and planting season to comeback. But I'm looking at roughly 4 months for that.

Teila! We need some Southern Hemisphere photos. Or are you melted away? Lol.

I heard @Teila is out roller skating now while she still has the sun..

 

[lvie]

Hi Jiffyrocks and welcome to this thread.

Bogtown - I am still playing catchup Sounds like we should be neighbors. I am sure of it! Aitkin / Longville? How does that work.

wanting elevated raised gardens. With all the 'junk' that I added to the raised garden this last fall, and all the 'goodies' waiting in the coop - I could have an awesome garden. I want it built up into raised - REALLY raised beds.

Hey - I had a quick, in office procedure to correct the scar tissue from having a retinal surgery and then a cataract this past 1 1/2 years. Yep. Definitely better. And I wonder if entering the 'older' health issues makes me older? I don't feel old. So still ready for the beach with girlfriend talking chicken and reading chicken. LOL.

It is wonderful having our down time during the cold and the snow. And it is wonderful having the January thaw. That only means that our snowiest months are ahead. Probably for the next six weeks. January thaw - it was in the mid-forties today - I was working on the coop without a jacket - means the opportunity to catch up so the chickens will make it through the next two months better off than they would without the January thaw. Now I can resettle down to quilt and look at seed catalogues and plan for Spring - which may, or may not, begin mid-April. We can't plant until mid-May or the end of May - depending on the weather. But we start seeds mid- March so we get the plants to produce successfully by August. LOL. Why do we live like this? Its not until putting it in words that it seems Ludacris.

What say you BogTown?

 

[lvie]

Anyone out there a Downton Abbey Fan?

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Lol Ivie.

 

[memphis]

Hi folks! Finally small signs of spring here! Daffodils up about 3 inches. Hellabores in bloom! I topped off several areas with compost. Oh...the sweet smell of dirt!! I get so antsy this time of year!!

 

[Jiffyrocks]

Yes it's supposed to be in the 60s today where I'm at. It's a shame I have to work. Would love to be out messing around in the yard.

 

[Finnie]

Hi folks! Finally small signs of spring here! Daffodils up about 3 inches. Hellabores in bloom! I topped off several areas with compost. Oh...the sweet smell of dirt!! I get so antsy this time of year!!

I can see my daffodils too! But just the tips.

Supposed to be in the 60s here today too. Definitely going outside to do something, anything.

(And pretending that winter isn't coming back, which I know it will.)