More outside work on this sunny, beautiful, 62*F february day. XD Even the bees were super active today.... So far it looks like they're making it through the winter!
I tilled up the potato box soil and the soil in the newest bed and the old half-bed today. In addition to sprouting weed seeds, etc, I am hoping to drive all the icky wireworms out of the potato bed/new bed. I have nematodes I'm going to spray once it's fully spring here, but in the meantime, every time the beds get nice and cold and disturbed from tillage, a few more wireworms get chilly and move out. I mulched the half bed but the other two get to sit naked to chase away the wormies.
I re-piled the rest of the compost that I plan on using on the beds this year because a little bit of it isn't quite done yet. So I tossed it around in with itself and made a nice airy pile where I hope that the worms and bacteria will go to work heating it up and cooking it down into something usable for full blown spring. We have a whole 'nother bed we're adding this year, not to mention the potato boxes so I will need every oz of compost I have. The pile for next year is getting ready to start cooking all on it's own. As soon as the old pile is gone, we stop adding to the current pile and start a new one, letting the old one cook away for 6-10 months until fall/spring with no new additions.
I let the chickens out all day today to roam the whole lawn. They have an 800sqft pen but I like to let them into the whole 4000sqft lawn sometimes. During most of the growing season I can't because they'll devour my garden, but today I could and they had a blast as I tilled all that soil and exposed all those bugs for them. They got a lot of extra protein today and even got to nibble on the weeds I pulled from my beds!
Tomorrow it's supposed to rain and over the weekend it's supposed to snow. So it's back indoors for me, and it's about time to start all my peppers and tomatoes anyhow. Time to fold more newspaper seed pots!
I tilled up the potato box soil and the soil in the newest bed and the old half-bed today. In addition to sprouting weed seeds, etc, I am hoping to drive all the icky wireworms out of the potato bed/new bed. I have nematodes I'm going to spray once it's fully spring here, but in the meantime, every time the beds get nice and cold and disturbed from tillage, a few more wireworms get chilly and move out. I mulched the half bed but the other two get to sit naked to chase away the wormies.
I re-piled the rest of the compost that I plan on using on the beds this year because a little bit of it isn't quite done yet. So I tossed it around in with itself and made a nice airy pile where I hope that the worms and bacteria will go to work heating it up and cooking it down into something usable for full blown spring. We have a whole 'nother bed we're adding this year, not to mention the potato boxes so I will need every oz of compost I have. The pile for next year is getting ready to start cooking all on it's own. As soon as the old pile is gone, we stop adding to the current pile and start a new one, letting the old one cook away for 6-10 months until fall/spring with no new additions.
I let the chickens out all day today to roam the whole lawn. They have an 800sqft pen but I like to let them into the whole 4000sqft lawn sometimes. During most of the growing season I can't because they'll devour my garden, but today I could and they had a blast as I tilled all that soil and exposed all those bugs for them. They got a lot of extra protein today and even got to nibble on the weeds I pulled from my beds!
Tomorrow it's supposed to rain and over the weekend it's supposed to snow. So it's back indoors for me, and it's about time to start all my peppers and tomatoes anyhow. Time to fold more newspaper seed pots!
Also added some more spinach and lettuce and bok choi to the greens raised bed and continued to pull the (&$(@&#!# confederate jasmine off the fences and shed. Started some lupines, sweet alyssum and stock inside and took more cuttings from the peppermint, Spanish thyme and rosemary. I'm going to try to establish a now rosemary hedge this year. 
