Garden Friday

 

 

Welcome to our first Garden Friday of 2021!

And let me tell you,

spring has sprung in the Piedmont!

This week was spent enjoying gorgeous spring weather

and tying up those dreadful loose ends.

This butterfly bush was transplanted from a pot

to the area next to the work bench.

I'm looking forward to a bajillion blooms throughout the season.

I also managed to transplant some hyacinth and tulips

that needed a better place to call home.

 

The blueberries are in, folks!

This area on the south side of the property was just begging for something.

It gets shade in the morning, but full sun the rest of the day.

I took some of the fallen branches and made a long, narrow bed

and planted them four feet apart.

 

Since I hadn't taken a soil test to determine the pH,

I decided to add a bit of sulfur to each hole before planting.

Worm castings and egg shells were also added,

as they are to anything I plant.

Blueberries like an acidic soil,

and the sulfur creates the right balance.

I will be doing a soil test in the next few weeks,

not only for the blueberries,

but for all the raised beds in the vegetable garden.

We have six plants in all, of 4 different varieties, 

including climax, powderblue, premier, and tifblue.

These are all rabbiteye types, which require more than one variety 

for cross pollination.

The three shown here were this year's purchases from Extension,

while 3 others were transplanted from a previous location.

 

The Yukon Gold potatoes were planted in one of the large,

rectangular beds.

These had been split in half and left to "chit" for a couple of days,

as you can see the eyes are starting to grow.

These potatoes were received in our "Misfits" order a few weeks ago,

and since I couldn't find any organic Yukons in the grocery store,

I decided to try a little experiment.

They were buried about 6 inches under the soil,

cut side down, and should grow through the shredded leaves in a matter of weeks.

 We'll see how they do.

 

 

Some time was spent this week

creating a larger run area for the chooks.

Since we can't let them free range any longer

(read why here),

I wanted to make sure they had more room to groove.

We bought more fencing and wrapped it around the garden area.

This will hopefully allow them to catch any bugs

before they get to the goodies in the garden.

I've been adding a few things to their run

to give them more to do.

 

After last week's incident with Queenie,

most of the coop was dismantled to do a thorough cleaning.

One of the best features of the Eglu

is the ease in keeping it clean.

As this time around, 

it needed much more than just my weekly scrubdown,

I scoured all of the major surfaces to remove any trace of blood.

My sweet Queenie is no worse for wear,

but it's always hardest on the momma, isn't it?

I felt awful knowing that she had been hurt.

She's doing fine now,

and for the first time on Wednesday,

she actually climbed up on my lap and let me stroke her back.

We're making progress.

 

 

I've been keeping the chook feed and treats in metal containers right next to the coop.

It's so much more efficient this way, and I love that the squirrels can't penetrate the metal.

Take that, ya pesky varmints!

 

What a welcome change this week.  

It felt good to take time to tend to the garden

for as long as I wanted.

 The hope for this weekend is to 

get the beds topped off with compost

and do some serious seed sowing.

What's going in your garden this spring?