What have you done today in the Garden?

Looks like you have happy ducks and chickens. Nice job.

 

They aren't easy to see, but there are five hens in there. They usually perch. Apparently they are enjoying the new fluffy straw.

 

Yes I see them. You take good care of all your animals. They are so lucky you’re so diligent making sure they are comfrey, happy and fed.

 

Riley— ta for the answer. I was just curious.

Daniel— my Bride jis me in shouting out—Nooooooo! Wait til the Spring to remove the sad strawb leaves, for they are protection”. Then in march or april, we ly remove the dead, brown ones.

After that duet reaction…I have settled down a bit and realize the seasonal conditions may be different there. Please for this out-of-character outburst.

Cheers for that nice little compliment you snuck in there — “Sjoerd-like”. Ha ha, that was a nice thing to mention.

Your henhouse looks so good. Dja know, the one thing that we cannot have are chooks. We would so like to have them. Anyhow, your chicken house with the nice, new straw layer looks so cozy and clean. It is a proper henhouse, that.

The raised beds are coming along quite well too. We—the Bride and I, enjoy seeing your set-up and the things that you do. I like working outside at this time of year too.

Good posting, mate.

 

I only fed the birds this morning and had a check on my activities yesterday.

 

Well, I did the deed to three containers of strawberries (sorry Sjoerd and Bride).

Here is the "before" for one container.



Actually, sort of before. I had already cut some dead leaves from the right side.

After trimming dead leaves and flower clusters.



And after mulching loosely with straw, I moved them to a sheltered location under the house eaves, where they shouldn't get much or any rain, but still have light and air circulation. The fourth container isn't started yet.



Sjoerd, you know a LOT more about growing strawberries than I do. But something inside me couldn't handle leaving the old, sometimes rotting, leaves in place. I hope they will do OK. If not, it's my own doing.

These are "everbearing" "Ozark Beauty", producing small amounts of strawberries all season long.

There is one more strawberry container to clean up and protect. Also, all of the alpine strawberries. They don't look so bad.

When growth starts, I want to thin the everbearing to three plants per container. Now they have five or six, and it's much too crowded.

Project two. I started cleaning up the big raised bed that was mostly cooking tomatoes, but had a row of winter onions (Egyptian Walking Onions). Some of the tops had fallen over, leaving clusters of offsets. Those were growing roots on top of the ground.



I separated offsets and planted them in one of the 25 gallon fabric-sided planters that I set up a few years ago.



Then filled around them and mulched lightly with straw pieces. The straw is more to hide the planted sets from jays, who pull them up, than for winter protection.

The big project wasn't planned but I started it anyway. This is one of the two biggest raised beds, made with stacked cinder block sides.



One side was starting to lean outward. Also, I originally built it too wide. It's difficult to reach the center for weeding and planting etc. I want to make it narrower, and set the wall right again.

I removed the paver tops of the wall, and the top row of cinder blocks. I dug the top part of the soil and piled it on the other side.

The line marks where I want the wall.


That's all for today. It was kind of too much. I had a hot soak for an hour afterwards.

 

Gosh you had a busy day @Daniel W !

I must admit that I'm like you and also give all our Strawberries a good tidy up before tucking them away for the Winter.

 

Nothing today ,going into town to meet up with another friend for a pre Christmas coffee ,cake and chat.

Will try to remember to check on the few Dahlia tubers that I had to lift and store when I return.

 

Nothing today had other things to do.

 

Well things don't always go to plan do they.
Hubs surprised me by meeting me after my catch up with a friend in our local little town suggesting we go on into our nearby city for lunch...so we did.
Very dark by the time we got back home at 6pm so didn't get the chance to check on the Dahlia tubers...will definitely do it first thing in the morning.

 

Daniel— hahaha. I get it. You've got to follow your intuition, mate. Nothing wrong with that, innit. Ach, they'll probably be fine. Fingers crossed. I reckon that the conditions there may be different than here.

But what a big chore you have begun there with that mammoth raised bed. You have already made quite a headway. What are your plans for that extra soil?

Yeah, that was a wise choice-to make that bed narrower. It will be good to get that pesky wall sorted.

Just out of curiosity, what do you have slated to go in that bed next season?

Oreti— Gosh, that was like an impromptu date. Fun, eh?

 

Yes it was @Sjoerd but as he usually does the majority of the cooking now since he retired it gave him a day off . We went out for lunch today and will probably do the same on Friday too.

We tend to go out at least once week for a meal but in the Winter months we go a bit more often. Without gardening and having the weather to enjoy whole days out further fields we get 'cabin fever'

We don't watch tv much ,most days it's not even turned on...so even on a wet day we like to venture out into the City for a meal.

Not looking forward to being housebound after the surgery at all. Not sure if it's the pain and discomfort or being stuck indoors which worries me more. Unfortunately I don't make a good patient......

 

Ahhh. Well Oreti, I hope the surgery goes well and that you remember that you can have a virtual day out right here on this website with all your pals here.

 

Aww bless you @Sjoerd ..thank you.

 

As long as you have an understanding caregiver.

With my surgeries, all I wanted was the company of my canine companion. I could never be grouchy with him by my side.

Here's that big raised bed today. I removed all but one cinder block from the leaning side. Looking at the photo, that last block is leaning a bit too, so it will come out before I reassemble it.



I used the steel fence post to pry the blocks loose.

After thinking of the daunting job ahead, moving many buckets of very heavy soil, I changed my mind. I'll just rebuild the leaning wall, but straight, and not try to make the bed narrower. I'll mulch the part that's difficult to reach, instead of making the entire bed narrower.

Now that I'm down to under the bottom row of blocks, I see what happened. They were undermined by tunneling animals, causing the outside side to sink and lean outwards. I will see if I can fill in that area with lava rock gravel, which is difficult to burrow through, then rebuild the wall.

I used a rare example of good judgement for me, and quit working on it at this point.

As I was getting ready to go, I saw Rufus snooping around an apple tree. I don't think he was being all that observant.