Late Winter Clean-up

There's a lot of chores to be done in preparation for the arrival of spring, and the burst of warm weather this past week gave us opportunity to do a few without freezing our toes off!  Here's a peek at some of our late winter clean-up chores.  We still have plenty to do, but I feel a little better knowing we crossed a few tasks off the list!

The vegetable patch needed some sprucing up, so my husband used some reclaimed lumber to build garden boxes.  We have a slight slope in the garden, so this should help with erosion, and allow for better soil depth.  Now the plants can grow deeper roots!

The American Bresse pair finally got moved to their private coop.  This breed originated in France, and is renowned to be the most delicious tasting chicken in the world.  I'm hoping to raise this breed as a meat bird along with my Cornish Cross chickens.

The fence line that borders the chicken yard needed quite a bit of trimming.  The wild grapevines had taken over and strangled some of the trees.  We cleaned it up and I wove the vines into wreaths.  Come fall, I'll turn them into Christmas herb wreaths.

I hadn't spent much time in the greenhouse since fall, other than to check on the greens I like to grow during the winter.  They didn't fair so well with the extreme cold this year, so I ripped out their remains, dusted the tables, straightened the clutter, and laid out my seed starting trays.  It feels good to get things organized!

The greenhouse is a good place to dry seed heads, and this year I had baskets full sitting everywhere.  I transferred the seeds to whatever jars and pots I could find.  Let me tell you, I've got enough Zinnia and Marigold seeds to plant an acre or more! Hmm, that gives me an idea...Okay, don't get distracted.

Soon I'll turn the chickens out of their winter coop to free-range, so I made sure the bases of my shrubs were surrounded with rocks.  The chickens scratch up the soil to find bugs and this can expose the roots which may kill the plant.  The rocks prevent this, and it's a good use for all the rocks around here!