Will Mow For Food
One of the things that’s great about having chickens, pigs and ducks, is that it turns ordinary garden chores into money saving tasks. Weeding and mowing are actually food producing tasks.
Yesterday I mowed enough to get four bagfuls of clippings. One went to the pigs, one to the main chicken flock, another to the guinea keets, and the last one to the broiler chickens. Everyone LOVED the fresh clippings.
Grass clippings are always a valuable commodity around here, they are also saved and used as mulch and to smother grass and weeds around shrub and the woodland edge. In fact there are never quite enough grass clippings to go around.
I’ve been trying to mow a smaller section of the lawn more frequently just so I can feed clippings to all the animals. If I mow four bagfuls every day, that should about get me around the entire lawn. It’s nice knowing that I’m saving myself some money and providing them with healthy food as well.
What are some things you use grass clippings for?
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Hello Little Guy
One day, Mr Chiots and I were sitting out back under the maple tree taking a break and we noticed this little guy walked across a log.
I grabbed my camera to take some photos so we could i.d. it. A quick google search leads us to believe it is the caterpillar of the white-marked tussock moth. From what I read, they defoliate trees and the birds love to eat them.
They’re rather interesting little caterpillars, so intricate with so many different kinds of hairy tufts.
This is one of the things I love about gardening, you get to see so many interesting thing, particularly insects. Check out this spider I spotted the other day. I told Mr Chiots that I found Shelob in the garden. It had a grasshopper all rolled up in it’s web.
You just never know what you’re going to see when you head out into the garden every day!
Have you spotted any beautiful insects recently?
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Much Mulch
A few weeks ago, Mr Chiots stopped and talked to the local tree service guys about dropping off their wood chips at Chiot’s Run. They started dropping off HUGE loads a couple days later. This is coming in very handy in our effort to expand the main garden behind the garage.
We’ve been using all these wood chips to add a thick layer of mulch to smother the grass that surrounded the garden. We’re also using it to cover half of the garden that was planted in a cover crop. With this layer of mulch, the garden has doubled in size from what it was when we arrived.
Since this is mulched wood and leaves, it’s smart to wear a respirator because it’s decomposing very quickly. Mold and dust roll off the stuff in clouds when we’re moving it.
The nice thing is, this will decompose slowly while helping to improve the soil underneath. Most likely, this garden area will lay fallow next year, perhaps another layer of mulch and minerals will be added. I don’t want to do too much to this area until I have the final garden plan laid out. There will be hedges and brick walkways, and hopefully a greenhouse and maybe even a small pond.
This is the easy way to expand a garden, but it does take patience. That’s not a big deal though, I have a lot of patience. Mulch is one of the most valuable things you can provide for your garden.
Do you use mulch in your garden? What’s your favorite type?
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The Golden Hour
In the garden evening light is usually the best of the day, and the range of pleasure to be had from colour, scent and particularly birdsong is dramatic.
Monty Don – The Ivington Diaries
I was reading this book while sitting in the waiting room at the dentist yesterday. This line in particular struck me, these are my thoughts exactly! During evening light, what I call “the golden hour” you’ll often find me in the garden taking photos or walking around. In my mind, there is really no better time to see a garden or take a photo. The light softens from the harshness it had at noon and everything is bathed in a golden glow.
I’m not the only one that enjoys this hour, it seems like the birds and dragonflies do as well. It’s probably not the light, but the mosquitos that draw them out. Of course the mosquitoes at times chase me back into the house!
What’s your favorite time to walk around the garden?
I’ll be posting about the 5×5 Challenge tomorrow, I was out all day and didn’t have enough daylight when I arrived home to take photos for my post.
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So Long Peas…Hello Beets
The winter garden seeding is in full swing. I’ve been tearing out peas, broccoli and other spring crops and replacing them with turnips, beets, carrots and spinach.
Of course the pigs are getting the exhausted pea vines, they have a great time searching for any pods remaining. The string from the trellis was saved and I’m using it to tie up my tomatoes.
Hopefully the fall crops will do well, I’m hoping for a good harvest of root vegetables not only for us, but for all of our feathers, hooved and pawed creatures.
Are you replacing any spring crops with fall crops?
