Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
seamommy

Next Gardening Season starts after Christmas

seamommy
13 years ago

Don't know about you but as soon as Christmas is over, I start thinking seriously about what to plant, new beds, what to take to the next plant swap, etc. I start making sketches of my yard, documenting all the things that happened last summer, what looked great, what failed and what needs to be moved.

I had thought that I would need to get more chicks to add to my flock again this coming Spring, but I'm still getting about a dozen eggs daily from the 20 hens that I have now, so I may skip a year. Or maybe I'll let one of my hens go broody and raise a flock of her own. Roos make good eating and I always get too many from a brood. I need a few extras though to fend off the predators.

I had so many chicken snakes last summer I'm starting to think of things to deter them from even coming into the pen. I lost seven hen chicks to just one snake, and I sure don't want a repeat of that. I'll see if I can find a copy of the post I put on the farm forum about how I killed that snake one dark and stormy night...it was mildly amusing.

Things have really done better in my greenhouse this winter. I had one small outbreak of spider mites that I was able to catch and eliminate before they got very bad. I've had no problems with mildew, whiteflies, or those little sucking things. (knock on wood-the winter's not over)

Yep, the holidays are over and I'm ready for Spring now. As soon as we get a mild day I'm going to clean out the chicken coop and start a new load of compost with it.

I'm going to tidy up the greenhouse this weekend and groom all those pelargoniums and begonias that have hibernating out there. I divided a huge asparagus fern in October and have dozens of pots going. Oh, I have high hopes and high spirits about the coming gardening season. It's starting now with the catalogs, magazines, scrapbooks and dreams. Cheryl

Comments (6)