stubbed toes and mud pies

[flowerbug]

today it was foggy (aka what we call froggy) weather and later the fog burned off and i could go outside and play in a garden for a while. i had some bags of bean pods, wood ashes and some dirt to go into a garden so i decided to try something new and see how it went.

i first put the four bags down in four piles equally spaced in the area and then used a cultivator (four pronger is what i always called it before i heard the word cultivator) to spread them out evenly. i also had some buckets of wood ashes to go down in that same area so those were then spread out on top of the bean pods. then i had some dirt to move from a neighboring garden to fill in that same spot so i pretty much got done three things at once.

moving the dirt was mostly shovels tossed four to eight feet and i made sure to make the furthest pile had enough dirt to fill up to the other end, but i still had to carry about fifteen shovels to really do it right. then i put the shovel through the layers and turned it all but did not turn it multiple times.

then i used the cultivator to smooth it out a little bit and will turn it all again in the early spring when i go back through to weed and smooth things out that have had a chance to rot and settle through the winter.

there's usually some weeds to remove or bury but the later in the season i can keep a garden cleared of weeds the more likely there won't be too many weeds in there next spring.

raising this garden space up a little bit will help the beans i can plant in there do better but also the dirt that i moved from the other garden is more sandy soil and so that will help the more clay soil also drain a little better and have more air able to get down in there. and of course adding wood ashes and bean pods (and the reject beans that are mixed in there) will give the worms something to dance around and feed upon.

the rain this evening is perfect. it wets down any pods and the wood ashes, there's no wind so both the pods and wood ashes aren't going to blow around much at all.

i have another low area in that same garden to use up the rest of any bean pods i want to put out there and also more buckets of wood ashes. i'll really be able to see next season how these areas do in comparison to the other areas in the garden which aren't getting much done to them. i'll run a few rows of different types of beans through them and see what happens.

it's always interesting to try stuff in a more controlled manner than haphazard. the problems with what i did this past season was that in the neighboring garden where i'm removing some of the dirt had this large pile of dirt that i planted on top of and things looked like they were doing ok but i had no real control planting i could as as a comparison so it really didn't teach me anything and it was also not easy to weed or contend with - i really needed to move that dirt and level things out... and thus it means i made some progress today in about an hour and a half that will be, i hope, useful next season and give me better results in both gardens...

 

[flowerbug]

i get to go outside today to play in the dirt! i'm so excited. this may be the last decent weather day we have for a while so i hope to make the most of it.

i have a low spot in a garden that is begging for some bean pods, ashes and then being turned and mixed a bit after i put some more garden soil in there that needs to be moved from a neighboring garden. that should take about an hour or so.

then some weeding of the onion patch which is being taken over by speedwell. i don't know where all those seeds came from as they sure weren't growing in there last season!

and then on my task list is going under the house and checking on things, replacing the air filter on the furnace and getting the crawl space entrance ready by putting some bleach in a jar with holes in the lids so the fumes will keep the mice out. it works... nothing else has done this as well. the downside is that the fumes can also be corrosive to metal so i did need to repaint the entrance cover which was rusting...

i'm just finishing up the last of some bean pods from one of the bags. five more to go. getting there eventually. not too bad with most of them being Purple Dove beans (very easy to shell compared to many others).

 

[flowerbug]

all tasks finished, all goals for the day accomplished, felt good to get some exercise and fresh air.

glad to see that under the house in the crawlspace it looks like the common house spider invasion has calmed down. likely some other meaner spiders came along and restored the balance...

this week we have some rather raw days coming so i can go around and check for spiders again inside the house. it has been helping to do this once in a while, but there will always be spiders in here. there's way too many decorations and hiding places that Mom has around for me to get them all, plus the up high cathedral ceiling...

 

[Shades-of-Oregon]

@flowerbug you are brave to check the crawl space. It just gives me the willies to even look in that area. I never use it way too many mice. Every once in awhile the cats have cleared them out.

This is the time of year spiders like to find warm shelter from the cold / wet winter approaching .
I use peppermint spray around windows and doors or any entrance spiders use . They seem to stay away from the areas sprayed, a lot less spiders to deal with and do we mention cob weds ? I use a hand held batter op small vacuum every once in awhile in winters .