What Did You Do In The Garden?

after living with someone who kept nine birds of various kinds i would not want to do that again. they were way too noisy for me (especially in the morning!).

not a bad day out there at all, not too hot, not too cold.

i went out to weed the old strawberry patch which has a lot of oxalis in it and plenty of other weeds too. it is the worst one i have left to get done (others still to go). first though i scraped another big garden to make sure none of the little grass plants in there have an easy chance to get going further. 20 minutes for a rather large garden is easy work compared to the old strawberry patch. i probably will not get it done today at the rate i'm going, but i should be able to make a good dent in it.

laying here on my futon is not, however, going to get that any further so i better get back out there.

NOT in my garden, but I got 2025-6 hay delivered yesterday, 300 bales. I finally swept where the old hay had been, EVERYWHERE in the loft, and moved/stacked 53 (2024) bales. they all weigh between 60-65 lbs each.
It looks nice and neat and I start This winter with 153 bales of hay, an adequate sufficiency.

made more progress today on cleaning up the old strawberry patch. i should be able to finish it up tomorrow in about an hour to an hour and a half.

i took a few pictures of the gardens out there that i've put up plus the few still left to go yet

i also took pictures of the soil profile of the old strawberry patch since i was digging in there and the difference was rather stark. the subsoil is white or gray clay and light sand, the top is about a foot of dark topsoil with plenty of organic matter and looks like perfect. it's a bit too low though and prone to a lot of weeds until i get it back under control. i'm tempted next year to smother it with cardboard and mulch and leave it for a few years. when i want to grow beans in there i'll poke holes through the cardboard...