Prep for winter: the old kitchen garden

/ Re-Farmer

Well, today was certainly a productive day outside!

I decided to see how much I could get done on the old kitchen garden today, and ended up finishing the job!  So I’m happy. 🙂

When I came out of the house, I startled cats in all directions, including that new grey ball of fluff.  A few of them even hung around while I moved things around the garden to prepare.

20180924.kitten.Bob

Hello, Jim.

This is probably the closest Jim has ever let me get to him!

My husband was able to spend quite a bit of time in the sun room today, with the outer doors open, and he had all sorts of kittens coming in, so that might be making them a bit more comfortable around people in general. 🙂

Doom Guy is getting quite friendly, but he wouldn’t let me hold him; he had to climb higher!

20180924.kitten.shoulders

The girls had been using the wheel barrow to dump leaves on the garden, and it had been left upright when the rains came.

I was quite surprised to find this!

20180924.kittens.water

While Bob was checking out the holes dug by the skunk (which, apparently, they are also digging themselves), Corvo went into the wheel barrow.  Since he stayed in it, I did NOT expect it to have so much water in it!

Bob is curious.

I had to claim the wheel barrow to work with, though, so off they ran.

Here is what the garden looked like before I started.

This is with all the leaves the girls have been dumping on there, plus the last few piles that hadn’t been brought over before the rains started.  Lots of beautiful organic matter to break down!

I made quite a dent in that round bale today!

Once that outer mesh was moved off, the straw started to peel off in layers!

There is my one garden fork, that I found hidden in the garage, cleaning up after a cow knocked stuff over.  The only fork I’ve been able to find on the entire farm, when I know there should have been several.  It’s a potato fork, so it wasn’t the best for the job, but it was better than nothing!

The cats really liked it when I started putting straw on the garden.  Especially Corvo

20180924.kitten.straw

Doom Guy, on the other hand, decided to go up into one of the decorative apple trees and watch from above!

20180924.kitten.above

Even Rolando Moon showed up and hung around.  She just kept following me back and forth, but didn’t want me to actually touch her or anything, until sat down for a break.  She didn’t stay still long enough for me to get a photo, though.

I even had a squirrel start yelling at me.

Turn the sound up to hear the very strange noise it is making, along with the usual chitter-chattering.
Here is what the garden looks like now.
All done for this year!  Next year, I hope to continue to build it up with organic matter, and maybe even add some retaining walls to level it out.  Eventually, it would be nice to have a little kitchen garden here, maybe with herbs or onions and garlic.
20180924.straw.ready.septic
I also brought over some straw to cover the septic tank lid, after it has been emptied.  We’ve had no call back from the company yet, so we might end up going with someone else if we don’t hear from him soon. 😦  I will likely add quite a bit more straw here, after, that I can leave as a mulch.  I’d rather cover it with gravel, but it’ll probably be a few years before we can get that done.  We do have a gravel pit on the property, but the equipment we would use to bring the gravel over has grown legs and walked away.  😦
I really wish my mother’s Bobcat were still around.  We could really use it over the winter to keep the driveway and parts of the yard clear of snow.  It’s a big job, even if we had a snow blower.  I’m told there used to be one of those here, too.
While I was working, we got visited by my brother’s dog.  I think he ate all the cat food, because when I went by later, the bowls were empty.  I topped them up.  Later, the girls went out to check on the cats, but there was no cat at the food bowls – the skunk was back!  Doom Guy came around and wasn’t too happy about that. 😀  He’s smart enough to leave it alone, though!
The cats are really enjoying the straw on the garden.  Next up, we’ll be refreshing the straw in the old dog houses for them.  We’re talking about ways we can provide shelter for them over the winter, which is expected to be long and cold, including finding ways to let them use the sun room, if things get really bad.  We shall see how that works out!
For now, however, I am going to have to take break.  The increased humidity has really brought out my arthritis.  Even my finger joints are starting to hurt, and I’ve got one finger that now gets stuck in a bent position every now and then.
Pain killers are my friend. 😉
I think it’s time for a nice hot soak in the tub!
The Re-Farmer

2 thoughts on “Prep for winter: the old kitchen garden”

  1. Pingback: Oh, what a day. Already | The Re-Farmer

  2. Pingback: Our 2021 garden: old kitchen garden, part one | The Re-Farmer

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