Things have been pretty laid back over herelately. Vash has been a total sweetie pie giving me lovenibbles and kisses every night during his runtime. he waseven a sweetie when he had to get a buttbath (no more daily oats forhim - only occasionally). He still gets a nightly treat suchas a bit of apple or green before bed. Herehe isduring the day dozing off while his mommy works on the gardens.
I've been working pretty hard on getting the gardens toproduce and keep them free of bugs, and the chicks have been ace bugeradicators. The salad garden is going well, and I hope Vashlikes some of the things in it. If not, the chicks and I willenjoy it for sure lol. I have my first tomatoes now (1/2 inchlong and green but still tomatoes), and can't wait until they ripen.
Most of my work this week had to do with mulching the 'big' gardenplot. I went to the local newspaper printer and got 6 endrolls - the rolls of paper that the newspaper is printed on - as thereis always some paper left on the rolls when they are changed.I used the paper to put a thick (6-8 sheets) layer of paper downbetween the plants and wetting them with water.
Then covered the whole thing with about 6 inches of orchard hay--
So far, the plants have been thriving with this method ofmulching.The squash have bloomed in the 3 dayssince they were mulched, the ground retains water better and worms areencouraged to break the soil down 24/7underneath themulch,and best of all no more weeding.
This picutre is of the front yard bed. The slugs and voleshave really done a number on this area. Perry, my male cat,got the vole, but since the chicks never graze here, the slugs stillare a problem at times. Getting rid of them is a full-timething.
The sickliest plants have been moved to a 'sickbox' planter were they are slowly recovering.
Well, that's all for now. Hope you like the pictures.
