It's been an interesting year when it comes to my gardening and plants. I have been moving plants and testing them out in the old chicken yard to see which the chickens would eat and which they would let alone. This has been about a three year process. This is what it looked like last year in May in the chicken yard. The experiment went well and I knew that the chickens would not eat these plants.
The plants that I wasn't sure if the chickens would eat or not I kept in this old dog kennel area. I use this area if I have to quarantine a chicken or bring home new chicks. My son and I made this building when he was 8 years old from free materials that we got on Craigslist. It was a fun project that looks like a mom and an 8-year old made. LOL. My pretty new hostess, cannas, ferns, different colored lily of the valley, some different varieties of sedum, and the catnip is in this protected area.
Unfortunately, my husband decided to move this area while I took our son to an event over an hour away. It has been leveled! The dirt was graded down and all the plants have been moved with what he called the "good dirt" to the garden area. I'm not mad at him, it had to be moved. I'm bummed I have to wait to see if it comes up somewhere in the garden. There's a good chance several of the plants will come back. We shall see. I have a feeling that packing down the garden by driving the extra large excavator over it pushed them down in the ground too far. That area will then be plowed and tilled and I'll have to re-start the garden area.
All of these moves are because the property next to us was sold. When the land was surveyed, we realized that all the fruit trees, my chicken area, some of the garden, and the ocean container that I use for a shed are all on the neighbor's property. I planted the fruit trees in the late 90's. I mowed and maintained the area all these years. I had no idea it was not on our property. There is a power line right -away there. At least nobody can build in the big field, but they plan to make hay there.
The area in the photo below where everything is smooth is where the protected dog kennel plants were. Grrr. This week I am working on moving everything that is on the right side of the line. The orange line is pretty much were the property line is. It doesn't look like a lot in this photo, but you gotta add that the property line goes about another 700 feet west of this. My husband moved all of the fruit trees with his equipment. Everything left to move requires a shovel (and a good place to put them.)
One of the moves that needed done was to move this old berry barn. All the yuccas have been moved. Some of the yuccas were ripped out of their new locations by the local deer. Luckily I had plenty of yuccas to divide and put them on different "test" areas of the property.
The berry barn was temperarily relocated off to the side of the woods for now. It has seen better days.
Chicken coops are in place, berry barn is removed, big pine trees removed, fruit trees removed, and most of the fence is removed. Unless we start having predator attacks, I most likely will not be replacing the fence. Chickens free-range nicely now that the fox families have moved from our property in 2020 when we did quite a bit of earthwork. The ducks below are in the garden area.
The ocean (shipping) container has been set on the wheels. Time to move it to the new location.
All of the below fruit trees in the photo below (plus several more) were relocated last fall. I'll have to get a photo of the new area where they are. They survived the move and are doing fantastic in the new orchard. They even have more sunlight.
Here's where the garden is now. I will still be able to use most of the area where the garden was last year. Hopefully I'll have a few surprises of some of the moved perrinials that pop up here and there so that I can save them. The wood needs to be sawed and processed from all the pine trees that were removed. I LOVE TO USE THE LOG SPLITTER! You can see several of the taller flowering bushes like lilac and forsithia and wisteria on the property line way in the back. Three of our tall blue spruce trees in the background should be removed because they are not on our property. We are going to leave them there for now. It's pretty wet in that area and I doubt if they will be making hay there due to the natural springs. Electric needs to be connected to the ocean container. Garden needs plowed, disked, and smoothed with the bed springs. Unfortunately there are big chunks of roots and rocks that got moved along to the garden that will need to be picked up out of there. More "free" exercise workouts. But it's good to keep moving.
Photo of the best work crew EVER:
Here's the view of all of the moves thus far. I am sooooooo blessed to have such an awesome husband that can help me move all this stuff with his equipment.
It's getting so nice out. I'm starting to get "chick" fever -- that time of year when I think I need more chickens. LOL. If I get protected dog kennel area fixed so that little chicks are safe and contained, I will probably get a few (6 or 8) new chicks. It would be awesome if one of my hens would become broody and hatch some of our own eggs for FREE.
1 comment:
I am pretty mad at the roofers who for two weeks have trampled my perennials and tulips. I spent years building up the gardens, even if they are small. They are still here. I fear all will be lost and don't know if I can repair or replace. Yours is a much bigger deal, so I can't imagine how hard that must be. I have a tiny yard, but I did the best with it and it hurts to have it callously leveled.
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