Moving Forward

This spring was particularly rough on me.  The weather was crazy variable, hot to cold to hot and wet wet wet.  In the winter I decided to do a complete redo on the across the street garden.  Effectively being a single mom to two boys has made that a monumental task.  I chose to cover it in a layer of cardboard, a layer of burlap, a foot of mulch then berms made out of compost.  I have yet to get any decent produce out of it.  I’ve used this compost straight before, but not in variable weather.  This weekend, I have a group of about 20 volunteers to help me get the beds built and it finished up.  I can’t wait.  I’m looking forward to the summer planting and hope I can get things going.  The heat is proving to be a challenge for me, but I hope to start next week in a planting rage of productivity.

The other challenged faced this spring came when the river flooded and raccoons came up through the sewers and discovered the chickens here and next door.  They killed around 20 chickens before we got a handle on them.  No chicken coop was secure enough to keep those pests out and they ate like kings.  It provided some serious bonding for me and my neighbors.  We tried everything to get the mating pair to move on but finally succeeded.  I am not cool with running an all you can eat buffet for wild life.  Very expensive.  Fortunately for me the health department came through to inspect my yard about the same time which resulted in a reorganization of the chickens into some coops across the street.  The chickens across the street are stressed and not as happy as they were having the run of the back yard, but they are alive and I’m still getting eggs.

The farmer’s market is going well, Garlic Fest was a huge success, and even though I didn’t participate this year, the Sustainable Backyard Tour was wonderful.  I got to go on it for a change and loved seeing what other people were doing with their space.  Some were too neat for me and at least one was too much.  I got some great ideas though.

One of the other benefits I have had this spring is meeting more gardeners and helping with more gardens.  Garden D that I worked in last year has nothing planted in it from me and it is somewhat up in the air.  Garden B needs a few loads of compost and manure and is also sitting and waiting.  In order to deal with my fibro and my kids I’ve had to step back a little.  Hopefully the economy will improve and my husband will get a job back home soon.  If not, both kids go to school in the fall and that should help out my busy schedule.