Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Hugelkultur!

This early spring is fantastic! Let's just hope it doesn't mean a super dry summer...

Last week we went to Tofino overnight. It wasn't perfect weather, but we did get a few sunny hours on a nearly abandoned beach on the second day. It was sooo nice to be walking along the huge, sandy beaches. The dogs ran and ran and ran some more. Abby got a bit sore but we let her keep going...you only get so many vacations!

We bought some asparagus roots to plant in the garden this year and got inspired by the nearby farm to try some hugelkultur beds. Yep, Huuuuugelcoooltoor (we've been having fun with the name) is basically making garden beds using pieces of wood all piled together, then covered with leaves/hay/manure/soil. As the wood decomposes, it keeps the bed nice and damp and adds nutrients to the soil (it also can take some nitrogen out in the first few years as it rots, hence the manure that we added). The best part of making them was that we just happen to have a ton of wood that we needed to get rid of, so putting the beds together was super fast. We went from a bare gravelly/grassy slope to garden beds in 2.5 hours. 


Chicks enjoying the sunshine.


Almost done covering with compost. We seeded them with clover to act as a ground cover until we're ready to plant some berries and veggies. We are also trying quinoa seeds in one - we haven't grown quinoa before, but I got the seeds last year and never used them so we'll see what happens. 


It must be spring...House Chicken is back! She knocked on the door this morning and marched on in like she hadn't spent the last 5 months as a farm chicken.


Dogs on stumps...this was a beautiful hike that my parents and I went on when they visited last week. Lucy had left her stump by this point.

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