This week has been unseasonably cool and windy and this afternoon an added cold rain. We even had frost warning two nights with temperatures dropping below freezing, but the garden survived just fine.
This week is supposed to flip to summer like temperatures by midweek. The fickleness of spring in Virginia.
After holding the older hens in the Palace for two weeks, I started giving them all day free range and with 30 acres to explore, they chose to scratch and dig right around the pullets pen, digging holes that the pullets can manage to squeeze through to the outside world. Yesterday the hens discovered the walled garden I worked on all last summer. After building up the wall, cardboard or weed blocking fabric was put down and bagged soil added on top. Culinary herbs were planted in part and various medicinal herbs and perennials beginning to fill the other areas. When I looked out at dinner prep time, they had dug up two of the newly planted daffodil clusters and a comfrey plant, scratched soil over the oregano and parsley. Now I have to try to figure out how to keep them out of that area without destroying the appearance of the bed. I had to put bird net over the bed along the south wall of the garage to deter them from digging up flower seedlings and to stop the deer from eating the daylilies. I am hesitant to use the bird netting on that garden because the bird feeders are on the wall that juts out into it and I don’t want the song birds to get tangled in it. Since that netting is black and fairly fine, maybe I can erect a 2 foot band around just inside the stone wall to deter the hens. This morning, I found a bunny about to make it’s way in as well.
This one was run off before it could navigate the rocks and find a feast. Because of the damage yesterday and the rain today, they are penned in. I will figure out a solution tomorrow. I have considered controlled free ranging with a roll of electric netting that can be moved to various areas to provide fresh forage without causing the damage. As far as the pullet’s pen, I think I will fill the holes with soil and put a row of rocks around the outside that can protect the fence line from digging and can still be cut with the line trimmer.
The chilly week has given me time to relearn how to do Tunisian Crochet. The leftover yarns from making my blanket squares are being used as I make a 6″ wide strip. As more is spun, more strips will be crocheted and stitched on to this strip to make a table cover for my craft display table.
This strip will be blocked to uniform width as soon as it reaches the length that I am seeking.
We missed our walk today, hope tomorrow will be warmer and dryer.