We had some beautiful sunny weather on Saturday and used it to get some garden preparation done. First, we weeded and cleaned up the garden beds. There was a lot more weeds than I thought.
Our dog, Atticus, was out in the garden with us. He thinks it is really fun when we play in the dirt. He likes to come dig in the bed beside you. It's a bit more of a mess than it is helpful. Also, he likes to chase little shrews and mice around the garden.
After we finished pulling most of the weeds, we moved the chickens and ducks into the garden. We let them hang out in the garden for a day. They furiously searched the garden for any leftover weeds and bugs.
Of course, the chickens kicked the top layer of dirt off the beds. This is going to make some extra work for us but hopefully they ate all the bugs. We already needed to fill in some settling in our hugel beds, so it's just a bit more work to repair the chicken damage.
While the chickens were working in the garden, we started building hoops over one of the beds which is outside the garden fence. We are going to start planting this bed early.
The design for the hoops was pretty simple. We pounded pieces of rebar into the ground. Then, we slip PVC pipe on to the rebar and bent it to form an arch. I thought we had enough plastic to cover it but I was wrong. It will have to be finished after I get more plastic.
All but 1 of the cauliflower and cabbage seeds have sprouted.
