I've been struggling to keep on top of the weeds. Pulling a few up here and there to feed the animals wasn’t really having much of an impact, so I decided to have a better crack at it. The clover will be producing burrs soon if I don't get on top of them. Some already are.
I started pulling them up by the fistful and got the lawnmower out to chop them up fast. The first bucketful went to the chickens.
The next seven went around the trees and bushes in the quail run. They won't eat much of it, so the rest will stay as mulch and can help fertilise the plants. It doesn't matter if there are seeds in with it, because the quails will eat whatever sprouts.
Eight buckets full and I'd barely made an impact! The back lawn was being overtaken by clover and soursobs too. I rarely mow the lawns, because our rabbits do that for us, but there is only so much clover they can eat and they don't eat many soursobs, nor should they as they're high in oxalic acid. Unfortunately, there was not much grass to be seen with all the broad leaf plants smothering it.
It was time to make the weeds do some of the work for me. The next buckets full of lawn clippings and shredded weeds were going to go on those other weeds. You generally have to be careful when mulching with fresh things, because they break down and will start breaking down anything they come into contact with. This is actually a good thing for my purposes, because I want the weeds to break down.
The pepino bushes have been growing through the fence and over the lawn, so I cut everything back expect the branches with fruit growing. These trimmings got mown along with the lawn and weeds, then added to the weed smothering mulch on the front garden. The front garden desperately needs a lot of soil improvement, so all that goodness should go down well.
There's still a long way to go, but progress is being made and all that nutrition can go back into the garden. Where the worst of the weeds have been chopped on the lawn, it's brown. Hopefully the grass will start to recover now it can have a bit of light.
The bees were busy in the front garden. I felt guilty that I was removing some of the flowers they were enjoying. Thankfully there are other plants flowering too. Even the little bay tree has flowers on it.
Bay.
Rosemary.
Calendula.
We’re currently having a run of warm days, but we had some high winds for a couple of days last week. There must have been some good gusts, because the lid on the henhouse got lifted and wedged up on the roof of the run. It's a pretty heavy lid, as well!
I had to tie some of the peas back up too. Instead of attaching themselves securely to their fence, they attach to each other then the weight of several plants in the wind just can't be sustained with one or two tendrils clinging to the fence.
On the poultry front they have greeted spring appropriately and many are back laying again. However, it was a sad end to the day as my sweet girl Artemis passed away. I noticed she was a bit subdued yesterday, then more so today. I brought her in and she died shortly after, no obvious reason.
Rest well gentle girl.
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