I did a lot this month, just not much in the garden! It's been cold and wet and muddy out there and I'm a coward who hates the cold. But we really do need to get back out there and transplant the not-sunflowers and nasturtium into the chicken area and tidy up in general while waiting for the ponds.
There was a bit of a kerfuffle about that as when J went to order them he claims that he doesn't remember them costing that much (I'm pretty sure they did) and then he realised we hadn't measured the heights (we had measured the widths and knew that would fit). Good thing he did as we found out that the 1200L ponds we wanted to get were too tall to fit under the grow bed frames. He then went to order the 1100L square ponds and decided he didn't want to pay almost the same price for one that we could have gotten two from the other place, so now are other options are the same pond that we have already or food grade IBCs which are slightly smaller and I presume cheaper. He initially said that the IBCs are also too tall and would need to be sunk which would mean ripping up the paving which I was VERY unhappy about, but then he said we could just cut the IBCs in half and have them side by side.
I was REALLY upset for a little while as anything smaller than the 1100L ponds meant no koi and if he was set on the IBCs I though it meant no shubunkin either but the dimensions sound like they will be fine for shubunkin, and getting more of the ponds that we had before would definitely be fine for shubunkin. So I'll get at least half of what I wanted.
What I have been doing is letting the chookies out more often to mow the cottage garden. They love coming out and demolishing all the greenery and they don't go in the flowerbeds (except when they're running back to their area at night and then they really scarper as they know they're not meant to be in there but some of them are also too dumb to walk around like the other ones). Sometimes I'll do a bit of cleanup while I'm monitoring them and other times I'll just sit with my thoughts and watch them which has been pretty chill.
It was how I finally noticed that Rusty has one pink leg and one blue leg.
And also how I noticed real life big leaf unfolding which I have seen in timelapses and textbooks but never really noticed otherwise even though the philodendrons were RIGHT THERE when we moved in and have been neglected the entire time. And it was just nice to see the elkhorn fern doing alright as I was pretty sure I'd kill it somehow as I've never had one of those before.
I'm trying to figure out if some of the sphagnum moss is somehow growing (I got it as a brick so assumed it was dead) or if grass got into it or if it's growing mould or algae D:
We went on a Bunnings run to get some paint swatches for Eldest's room. He told me in the shops that his thought processes were along the lines of pink/purple feature wall, green "normal" walls and yellow skirting boards and possibly/probably door, doorframe and window frames.
I sent this shot (the swatches are ordered by size not by any particular colour combo) to Middle and she responded
wth
do not let this man choose what is this
And while we were there J "grudgingly" let me get more plants ("I suppose you want to go look at plants? No? Shall we go then?" to which Eldest chimed in "I WANNA GO LOOK AT PLANTS" and so off we went). Eldest had a great time trying to apply his one day worth of horticulture course (which he seems to be enjoying a lot more than the fitness one) both walking around the Bunnings nursery and when we got home and he was helping me plant them out. We completed our Grey Box set and our lavender set.
I am only slightly upset that I spaced the Grey Boxes not quite right
The original Grey Box has more flowers! And Eldest was saying we should pull off the flowers so that the newly transplanted lavenders focus on growing their roots and I said he could do that if he wanted but I would be a bit upset about the flowers.
J and I are having a minor disagreement about where to put the birdbath as I was going to plop it in the middle of the triangle but he thinks we should put it out the other side so it's easier to refill and while that idea has a lot of merit it will obstruct walkway (especially if trying to navigate with a wheelbarrow). It only matters because I want to throw some catmint seeds in that area as well.
The bee garden is coming up great (unlike the chicken forage patch which still has a whole lot of nothing going on).
I feel like I should be weeding but I don't actually know what's what and while I am pretty sure the grass is grass I'm also not 100% sure. Those small plants with three teardrop shaped leaves will probably be very carefully extracted though as PlantNet identified them as some kind of thistle from memory and I got annoyed with them because the stems are irritatingly but not painfully spiky when they're bigger.
J and I were able to Tetris this dog kennel that we'd bought as a rooster box about a hundred million years ago (which may see use as such again if our tiny rooster starts crowing) into the coop. J remembered trying previously and concluding that it didn't fit, I was pretty sure it would if we upended and twisted it in a highly specific fashion. His quip was something about "seeing if the juice was worth the squeeze", I think it's better as it's a lot more sheltered under here so a rooster won't bake in summer, and they have more room in the chicken area where they spend more time, and I will be able to squeeze in one more not-sunflower along that fenceline and more nasturtiums.
It is staying in there til it falls apart and we can take it out in pieces.
Their coop water container had disintegrated and was all over the coop so I cleaned that up while I was in there (apparently J never got around to it or something, he gets the eggs so he's in there a lot more than I am and would have noticed it).
I also started raking and clearing the chicken area in preparation for the mass transplant but forgot to take a photo.
Other than that the flowers have continued making me happy.
I also found out the hard way that the porch bed floods from roof runoff when it rains (J pulled the gutters off as they rusted through and kept filling up with leaves because we were unable to keep on top of cleaning and is refusing to replace them til we get rid of the shade trees which are currently keeping the house cool in summer so I guess that part of the house will just rot away then). I moved one of the Calatheas which had half-drowned into the tree bed but not sure if it will survive (it was hanging on by two leaves when I moved it). The other Calathea I've left for the moment as it looks in much better nick and will see how it fares next shower. Fortunately the violas managed to survive and the lobelia that I thought had drowned is still there, just very small. I'm now in the process of trying to find some other plants that will tolerate occasional flooding.
This post also appears on my blog.
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