Garden Trashed !

Well the snow is gone and so are the vegetables, the garden looks in a very sorry state. The season is well and truly over !
However, the hens winter run is now at full size and they are very happy, they have got fresh grass and 5 raised beds full of plant roots and slugs and other lovely things for them to unearth. They have also got the last few stalks of sprouts and some curly kale to be getting on with. The sprouts had gone mushy and we were just plain fed up of the kale ! The girls will make good use of it and the winter greens really do give the egg yolks a fantastic colour.

The Hens Winter Run.

I returned the wood and chicken wire fence panels to their original positions and used some orange plastic fencing and metal road pins to section off the pond and the patio. I used one of my raised bed frames on its end as a make shift gate and so far it all works well. The hens are in front of their summer run for the next 3 months or there abouts depending on the progress of spring. This rests the summer run to stop a build up of parasites and also clears and fertilises the raised beds ready for planting in spring. Everyone is a winner ! A bit untidy but you have to put up with this in a working garden, especially if you want to reap the rewards of sack fulls of fresh vegetables in the summer.

The trashed garden.

I have already started on the spring improvements by replacing 3 fence panels on the left hand side of the garden with trellis. This should allow some extra light into the garden and at the same time increase the air flow around the plants to try and prevent mildew forming on the courgettes etc. I am going to build one long raised bed against the trellis and use it as a support for my peas next year. In turn I can then add another long and wide raised bed to be used for salads. This will give me an extra 32 square feet of growing space over last year so I think it will be well worth the effort.

I am glad I have got the photographs showing last years bounty of crops or I would certainly lose heart looking at the flooded muddy mess every time I walk out of the back door !