Fall Chores

 It's the big push to get everything ready before winter sets in.  My garage is still not ready for a truck to be parked in it, but I'm trying.  I've moved most of my tools in from the she-shed, but have yet to organize them.  I've mowed the pasture one last time, pulled all the vegetables from the garden, and tried to do a reasonable cleanup outside.  

I brought in my herbs for over-wintering, and set them up in a vintage crib I purchased at a yard sale a few years ago.  I removed one side so they'd get as much light as they need, but they're protected from a certain plant-eating cat.

I had to lop off 90% of my sage plant because it was so large, so I tried my hand at making smudge sticks.  I think they're supposed to be thicker, so next time I'll keep that in mind.

I've been working on the tiered garden again.  I was desperate to get my plants out of their pots - the ones that came with me from my old house were potted up in late summer, 2018!  Some of the plants became root bound and many of them died in the pots, but I still have quite a few left.  I decided to forget about building walls of cinder block, and instead went with more wooden raised beds.  I gave up on trying to level the tiers, too.  Just get them in, once the plants are growing you'll never even notice the downhill slant of the beds!

I had 3 yards of 50/50 (compost/soil) delivered, and after I had lined each bed with yet another layer of mule compost, I filled each bed with the soil.  

We hired Corey to come back with his tractor to do some of the heavy lifting for us.  I had him dig out the bottom block tier with his backhoe, then put the remaining 50/50 in that bed.  I also had him move the pallet of blocks to the other side of the yard, and I did some clean up around the beds. 

I've left enough room between each raised bed and along the front of the tiers to lay my large patio blocks to create walkways around the garden.  I'm not sure if that will get done before snow flies; it may be a spring project.  I also plan to put bark mulch over the landscape fabric.  It's getting there!

The blocks that weren't used to build the gardens I used to build a manure station for the winter.  It's not pretty, but it's functional.  I've found that just piling the manure up leads to lots of weeds growing in it, so this way I can have it contained and easier to manage...hopefully.

Another garden chore was to move my Craigslist planter to the front of the house.  This was the fiberglass transformer cover that I picked up for a song a few years ago.  Of course I did the hugelkultur treatment...I had some large poplar branches that needed to be cleaned up in the pasture, so I started by cutting those up and tossing them in the bottom of the planter.  Areas of the pasture were overgrown and after mowing there were thick layers of cut grass that needed to be raked up, so that went in over the wood.  Top dressing was of course more mule compost.  I'm going to try to get another load of 50/50 mix to complete the recipe, then it will be ready for planting in the spring.  I'll probably give it a more complementary paint job next year, too; maybe dark grey or black.  The green just doesn't look right.  In case you're wondering, the bottom is mostly open, so plenty of drainage.

grass clippings and leaves over poplar branches

mule compost top dressing

If time and weather allow, I still have 8 posts to get into the ground for my mule track, and the fence needs to go up at some point.  I have to take down the preliminary chute, as I've moved that to the back of the paddock, and I need to run my giant weed trimmer around to tidy up the pasture.  It's going to be winter proper before we know it!