Check out that sky!! Is that a perfect winters day or what?
AND it lasted!
I woke up to it absolutely bucketing down and figured I would be inside all day, so I went back to bed!
When I got up again, I had no excuse to be inside.
Time to clear out another garden bed! The chooks got the silverbeet and were pretty happy about that
I didn’t really feel motivated enough to empty the soil out and line the bottom of the bed – plus I figured the soil would be harboring weeds anyway… so I just lined the top with a thick layer of newspaper and dumped a few bags of seaweed on top of that.
Here’s hoping the weeds will be stopped or slowed and there will be a lot less work when spring comes. I also figure I might just poke a hole in the newspaper to plant seedlings rather than pulling it all up. Will be interesting to see if that helps or hinders!
Another thing I have been itching to do is to prune back the Lion’s Ear
I was really hoping I could turn these into some kind of hedge but have had to wait a couple of seasons while they really filled out before cutting them back.
Lions Ear, or Leonotis leonurus, is a pretty hardy plant. We have one out the front and it self seeds easily. The smaller seedlings are really easy to transplant – and hard to kill! You can also prune it back to the nub and it will spring back in a single season!
Anyway – I think so far so good! Plus I didn’t have to buy anything, just used what I had to make a hedge. Time will tell if it works out.
Took a few wheelbarrows of weeds and clippings away today!
Then I thought I should make a start on the raspberry canes which are looking a bit scraggly.
I only got to one side today. There is a lot more to be done – transplanting, tying back up and weeding.
Its a start!
All in all, not a bad Sundays work!
Hope your day was great too!
Cheers!
I might have misunderstood so if so just ignore me lol! But with the newspaper put down to kill weeds if you hose it down really well and cover with soil and whatnot you do not need to pull the newspaper back out. It will decompose and the plant roots will tunnel theough.
Thanks Jennifer! I think you are right about leaving the newspaper. Come spring I might add some more soil on top if I have enough compost ready to go. Would be nice if the weeds slowed down!
A job well done but u sure wear me out just reading. I know you will reap rewards in the future!!! ??
Thanks Linda! It was really nice to get outside in the sunshine!
Can you use the canes as kindling? I agree with Jennifer, the paper doesn’t need to be removed. Of course if you’re going to dig the bed for some reason you would have to
I think you are right to leave the paper alone and let it do its job once time comes to plant. I don’t think I will need to dig it up again.
I am sure the canes would be a good fast kindling, but I still have a LOT of Ruby’s fence to get through kindling wise, (and a lack of storage space now) so thats why I figured to mulch it for compost.