Garden season is nearly upon us, so I spent many hours this weekend cleaning up the yard. I removed the corn stalks and sunflower stems from the long beds at the front of the yard and burned them along with any tumbleweeds and other dried plant matter that I could easily remove from the ground. I am planning on tilling these beds again this year, but I don't want to bind up the tiller with tough stems, so burning them was an easy way to clear them up. I also need to go through and dig up any more hidden carrots or parsnips that overwintered in these rows. I used those crops to fill in any bare areas in the rows last summer. I choose crops with tap roots so they would help to break up the heavy clay soils that I have in my yard, making it easier to work with in future years. Before I could get to digging and tilling in this area I had to remove the drip lines that I left under mulch all winter. I didn't intend to leave them out, but I never seemed to find any time to take care of it until now. To make things easier on myself, I simply rolled up the lines where they were, so I can just put them back out over the rows once the soil is prepped for planting again.
The other big chore in the yard was taking some of the tarps off the chicken coop. It has been getting fairly warm during the day and the girls could use the extra ventilation.
I still left some covering for the back and sides of the pen because the nights are still chilly and they could use the wind block. It will also give them some shaded space during the heat of the day.
The nesting boxes off the back were completely uncovered mostly because the tarp that I had covering it was in tatters and wasn't doing much good anyway. The house is solid enough on it's own and the girls can use it for sturdy shelter if the weather gets really bad. An added bonus is now getting eggs will be easier since I won't have to fight the tarps to open the back door.
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