I've got a cracking gardening hangover this morning!

After another marathon day of work outside, my muscles ache, I've got a headache, dry mouth ... the works!I I would say that I am feeling rather "sluggish" but I'm not sure I like that term anymore because ...

I finished my evening (last night) by going out with a flash light and assassinating slugs. They are making their annual pilgrimage to the garden in droves. It's incredible to watch them. Where have they been hiding? How many slug miles have they travelled to get here? There must be thousands of them hidden away watching me murder their friends as I carry out this task. It's sort of unnerving.

Did you know that slugs can eat up to 40 percent of their weight in a day?

Creating Habitat for Garden Helpers

I don't enjoy killing slugs but the do so much damage to the garden in a single night. We do other things as well, encourage frogs and toads to live in the garden by having shaded areas with water for and I set out beer traps and orange slices in the corners of the raised beds. I figure drunk on beer isn't the worst way to go.

The New Froggy Pond

Here's a little frog/toad pond I am working on out in the garden expansion. I just dug this hole yesterday and it still needs the finishing touches. It looks suspiciously like a grave at the moment but rest assured @xwalkran is just fine! :)

I'm using an old stock tank as the liner because it's been sitting around for years unused. I need to add some plants & logs for shade and hiding, ledges and other frog friendly features. It should look nice when it's finished.

The Greenhouse

The greenhouse is pretty much planted. The drip irrigation system is broken so we'll have to find some parts. We don't use it very often because we have a well, and the drip irrigation keeps the water pump running constantly which isn't ideal for the longevity of the pump or for energy consumption.

I'm keeping things simple this year in the greenhouse (for now). Tomatoes, peppers, basil, winter savoury, nasturtium and some other herbs. I always grow some kale in here as well, can't ever have enough kale! I am pretty random with what goes in the greenhouse so there are likely to be some peas and other volunteers that pop up in here as well.

The seedlings have moved to the greenhouse!

All hardened off and ready for planting some of these still have some waiting to do before last frost. I'll confess right now that I've been stealing leaves of basil from the seedlings ...the aroma was just too enticing to resist.

The raised bed garden

It's such a blank canvas this time of year. So much winter planning and dreaming starts here. Plenty of seeds are planted, nestled warmly beneath the soil and others are tucked away in the greenhouse waiting to be planted. You see that yellow balloon with eyes in the far right corner? That's a bird scarer and in my experience, it's not very effective.

We've been planting up a storm & making progress on eradicating lawn!

A garden can be an artistic canvas and place of creativity if you want it to be. That's what I am working on in this area. Look at all this lawn! Cutting it is such a waste of our energy and gasoline. It's really not sustainable. I have a picture in my mind of what this space will look like and oodles of determination to do the work but after planting a truck load of trees and shrubs and seeing no notable change it does feel a bit overwhelming.

We've planted more fruit trees and perennials and it's a step in the right direction! Eventually the vegetable beds will be surrounded by perennial plants. I am trying to be patient and resourceful about where and how we get plants. Its becoming clear that we are going to need hundreds of plants and flowers to complete this project!

We also need a lot of mulch! Gathering it from the forest is a lot of work and we don't want to take too much from there so we are on the look out for a wood chipper.

In the far back field in this photo we will be planting buckwheat as a cover crop. This is one of the two larger fields we've been working on building up the soil and preparing it for our future garlic cash crop. The third field we've turned into the berry patch.

Sunflower Love

Each year I grow sunflowers and save the seeds for planting. This year we had plenty to fill one of our small fields so we might finally have some seeds for eating! We are growing them to help the soil and because I LOVE sunflowers and even use them as a food source.

Corn, Ethiopian Lentils & Red Fife

We also planted a small section of heirloom corn, Ethiopian lentils and some red fife wheat. The lentils ( Lathyrus sativus) aren't a true lentil and are often referred to as Grass Pea. They are commonly grown in drought prone regions of southern Asia and Africa as an insurance crop. Known for being dependable even in the worst years, they are extremely drought tolerant and resilient which was enough for us to know we wanted some in the garden.

Bird Scarer

This is the non fancy bird scarer that really, really works. Whenever we plant sunflowers the birds come in droves. We can wake up to dozens of them pecking away in the newly planted fields. We've planted heavy to compensate for losses but this scarer is working. It's got a Tibetan banner tied to it as well as some old reflective CD's.

Smaller garden bed

We've got some potatoes planted, which I am hopeful but not overly optimistic about. I am never impressed by our potato yields. There's are umbels growing wild and crazy popping up throughout the bed.

We planted some Mangel Beets, also known as mangel-wurzel, “the scarcity root” for the first time this year. They date back to the late 1700's Germany and can reach in excess of 20lbs per beet. They were generally used as animal fodder and to improve soil but I've read that when picked young the beets and the root are quite tasty.

I would like to plant some squash or pumpkins in this bed as well. I'll plant some beans far from the garlic as well. There's also nasturtium and borage planted in here along the edge.

The far bed in this photo is planted with a row or garlic and onions, nasturtium, beets and carrots.

Finally got some elderberry bushes!

Along the front of the bed in the photo above, there are some elderberry plants. This will eventually (hopefully) provide a nice hedge. I've had some challenges. The garden centre only ordered in one variety and you need two different types for pollination so I've been searching everywhere for another variety.

Veggies

The beets and carrots are germinating.

The worms are abundant and nice and fat.

The raspberries are coming along nicely.

The garlic looks great. The garlic planted in raised beds is always really impressive. The bulbs are huge compared to the garlic we plant in ground. It's all about soil!

Our endless fancy repair work continues. It feels as though everything needs fixing this year. @xwalkran does things properly but as you can see, I usually just do things "creatively".

Greening Out

Life is becoming more lush and green around here. The vines running along the fence are grape. In the summer this becomes a beautiful wall of green. We don't get many grapes, the birds usually just leave a few cup full but I don't want to cover this area in nets, it's just too extraordinarily beautiful to conceal.

I am just about the head out and get back to work! That frog pond is first on the agenda and then more planting. We really need to get to work cleaning up the apple orchard as well. I've forgotten to take a photo of it again but ...it's basically a dozen trees surrounded by lawn and forest.

I hope everyone is happy and well!

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[@walkerland ]
Building a greener, more beautiful world one seed at a time.
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