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After a cold, wet and grey week it feels almost like summer outside this weekend. Saturday was about 70F/21C and today is 76F/24C! Rain followed by warmth and sun is going to jumpstart all things growing. I have tulip leaves pushing up through the mulch and a few eager perennials too. Next weekend will see me outdoors cutting back all the dead perennial stalks and clearing mulch off the low growing plants. I saw lots of people out in their gardens today while I was torturing Bookman with a bike ride, but it is too windy this afternoon to be out. My allergies were bothering me before the bike ride, they are worse now. To be outdoors getting dust and leaf mold up my nose right now would send me over the top. So, perhaps there will be a nice evening during the week to start work outdoors. If not, nothing horrible will happen if I don’t get to it until Saturday.
The bike ride this morning was wonderful. I don’t know how far we went because I accidentally hit the wrong button on my bike app and poof! our whole ride about three-quarters of the way through disappeared. We took some bike trails we had never been on before and took some wrong turns onto other trails and had to backtrack, so my guess is we rode 24 (38.6km), maybe 25 (40km) miles. The ride was originally mapped at around 23.5 miles (37.8km). The light breeze blowing when we began our ride soon turned into a 20 mph/32kmh wind. And it seemed like we were always riding into it. There were a few times it blew as a cross wind, which made for some interesting riding when it would gust. If you were watching me and didn’t know better, you might have thought I was riding while intoxicated! Bookman was not too keen on the wind but I kind of liked it even though it made my nose run even more because of my allergies. It was a good opportunity to practice balance and get bonus workout points.
But back to the garden. Most of the seeds I’ve been planting since the beginning of March are doing well. The peppers didn’t germinate in profusion, but there are some and some is better than none, right? All the seed starting is pretty much done except for sunflowers and the only reason we start those ahead of time is because the squirrels dig up the seeds. Those I will start next weekend. And I just realized, that if the weather continues warm this week, and it looks like it might, I will be able to seed lettuce, peas, radishes, spinach and other cool weather veggies in the garden next weekend. Woo! I had better figure out what my seeds are and where they are going this week!
Bookman will have a couple different contractors out during the week to look at our garage and give us estimates for tearing it down. We were out measuring today to get an idea of how big the space is so I can figure out how many shrubs to purchase at the plant sale for planting along the fence we will be putting up along the alley. The space is so much bigger than I thought it was! It looks tiny with a big one-and-a-half-car garage on the site, but take that down, replace it with a 7.5 x 7 foot shed (2.3 x 2m) and a chicken coop and run that will be about 5 x 10 feet (1.5 x 3m) and Bookman guesstimates we will have about 200 square feet (61m) of additional garden space! Squee!
It won’t all be planted though. There will be a gravel path between the shed doors and the gate in the fence and there will be gravel around the chicken coop for ease of access and what-not. However, there will still be a lot of additional garden to grow in. Do I need to tell you how much fun I am having planning this space? I am calling it the Chicken Garden because I am designing it so the chickens can free-range in this little garden without having access to the bigger vegetable garden. It is going to take a lot of work because I expect after being buried under concrete for sixty years, the soil is going to be pretty compacted and fairly dead. Roaming chickens will certainly help improve it much faster, however.
I have also decided that when we are building the coop over the summer, we will build it with a green roof. Mine won’t be exactly like this but you get the idea. I borrowed a book from the library called Small Green Roofs to help us figure out how to build it. The roof will have to support the extra weight of all that soil, which requires some extra structural pieces. In addition to looking pretty, a green roof will keep the coop cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. How fun is that going to be?
Can you tell how excited I am about all the planning? The actual doing will start soon. Stayed tuned!
Love hearing all about your biking adventures. We are not big fans of the wind either so we usually don’t ride when it’s windy. Today was gorgeous and we did an 18 mile ride .
Then I was off to practice beach volleyball. My season starts in two weeks
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Helen, we are having fun. At least I am. Bookman I think is just glad it hasn’t killed him yet 🙂 It was only a light breeze when we started. I think if it was gusting as hard as it was later when we left Bookman would have chickened out. Glad you got to have a nice ride too! We passed a beach volleyball court at one of the lakes on our ride and I thought of you!
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I love the green roof chicken coop. And await
the lovely garden stories.
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booksandbuttons, thanks! I hope it works out and we don’t end up with a leaky roof instead! The full-on garden stories will be coming soon!
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Green roof idea is really cool. I just started my own garden space today- built a small raised bed against the house (my boyfriend’s yard). I can’t wait to hear more about your chickens!
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Jeane, thanks! I was thinking of solar power instead but the green roof will make it so I don’t have to use as much electricity for heating in winter and not worry about the coop getting blazing hot in summer. I hope! Hooray for starting your own garden space! That’s so exciting!
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Two weekends ago my gardener’s broken heart tried once again to find love and fulfillment in dirty fingernails. I bought a raised bed and 320 lbs. of top soil and compost and without much hope of success (I have a very shady backyard), I threw in some nasturtium, cosmos, balloon flower and Malva. (figured the Malva often grows like weeds in the US since it isn’t native here…and I can do weeds! We also get the name “mauve” from the French word for the plant). I also threw in some green bean seeds from last year that I never used. Whoa! Stuff is growing. I was so enthused I went out on Saturday and bought another raised bed, another 240 lbs. of soil. It’s going to rain here all week so yesterday just before the storm started I was outside putting together the bed and planting petunia, phlox, and pink amaryllis bulbs. I also transplanted what I think were calla lilies that were in pots – sprinkled a few more cosmos. I’d like to get a few more beds, some pea gravel or stepping stones. And a good gardening book on shade gardens might not be a bad idea.
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Grad, Hooray! I am so glad your raised bed is turning out to be successful and that you have added another! What fun! I love calla lilies. My mom had a mass of the big white ones in her garden when I was a kid. I grew some in pots for a year or two here but I quickly go tired of having to dig them up and store them in my basement every winter. I know there are lots of good books out there about shade gardening. Have fun!
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Love HEARING about the bike ride, but I’m with Bookman. I don’t much like the wind. I do pity you with allergies though. Mr Gums suffers from spring allergies and I know how miserable it can be. We had a lovely mild autumn day today, but I was inside most of it doing my semi regular marking job. Funny how when you have to be inside you really want to be outside! But then when you can be outside you (well, alright, I) fiddle around inside doing chores and suddenly realise the time has flown and you’ve lost the best part of the day. So fickle. BUT I do finally have a tumbler compost bin, and am trying to work out how to make the best of it. I love reducing my waste but whether I’ll produce anything effective is another question!
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whisperinggums, I’m so glad, I’m never sure who might be interested or bored 🙂 When I used to commute by bike to and from work every day I hated the wind too. I rode a heavy upright city bike and had baskets on the back to carry my clothes and stuff. Riding in the wind was incredibly hard. But since Astrid weighs hardly anything and I am in much better physical shape it is easier to see the wind as a fun challenge. Or perhaps I have just gone mad. The really sad thing about my allergies is they have gone from being just spring allergies 20 years ago to spring and fall and then about four years ago they decided to be spring thaw to fall freeze allergies. A combination of climate change and finding new things to be allergic to. Congratulations on your compost bin! I hope you have great good luck with it!
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Actually me husband’s allergies seem to have extended through to autumn in the last couple of years too. Certainly we are seeing some different plant behaviours so were wondering too about climate change impacts.
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Your poor husband. There have been a number of studies on climate change in Minnesota that include allergies. Because of our location and the way weather patterns work we are currently warming faster than any other state. Spring is coming earlier and lasting longer and fall frost is coming later. Certain plants are blooming earlier and longer too including ragweed which is the worst allergy offender.The estimated costs of health care and lost work days because of allergies and asthma is phenomenal and it is only going to get worse. Yay.
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It’s still far too cold to plant seeds here, our overnight temperatures have been just above freezing last week, but my miniature tulips are flowering although the ordinary ones are just poking up. It’s funny that you mention a green roof as I was thinking about doing the same thing after I get the path finished and the gravel at the sitting area put down, so much still to do but it’s not quite as exciting as your situation with all that extra ground to play with!
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pining, we are still getting frost now and then too, heck we had snow last week one day. Our average last frost day isn’t until May 15th, but with a light row cover over the seeds and sprouts, we can seed cool weather vegetables around April 20th. You have miniature tulips? How fun! You should totally do a green roof! I was thinking I’d only be able to do sedums but the book I borrowed from the library is inspiring and reveals just how creative one can be. I am very excited about the extra ground to play with. We might be getting a honeybee hive to add to the chicken garden in a few years so I will also be taking that possibility into consideration when choosing plants.
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