I was originally going to wait to plant anything until we had our new garden boxes done and garden set-up complete but ... I just couldn't wait and since it's January and we live in an area of the country that you can pretty much grow all year long. I mean, why not, right?
Since we don't have a "traditional" garden set up at the moment, I knew I could find a place or something to plant some mid-winter crops.
Then it dawned on me. It was the perfect spot but at the same time, it was a complete mess! Partly my fault because I have known all this time that I would eventually have to clean it up but the thought of digging up random plant bulbs, pulling up weeds and the daunting task of pulling up wild blackberry vines (they're invasive around here), it really just gave me a headache so I ignored it for as long as I could. Always telling myself I would work on it but never actually work on it.
We've been getting some pretty cold temps this winter (which I am so, so happy about!) but today it was mild with little to no wind. I knew that if I wanted to get some stuff planted this month (and before the next cold front that comes this week) I had to finally face the task that I have kept ignoring all of this time.
But before I get into the progress of cleaning this little space up, let me go into a short backstory... There is this line of fence next to our barn. It's more of a decorative fence. It was here when we moved in and it was filled with misc. plants and flower varieties on both sides (of the fence).
Our first summer here (when the photo above was taken), it looked really pretty. Lots of random little flowers and plants all just living happily in one big bunch. I have always been drawn to the "messy" look in terms of plants (as in they grow wildly and on their own terms). But this past summer I noticed this spot wasn't as "healthy" looking as it was when we first moved in.
The previous owners were into gardening and I guess whenever I thought about re-doing this space, I always had a little bit of guilt hanging over me. To pull up what they worked so hard on. So I just let it sit and grow and be wild (and because it had gotten out of control and the thought of working on it gave me a headache lol).
But I realized that we live here now and this is our space and this space needed us. And so today was the day I cleaned it all up.
As you can see. It doesn't look so pretty in winter (lol). But even though everything was dead or dormant didn't change the fact that it was still a lot of work to get everything out.
These bulbs were everywhere in this spot. I used the shovel to dig them out and then I put them in a pile (which I later transferred to a plastic tub. Honestly... I can't remember what they are called. I know I was told at one point but I forgot. They don't grow any flowers, just long green leaves. They look nice as "filler" but they don't produce anything other than for landscape purposes. If I can't find anyone to take them then I will put them along the treeline as I know they will re-root.
I really didn't want to have to till the dirt up but I had no choice. There were so many roots and bulbs everywhere. I had to use the hoe to dig the dirt up to get them all out.
The truck was out of commission for awhile and before it pooped out on us, we still had some shavings and chicken manure from one of the coop cleanings we did, sitting in the bed of the truck. So... since the truck wouldn't start and had been sitting in the driveway, the chicken manure stayed with it. Luckily, my handy husband fixed the truck and she runs like new again and I figured, why not use those old shavings/manure for my project?
Today was coop cleaning day so I used some of that for this spot as well and mixed it in with the dirt.
We have another cold front coming through this weekend so I figured I would wait another week or two before planting seeds. So in the meantime, I covered the fresh poop covered soil with some of our old moving boxes. This spot gets sun almost all day so it will help cook some of the doo-doo down a bit and then in a couple of weeks I will remove the boxes and add the top soil we have and then we will be ready to plant some seeds!
What are we planting this month?
Some of my favorites!
Kale, onions, romaine, lettuce mix, carrots, and broccoli. I have a few potatoes in the cabinet I might plant too. I figure the couple weeks we wait to plant the seeds, the potatoes should have some good eyes coming in and will be ready to put in the ground!