Garden on Corliss Homestead Journal

Nancy Reading wrote: You say that you wish that you had a roof on the run - is that to keep the chicken dry outside, or for another reason?

Having a semi-protected area in the run, especially in the winter, makes chicken keeping more convenient for me. I find my chickens hate touching the snow and if the ground is cleared they will spend time outside in the winter. We have open room under the coop itself that is sheltered but we have to stoop to tend to their feed and water. I have been frustrated when I forget to put the food under the coop and a rain storm comes through and turns the chicken crumble into cement clogging up the works.

I store their feed and feed accessories in two galvanized cans that are propped up off the ground with bricks. I keep burlap on the lids for both snow and chicken droppings. If eight inches of snow accumulate overnight, I just have to pull off the burlap and the can lid is clear. This doesn't work if it melts a little and refreezes overnight sticking the burlap to the galvanized lid. Then you scare the chickens with the loud clangs of trashcan lids being popped off the cans! A roof covering would eliminate that minor inconvenience.



It also would be neat to have a roof that can harvest rainwater off of. My chicken run is near my garden plot and having convenient clean water would be super.

It just requires work, and figuring out how much roof height I can get away with without taking away sun from nearby beds.

The start of the gardening year has begun.

In the early spring, I hedge my bets and try to get some spring seeds out into the ground just in case the last frost of the year is early. Peas are my canary in the coal mine so to speak as they are cheap, plentiful, and something I would eat if they are successful! I've spread a bunch around my various gardens and already have seen some success.

I've already raked back my straw mulch from my raised beds to give the soil an opportunity to start warming up. Various 'weeds' have already sprung up, with the mulch, that I will hand pluck here shortly.  

I have arranged for around 10 yards of compost/topsoil to be delivered this Saturday from a trusted farm in the area that is sorely needed in all sorts of spots. Some of the volume will be utilized to top off production beds but a good majority of it is to improve soil throughout my property. There are quite a few dips and low-spots that I have been smoothing out year by year with deliveries of material. I've managed to help sculpt the lawn to both shed water and hold it in certain gardening zones. A majority of this work is focused on the back of the property but the front also needs some tender loving care.

I'm intending on posting more photos of my progress as it happens. Stay tuned for the Saturday delivery.