Garden on Corliss Homestead Journal

When one delivery of topsoil is finally depleted, another delivery of topsoil takes its place. This time it is from a familiar provider who provides a nice sifted product. My back is thankful of not having to dig out large stones.

I have so far moved twenty yards of mulch, and ten yards of soil. This will be an additional ten yards that will be focused on leveling parts of the lawn and establishing more gardens along my forsythia hedge. Looks like a bunch of opportunity to me!

A couple months ago, I tackled this overgrown forsythia hedge by cutting it back and mulching the biomass to fill in behind a hillside berm.

After cutting it back, the ground was found to be unlevel and pretty crappy. I had a load of topsoil come in and I spent most of the morning and afternoon leveling out this future flower bed. Once I finish up the pile of soil, I'm going to have mulch dropped off from an arborist and then start connecting the gardens in the yard so its one big woodchip bed. At least that is the idea so far.

I found some photogenic fungus while I was inspecting the property yesterday.

Nothing like Winecaps growing out of cypress/pine mulch that is around a redwood tree.

I decided to spend a little money to quickly increase the quality of life of the chooks and making my life relatively easy.

I wanted my chickens to be able to get out of their enclosed run and get access to random lawn greens. I didn't want to employ a permanent fence, so it had to be collapsible. I finally decided on Premier 1's No Shock Hen Pen which is just chicken netting with a number of posts to support each panel section.

I found it interesting that the instructions have you weave the posts through the netting but it works great.

We had the hen's outside most of the day as we worked around the yard. We only let them out while we can monitor to deter any predators. Only had a turkey vulture fly overhead today so I chalk that up to a success.

Garden Bed Photo Update

June Edition

Timothy, I am impressed with your blog here - and what you are doing with your place :D

And I noticed your round chicken sign on the shed - could you get a good photo of it - I would like to see the details on it :D

Thank you in advance

A little backstory to explain the name.

When I met my partner (Anna) in college, I eventually met the family and was welcomed with open arms. When she was away, her brother would often ask to either call or Facetime here. After I was in the picture, the request now was not just for Anna but Anna-Tim. Her brother made sure that I said hi and checked in every time. I am always so flattered when it happened.

In any case, when we finally were near finishing construction of the coop my (soon to be) mother-in-law purchased this for us to 'brand' it. I was excited how supportive both sides of the family was in our endeavors in getting chickens. It also has made some family members decide to get chickens themselves!

Thank you for your interest.

I had to try and get a few things done today before a pending storm that will envelop the entirety of tomorrow. I figure I get the outside stuff now and take my time putting the house together for the week ahead later.

I finally got my hands on a small quantity of biochar that I intend on adding to my garden beds along with a few others things as a mid-season top off. I have added some pelletized gypsum to the biochar as I have read a few studies showing promising results with the combination. I had some leftover fish fertilizer that I used up and added for some nutrients. I'm hoping to capture some rainwater from tomorrows storm to allow it to get 'soupy' and everything gets to know each other better.

I also managed to get a local sawyer to drop of a bundle of 1x12x10 boards and some 4x4x8 posts with the original intention of making a small farm stand to peddle my wares. I over ordered on the number of boards because I also have interest in making a bunch of different bird houses that I also intend on selling. Right now, I'm letting the boards get a little sun and 'breath' before I start chopping them up.

We are expecting guests in a few weeks and my soon-to-be wife has requested we put down straw over the grass seeded bare spots. I managed to get quite a bit down and spread by hand. Here is to hoping for some sprouts!

So far, a successful Saturday.

The storm rolled through and did a nice job of saturating the char mix. I had a bucket of weed tea and associated plant matter that has sat for over a year sealed up. I mixed in the sludgy goodness and then rinsed the bucket into the wheelbarrow a couple times. I plan on letting this sit for around a week and then I might consider distributing the char to the needed beds.

I'm planning on actually trying a new weed tea method where I put some effort in. My next garden bed weeding extravaganza will be put towards this next batch. I have quite a bit of lambs quarters, common ragweed, and what looks like water pepper in my beds. I think a batch of compost I got from a local homesteader/farmer came with a handful of free weed seeds. I appreciate the opportunity to learn how to identify common weeds! Thankfully I have some decent soil and I can pluck out the weeds pretty effortlessly.

A week ago, I spent some time gathering up all my garden bed weeds and placed them in a bucket.



I topped it off with water and let it sit in the sun for a week covered with a firm fitting lid.



I removed the plant material and discovered the smell reminded me of slightly less offensive cow manure. Yuck!

I topped the bucket off with additional water and resealed it to let it mellow out. I have some raw biochar that I need to get together and conduct another biochar charging session.