Well, we had three eggs today – one of which is certainly Delia’s, another probably Charity’s, and the third is pale, wrinkled and speckled – perhaps someone coming back into lay after a moulting break? It’s not the right colouration for Bridget.
Realising that DH would never get round to the woodchip clearance, I made a start one day last week. I raked off the surface of the run down to a rather more compact layer, then broke up a bit more of that layer until I was through the older layers of decayed woodchip. That was the easy bit. I’d fenced the girls into a section of the Hen Garden, so I had easy access to the main garden, but where to put it all? Eventually, I rebuilt a compost bin we’d dismantled earlier in the year, which involved clearing any number of windfall apples of which we have such an abundance this year, in order to put it in place. It all took rather a long time and it was a ridiculously warm day for November. I found it all rather hard going.
Fortunately, at that point, DH’s caring instinct overcame his work drive and he came out to help. Once we were both at it, me raking and loading the trugs, him carrying and dumping the manure rich mulch it has become (when it isn’t mud, that is) we got along fairly quickly, and although we had to complete it next day, we had a system in place which made it still faster to finish the job.
But the compost bin is full – and the back bank piled high in places. Nevertheless, that was only half the job. The woodchip in the Hen Garden is much drier, being under the trees, so has made a fine, friable, manure rich compost. So today’s job has been to rake up and clear as much of the loose compost/woodchip as possible. I suppose it could have stayed in place, simply adding a new layer on top, but the level of the ground on that side of the garden is already considerably higher than it once was! And it seemed a shame to waste it …
It was a much easier job raking up the dry compost, and I’ve used it to mulch round the shady border, the winter garden (rather a grand name for a patch of ground that doesn’t get any sun at any time of year and is rather boggy, but grows wonderful cranesbill and foxgloves!) and finally, just a moment ago, the lilac border which will be full of daffodils in a few months time.
We’ll still have to give it all another going over before laying the new woodchip – the hens have dug a little further down, and I put some of the dry woodchip in the run so they weren’t on bare soil – the eggs are muddy enough as it is at this time of year. But I won’t be here when it arrives on Wednesday … I do hope DH has made some space in his diary to get started before I get home on Thursday – we’ve been so fortunate that until now it’s been dry …
