Farm life has gotten real busy now that spring has arrived. We are in in the middle of the annual barn cleaning, and most of what’s removed has to be dug out by hand. The resulting compost pile of bedding and sheep manure from wintering our flock has grown to a stack eight feet high and 20 feet long. I love the smell as the mixture steams in the corner of the inner corral. It smells like diving into a Louisiana pond on a summer’s day. All creosote-y and good, that’s a childhood thing you might not understand.
So here are some pictures from our busy farm, including a compost pile or two.
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That’s lots of lovely compost. Did the severe winter kill any of your plants/trees. I think every fig tree in Knoxville died, along with some evergreen herbs.
The jury is still out on some shrubs. Thank goodness I didn’t put my olive trees out last fall, kept them in a friends greenhouse. We have some ornamentals that didn’t make it, including a spectacular Jesamine. It completely covered the pergola on the back of the house. And a number of new plantings of crape myrtles appear to have died. Although we will wait and see if the rootstock sends up new shoots. The same for the fig. It was a twelve footer. But I’m guessing it will send up new shoots from the roots and thrive in a couple of years. What did you lose?
Brian
My one year old fig. I’ll let it stay in the ground awhile longer, just in case the roots offer up some shoots, like you said it might. My thyme garden took a beating but I cut it back and it’s going to be okay. Glad you didn’t plant the olive trees! Can’t wait to hear about how they produce.
So what’s on the ground between the onions? At this end it looks like spoiled hay.
Can’t say I know what diving into a Louisiana pond smells like, victim of a deprived childhood I guess. But I have had the privilege of working with a nice pile of compost, so perhaps I haven’t missed too much.
Have a bottom field here that is in CRP and I’m responsible to prevent trees getting established in it. With the recent nice weather I was able to get down there and clean ’em out. So I got to use the log chain – and could have made good use of Ginger if she’d been here.
Grapes in the second to last pic, right? What variety?
Clem,
Thanks for the comment. Funny, we just got in for the evening after using Ginger to move a stack of heavy railroad ties. She did it without any fuss. What a nice change from the Morgan mare we have used in the past. When thinking of where I swam during my Louisiana childhood it is best if I don’t examine the water quality to closely. But the creosote is a reference to the docks and piers we jumped off of into the bayous. As for the “onions” those are three varieties of garlic planted last fall and mulched with old hay. I need to pile on more very soon to nurse it weed free until a June harvest. And good call on the grapes: muscadines and scuppernongs.
Cheers,
Brian