Gardening - Harvest Monday?

This 'Harvest Monday' is for the birds. Literally. I harvested the remaining peanuts. They were useless for human consumption. So they were given to the chickens. And, whatever else is hanging around my yard. Actually I know what is hanging around my yard... and I'm not happy about that - but it's a WHOLE other post.

The soil when I pulled the peanuts was ever so deceiving. Tons of earthworms and their egg sacs. Amazingly black soil. It's hard to believe that much nematode damage came from that beautiful earth. :-(

So I did what any good gardener would do. I selected a few nematode resistant (and repellent) varieties to plant there and I SOWED. Mustard, Chard, Marigolds, Brassicas.

And, THEY unsowed. They, as in my cherished egg giving hens. So I resowed and covered with a fine mulch, fenced in with a little garden fence and went about my way. Later that day they were about a foot down in that same soil... A.G.A.I.N.

Sometimes they are like a gang. Here they come.

Raring to go. (Straight to my garden bed)

The next time I laid the soil down I put down 5 tomato cages, 2 garden fences, one flat and one standing, a few stakes, and watered it all in WITHOUT resowing, just praying that some of the seeds still remained in there.

Guess what?

STUPID FREAKING.... Ah, I mean Campbell, my lovely little beaked faced lady was all in there digging again. The black one here in the middle. Aptly named she is the trouble maker.

I'm afraid they have an addiction to earthworms. When the soil is cool and the earthworms are that plentiful they just can't get enough. They are creatures of habit and they have a worm habit. A bad one.

So I'm hitting the Google to find ways to keep them out and the truthful bloggers don't give me much hope. :-(

 I had intentions of raising the sides of my raised beds again. They have sunk by about 4-6 inches already over the last few years so what better time to do it than now? But, of course doing it quickly was NOT my intentions. Grrr... Meanwhile I'm looking at constructing a crude chicken wire cage for each section as I plant it.

All I know is this part of chicken keeping is stinking. Love the fluff butts, but this is highly annoying. 

The plans I had for actually putting them to work in my garden and having them caged there for a few days at a time to till and fertilize? HA! With the HOA I'm too terrified to leave them that close to the sidewalk all the time for fear of losing them to a complaint. Instead I chase them out of the good and newly planted parts and have to defend it tooth and nail. Figures.

More of the good stuff will come soon. Their fertilizer is making compost. That's always good for the garden. :-)

'Till next time!

Barbie~