Winter Gardening & Junk Collecting

These last few days have been unseasonably warm for February and I have taken advantage of the warmth by doing some things outside. The horse manure that I picked up last fall has now cooled enough to put on garden beds and the 20 asparagus crowns I bought at the local farm service have been placed in trenches. I bought two year old crowns in the hope of getting a light harvest next year. I also bought some seeds to start this year so that I can add to that. Why seeds and crowns, you ask? Seeds are cheap but asparagus crowns? Not so much! I also took advantage of the warmth to plant Waldo Peas, and onion sets. My indoor makeshift greenhouse has tomatoes, squash, eggplant, zucchini, herbs, cukes, and okra in it. I have high hopes for my garden this year and am hoping that the manure and leaves I piled in last fall has ammended my North Carolina clay.

As warm weather has arrived, I have realized how much I miss my chickens and I have been scouring building plans to find a coop I like. On a trip to town, I noticed that some buildings thathad been burned to make way for commercial property had a storage shed behind it so I found the owner and asked if I could take down the building. To my delight, she said I could and could have anything I wanted. I have stumbled onto a goldmine. Items for the chicken coop, a couple of old chairs that will be great decorative items, canning jars, and an old horse-drawn garden plow. I was an absolute beauty in my pink mucking boots going through the "junk" as I found "treasures" to take home. What have you done to recycle or reuse this week?