Last fall, we knew we had to increase the size of the berry bed.....I have about 20 raspberries that, in spite of me, seem to be still alive. Also in this bed are a couple Highbush Cranberries, some Parsley and a few flowers, which will eventually probably be moved out....
Our friends have horses, so late last fall, I went down and picked up a trailer full of horse manure...came home, dropped the tailgate, and put it all in the new part of the berry bed.
I threw woodashes on there through the winter, whenever we needed to clean the woodstove. So now that the snow is off of it, and it seems to be thawing, I needed to get the manure broken up. Eventually I will move the raspberries over here and space them out better.
Instead of my turning over the manure and soil, I figured the girls should do it. I am all for supervising someone else doing the work....The G man was away for part of the morning, and while he was gone, I managed to improvise some fencing.
I had to...I needed to keep the chickens out of the "other half" of the bed, that is, the half where I have all my plants. I let them free range yesterday without fencing, and they were trying to get at my plants just newly coming out of the ground!
So here is fencing, the Annie Way.....and yes I already know I suck at fencing....I pounded in a few T posts (that was really a Lot Easier than I thought it would be) put a couple nails in each post that was already there....AND I even remembered to run the T posts THRU the chicken wire BEFORE I pounded in the T posts!!
See....I am learning....
But, yes...ahem....that hammer in the picture IS holding down the fence at the ground level. And yes, that wooden thing (nesting boxes on its side) is ALSO holding the fence closed (at the top). And yes, that extra post laying on the ground IS holding fencing down at ground level there too....
It will work just fine....later today when I want the hens to go home to the barn, I'll just open it up...tomorrow, I'll call them up to that bed again by shaking their scratch can, and once I get a bunch in there, I'll just close up the wire again for the day.
In a few days, these girls will do a Fine Job of scratching everything up, turning it into a wonderful, loose and friable base that I can transplant my raspberries into!
And by then, I will have thought of another job my girls can do! And hopefully, the next mobile fencing I put up will be a Better Job! But you have to start somewhere!
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