Garden Preparations: 2014

I (theoretically) could have planted the early-season seeds (beans, peas, lettuces) about 2 weeks ago, but I hadn't had a free weekend day that had nice-enough weather and dry-enough soil, until last weekend to get things ready.

I had been collecting our alpaca manure on the back (first) garden over the last year.

My neighbor helped move it with his Bobcat... I would love to have one of these some day.

I didn't get a "before" before photo...  but nearly the entire back garden was covered with the collected manure.

The front (second) garden which was a parking lot less than two years ago is starting to have some nice soft soil.  One more layer of manure and spent hay will make a big difference.

By the end of Saturday, all of the manure had been moved and most of it spread out.

Hopefully I'll be able to start roto-tilling after work this week so I can plant this coming weekend.

During the moving and spreading, I found a this little guy (or girl? I don't know how to identify a snake's gender). 

It was a bit cold for a Garter Snake, and they are very beneficial, so I put him/her out of the way in the sun.  A few minutes later I remembered that I would like to have a few in our hay barn to keep the mice under control, but s/he had moved on when I went back.

Sunday was spent working on other farm chores... I scrubbed and re-filled all of the water tanks and started clearing out the spent hay.

I had put a lot down during the Big Thompson Flood last fall and we generally leave the spilled hay over the winter so there was more than usual to clean up.  But Big Thompson the Alpaca enjoyed the process.

I've got some more to clean up, but things are looking a little better around the Alpacamundo Farm.

The spent hay will be used to mulch the gardens once they're planted.

I love it when I can spend most of the day outside and see the result of my work.  Happy Spring!