Lament for the naked scarecrow

I'm late. Very late. I can explain, it may even seem very reasonable. But the fact is that I am late.

Anyway, today was the first day I got to actually creating our scarecrow. I've thought about our scarecrow at times, and had cleared weeds and rotting logs from the area last month. While teh nasturtiums were rambling everywhere, I was thinking of creating a 'Queen of the Nasturtiums'. But then I weeded and thus the nasturtiums disappeared. So that seemed less appropriate.

Then our friend Rob died and every time I surveyed our back garden, I could only think of Rob, and a scarecrow seemed too frivolous. Today, still mere days after Rob's death, I spent part of the morning pulling out the spent tomato plants, weeding and beginning to come to terms with the cycle of life and death, winter and summer. I was getting a little closer to being able to start our scarecrow.

After school I started I showed Fionn the cross I'd made. That too was reminiscent of death. We gave the cross a head and just as I was thinking our scarecrow would be nude for the night, we found an apron and tied it across his front.

I/we are only on the beginning of our scarecrow journey. But I'll keep you posted.

scarecrow extension

I don't know about anyone else, but I need an extension on the scarecrow front. How about we post links, photos, stories about our scarecrows from Sunday 6th April? I guess if I post the inital link Sunday night NZ time (6th April that is, not this coming rather too quickly Sunday), then another 48 hours after that should allow people to get their links, photos, stories up despite the variations in time zones.

green things (and brown)

Green things activity #1. Decided to plant broad beans along the length of the back fence. Yes I know it was going to be lupins yesterday and probably something else the day before. But the sun was shining, I had broad beans in my seed box already, and I had a bag of garden mix to help me plant. So into the layers of wood chip and lawn clippings, I made thirty small holes, put a handful of dirt into each one, then a bean, then a big handful of dirt on top. Only time will tell if this is a great idea. My finished work is in the photo above. We plan for the fence to be smothered in flowers and vegetables next Summer.

Brown things activity. Collected four bags of chook house lining (bark and chicken poo mixed together) from Rayleen. Superb compost material. Saw lots of horse poo for sale on the way home but you can only fit so much poo into the car at once.

Green things activity #2. Made a St Patrick's Day dress for my daughter. It's rough but it's a dress and I made it. She owned a kind of romper (I think that is the correct term) outfit and I cut the material off just below the bodice and sewed some shamrock material on. Didn't need to hem it because it was all done for me. Why? Because the shamrock material used to be a small round tablecloth and I kept the hem from the original. So that will be thrift shop item plus home sewing plus refashioning an existing item of clothing. Do I feel clever? Oh yes yes yes.

Here is the spot for our scarecrow. The rich brown earth colour to the left is where Fionn and I sowed Beneficial Insect Blend yesterday. To the front is pea straw mulch resting atop earth which has Bokashi buried in it. This garden is getting a lot more sun than when we moved in and is also less squelchy underfoot. I'm thinking (as of today) of planting some veges in the pea straw. There are a lot of slugs in this patch (it's the one I ususally refer to as my invasive garden patch, so probably silverbeet (swiss chard) as they don't seem to like it and maybe some kale. The scarecrow will go where the strawberry cage netting, the paddling pool and the pile of weeds currently sits.

The Scarecrow Competition

Okay, let's have a competition then. By Monday 31st March, everyone who wants to play should have made their scarecrow, photographed it and written something to go with their entry (about the process, theme, inspiration, whatever really, just give us a sense of story to your scarecrow creation). The night before, I will write a post called "The Scarecrow Competition Entries" and everyone who is playing can put a link in the comments section. If you are reading this and want to play but don't have a blog, then let me know. I'm sure some solution can be found. It has occurred to me that a competition should have a prize. If you win and you live outside of New Zealand, then I shall send you a copy of the Edmonds Cookbook and you can pretend to be a kiwi. If you live in New Zealand and you win, then I shall send you some seeds, which is something I think I'm not allowed to do internationally.

I will have a co-judge called Fionn, who is five. You understand that the prize will be awarded for the scarecrow which appeals to us most after our own. Of course we are making our own - that's what got this whole idea rolling.

Scarecrows

Thirty minutes ago I had given no thought ever to having a scarecrow. But now the idea has fallen into my head and is growing. Who else wants to play? It would be so much fun. I promise I would take and upload photos of our scarecrow. When we've made it. I found some useful looking instructions here.

Let's have a scarecrow making competition! Anyone? You know it would be fun...

green manure, new garden

My latest garden thinking project. New garden for next Spring includes the row along the back fence. Photoless until I search the photos archive on the other computer. It was a dip down the fence which was inhabited by weeds and slugs. We layered newspaper (not optimally thick but better than nothing we hope) and then put wood chip mulch from the felled branches out the front. This weekend favourite Handyman layered lawn clippings on top as my latest obsession is carbon: nitrogen balance and the lawn clippings out to add nitrogen to the carbon rich wood chip. I'll buy some lupin seed locally for that whole strip this week.

Today was Bokashi burying day and while adding yet more Bokashi to the edges of the invasive garden patch, I thought it could stand some green manure crops - time to add some competition to the mint/wandering jew/convulvulus/nasturtiums. So in the absence of having any specific green manure crop seed in the seed box, Fionn and I planted some more beneficial insect blend. Time will tell how cold sensitive it turns out to be. At least this will be en masse which is probably how it should be, not lonely plants on the edge of my vege gardens. I am starting, rather tentatively, to push back the invasive part of the invasive patch. I cleared some weeds this afternoon to dig the Bokashi in. Around the actual tree stumps is tricky as I can't dig Bokashi in because of the tree roots and they are too difficult to dig out without specialist (read: expensive) equipment. I think soon I will be ready to haul out a much larger crop of weeds and then create some kind of solution which allows for growth of new plants on top of the tree roots. I could layer newspaper and build raised bed patches around each stump. The soil itself is good, just perennial weed infested. It would be an excellent spot to have a scarecrow. Must discuss that with Fionn.

Saw Raelene the wonderful in the supermarket this afternoon. We made plans to clear out her chook house tomorrow afternoon (i.e. and pass the old bark/chicken poo mix to me in recycled chook feed sacks). She also mentioned bringing back some sheep poo from her brother's farm soon. Big excitement.