Digging a Garden the Easy Way

One of our neighbours is actually a cottage on the lake. They have recently done some winterizing so they can spend more time there. This year they decided to expand on the little garden that was in place but it was more work than a shovel could handle. They asked Jim to go over with the skidsteer and loosen things up for them.  Here he is speeding down the road at a whopping 10 kms an hour. At this rate we should be there by tomorrow 🙂

The spot for the garden was at one time all trees and alders. Since then it has all been cut down but below the surface was a massive tangle of roots and rocks.

It was also surprising to find ice only a foot or so into the ground. What we thought were rocks being dug up were actually chunks of ice.

Sarah is new to Canada and anxious to start growing vegetables. She has some seeds started in her mini greenhouse.

Took about an hour for Jim to get the ground dug up and large stumps removed.

Once they pick through it and get it looking more like a garden, Jim will go over with the skidsteer and bucket and haul away the roots and rocks.

While we were there, I spied some beautiful large cones up high in a tree. I’ve been calling them pine cones but it wasn’t a pine tree. Never saw any around here that big before. Jim looked it up when we got home, turns out it is a White Spruce.

Sarah had an apple picking gadget that would cut through the branch while still holding on to the apples  cones. So she used that to get me a couple of bunches of cones.

I have a thing with bugs in the house, so I got the cones ready to go into the oven to kill those suckers.

The oven was preheated to 200 degrees and in they went for 30 minutes.

Here is what they looked like when they came out. I was happy they didn’t open up fully. I liked them just like that.

I gave each one a good shake until nothing more fell out of them. It was surprising how much was hidden inside.

I need to put my thinking cap on for a project for these pine cones. I think I need to get some ribbon first. Come on people, no project is truly free.

Before I go, I wanted to show you a picture from last night.

We happened to look out and saw not 1, not 2, but 3 deer on the front lawn. Seemed to be a Momma deer and two younger ones.

See…we like wildlife. That is until they nibble on the newly planted bushes.

Have a great weekend.

Later