Winter garden update, and a birthday crown

This weekend we added another layer to our front yard garden boxes. I shared the making of these boxes on this post and promised updates, so here's the latest.

 

Our first batch of chicken manure compost was ready to go, so we spread it on top of the dried leaves in the boxes. We're hoping that the plentiful worms in the compost will get to work breaking down those leaves to lighten up our heavy soil. We checked under the leaves and found most of the sod to be broken down. We didn't use any newspaper or cardboard to smother it like we have in the past, so we'll see if the grass pokes through this spring. We have a number of neighborhood cats who like to use raised beds as litter boxes, so we cover them with bird netting. We just staple it to scrap wood and lay it over the top. This works pretty well to deter them (and other city wildlife such as possums and raccoons).

 

Since we moved this compost out of our holding bin, we were able to move our next batch of compost to this bin and can now start another. The chickens were really happy about this project. 

We broke down the Christmas tree in the corner there and spread the branches beneath our blueberry bushes. We've done this every year and they seem to like it. It creates a nice mulch, and helps to acidify the soil. 

And a birthday crown! We have a little friend turning two next week, and I was inspired by this tutorial to make him his own special crown for his special day. Such a fun project!