Today was quiet for office work, so we took advantage of the clear blue skies and a need for exercise to undertake a few of those autumn jobs we haven't got round to up until now.
The saddest was that today was D-day for the two remaining 'beige chickens'. They have done awfully well and saw off a few more slugs and the last of the bolted lettuces, but we hadn't had an egg from Gutbucket in weeks and Madeye was not coming out of her moult. Both were having the odd problem getting into the wooden compost box to get their daily worm fix, so it was time to go. The Humane Dispatch Society's piece of kit lived up to its promise, and they had a quick, clean end.
The most remarkable job for the day? Dead-heading the roses outside the house by the road, as there are still new buds coming through. Both the yellow and the red rose have buds to come, have blooms at their peak and were smelling beautifully fragrant. The rose experts at Doue la Fontaine told us that the sun would bring out the perfume and they were right.
We also put a compost mulch on one of the borders which seems to have soil that is practically dead (though up until this year it had been very productive). We have added a pound or so of matured wood ash (in its raw state, it is far too caustic and needs to weather for about 3 months before application) and two wheel barrows of prime compost from the bin, well turned by the chickens and full of worms. That should improve things for next year.
I dug through a bed that had root crops in, but seemed to be full of weeds, to find a surprise pound of rather nice looking carrots - guess what we are having for supper!!
Finally John marked off the worst section of "lawn" and applied weed and feed, so that we will be in a position to reseed in February. As John will be selling himself as a lawn expert, we really could do without a patch of lawn that is white with plantain flowers!
It has been a useful afternoon's work.
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