May  2003

Work on the cool-store room continued throughout May, with the walls and insulation around the walls, being installed.

The winter crops in the south side beds, looked colorful and productive during winter. We had the most success with the

lettuce, parsnip and broad bean crops. We had relatively decent success with the brassies, onions and garlic's.

The carrots were less successful, due primarily to the quality of the soil, being clay based.

During May I started working on establishing beds in the front yard. The main bed, underneath the Pin Oak

was filled with rocks, used as landfill. This took several months to excavate. While working in the front yard,

I transported the autumn leaves to the back and composted them onto the north fence bed.

We also planted green manure crops in the north raised bed, to be mulched into the beds just before spring,

or to be used as chicken fodder, when the tractor was moved onto the bed.  The chicken fodder method proved

unsuccessful, with too much mulch and organic matter being deposited into the bed.  Subsequent green manure crops

were cut down and left to dry before rotating the chicken tractor onto the bed. The green manure crops are also used

as 'worm food', for the worm bins (2004) along with weeds pulled out of the beds and side paths.