I finally got to work in the garden! Instead of a quick look, Pepper and I have a good look at everything, and then get to work. I clean up the garden house, take down a tree, and somehow make the trash piles even bigger.

I finally got to work in the garden. There are a few reasons I’m in the garden today: One is to just check on everything in detail, make sure everything survived the winter. Another is to actually get an idea of what I need to do. Let me take you with me.

I paid extra attention when walking, as I didn’t know if new dangers had come up. I removed a few shards I found near the back “gate.” I closed said “gate,” so Pepper could roam the land.

From the outside, I’m very happy to report that the roof has survived the winter. We have some black spots from where I fixed things. And there are some wavy spots where I knew they would appear. But it looks like the roof is holding up and… Yeah, the second side is also looking good.

No wood ears on my elder but I hope to get some elder flowers and some elder berries from them this year. So, we are going to see about that. Okay… inside!

The strawberries are actually looking good. Most of the leaves have died but that’s normal. And there’s still some green. There are a lot of plants in here. I think I can save most of these. The strawberries are looking really good.

On the other side, there is some I-don’t-know-what growing. I assume it’s what I ripped out last year, because, I just put that back in. So, I am going to assume that’s that. But I have no idea because I also dumped compost here a few times. So, we’ll see. But there is definitely something growing here, and I don’t know what.

The inside of the garden house is an absolute mess. Because, I have dumped a few things here to deal with over winter and then I didn’t come here over winter at all. I still have all the wood paneling on that I wanted to take off over winter but winter was a bad one, and I haven’t done anything since I dealt with all the trash outside other than check on things.

So, now I’m going to have a good look around the garden house. And, I am going to get some of this cardboard out of here and out of the garden house. Not all of it, because some of it I will actually need for the garden beds but not all of it, and there’s just too much. I want the trash to be on the trash piles, so more trash stuff!

And I’m actually going to put some shoes on, which will surprise some of you, make some of you
angry and make some of you very happy. I don’t care. I just want to be quick about getting all of this stuff out onto the trash piles because we only have an hour, an hour and a half until the weather gets worse and the sun starts to set.

So I want to get as much done as possible and I want to spend as much time as possible outside
in the sunshine instead of in here. And so I’m going to get some shoes on my feet so I don’t have to watch where I step.

I’d moved the table to get to the roofing supplies for the repair. I struggled a lot to return it. Pepper returned from his own inspection of the garden, and asked for some attention.

With some actual sunshine on my face, I started clearing out the trash. Hadn’t I done this just before winter?

Before I go any further than this–phew! Before I go any further with this, because this technically can wait, I’m going to go around the property once, because today is the last day of February. Which means, starting tomorrow, I’m not allowed to take down any trees or do any major trimming on hedges. It’s just to protect the birds. It’s a German environmental law.

So, as I want to stay within legal limits, I’m going to go around and see if anything really needs to go. And, if so, I’m going to take it down.

Batteries for the chainsaw have been in the garden house a whole winter, so I don’t know how much charge they actually have left. I also only have the smaller ones with me. So I need to take out one tree. There’s just one tree that really needs to go, everything else.

I kind of can’t stay or just need some branches trimmed, which I’ll still be allowed to do. But there’s one tree that I need to take out and I know there won’t be any birds nesting in this mess probably. But I still want to stick with the legal limit and today is the last day and I like that we’re protecting birds. So…

The tree was right next to the cherry tree. As I’d like to give that cherry the best chance possible, the hazelnut had to go. Luckily, the battery held, and I was able to remove the entire thing. And neither me nor any equipment was hurt despite me hitting the camera with a branch.

That’s all that needed to be done today. There’s no part of my cherry or walnut that I want to chop
off, so I’m going to leave those. And everything else can be done later because it’s just minor trimming stuff. So I’m going to return to what I was doing.

I’m going to put on my headphones because my ears are really really cold, but it’s too warm with a jacket. That means I can’t talk to you anymore because sound won’t work, but oh well, that’s that.

I kept the moving boxes for the beds, but discarded all the rest of the cardboard boxes. I wouldn’t need them all. I had collected these in case I wanted to do raised beds. But raised beds won’t be an option, so I won’t need most.

With the sun low in the sky, Pepper and I didn’t have much time left to finish cleaning out the hut. I got rid of the cheap plastic pots a garden neighbor had left me to look through. I still kept more than is probably useful. I don’t know where I’ll use these planters at all.

But they are in good shape, so for now, they get to stay. The wobbly, half-rotten bench has to go. Weren’t the trash piles supposed to get smaller?

I swept the floors quickly now that everything was out of the way. When I do this (here or at home) Pepper is always torn between hating brooms and the potential food scraps.

There was one more thing I wanted to get done that day: find out how bad it would be to take off the ceiling. Well, and get rid of the “art.” The panels came off rather easily, and I quickly had the graffiti off the wall.

It also gave me a chance to inspect the wood of the roof I’d built last summer. More wood for the trash piles.

Okay, I made a lot of progress. There is no longer obscene graffiti here. And I also now know that the roof is looking good from the inside, which was the final test for the roof. The roof is working, at least there. I’m going to be taking off all the wood on the sides. So yes, we’re going in the moment, Pepper. Pepper really wants to go.

I cleaned out all the cardboard that I don’t need. I still have enough for my garden beds. And now I’m going to take Pepper home because I’m exhausted and Pepper wants food. Yeah, he does.

Everything is looking really, really good.

The only thing I’m going to do is hang out for a little second and then we’re going to go home. My body has suffered a lot through a tough winter with little movement. The recent flu is still lingering, making me feel sluggish, and bothering me with coughs and stuffy sinuses.

I am craving sun and warmth more than I can express. But spring is coming.

So long, and thanks for being here!

(First dead nettle of the year!)