Brick Border Update, Transplanting Lilacs, Prepping Dahlias for Storage & Winterizing the Coop!
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00:00 go move a couple of lilacs out in the south garden that just need to be shifted a tiny bit but it's
00:04 going to look so much better. Third thing we're going to do is pick through the dahlias that we
00:08 just dug. I don't think all of them are dried out and ready to be packed but some might be
00:12 and I kind of want to just keep up on that project as we move through these next few nice days so
00:17 that hopefully we can get them all done but we don't have to do them all at once. And the fourth
00:21 thing that's going on, Paul and Bethany are winterizing the chicken coop and they're going
00:25 to film the process for us. You know we've got the outdoor run that we put plexiglass up on
00:31 so we'll walk through that in the end. First off we've got Douglas here keeping us company
00:35 and I know he always looks like he's begging for pets and he is and we do pet him just so you know.
00:41 I know the last garden tour he followed us around the entire time and I don't think I ever pet him
00:45 but he does get lots of pets I promise. I'm sure we'll see the other two boys show up here shortly
00:51 but look at the bricks. Oh they're looking so good both sides. Let's move over to this side.
00:57 You know the bricks were already done here but this whole edge going all the way around. Let's
01:02 just start over here. They start here, they curve around, you can see the concrete or cement
01:07 whatever is still sort of wet and they swing around to this area where there's the bump out
01:13 for the bench and it goes all the way up to meet where the bricks ended initially. So that's where
01:22 we stopped before we decided what to do in this space. So the last thing that they need to do,
01:27 they're letting this dry and then they're going to come in and scrape all this mulch back and
01:31 this will all be gravel right in this area and this will all be mulch. So we've got kind of like
01:36 this little formal bed where we can plant something really neat on all four sides but this is really
01:42 just the perfect amount of space. I didn't need enough for you know a cart. We can get a small
01:46 cart through here but I just wanted a walking path over to the bench and we needed something
01:51 to distinguish this area from the flower bed behind it and I think that that works out beautifully.
01:56 So I can't wait to see it all completely buttoned up. There's Russell. Hey buddy. Hey
02:03 and here's a view from the other side. I can't wait to get it all cleaned up with gravel.
02:08 It'll all look a little bit, right now it's looking a little wonky, the lines do, but it's
02:12 going to look so great. I can't wait. They also finished this edge right here and then started in
02:18 in this area and made our curve. So now I feel like I can really focus on this space. Before I
02:24 didn't really want to do a bunch of planting. You know the the blue spruce was already here. We did
02:28 plant the maple. We planted the crabapple but you know without the border, one I didn't want to get
02:33 in their way and two I didn't know exactly where it was going to be so I didn't want to have to
02:37 move anything. So now we'll be able to see those lines through the winter time and really start
02:41 thinking about the things we want to add to this space and that's just, I'm excited about it. And
02:45 then someday we're going to come along with the same brick border and we'll do that on the other
02:49 side so that all the gravel stays in the driveway with the brick border and I think that will make
02:55 everything look very cohesive. We want to do the same thing around the big lawn up front and just
02:59 anywhere where there's gravel that meets up with a flower bed or lawn we want to have that brick
03:03 border. Something to plug away at through the years. So now we're going to head out to the
03:08 south garden to our lilac hedge. It's actually three and so we're going to be moving two today.
03:14 Oh I just love seeing that area, so fun. Paul and Bethany recently cleaned out the begonias. It's
03:19 looking fantastic. Oh they did a great job. This time of year exposes everything and you really
03:26 get to see where you know you've spent your effort that year and I do feel like we got quite a number
03:32 of evergreens put in the ground so I think it's going to be a good winter. Here we are in the
03:36 south garden. You might remember when we planted these lilacs. So the one on the right hand side
03:40 went in first and then we came in with these two because I kind of wanted this little bank of
03:45 lilacs and I had planned on getting one more and putting it here so that it was a full sort of
03:50 hedge and then I was going to put a bench or something in here but then we decided to come
03:54 off this rock pathway which I absolutely love with just this little one that kind of snakes through
03:58 to the berry area which means I don't need the fourth lilac but it also means that these are
04:03 all placed wrong. So if you stand back I need to move this one a little bit that way and this one
04:10 a little bit a little bit that way. I know we could do something else in here and it would be fine
04:16 but I kind of like the idea of these looking a little bit more even in the space that they have
04:20 here and I still think that this would be a great place to put a little bench that kind of faces
04:24 this way. So something in the end that looks toward the center area. Hopefully it's an easy
04:29 process. I'm not sure how rooted in they are. They've been in the ground for a full growing
04:33 season. I am going to dig the holes where they're going to go first and then we'll dig them up and
04:38 move them over. I'm going to be using some biotone starter fertilizer today right here. Even though
04:43 it's late this is still a good fertilizer to use because it promotes root development, root growth,
04:48 and the roots even though they're working a lot slower in the winter time they're still working
04:51 underneath the soil. So I like that that's in there that they can feed off of that and then
04:56 in the spring it'll still be there and the plant can utilize it and get going. It doesn't promote
05:01 a lot of foliar growth or upward growth that could get damaged and I don't think the plant's going to
05:05 put on any at this point. Anyway our forecast is beautiful. We have 10 days with no freezing
05:11 temperatures. Highs in like the 50s somewhere. Low to high 50s. It's going to be gorgeous. So I think
05:17 these plants will have a fine time. I don't think we'll deal with any shock. So let's get this
05:21 project done.
05:31 So
05:33 So
05:46 So
05:56 So
06:09 So
06:21 So
06:31 So
06:42 So
07:11 Got the first one done. Decided to start with the one on the left first because that way we would
07:15 have our borders kind of determined. So the left and the right side and that makes it easier to
07:20 find our center which I think is just to the right of the shovel. I think that'll be just about
07:25 perfect and it's equally spaced right over here. If you stand and look at both pathways it's right
07:32 about in the center and I stepped it off and it's about the same distance away from this pathway
07:37 at this point as the one on the far end is from the pathway. And I do intend on training these
07:42 up into trees so they'll be you know multi-trunk kind of small lilac trees in the end. Okay let's
07:48 get the second one done.
08:00 So
08:29 Okay I know it's a small change but oh that looks so much better. To have them spaced equally I
08:36 spent a lot of time stepping that one off just making sure like that it was within an inch
08:40 or so. And it's hard to tell too because visually that one is a lot bigger because it's a little
08:46 bit older and I was going off of where the trunk the center of the trunks are they're equally
08:50 spaced. So what I envision for this is them to kind of create this beautiful network of branching
08:55 underneath and then this variety gets 10 to 12 feet tall. I think it's the President Lincoln if
09:01 I'm not mistaken. Anyway so we'll have a nice big canopy over the top and I kind of want it to come
09:06 over the pathway a little bit and then over this pathway just a little bit and then maybe we'll
09:10 tuck a bench right underneath. I think that'd be so pretty. When I lifted that root ball and put it
09:15 in its new hole I did try to level it up a little bit and then I put a little bit of water in before
09:20 I packed the soil in just so that that root ball could immediately start soaking up some water.
09:24 And now I'm going to leave a slow hose on these. I watered them both in when I was done
09:28 but if I leave a slow hose on so it can really saturate that makes me feel better. So I'll come
09:33 out in a little while and move the hose to the other one and kind of flip-flop back and forth
09:37 this afternoon. I kind of want to see what it looks like on the approach. Yes oh yeah I like that.
09:43 A little bit more room for each of them to breathe as well. All right so now we're moving on to the
09:48 next project which is packing up some dahlias. It has been two days since we dug these tubers
09:53 and we put them here in the greenhouse because it's an area that stays dry and it doesn't freeze
09:58 in here. We did turn the heater on so I came out here the last two nights just to double check and
10:02 it was like 58 in here which is perfect. I did put this piece of like a frost cloth over the top of
10:08 them just to make sure that the heater didn't dry them out too quickly and it's working. They're
10:14 doing beautifully. This is our first table that we harvested and cleaned. They're all looking
10:18 really good. Some of them are dry. Some of them like I was looking in here there's still a little
10:24 bit of moisture underneath there and I want to make sure they're good and dry but not too dry
10:28 before we pack them. This one right here looks really good. This is a Wizard of Oz.
10:34 You can see a damaged tuber there though and this is the time when you really want to inspect your
10:39 tubers. We already did when we cleaned them. You know I removed just a couple of clumps that had
10:43 gall and tossed those but sometimes like I had a lot to clean that day that I was working on this
10:48 in a short amount of time so I just cleaned them all set them all to dry and I thought when I go
10:52 through to pack them I will make sure to remove anything that's damaged, pierced, so on. So this
10:57 is our setup right here. This is what I use to pack mine in. Now everybody's got a different
11:02 method. Some people like to divide them in the fall so that they don't have to do that that chore
11:07 in the spring. I prefer usually because I don't have as much time in the fall. We have a lot of
11:11 other things going on outside. I prefer just to get them in storage, get them protected and then
11:16 throughout the winter months I can pull a crate or two out and get them divided and do it that way
11:20 just as it works out for my schedule time wise. And there's a lot of different methods of storage
11:25 like different storage mediums. We use vermiculite which is this right here and we reuse it from
11:29 year to year. It just dries right out and works beautifully so once you buy it you pretty much
11:34 have it and we've never had a bug problem or anything like that. I would probably toss it if
11:38 there was I don't know fungus gnats or something like that but that's never been an issue.
11:42 Some people use peat moss, wood shavings, like newspaper. Some people even individually wrap
11:49 tubers in plastic wrap and store it that way. So I think every climate and every storage situation
11:55 is a little bit different so you just have to pick one and go for it and see what happens
11:59 and then make adjustments. Tubers usually want to stay around like 50 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Mine
12:04 stay a little bit colder than that because I am storing a whole bunch of other things in our root
12:08 cellar as well. So usually about 45 ish is where we keep our root cellar and then the humidity
12:13 in there, I'm trying to keep it right around 60 percent but dahlias can take higher than that.
12:19 So we're going to line our bulb crates here. You can use cardboard box, milk crate, whatever's
12:25 breathable. We're going to line it with burlap because this is also breathable but it will keep
12:28 our vermiculite in. Then we are going to add just the tiniest bit of moisture to the vermiculite,
12:33 a tiny. This is a part where you have to be very careful not to overdo it. I basically want
12:38 mine to feel cool. I don't even want it to feel damp, not wet for sure, but I want it to just feel
12:43 a little bit cool and that way I usually don't have to add any additional water throughout our
12:49 storage time. Hello. And I just realized my microphone wasn't on for a minute. Sorry if
12:53 the audio is bad. It's on now. We were talking about adding the moisture to the vermiculite. So
12:58 it's just barely enough so that the dahlia tubers don't dry out and desiccate because I have lost
13:03 them before because of that happening as opposed to them rotting. So there is a fine line. You
13:08 should be checking on your dahlias throughout the winter months just to make sure you don't
13:12 need to use a little spray bottle and mist a little bit inside their storage container or
13:17 sometimes we have to pull them out and put new vermiculite in that's drier if things have gotten
13:21 too moist. But that again is where it's important to find any pierced or damaged tubers because
13:25 those will start to rot and that will add moisture to your containers too. So anyway, we're just
13:30 going to cut the stems off of ours, make sure they're all labeled, remove anything that has
13:35 been damaged, and then we'll pack them in vermiculite. And then I've got my falcos and a
13:39 knife to remove things. Like this one's not going to even make a cut end I don't think. Yeah,
13:45 this tuber that was all pierced by my digging fork, it was already broken. See that? It's already
13:52 all dried out. That's perfect. Yeah, looks pretty good. Okay, so let's pick through all these tubers,
13:57 pull out the good ones, and get them all inspected and then we'll pack.
14:01 So,
14:11 so,
14:21 so,
14:31 so,
14:57 all right guys, I got to a point where I think I'm going to leave it for the evening. I really
15:01 wanted to get these all packed up, but one, I think we are going to lose light here soon and
15:05 I want to go take a look at the chicken coop to see what Paul and Bethany did. But also, I did
15:10 quite a lot of cutting. There were a lot of damaged tubers, still have a ton of tubers here, and we
15:15 still have to dig five more rows. But I want them to have a chance to heal. All those cuts, I need
15:20 them to dry up thoroughly. There's also some places that have a little bit of moisture. So
15:25 at least the cleaning process is done, eradicating anything that was damaged. So all we'll have to do
15:31 when we get ready to pack them, hopefully tomorrow or the next day, is just put them in their bins.
15:35 But look at all of these. Oh my goodness, they look so good. And when we go to divide,
15:40 I mean like this for example, there are so many tubers on this one clump. And then on some,
15:48 I didn't get quite as many. So yeah, there are some that will need to be divided further,
15:52 big time. I will do that later on. But for now, they're clean, they look good.
15:57 Just wait for all of this soil to dry out. And then all of the areas where I cut the stalks,
16:02 like I think they might be okay to go in to storage. But I'll feel better about it if we
16:07 let them sit for a minute. So I'm going to cover over them again with our white frost cloth,
16:11 just to protect them from excess heat. And we'll be good to go. I also have kind of an,
16:19 well it's not an irrational fear because it has happened, but I have a fear that the front door
16:22 of the greenhouse will pop open in the night. It has happened before, just one time. So anyway,
16:29 it just makes me feel better to have them all tucked in. So now let's take a look at what
16:34 Paul and Bethany did.
16:35 (soft music)
16:37 (soft music)
16:39 (soft music)
16:41 (soft music)
16:43 (soft music)
16:46 (soft music)
16:48 (soft music)
16:51 (soft music)
16:53 (soft music)
16:56 (soft music)
16:58 (soft music)
17:00 (soft music)
17:08 (soft music)
17:20 (soft music)
17:23 (soft music)
17:36 (soft music)
17:49 (soft music)
17:51 - And there's Cheddar, there's the third one.
17:53 They've all kind of been in and out
17:54 of the greenhouse this afternoon.
17:56 Oh, there we go.
17:57 Hey girls.
17:58 Okay, so normally this run is open.
18:01 You know, there's hardware cloth right here
18:03 and air just, you know, kind of flows through
18:05 and there's still air all the way around the top.
18:08 There's like a six inch gap or so.
18:10 And so air can freely move through all the way around.
18:13 But the inside of these walls,
18:16 we do have to replace a couple of them.
18:18 Paul was telling me that a couple of them
18:20 with the wind kind of cracked,
18:21 but on the inside here,
18:23 we have plexiglass all the way around.
18:26 There's my molting girls right there.
18:29 And these are actually windows.
18:31 Like you can rotate this little piece right here
18:32 and the whole square window
18:34 with the crossbar there comes off.
18:37 So there are six of them up front
18:38 and the roof does have that corrugated plastic as well.
18:42 We did this, I mean, back when our winters
18:45 were actually a little bit more severe than they are now.
18:47 They've just been a little bit more mild
18:49 the last couple of years,
18:50 but chickens, they can withstand a lot of cold.
18:52 So I don't really,
18:53 (chicken clucking)
18:54 I know, yeah, we're fixing it up for you.
18:58 I'm not worried about the temperature so much as the wind.
19:01 They need a place that's protected from the wind.
19:03 And while they could go into the run
19:05 or to the coop right there to escape it,
19:07 it just makes me feel good for them
19:08 to have a big open space to run around.
19:11 And then we grow wheatgrass for them and things like that.
19:13 So we can continually have, you know,
19:15 green fodder for them to eat.
19:17 And of course they get all of our vegetable
19:20 and fruit kitchen scraps and a little bit of bread,
19:22 but not much.
19:23 We've got some honeydew melons right down there.
19:25 They were a little overripe when I picked them.
19:27 And just as a look inside here, it's pretty simple, you guys.
19:31 We have, oh, we've got a little,
19:32 we've got a little bird in here.
19:33 Oh, for heaven's sakes, let me see if I can open the door.
19:36 Here we go.
19:37 Okay, where'd it go?
19:41 Oh, it's in here, okay.
19:42 Oh, oh, it got out, yes, success.
19:44 So their coop is set up like this.
19:46 They roost right here.
19:47 And we've got a heated water dish there
19:49 and there's a little heat plate.
19:51 So it's a safe form of heat.
19:53 I used to put a heat lamp in here before I knew better.
19:56 They're really dangerous.
19:57 I mean, they're good to use
19:58 when you've got a protected interior space,
20:00 when you're warming up chicks and ducklings,
20:02 like little babies, things like that.
20:04 But as a general like coop heating tool, not the best.
20:09 So I did have electrical like put in right there,
20:12 which, you know, would be kind of nice
20:13 if we do put some other type of light in here,
20:16 just regular light.
20:18 But for heat, we use the heat plate
20:20 and it just keeps the ambient temperature
20:21 underneath where their feet are on the roost
20:24 a little bit warmer.
20:25 And then of course, you know, the windows we shut
20:28 and we do have an automatic door over here,
20:30 opens and close it.
20:31 We need to work on it.
20:32 It's still not working
20:32 'cause we haven't had the chance to work on it,
20:34 but it's supposed to open and close dawn to dusk,
20:37 which, you know, if we did not have the plexi,
20:42 I would probably get more on top of it
20:44 because I would want to make sure that this door was shut
20:46 because our wind comes right through this way
20:49 and it would blast them right where they're laying down.
20:51 But it's not as necessary
20:52 because we have the plexi out here.
20:54 It's a completely protected space.
20:56 So this door can stay open.
20:57 The chickens can go in and out whenever they please.
20:59 It just has been a really good setup.
21:01 Now the coop itself,
21:02 I wanna say it's like a 10 by 10 roughly.
21:05 And the run is about a 16 by 10
21:08 and we only have four hens.
21:11 So we...
21:12 (chicken clucking)
21:13 You want treats?
21:14 We could have more chickens than that,
21:17 but I like all of my animals
21:19 to have big open spaces to run.
21:22 All right, here we go.
21:26 Well, let's toss them out for those girls.
21:34 And then Bev, you can...
21:35 There you go.
21:37 So these pieces of plexiglass,
21:38 they're just stored up in the loft in the barn.
21:41 So Paul and Bethany got them down and cleaned them up.
21:43 So they looked, you know,
21:44 so you could see through them.
21:45 They weren't super dusty and then got them all reattached.
21:47 So that was really awesome.
21:49 They do a good job, like keeping that on the list.
21:52 I hadn't even thought about it yet.
21:53 And Paul said, "Hey, I think we're gonna do the coop today."
21:56 Oh, bless you.
21:57 They keep us, our heads up out of water.
22:01 That's for dang sure.
22:02 We're so thankful for their help around here.
22:04 So anyway, guys, that is it for today.
22:06 Got the necessary thing done,
22:07 which was getting the...
22:08 It's not necessary.
22:10 I shouldn't say it's necessary.
22:11 I got the thing I really wanted to get done done,
22:13 which was moving the lilacs
22:14 and creating a more balanced look out there.
22:17 Also getting through the dahlias was really nice
22:20 because I knew it was gonna be time consuming
22:21 no matter what happened.
22:23 It was gonna be time consuming.
22:24 And even though the next 10 days look really good,
22:27 it creeps up on you really fast and it goes by so fast.
22:29 And we still have those five rows to dig
22:32 that we'll want to just keep on plugging away.
22:35 And I will show you an update after Pedro and his crew
22:37 come back and finish all the gravel work.
22:39 It'll look so tidy and so nice.
22:41 I'm so excited.
22:41 So anyway, thank you guys so much for watching today's video.
22:44 I hope you enjoyed it and we will see you in the next one.