All systems go

I have been in panic mode in the garden the last few days since I decided to tidy up a messy flower bed that the chickens had been scratching in, having been rather half hearted about doing much like that lately. Well it's winter isn't it, and things are supposed to be dormant, and we're all supposed to take a break. I knew the daffies and tulips were coming up, and the first snowdrops had already opened, but as I cleared vegetation I discovered that things were coming to life that I wasn't expecting quite yet! Garlic chives, leaves on the aquilegias, day lilies starting to shoot, buds emerging out of the ground from the dicentra and the lily of the valley.... good grief! It's way too early!

Now this in turn means that I can't let the chickens out any more or they will trash all the new growth - so there I am back with the problem of too many chickens for the run space and them having no vegetation left - it's the first time it's happened as the space was enough before to support 3 or even 5, but not 7, even with the rotation of the two runs.

Hestitantly I broached the subject of enlarging the run out into the start of the woodland at the end of their run with my OH. We looked at the space, we discussed it (it's going to be a strange shape due to various reasons) and lo and behold the next thing I know is, my OH is in Project Mode! It was 4.30pm but there was no stopping him, out came the car from the garage and next thing I know he's off to Agrial to buy fence posts and more fence wire! Yay!

This though brings another set of problems because in order to extend the run, it means the compost bins at the end need to be emptied. So, OH still in Project Mode whilst I am by then into Slump in Front of the Fire and Knit Mode, then presents me with a drawn plan of my 5 veg plots demanding to know what kind of compost (well rotted, half rotted, leaf mould, half and half......) I want where. Oh god! I'm not ready for this. That means I have to think about what I'm going to grow this year, and what not, and where exactly. And the rhubarb need digging up and moving. Help!