Here is a picture of the shed at the end of work on January 1. The upper frame is now sunk into the lower frame, and a couple of uprights, and bracing straps added to the corners. My neighbours passed on their way to visiting their relatives or friends and wondered why I was working on New Year's day, me too. But time is not something I possess a lot of so, a little done here and there speeds things along a little more.
One very kindly neighbour remarked that she had old hoop greenhouses on abandoned farm land, I think she was suggesting I could have had or used them.
To the left, foreground you can see last year's Xmas tree stripped bare of needles in most of its branches by a bagworm attack late summer. The infestation went unnoticed because I was busy and neglected the garden, and the worm gather pine needles around themselves, looking like a part of the tree, from which they exit, gather more needles into the cocoon to dine in cycles. I pulled off 200-300 of these cocoons, large and small. The treatment is weekly feeding with fishmeal fertiliser mixed with molasses sprayed over the plant, and compost and vegetable scraps, coffee grains etc., scattered around the base. Watching to see if spring bring some recovery, though it is obvious that the branches have not died as they remain flexible and have not become brittle.
10 years ago
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