When Hurricane Harvey blew through in 2017 many local residents were quick to remove downed trees even though all the extension services said to wait until the fall to allow time for the trees to recover. Boxes in Fields followed the experts and lost very few trees relatively speaking. When the Great Freeze of 2021 blew through two months ago the experts were immediately posting the same thing, wait until spring is fully in bloom to remove foliage. Boxes in Fields waited as instructed. I think is it safe to say winter cold snaps are over and what is dead is dead and can be removed and cleaned up.

First on the list where the 15 way to big for their confinement chicks. Having to clean their residence when it is contained is one thing, having to clean their residence when it escapes to all ends of the Work Box is not okay. Fifteen feathered friends were evicted much to their dismay.

Besides the four legged fluffy footed resident had taking to tormenting them. Unlike the four legged crunchy resident this one was quite about it. The long draw game where as the doggo was about instant drama. Unlike the doggo she would ignore humans when requested to cease activities.

Next on the cleanup list was concrete pad form boards and wooden stakes/kick legs. Not really sure as to what the form boards will repurposed for exactly (I am leaning towards garden boxes) but the overhang was cut off, they were stacked smooth faces up, and were placed in the stock pile of crap. Scrap 2x4s are never wasted and I have no doubt these will dwindle quite quickly. Held together in a stake crate for easy storage, it also made for easy transport.

Then there was the Storage Box. This took a few days as it was a g-d mess. There was crap leftover from Harvey salvage, there was crap leftover from college days, there was crap saved for future home days. There was crap belonging to Boxes in Fields, the Sailor, and both of the Planner’s parents. There as crap to be sold, crap to recycled, and crap to trashed. Lots and lots of crap.

At the end of March the garden boxes were cleaned up from the winter furlough and a new cattle panel trellis was installed for the intermittent tomatoes. A new plan of attack is on schedule for how to best grow them for high yield crop and low bug infestation.

At the beginning of April when the bird netting was attempted to be unrolled and rewrapped around the garden, we discovered bird netting had rotted over the winter. Needing a new plan of attack and wanting longer use materials, a fenced in garden was created with horse fencing and t-posts.

Happy with my garden transplants I now needed plants for butterflies. The coral honeysuckle was uprooted and transplanted with Sailor plants. Don’t really know the names of the purple plants but the moths and butterflies love them! Yes, digging out a root system requires safety first as you could hit your head on the electric pole.

Root structure of the Spineless Yucca plants were just as impressive. This ball of root and rock was tossed on top of the rock pile awaiting the roots to rot out so rocks can be reused. Root structure of the Esperanza was a knotted mess and was left in place. The Kid decided to hack at it with a hatchet until his twig arms became numb. When done hatchetting, he used limb loppers like a sane person to remove branches from the plant by the shower and the one next to the chicken coop. So much for natural sun protection for the chicken run.

The palm tree saved from a ditch that survived Harvey also seems to have survived the freeze. This was not the case for all palms. Many to most around town all died. Palms are slow growing trees NOT designed for hard winters. When dumping the palm leaves into the compost bin I was greeted with two volunteer plants. One from an indeterminate tomato, the other a squash. Doubt they will produce any fruit but it was fun all the same.

By the middle of April all the tomato plants had their bottom leaves removed. The plant theory is this: remove all leaves below fruit. When fruit is picked, remove leaves up the base to the next level of fruit. Remove leaves that are too close together or grow downwards. This theory allows for more plants in a small amount of space. Tomatoes were planted on the outsides of the garden boxes, bush green beans on the inside of one box, and spinach on the other. Only time will tell.

On a side note not related to clean up. El Gato is officially ours. She has been vaccinated, fixed, and registered. She doesn’t like to be held or petted or given attention. She just wants a dry, safe place to eat. We affectionately call her the Woodland Killer as she is always killing snakes, butterflies, rats, and gophers. But her favorite thing to do is sleep.