Gardens 2021

Homesteading & Country Living Forum

Help Support Homesteading & Country Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Cleaned the gardens some more today. Pulled the zinnias and marigolds I have mixed in with veggies. Put in some some t-posts to hold the support wire for the beans.

Opened the gate for the chickens to start cleaning and they came in for 10 minutes then left. Should have lots of worms but they weren't interested.

Also added a few loads of leaves. Maybe I'll get them tilled soon.
 
Since the shortage of synthetic fertilizer, i read that manure is getting top dollar in UK and Australia. Maybe we should be saving ours for when it hits here.

I just have chicken poop, but it will do the job.
Hope you like pulling weeds robin, but it will work . Just don’t use too much or it will burn your plants up.
 
Since the shortage of synthetic fertilizer, i read that manure is getting top dollar in UK and Australia. Maybe we should be saving ours for when it hits here.

I just have chicken poop, but it will do the job.

A few rabbits will give you fertilizer you can use instantly. Just a suggestion if things get worse…
 
I know that we're still 5+ months away from being able to plant anything, but the wife and I are planning the layout of our garden now. First I'm going to pull out all the fencing and replace with deer proof fence. Then we'll expand the size of the garden by probably another 2,000 sqft or so. Since the garden area is on a slope I'll put in terraces to make tilling easier. Watering is an issue for us here so we'll add raised beds between the fruit trees. That way the beds will get watered when we water the trees. Last year the yellow jackets ate all of our strawberries and raspberries, I need to figure something out for that.
I've decided to tear out the old pig pen and move it to the east side of the garden. I'll leave the pig shelter where it is. The new pig pen will be around 32Ă—200 feet. I'm also thinking about just turning the pigs loose and let them free range.
 
A few rabbits will give you fertilizer you can use instantly. Just a suggestion if things get worse…
My father raised rabbits in OK. He had them in a cage off the ground, with wire under their feet with holes only large enough for their pellets to fall through but not to bother them walking around on it. They would pee in a certain corner and the pee would not touch the pellets which causes the bad smell, the pellets would fall through the larger screen, clean, land on another tight mesh screen which was on a 45° angle and was there to let the pellets roll down into a raingutter which was in front of the cage. The pellets were collected clean and dry and bagged up for fertiliser and the pee just went through both screens and soaked into the ground. No bad smell, clean pellets and sellable fertiliser.
 
I dont put green poop on gardens. I leave it to compost a long time.

Chicken manure should not have weed seeds unless it is in the bedding if that is mixed in such as straw. If you allow chicken to rot down for a year and cool off it is fine and should not burn. Cow manure on the other hand is awful for weed seeds. Rabbit is another manure that is great for the garden and should be weed free. Rabbit manure can be used fresh and will not burn your plants with little to no composting required.
 
Chicken manure should not have weed seeds unless it is in the bedding if that is mixed in such as straw. If you allow chicken to rot down for a year and cool off it is fine and should not burn. Cow manure on the other hand is awful for weed seeds. Rabbit is another manure that is great for the garden and should be weed free. Rabbit manure can be used fresh and will not burn your plants with little to no composting required.
Cow manure shouldn't have any weed seeds, but horse manure will be full of whatever the horse eats; weed and grass seeds. Cattle have a much more efficient digestive system (7 stomachs) than horses do. I have seen cattle in our feed lot passing grain, which the chickens love, so it is conceivable that some weed seeds could get through too.
We plan on raising rabbits this summer for food and the fertilizer. Also worms, if I can figure out how to keep them from freezing.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top