BYC gardening thread!!

[kian]

My compost pile is behind the garden fence. They can access it when I want them to, and are kept out the rest of the time. They make a huge mess but love it I can't let them in the garden much right now, too many young plants.

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

My compost pile is behind the garden fence. They can access it when I want them to, and are kept out the rest of the time. They make a huge mess but love it I can't let them in the garden much right now, too many young plants.

Nice.

 

[chickenstricken]

2 years ago I built our first successful garden. I went away from the ground level failures we had in the past, and went raised bed. Well, it exploded. It's 16' x 4' and it's not big enough. Here it is............................





Last years looked similar , but we didn't plant as much so it wouldn't be as crowded.

This year we're going bigger

Construction is underway.

 

[AccidentalFarm]

Do any gardeners here compost and let your chickens do some of the work? I'm interested in this and seeing how it works, isn't smelly, etc. I guess all the bugs get eaten by the chicks so they're not flying all over the yard? If so, do you have a bin or area that is closed off and put the chickens there or is it just a low boundary around the compost so that the chickens can walk over there whenever they're out in the yard?

My chickens free range, so they have access to the compost whenever they want. They visit the pile in their daily rounds and it's never hurt them. I'd guess though, that if they were penned all the time and just allowed access to the compost, they may eat more of it. (Whether or not it would hurt them, I don't know.) The compost pile I have on the ground is my 'extra' pile, most of my composting is done in my Compost Tumbler. I basically just dump my excess stuff in the pile that wont fit in the Tumbler, and forget about it. Without the chickens, it'd never get turned at all.

 

[MrsRobinson]

Am I the only one that finds it a challenge to garden with chickens?!?!? They eat everything! They eat all my strawberries as soon as the are ripe, peck at my tomatoes and cucumbers, ate my horseradish plant. As soon as I planted my garlic they started to scratch it up. We have to fence it off, which is a pain in the butt.

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

Am I the only one that finds it a challenge to garden with chickens?!?!? They eat everything! They eat all my strawberries as soon as the are ripe, peck at my tomatoes and cucumbers, ate my horseradish plant. As soon as I planted my garlic they started to scratch it up. We have to fence it off, which is a pain in the butt.

Yes I find it challenging as well they love the lettuce!

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

2 years ago I built our first successful garden. I went away from the ground level failures we had in the past, and went raised bed. Well, it exploded. It's 16' x 4' and it's not big enough. Here it is............................





Last years looked similar , but we didn't plant as much so it wouldn't be as crowded.

This year we're going bigger

Construction is underway.

I know the feeling (when you you fail and fail, and then you try something new and it works), high 5 on the gardening awesome job!

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

These are the beans we planted indoors. We planted nearly 120 seeds indoors a few
days ago.


And now they're starting to sprout!




We also did a few Asparagus seeds aswell as Squash indoors, the rest is for outside!

 

[Cam-n-Sara]

Beautiful stuff. We have been gardening for five years now. Built raised beds as a visual deterrent and to keep from having to dig the riverbed hard ground out there. started with an 8x4 that is now full of raspberries and blackberries. Over-run would be more accurate but the kids and the dogs love em right off of the sun warmed canes. Three years ago we added a 24x5 foot bed and put it up by the apple trees. It looks rather pathetic at the moment (I hate winter). Tomorrow we are grabbing the dirt for the third and possibly last bed and planting them all over the next few weekends. This bed is 20x5 feet and am planning on planting grains (Amaranth, Quinoa, Flax, and probably an ancient wheat called Kamut) and a fiber plant so i can begin some basket weaving (never done it before but has been an interest since i was a kid). All of the grains are fast biodegradable so they can be used as compost or as chicken bedding (love multi-use products) We always do green beans, carrots, slicing tomatoes, bell peppers, and garlic. With eight people the veggies don't last long but the kids get to learn where food comes from and that it isn't "free" even if you grow your own.

Sorry that was so long but i love the self sufficiency as much as we can do it, it always helps.

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

Beautiful stuff. We have been gardening for five years now. Built raised beds as a visual deterrent and to keep from having to dig the riverbed hard ground out there. started with an 8x4 that is now full of raspberries and blackberries. Over-run would be more accurate but the kids and the dogs love em right off of the sun warmed canes. Three years ago we added a 24x5 foot bed and put it up by the apple trees. It looks rather pathetic at the moment (I hate winter). Tomorrow we are grabbing the dirt for the third and possibly last bed and planting them all over the next few weekends. This bed is 20x5 feet and am planning on planting grains (Amaranth, Quinoa, Flax, and probably an ancient wheat called Kamut) and a fiber plant so i can begin some basket weaving (never done it before but has been an interest since i was a kid). All of the grains are fast biodegradable so they can be used as compost or as chicken bedding (love multi-use products) We always do green beans, carrots, slicing tomatoes, bell peppers, and garlic. With eight people the veggies don't last long but the kids get to learn where food comes from and that it isn't "free" even if you grow your own.

Sorry that was so long but i love the self sufficiency as much as we can do it, it always helps.

Awesome, well I hope your plan works. my mouth is watering think about all these veggies lol Gardening is nice though can get annoying at times!