Chickens in Permaculture

[aart]

Quote: Yeah, red was what I was thinking....it's gorgeous stuff.

Crimper and drill seeder.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Looks like alfalfa to me. Lovely dark green about 12-16" tall with little purple flowers all over.

Plus they cut and bale it for all the dairy farms around here. I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm probably missing something somewhere.

I'll check out what I can that will work. Thanks.

 

[centrarchid]

Functionally an annual, Crimson Clover.


http://www.sare.org/Learning-Center...ext-Version/Legume-Cover-Crops/Crimson-Clover

 

[shortgrass]

Looks like alfalfa to me.  Lovely dark green about 12-16" tall with little purple flowers all over.

Plus they cut and bale it for all the dairy farms around here.  I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm probably missing something somewhere.

I'll check out what I can that will work.  Thanks.

Yep. That's alfalfa Alfalfa is a beautiful plant, no? love the way it smells... Hay has been my life since I could walk lol, its one of the best N fixers out there. Amazing feed, great protein ratio...very easy to grow. Takes no fertilizer and don't have to replant for years... Only downfall is when you need to kill it you're not not missing a thing; hay gets killed, tilled under and corn gets planted right in it.. Great source of N and helps retain moisture and improve tilth. And...chickens love it!

Ooh thought I'd better mention...DONT FEED GREEN BUCKWHEAT TO ANYTHING!! including yourself...it's phototoxic, just the seeds are edible

Red clover is very beautiful too bees especially love clover Really good yo plant alongside gardens for attracting beneficials

In the lines of "permaculture", isn't bringing in possibly invasive species completely backwards? Lol I figure getting rid of one invasive species with another so I can get the ground back to where the first invasive weeds won't grow, then its acceptable

My grandma taught me to look at the weeds to tell you what was wrong with the soil...for instance, tooany alkali weeds means the soil is too alkaline... If all there is is pigweed there's not enough nitrogen... She was a doll, my granny

 

[centrarchid]

Yep. That's alfalfa Alfalfa is a beautiful plant, no? love the way it smells... Hay has been my life since I could walk lol, its one of the best N fixers out there. Amazing feed, great protein ratio...very easy to grow. Takes no fertilizer and don't have to replant for years... Only downfall is when you need to kill it you're not not missing a thing; hay gets killed, tilled under and corn gets planted right in it.. Great source of N and helps retain moisture and improve tilth. And...chickens love it!

Ooh thought I'd better mention...DONT FEED GREEN BUCKWHEAT TO ANYTHING!! including yourself...it's phototoxic, just the seeds are edible

Red clover is very beautiful too bees especially love clover Really good yo plant alongside gardens for attracting beneficials

In the lines of "permaculture", isn't bringing in possibly invasive species completely backwards? Lol I figure getting rid of one invasive species with another so I can get the ground back to where the first invasive weeds won't grow, then its acceptable

My grandma taught me to look at the weeds to tell you what was wrong with the soil...for instance, tooany alkali weeds means the soil is too alkaline... If all there is is pigweed there's not enough nitrogen... She was a doll, my granny

Most of the species you discuss are not native to your region and many not even this continent. Some can an do persist beyond areas where they were cultured.

 

[shortgrass]

Most of the species you discuss are not native to your region and many not even this continent. Some can an do persist beyond areas where they were cultured.

Well yeah that's my point lol... The only thing native here is grass...and some pretty little flowers...cactus...then go to the river lol... Ground was tilled beyond recognition, things that weren't meant to grow were planted, hundred thousand dollar sprinklers put in to draw water from aquifers here for centuries, now dry... Invasive species thrive in poor soil after its been chemically destroyed... So it takes another invasive species to quash out that one and regenerate the soil.... THEN that has to be killed or tilled until IT can be taken over by "native" grasses....ugh its tiring.

I'll have to take some pics of a really good example of getting a field back to "native"... Its taken 15 years...but its a beautiful grassy meadow now, once parched irrigated beans.. Took a lot of invasive over invasive over reseeding.... Totally worth it

 

[aart]

How are you killing your covers?

Chemical kill and/or tilling is not 'permaculture', as it won't build the soil biodiverisity.

 

[Lacy Blues]

I didn't realize that about buckwheat. Thank you for sharing. I have buckwheat seed to plant so I can till it in at the right time to build my soil.

 

[shortgrass]

How are you killing your covers?

Chemical kill and/or tilling is not 'permaculture', as it won't build the soil biodiverisity.

Oh I wish the DH would read this over my shoulder lol ahem..

NO TILLING AND NO CHEMICALS lol

He has a half of the garden; he knows he'll get clubbed if he touches mine... I got "allowance" of a % of the fields of choice to do my "weird experiments" on lol... No till, no pesticides, beneficials... I just ordered Bobwhite to supplement the native population to help with pest control...

Intensive grazing to kill off the pigweed. The koschia that followed had to be seeded with rye. Then in the stubble, oatgrass. Two years of swathing, withholding water, and light grazing and the native grasses have a hold again

I experimented with colchicine in the late 90s and they had another product similar to it, Propyzamide? I didn't want to mess with allelopathic disrupters without good hard evidence, so I haven't done field study, just personal garden...

Scythe is what I'm testing in a bar ditch on the side of a millet field. Not sure of testing test though... Sampling in my garden lol... Mostly just beneficials and certain diseases will take hold and nature takes its course without chemicals or possibly mutating a generation of grasshoppers

 

[shortgrass]

I took some pictures for comparison...

This is standard conventional till, GMO Round up ready corn...Notice the sterile looking soil. Its dead.

Here's how an organic field looks....please excuse the lush vegetation that I couldn't get through lol

The ditch alongside the first field...which is not my field BTW; this is right next to a WATER supply and obvious that more round up has been used...

And here, no chemicals, no burning the ditch; in fact this ditch gets "permaculture" the best lol... Everything from swathing (mowing) or poo adding etc ends up piled here...and left. All alone lol..

I can't even tell what all is in there. There's no kochia, no pigweed, no Amaranth...no bother mowing or burning it; it holds the key to organic growing. BENEFICIALS

This field my dad almost died on when an Anhydrous Ammonia tank blew up in his face. That was the last time we used Anhydrous. Also the last time this field was used for anything, really. It went fallow and then we had to go through the process of grazing the overabundance of weeds off for 3 years, letting certain weeds have their hold and when the cattle wouldn't eat kochia, it was seeded with rye..oats were planted in the stubble, and for 2 years it was grazed to keep the oats from taking over. We still keep water on it to keep the oats and grass from being taken over again, but by 2016 it will be returned to pasture for the chickens. Hoping I won't need the water anymore and the grasses and bugs will be more than enough without the water this was dead soil

Not dead any more!