First Time Gardener

[Percheron chick]

If you're not planting until the fall, I would go ahead and dump the litter on the bed. Turn it over a few times over the summer and you will be good to go. Start a compost bin and add the excess litter, grass clippings, leaves and any other yard and kitchen scraps you can. You will have excellent compost to top dress next year's garden.
Grow some tomatoes and herbs in pots this year to get inspired.

 

[Nigel27]

Make a compost pile of it. Like someone else said you can also till it in in the fall. Putting fresh manure on the garden can burn plants and can be a health risk since bacteria from the manure can splash onto the vegetables.

There are no vegetables and no garden yet.
I put my chickens in my garden during the off-season when it’s empty. I’m hoping they are eating the weed seeds.
I’m pretty new to chicken manure but last year I grew amazing broccoli and cabbage in 2 or 3 inches of soil right on the ground right inside the chicken run. I had snow fence around and plastic on top.

 

[Acre4Me]

Just to note, one reason to compost chicken droppings is to get rid of the pathogens that can make humans sick. Hands in the soil ... transfer to face/mouth or on the fresh item just picked that you bite into. Or the rain splashes it back up onto the fruits/veg. Anyway, making a compost pile gives it mass, which allows it to dry out less quickly, and to keep warm in the cold. However, should still toss/turn it to give it air. Need to water it if it’s hot/dry.

 

[GalaxyQueen]

Thank you all. We have decided to do a container garden this year and wait until next year to do the big garden with the chicken poop compost next year.

 

[Sally PB]

A little late, but I'll add my two cents...

Keep a garden journal/diary/log. Write down what you planted, when, etc. Take notes on how things do. I learned a lot this way about MY specific garden and plants, which is the information that matters most.

"Oh, I'll remember that..." Yeah, right.

Good luck! Any other questions, just post and ask.

 

[SegiDream]

I know it's totally unorthodox but last year was my first year in a long time having both chickens and planting a real vegetable garden and I was very determined to use the chicken litter for the garden. I did half my garden tilled and the other half no till.

On the tilled side we tilled the chicken litter into the dirt (around this time) and let it sit for a month or so and then planted summer veggies like okra and pole beans and tomatoes. (note: produce that doesn't touch the ground) The beans and tomatoes did fine. I think my planting timing was off on them a bit. My okra plants grew to 9-10 feet tall, maybe taller I didn't measure but they got so tall I had to use a ladder to pick them and the base of the stalks were 4" diameter. My parents who are green thumbs were pretty awed by that okra. I didn't know they flowered or how pretty they were, I really fell in love with okra.

On the no-till side of the garden I laid out the chicken manure as soon as I could. It was still fairly fresh manure so I covered the manure with broken down cardboard boxes and soaked them. Imagine two rows of chicken manure with a small space between, the broken down boxes fit over the top of both rows and I placed garden soil dirt onto the cardboard right smack in the middle of the rows over the "space" area. I figured this would give time for the plants to grow while the manure broke down. Planted bell peppers and cucumber and zucchini in that area. The zucchini did alright until bore bug things killed them. The bell peppers did amazingly well imo, they produced continuously all the way up into the fall and didn't stop until the first solid freeze hit. The cucumber grows like a vine so I moved the vines away/perpendicular from the manure area as they grew. I dunno if it was the manure or not but these two cucumber plants OMG for a while I was bringing in a grocery bag of cucumbers every day or every other day.

I have been growing plants in this garden area non-stop. I made a cold frame with hay bales and shower curtains suspended horizontally over the plants. I added fresh chicken manure to one side continuously throughout the winter, felt like the heat from that helped keep the plants warm. I didn't think the plants would last all winter but the swiss chard, onion, and turnips grew non-stop and I'd like to try this again with more veggies next winter.

Since the "end of season" in the fall I have been laying out manure in the garden area to age and break down on it's own. I think of the garden as 4 small plots now, knowing which area has the oldest manure treatment and thus will get planted first. Later summer plants will go in a different plot, and fall plantings will go in the next and so on and just keep rotating it like that so I always have a place to put fresh manure and a space available for planting. HTH.

 

[SegiDream]

And btw the cardboard is good for a short term weed deterrent (snails love it though) or pathway for the garden and it breaks down and can be good for the soil too. So if you want free cardboard you can grab some when you go grocery shopping. Seems like someone is always stocking shelves and breaking down boxes when I'm in the store. Employees have never told me no when I asked for some *blush*