NY chicken lover!!!!

[queenchick16]

Good morning All; I had a friend of mine put 2 raised beds in for me last spring. They are 4ft x10ft x15in. high. We then split these boxes in half. Left room to walk around them and in between the two. I grew some great stuff in them. Eggplant and peppers in one quarter, tomatoes in another quarter. peas with a row of sunflowers in back in one quarter and finally bush beans in the last. You have to remember I live on long Island and my property is as big as most of your gardens.I also have my original garden but these raised beds worked great. The Square Foot book is a very good reference if you want to do raised beds. I used his receipt for the soil mixture (well to some degree).Just remember NOT to use treated wood. I down loaded pictures but can't figure out how to get them on here. PS If you look up the book on Amazon a lot of times you can buy it used for less. Carol The photos are with my profile info

 

[happyhensny]

Thanks for all the info and pictures of gardens. I will go to my library tomorrow and see if they have the Square foot garden book, or any others for that matter. My tomatoes, peppers, etc all grow fine in out soil but mainly the below ground crops (potatoes, carrots, onions, etc) don't do well because of the rocks. My tomatoes grow to about 6+ft tall and have so many tomatoes they break my homemade cages-made out of old field fence. Love that chicken poo! I bought seeds and shared with friends because I certainly cannot use 750 pea seeds. Jeesh! This sunny weather is making me wish for spring more and more. Temp now is only 32* though.

Have a great day-out to check water and feed.

 

[rancher hicks]

I make frequent stops into HD to see what they have and buy it as it comes, saving it up til I have enough for a bed. Some of mine are 2' X 4'. With this method you don't have to dig anything, just fill each bed with what you want. I bought bags of soil to mix with the compost and chicken poop. I put the coop cleanings on the bottom and then go over it with garden soil.

Happy - can you get to the library on line? I go on line and order whatever I can. That's where I got my jelly recipes. I've also taken out every book on chickens. Mostly twice or more.

Now about those egg plants. I grow mine in 10" pots in the driveway. It gets lots of sun and they do best there than in the garden. The black tarvia absorbs the heat and keeps them warm. Try it and see. If your driveway gets sun.

Save your milk jugs to use as mini greenhouses and get a head start.

 

[Henicillin]

Quote:

You've seen my garden? I buy the 2x6's or bigger for $1 ea at HD. They're usually 48" at least. I don't have to Roto till and can plant most things by hand with no tools. No mashed down soil.

That's pretty much exactly what we're going to do! We had bush beans, tomatoes, and a couple of cucumber vines in boxes on the deck last year, and they did beautifully. Anything in the ground at the bottom of the yard, not so much, as the weeds became Triffids and successfully ran rampant over everything in their path. I prefer the boxes anyway - I'm a bit of a klutz, and am less likely to stomp some poor, hapless little plant inadvertently while stumbling around like an off-balance Godzilla in the garden because I managed to trip on nothing.

 

[rancher hicks]

Another thing I like to do is take the weed whacker and just go around between the beds. As for the beds themselves because they aren't walked on the weeds pull out easy. You can just rake the top of the bed with a hand tool if you like.

Then in the fall you can just let the chickens have at the beds. But you will end up shoveling the soil back in later. I keep mine fenced off.

The white plastic things keep things in and the rabbits out. They fit real nice, six to a bed.

 

[Henicillin]

Quote:

Good morning All; I had a friend of mine put 2 raised beds in for me last spring. They are 4ft x10ft x15in. high. We then split these boxes in half. Left room to walk around them and in between the two. I grew some great stuff in them. Eggplant and peppers in one quarter, tomatoes in another quarter. peas with a row of sunflowers in back in one quarter and finally bush beans in the last. You have to remember I live on long Island and my property is as big as most of your gardens.I also have my original garden but these raised beds worked great. The Square Foot book is a very good reference if you want to do raised beds. I used his receipt for the soil mixture (well to some degree).Just remember NOT to use treated wood. I down loaded pictures but can't figure out how to get them on here. PS If you look up the book on Amazon a lot of times you can buy it used for less. Carol The photos are with my profile info

Those are really nice! I love looking at people's gardens.

 

[vmdanielsen]

Good luck with your hatch!

Looks nice Rancher.

We currently don't have a raised bed set up, but due to the wet nature of the ground we would like to go to it. It will take a few years to get everything. We currently have 2 30X60 plots. Our hope this year is to get the perimeter completed, and a few areas where the water is the worst.


Eggs go into lockdown tomorrow. I will candle them all, but for what we could tell, all were developing. It is just a barnyard mix, but getting excited. My wife is on call this weekend, so it could be me and my 4 month old hanging out in the basement all weekend.

Have a good week all!

Regards,

 

[stonykill]

just plugged in the incubator to warm it up. Hope to load it tomorrow afternoon.

 

[vmdanielsen]

Good Luck to you too!!

just plugged in the incubator to warm it up. Hope to load it tomorrow afternoon.

 

[stonykill]

Good Luck to you too!!

thanks! it is going to be FULL. 41 eggs. About 1/2 Sumatra, and the other 1/2 for myself. Sumatra mixed with RIR, black Austrolop, White Leghorn and EE. As well as 2 purebred mutts mixed with Sumatra. Hopefully lots of hens in my mixtures. Otherwise I'm going to have a full freezer!

What I did for my eggs, is pick eggs from my best laying hens only. Now that I have a nice # of girls for selling eggs, I want to improve on them!

12 Sumatra's are for Cass. If anyone else wants some, I'll see how many more I have after hatch time. Plus I'm sure I'll incubate 1 or 2 more times.