Pet Peeves

[Liz Birdlover]

Not for 600 bucks not. That's an emphatic no.....

 

[Liz Birdlover]

I'm growing a huge crop of Chickweed. Yeah baby!

 

[nuthatched]

I'm growing a huge crop of Chickweed. Yeah baby!

On purpose?

 

[Liz Birdlover]

On purpose?

Well, I have plenty of it growing in many places already, but my chickens Love it. It is actually pretty healthy for us, too, add in a salad along with dandelion greens.

I did make some places for chickweed to grow inside my chickens' pens, half inch welded wire frames over it, so they only eat what grows up through, while standing on it, not able dig & scratch up the roots.

It's really pretty cool stuff, grows into a low growing, lush green with tiny little white flowers. I wouldn't mind if it took over the whole place, I don't even need to mow those areas. I have a lot of white clover, too & areas of wildflowers. Honeybees love it here.
I plan on adding my own Honeybees soon.

I have a front yard & part of back yard of grass, planted by the previous owner. I'm contemplating low growing wildflower mix as an alternative to the grass lawn.

I'm not a fan of grass but I've just mowed it & left it alone so far, but grass is so useless. Plus the front yard is loaded with 2 types of nutsedge & seeds of Johnsongrass are always blowing in from adjacent fields. The nutsedge "nuts" are edible, as are scallions, but my chickens are not big fans of either. I've used scallion bulbs & chives when cooking, they're pretty cool.

Before planting low growing lawn alternative seeds I need to eradicate the existing mess of a lawn...yellow & purple nutsedge are a PITA to get rid of & we avoid using chemicals here. The toads, frogs, turtles & other wildlife appreciate that. I'd need a semi truck load of cardboard to lay down over an acre & probably polyurethane or tarps with some rocks and 4x4s to hold it down on top of that, with all of the wind we get here.

Sharing any of your ideas on killing the existing front yard are welcome! Some suggested a mixture of vinegar & salt water, but we are talking an acre of grass here...that's a bit much, plus, salt will mess up the soil for planting anything else afterwards. Across the road they're spraying that cancer crap Round-up, to eradicate 5 acres of Johnsongrass...nasty chemicals. Hope it doesn't end up in my well water.

 

[nuthatched]

Sg any of your ideas on killing the existing front yard are welcome! Some suggested a mixture of vinegar & salt water, but we are talking an acre of grass here...that's a bit much, plus, salt will mess up the soil for planting anything else afterwards.

Cardboard or black plastic sheets. Vinegar and salt will kill the soil. You can burn it or till it under and plant your wildflowers on top.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

On purpose?

Chickweed is awesome
https://www.gardenista.com/posts/chickweed-taste-stars/

 

[nuthatched]

Chickweed is awesome
https://www.gardenista.com/posts/chickweed-taste-stars/

Your chickweed is different from the chickweed here, its toxic here

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Your chickweed is different from the chickweed here, its toxic here

Wow, didn't know. I knew there were different varieties & types of chickweed but I thought they'd at least all share similar traits...being delicious for chickens.

There are plants that resemble it. Luckily, I've never eaten those.

https://www.diegobonetto.com/blog/on-the-wonderful-chickweed-and-the-poisonous-lookalike


Or do you mean the plant called Chickens & Hens? It is a succulent type, very different.

https://www.bhg.com/gardening/plant-dictionary/perennial/hens-and-chicks/

 

[Sally PB]

I plan on adding my own Honeybees soon.

Cool!

Something I read as one of the best tips for newbies: Have two hives, not just one. The reason is, when you're new, you don't know what everything should look like, and it's VERY helpful to have another hive to compare it to.

I wish we'd done that.

 

[nuthatched]

I hate blue and lavender in chickens.
And I just realized that with my hens and rooster, the only color chicks I'd get are BBS, heavy with 90% of blue.