Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

People have used these plastic/geotextile things a lot here. They were very convenient to use as you can buy them with the holes already made to put in the seeds / plants.
We've done the cardboard thing a few times. If you really want to kill the weeds you need cardboard so thick that it won't compost before a few years. It's still better in the sense that it's much easier to recycle.
For us now what makes sense is either planting a cover crop, using hay (but you wouldn't have that at the allotment) or leaving what was planted in place until early spring, which make older people here go crazy as they like to see a clean bare soil for winter .

Yup, I suppose being an older person I feel much the same way. A bare weeded plot says something about the plot holder; they're there in the winter months and probably enjoy being outside in all weathers.

 

[Shadrach]

I just came across this, which is more than a bit worrying:
"5 mass produced fish-meal products were tested from around the world and found to contain not only considerable levels of antibiotics but hundreds of antibiotic resistant genes." Spector Food for Life p.272 citing a study from 2017.

Yup, I've found similar. Most I've found are imported and a similar problem to the problem with mealworms is evident.

 

[Shadrach]

Our world food supply (and that of our animals), is so messed up. Grow as much as you can on your own.

I'll get you a plot over here.
I'm trying to decide what to plant in mine.

 

[Perris]

a similar problem to the problem with mealworms is evident.

what problem is that?

 

[Perris]

A bare weeded plot says something about the plot holder; they're there in the winter months and probably enjoy being outside in all weathers.

or, they were brought up to think that's the right way to do it, and / or haven't bought in to the idea that it's better to leave the ground covered through winter.

 

[Shadrach]

what problem is that?

That both fishmeal and mealworms come from areas of the world that we have no control over the methods of production or the quality/standard of the product.

 

[Shadrach]

or, they were brought up to think that's the right way to do it, and / or haven't bought in to the idea that it's better to leave the ground covered through winter.

I don't object to the theory and practice of covering the ground over winter, just not with plastic!

 

[Shadrach]

Damp cold and horrid. We never really got going and the chickens had had enough half an hour before dusk. It was in and out of the coop extension between the showers.

 

[Shadrach]

The various large piles of rubbish and the proposed bonfire with the beehives in the background.

 

[RoyalChick]

The various large piles of rubbish and the proposed bonfire with the beehives in the background.
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That plastic cover to the soil is no good for the soil either. It retains too much water and gets nasty moldy sludge.