The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

echo - you MUST post some photos!

 

[lalaland]

echo - you MUST post some photos!

x2!

 

[armorfirelady]

echo - you MUST post some photos!

X3. This sounds very easy, cool to do & good use of free things you have on hand.
I have a forest growing in my side yard of maples from the millions of helicopters I get every year. To bad I couldn't let them grow to make a fence out of them.

Thanks to those on your potato advice. I will try and be patient & wait for the plants to die back.

And Mumsy thanks for your advice of planting in 3s. Since I was up at 5 to take my son to the bus station I came home to weed and dug out some rosé of Sharon's & black eyes Susan's and planted them in groups of 3 in the chickens area. Girls were excited to see me digging. Hopefully they don't dig out the plants. Next I might move some Lilly's but I need to see if their poisonous to chickens. I know they are for dogs & cats.
I was going to move some hostas but since the tots devoured them in the old run I need to find some big ones that will take their tasting them better.

 

[MumsyII]

Hello, lurker emerging...

Mumsy, would you be willing to post your general "how not to get overwhelmed by your garden and also have it be pretty/productive 101" tips? It seems like there are many here who admire your garden (myself included, I grew up just south of Port Townsend and know Whidbey very well, spent two years studying its geology, but now I live in Maine). You're obviously doing many, many things right and there are lots of us who would love to learn from you!

In chicken related things, I am building a bachelor pen using wattle fencing, which is free if your land is covered in saplings and you have lots of time on your hands. I made a wee fence the same way to keep the ducks out of the garden, and even though it's only knee-high, the chickens are deterred by it as well - maybe because it's almost solid and hard for them to see the nommy Brussels sprouts and peas on the other side. There are many levels of complexity possible with wattle fences, I opted for the ultra simple method of cutting straight-ish sticks to a uniform length, sharpening one end, pounding them into the ground about 9"-12" apart (making a pilot hole with a mattock or Hori Hori helps a lot), and weaving branches and brush through them in a simple over-under basket pattern. The bachelor oen will be the same, except using wrist-thick poles for the uprights, thumb-thick weavers, and spacing the uprights around 2.5'-3' apart. We'll also be charring the sharpened ends of the poles in the firepit this time, to extend their life in the ground. If your land is overrun with small trees and you need a fence, this is definitely the way to go. Free, no clumsy tools (im using a pruning saw to take down the saplings, a small hand axe to sharpen the ends, loppers to remove extra branches, and a Japanese Hori Hori garden knife to make the pilot holes for the uprights - all fairly easy work for me, 90lbs soaking wet with rocks in my pockets and boots on). If my husband isn't careful, we'll have a wattle wall around the whole property! They're very easy and enjoyable to make, I hate the noise of power tools so I'm loving the quiet work on this fence! With the size of poles I'm using and the tightness I'm putting them together with, it should be pretty predator-proof as well.

Hello Echosrevenge! Port Townsend is one of my most favorite places in the known world. I have many friends that live there. Maine also has a connection to my family. I have some living there now.


I would love to see pictures of your wattle fencing project!

Would it be ok if I start a thread in the gardening thread section called Musmy's Romantic Garden advice?

 

[wlhtx]

Would it be ok if I start a thread in the gardening thread section called Musmy's Romantic Garden advice? 

If you do then I will totally be one to subscribe. I haven't chimed in on this yet, but I adore your photos, Mumsy. As a lifelong bookworm who has read The Secret Garden literally about 100 times, I aspire to a yard that looks like yours. However my yard is currently a blank slate - truly nothing but grass and the non-decorative vegetable garden. Please help those of us who are completely un-informed as to how to create such a beautiful environment!

 

[Alibabe]

Would definite subscribe to a garden thread. I too have a 'blank' garden filled with rock hard clay so I really need to get some plants in the ground and have some colour as well as food for the chicks.

 

[MumsyII]

Ok. For those of you that would like more of Mumsy's Romantic Garden, there is a new thread in the Garden forum.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/807174/mumsys-romantic-garden-advice

 

[Kassaundra]

I would appreciate any help or insights you guys have on this


https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/807253/graphic-autopsy-pics-any-ideas

 

[armorfirelady]

Ok. For those of you that would like more of Mumsy's Romantic Garden, there is a new thread in the Garden forum.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/807174/mumsys-romantic-garden-advice

WOHOO !!!!

Thanks Mumsy I am going to subscribe as well

 

[rowerjen]

echo - you MUST post some photos!

x1000 - I'm on 4 mostly wooded acres and have lots of saplings to thin out

And Mumsy - already subscribe to your garden thread. Hope it doesn't move quite as fast as this one