The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[SherrieC]

Its going to be an interesting spring summer here for my veggie gardens (currently winter here in South Australia). I am used to my nasturtiums, sunflowers, borage, leeks and even tomatoes coming up wild each year, tomatoes always seem to find my pumpkin patch which is never a good place for harvesting tomatoes! I am guessing not much will come up this year now that I have allowed the chickens into both areas to help me clean them up, they already destroyed my leeks etc that sprung up a few months back.

The chickens love dust bathing under my big grape vine, I will have to block their access to that in a few months so they don't demolish all the grapes. I haven't given them access to my raspberries, I'm worried they will dig them up scratching around? We have planted a white mulberry in one of their runs, hoping it will help shade their coop this summer. I'm currently looking into what I can plant in their runs as I'm noticing there's not much weeds about now and the kikuyu is getting destroyed from frost (which ideally I want to get rid of anyway but thats hard to get rid off because of its runners) so I'm trying to think of things they can have growing to eat during winter.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Ok, I'm sold, I need easy. Can you point me in the right direction for this method you use? We are improving the land of a property we bought (and soon renovating the house) - we've been clearing and adding chickens so far, haven't had the time or energy for a garden.  We're hoping to be in around Christmas at this point.  So, if there is something we can do this fall to get ready for spring planting that won't send me over the edge, please share.  I have done very little gardening but we want to learn and have one. Thanks!
Oh, and my neighbor here at our rental is going to give me some of her swiss chard which over winters. She's been kind to share it with us for eating and I love making soup with it (with sweet potatoes and sausage-yum!)

you must be down south if chard winters over, tomorrow I will get some pictures and try to talk you through it, initially there is clearing sod and forming the beds, the rest is pretty easy compared to traditional gardening practices, I am willing to work but prefer to not have to work so hard, so I have always called my gardening method lazy gardening. I also plant things close, and in succession. Be fun to share my ways with someone who might listen, I can't get anyone to garden like me because it isn't proper.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Count me in on those potential gardening classes, please? I live out west in the desert so gardening here is quite the challenge. I would love to read about your process and I don't have a lot of time to spend on gardening nor is my back strong enough to do a lot of gardening so I'm open to learning easy ways to do it.

 

[Leahs Mom]

you must be down south if chard winters over, tomorrow I will get some pictures and try to talk you through it, initially there is clearing sod and forming the beds, the rest is pretty easy compared to traditional gardening practices, I am willing to work but prefer to not have to work so hard, so I have always called my gardening method lazy gardening. I also plant things close, and in succession. Be fun to share my ways with someone who might listen, I can't get anyone to garden like me because it isn't proper.

We're in process on doing this everywhere we grow but I'm looking forward to seeing what you're doing. I always learn something new every time someone talks about this...some little tip that is really helpful!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Okay I tried to get pictures but my stuff is growing like weeds and you can't see the formation of my beds too well.



I use a raised bed system, the area is edged, I removed all sod, and break up the surface of the soil, if you want to till it,this is the only time I would till, otherwise use garden fork to break up the surface, then the beds are formed by mounding soil, some of my beds are a foot across, some are 3 across, add any amendments on the top before you start, the act of forming the beds will mix it in, keep out about half for putting on the top of your newly formed beds. use a metal rake to pull soil out of your aisles, mine are only as wide as I need to move down them, why waste growing space, mound your soil, tap down to form a top, kinda like flat topped pyramids, now add stuff on top like manure, compost, tap down, it will all settle, now cover with grass clippings, leaves, whatever organic material is available. During the growing season we continue to put our grass clippings any where they are needed, only put it in a thin coating at a time so it dries out, no more than an inch, or it will form a slimy under layer and won't work proper.

In the fall I clean out the plants, rake, and reform the beds a bit, than put manure on the beds only, then cover the whole thing in grass clippings, and fall leaves. I also plant my garlic, when it comes up in the spring I know it's time to plant cold crops. Because my beds are raised they warm up faster and don't get water logged, so I can get out there really early, even if I need my rubber boots. I grow vertical where I can, successive planting of crops. Now that I've written it out it sounds harder than it is.

The grass clippings are a mulch, cuts down on weeding, and add organic matter into the soil, I have such nice soil now, I don't fertilize beyond manure in the fall, I vaguely rotate crops, but my garden is small so stuff don't move too much, I space my plants as I see necessary, and don't believe in thinning, I thin as I harvest, I broadcast plant mostly, covering seeds with only that mulch layer I pull back.

The thing is to take care of your soil, not your plants, I am tending to the worms and organisms in the soil, they till, aerated, and fertilize for me, using a rototiller kills all that, your soil ceases to be alive.



Here are some other raised beds with railroad ties, another way to do it, but differently. I'm sure I missed some stuff, I certainly will show a better picture once the plants are cleared in the fall, and certainly next spring if I'm still around. Is anybody still interested or have I made it all confusing. It really is so easy once it's going.

 

[allyclair]

Thanks so much for typing that out for us, I used to garden the traditional way but gave up when my kids were babies, felt it was too much work. I've been looking into doing raised beds the past couple years but also had been looking at the method where you heap layers of organics in a pile, forget the name right now. Your way seems like a bit of both methods and makes a lot of sense!

Do you use chicken manure straight from the pile in the fall, or do you use manure that had already composted? I use poop boards in my coops so I've got a good pile of manure here.

Thanks and I'd love to hear any other tips you've learned over the years

 

[City farm]

Awesome.. I don't like to thin either..

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

We pile our poop, and takes some off in the fall, and it mellows more during the winter.

You are thinking of lasagna gardening, this is a form of it in a way, I tried straight lasagna gardening and I found it took almost 3 years for that paper/cardboard layer to breakdown and the sod layer underneath to soften enough for the worms to do their job, I would try to plant things but I would hit that layer an it caused problems, so that way works if your willing to wait, I figured in three years time I could clear some sod and be going instead, so just what I found out.

 

[JulesChicks]

you must be down south if chard winters over, tomorrow I will get some pictures and try to talk you through it, initially there is clearing sod and forming the beds, the rest is pretty easy compared to traditional gardening practices, I am willing to work but prefer to not have to work so hard, so I have always called my gardening method lazy gardening. I also plant things close, and in succession. Be fun to share my ways with someone who might listen, I can't get anyone to garden like me because it isn't proper.

We are close to Puget Sound, in NW Washington state. We get some weeks of freezing temps here. We've only been here since March 2014 and last winter was really mild here, but in general we have less extremes because of the proximity of the large body of water. Eastern Washington has more extreme temperatures. We get mild summers, mostly in the 70's, little rain (in summer) and little to no snow. In addition, I'm in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountain range, so even though I'm north of Seattle, I get much less rain - about 28" compared to their 49-50". My brother lives an hour south, but just inland of I-5 and he gets the rain of Seattle - he's also about 10 degrees hotter than us in the summer. It's pretty dry here right now though - we're having the dry summer I thought we would after the mild winter. All the grass around is brown unless people are watering theirs.

Okay I tried to get pictures but my stuff is growing like weeds and you can't see the formation of my beds too well.



I use a raised bed system, the area is edged, I removed all sod, and break up the surface of the soil, if you want to till it,this is the only time I would till, otherwise use garden fork to break up the surface, then the beds are formed by mounding soil, some of my beds are a foot across, some are 3 across, add any amendments on the top before you start, the act of forming the beds will mix it in, keep out about half for putting on the top of your newly formed beds. use a metal rake to pull soil out of your aisles, mine are only as wide as I need to move down them, why waste growing space, mound your soil, tap down to form a top, kinda like flat topped pyramids, now add stuff on top like manure, compost, tap down, it will all settle, now cover with grass clippings, leaves, whatever organic material is available. During the growing season we continue to put our grass clippings any where they are needed, only put it in a thin coating at a time so it dries out, no more than an inch, or it will form a slimy under layer and won't work proper.

In the fall I clean out the plants, rake, and reform the beds a bit, than put manure on the beds only, then cover the whole thing in grass clippings, and fall leaves. I also plant my garlic, when it comes up in the spring I know it's time to plant cold crops. Because my beds are raised they warm up faster and don't get water logged, so I can get out there really early, even if I need my rubber boots. I grow vertical where I can, successive planting of crops. Now that I've written it out it sounds harder than it is.

The grass clippings are a mulch, cuts down on weeding, and add organic matter into the soil, I have such nice soil now, I don't fertilize beyond manure in the fall, I vaguely rotate crops, but my garden is small so stuff don't move too much, I space my plants as I see necessary, and don't believe in thinning, I thin as I harvest, I broadcast plant mostly, covering seeds with only that mulch layer I pull back.

The thing is to take care of your soil, not your plants, I am tending to the worms and organisms in the soil, they till, aerated, and fertilize for me, using a rototiller kills all that, your soil ceases to be alive.



Here are some other raised beds with railroad ties, another way to do it, but differently. I'm sure I missed some stuff, I certainly will show a better picture once the plants are cleared in the fall, and certainly next spring if I'm still around. Is anybody still interested or have I made it all confusing. It really is so easy once it's going.

This is great, thanks so much! I'm going to have to send this to my husband and then refer to it as we go. The area close to the house that we want to put a garden is full sun, but also full of blackberries and nettles, so we need to clear that first. It's also not level, we have very little level land, most is gently sloping to sloping. The guys who will be putting in a new septic system said they could dump dirt loads for us to level off that area if we want. If we brush hog and till, do we need to do anything else to keep the brambles from coming up through the garden? I'm wanting to do raised beds like you. We have plenty of grass to layer over it while it's growing. We'll have leaves from the orchard in the fall, and I plan on bagging them to use in the coops and runs. If we bag all the leaves we may have enough for the garden too. There is a large unknown deciduous tree in the front that will drop leaves too.
Thanks!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I would certainly pull out any larger root systems I see after tilling, and pull up any that try to start, I have not had any experience with brambles in my yard, I know in my fields they spread, so maybe someone who has more experience will say more.

Your weather sounds like heaven as far as temperature, but I don't think I could live without snow or summer rains. You should be able to grow year round, so certainly compost if you can and top dress between plantings with older compost. Raised beds will be easier on your water usage since you only water the plants. I certainly wouldn't waste water on a lawn, only so you have to mow it, but we don't have that problem most years.

I also put grass clippings and leaves in my bantam run, they dig and mix, and break it down along with food scraps, once again I cheat and make my chickens do the composting. We dig some out as needed, it is soft and light and good for the garden, if I was planning from the start I might put my chickens close to my garden so it's not so far to travel.

I wanted to ask if anyone here has done as I have as far as keeping the chickens out of the garden. We put up a two foot tall green wire fence around any beds that I don't want my chickens in and it works, I think in the last eight years since putting it up I have only found one chicken in my garden and it couldn't get back out without my help. It's cheap and it works.