What did you do in the garden today?

[akroberts1085]

Where, or how, do you guys plant your squash plants?

In my backyard, I have all my raised garden beds spaced out nicely so that I can drive my riding mower between them and cut the grass. This year, Dear Wife got an Upo plant (white gourd) and wanted to plant in one of my raised beds. She said that it would grow like a squash and spread out.

Since Upo is a tropical plant, I thought it would be no big deal and probably would not grow out very much here in northern Minnesota, zone 3b. However, to my surprise, that one plant has grown out over 40 feet on the ground from the base of the plant in the raised bed. That means I can no longer mow the grass with the riding mower.

Long story short, I had to take out my little Ryobi 18v 12-inch electric mower to mow around the raised beds. I used the bagger on the mower to collect all the grass clippings, which I toss into the chicken run to feed the chickens fresh greens and the grass not eaten gets turned into compost. By the time I finished mowing around the raised beds, I had filled my 10 cubic foot garden cart with grass clippings. That is a lot of mowing for a 12-inch mower!

Would have loved to post a nice picture of that 10 cubic foot mound of grass clippings I dumped into the chicken run, but my composting chickens had it leveled out flat in about 5 minutes! Even though some of my chickens are too old for good egg production, they still earn their keep in making compost for my gardens.

If you don't use your chickens to make compost, I believe you are missing out on their most valuable contribution to your homestead. We sell our excess eggs and that pays for the commercial feed bill, which is about $15 per month for me. But the amount of compost I harvest from the chicken run amounts to hundreds of dollars every year in cost savings of compost that I no longer buy in the big bags at the big box stores. All that great compost feeds the raised beds, which feed the plants, that produce food which feeds the family. So, yet more savings which all started from those composting chickens.

To show my appreciation for all their work, I tossed them some overripe tomatoes this afternoon when I was harvesting some of my cherry tomatoes. My chickens love those tomatoes. One hen will pick up a cherry tomato and run around the chicken run with 4 or 5 other hens chasing her trying to take it away. Good exercise for the old girls and lots of entertainment for me.

Your gardening life will be a lot easier for you if you can have your garden next to your chicken coop and run. When I pull weeds from the garden, I just toss them into the run for the chickens. They eat almost everything. Overripe food or damaged food gets tossed to my chickens before it ever gets into the house. Saves me time and effort. And, like I have already mentioned, I harvest the chicken run compost and use it directly in the garden beds right next to the chicken run. No more hauling compost all over the property to add to the gardens. Although I still have a few plots of garden at the other end of my property, almost all my gardening has been moved to raised beds by the chicken coop and run. It just saves me so much time and labor and, at my age, I can really appreciate my new setup next to the chickens.

Here is a quick picture of my backyard setup of chickens and raised garden beds...

View attachment 3621169

Every year I have been adding about another two pallet wood raised garden beds. Plants are looking a little worse for the wear this time of year, and the chicken coop is the process of repainting and getting some new trim, so that will look better in a few weeks. That tarped contraption in front of my chicken coop is my cement mixer compost sifter. Again, everything right next to my coop and run, saving me all kinds of time and effort. The compost sifter stays there all summer long but will be moved behind the coop for storage before we get winter snows.

You have a very beautiful yard. Thank you for sharing.

 

[TJAnonymous]

We didn't get any of the rain that was predicted. It skipped us completely in favor of everywhere around us. Typical. Now I need to go water... Ugh. It has cooled down a TINY bit from 110 to 95 degrees.

Sadly I lost a hen yesterday. She was trying to escape the roosters and flew up into the netting over the coop. Got stuck upside down in triple digits for God knows how long. We collected the meat from her at least. I really need to keep the roosters penned but it's been so hot... They do have shade but it's much cooler under the trees so I let everyone out to free range when it's so hot like this.

Back to gardening... I need to start my fall broccoli and cauliflower seeds.

 

[CNJ]

n any case, I applaud your efforts in making your own DIY Earth Boxes and would suggest you might be able to further reduce your costs if you used the lid of the original tote as a separator instead of adding that second box.

I have three 5-year-old totes that has been kept in the sun. I am surprised how well they handle the uv rays in comparison to my Lowe buckets. My buckets start to crack after one year. I will use those old totes for the top and use the new ones for the water reservoir.

I saw a similar video using the tote cover, but I chose the easier way, since my tote design would be just as good as a $56 earth box, I don't mind the extra cost of two totes. The totes are on sale at my local Lowes for $12.

The guy in the video should have drilled his holes in the channels instead of on the squares and his drain hole should be 3 inches high with his cover at 4 inches. His tote will hold less potting mix at the height he ended up with. It looks kind of high. In comparison, my tote design holds a full tote of potting mix, no matter how high I make the reservoir water level.

Another thing I do differently is I put a mason pint jar of organic fertilizer on both sides about 6 inches down. In comparison, the Earth Box method uses 2lbs on only one side. In addition, I mix "Super Sweet" brand granular lime on the bottom half, and the earth box method uses powder dolomite lime instead.

 

[gtaus]

You have a very beautiful yard. Thank you for sharing.

Thank you. My backyard used to be a beautiful green lawn a few years ago, but I prefer having a chicken coop, chicken run and those raised beds out there instead. I plan on continuing to add more raised beds each year and eventually have everything next to the chickens.

 

[jerryse]

Mowed yesterday. Took an evening garden walk. Used string to tie shut some squash blossoms for controlled cross. Zuke x my yellow squash. Need to get out there early to hand pollinate.

 

[akroberts1085]

Thank you. My backyard used to be a beautiful green lawn a few years ago, but I prefer having a chicken coop, chicken run and those raised beds out there instead. I plan on continuing to add more raised beds each year and eventually have everything next to the chickens.

Of course you can not have too much space for home-grown vegetables.

 

[gtaus]

The guy in the video should have drilled his holes in the channels instead of on the squares and his drain hole should be 3 inches high with his cover at 4 inches. His tote will hold less potting mix at the height he ended up with. It looks kind of high. In comparison, my tote design holds a full tote of potting mix, no matter how high I make the reservoir water level.

I don't know if you have a local Menard's where you live, but they have their 27-gallon totes on sale right now...

In regard to the measurements, these totes are 17 inches deep. There might not be a consensus on how much potting soil you should have, but a number of videos I have watched mentioned 12 inches of potting soil is optimal for the wicking process. Add a 1-inch air gap, then you still have 4 inches of water in the bottom as a reservoir. The separating platform, in this tote, should be placed around 5 inches off the bottom. With a 4-inch water reservoir, you would have just over 6 gallons of water in the bottom.

I understand what you mean that cutting out the lid looks like a lot of work. If you did everything by hand like in that video, I imagine you would be right. However, I have lots of powered tools like a jig saw and a multi-tool that would make easy work out of cutting plastic.

But it would be a lot cheaper using two totes per build than buying an expensive jig saw or multi-tool just for that project. I already have those tools, so I would use them, of course.

Also, as far as depth of the potting soil goes, my 16-inch high hügelkultur raised garden beds only have 6-8 inches of soil above the wood to start off with. Every year, the raised beds are topped off with another inch or two of compost, but it would take many years before I have even 12 inches of topsoil in my raised beds. For what I plant in my raised beds, anything 6 inches or deeper of topsoil works fine. Obviously, if you are planting root crops, you would need a deeper topsoil level.

At any rate, I loved hearing about your DIY Earth Boxes and that they work out so well for you. Building my own DIY Earth Box is on my list, but I have lots of other priorities right now ahead of it. Still, good ideas eventually find their way to the top of my to-do list, and I hope to build one of these tote earth boxes someday soon.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

 

[WthrLady]

Cushaw! I only got one.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Cushaw! I only got one.

I have 6-7 more cushaw squash I didn't pick yet. We love the acorn squash. We haven't tried the cushaw squash yet.