What do you grow to feed the chickens??

[Arielle]

http://www.plantmaps.com/interactive-idaho-usda-plant-zone-hardiness-map.php

try this link

 

[TheChickenQueen]

And that is where I am getting confused. Everything seems to say zone 5. But then there are those with a number and a letter

 

[Arielle]

Zone 5 -- all zones are subdivided into a and b. THis is the primary info that you need. THe next is to understand what kind of soil you have in your area. Mine is very different than yours. DO contact the extension service for this. THey have pros to help.

 

[Arielle]

After two years of poor garden production, I'm learning: the better the soil prep the better the results. THe better the plants are supported from seeding to harvesting, the better the production. It IS rocket science. lol

I would like to grow more to feed the chickens, and my family

, but this soil is tough to work in. Very rocky New ENgland soil. Hard to grow root crops, especially in the areas that have never been tilled.

I think I have hit on a method to slowly change the land to more useful garden space. IT will take time and patience and HARD WORK. I liked the bed system that Beekissed uses. Meaning , for those that have not seen her ppics, the sloping land is lined with uniform beds and clover is used in the walkways. Low type clovers like the white clover, not the tall types used for haylage. I like the double purpose of the clover walkways, that it can handle the mild traffic for gardening, provide a relly good green for chickens, and/or sheep and the bees can feed off the clover flowers. ANd it means I dont have to dig the entire area to make one big garden and then tromp ( pack) the loosened soul agian. What a wasted effort!!!

Realistically only a small plot can be developed each year. Here is my thought.

1. Layout small plots, 8x3 or12 x 3. A 4 foot aisle for clover between.
2. Dig only the top 4-6 inches the first year, plant shallow rooted plants, and if I am brave, test out the ability of parsnips to dig down and start breaking up the 6-12 inch layer.
3. THe following year, dig the 6-12 inch level and put in perhaps potatoes, and the reason why is this: I dont need to refill the lost soil (removed rocky material) and bring it back up to grade immediately. Add organic material like compost as the potatos need covering.
4. Need an alternative to potatos as we dont eat a lot of them. Find another crop that will do well in a trench.

I think this will help develop better soils and if in limited areas. Ultimately because I currently have access to compost and manure, I think the soils can be constantly fed. Toward this end we have started dumping the material from horse stalls and chicken coops in large piles in the garden area so it will compost where we need it. And not move it twice.

COmment on the squash experient last summer. In the afore mentioned piles of raw manure ( shavings and horse manure and wet shavings), summer squash growth was interesting to say the least. NOthing was normal. First with the heat of the composting material, the warm temps caused the seed to germ inate very quickly. Like WOW fast!!! And the growth continued fast, THe plants were crowded, and too many bushed ( stump sprouts) shaded the growth. But it did help keep the "soil" moist. Ultimately few fuits set and fewer matured to a useful size. For all my efforts, better results are a must.

Need a better plan as this did not work.

 

[Arielle]

http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/yard-garden/vegetables/growing-carrots-and-root-vegetables/

 

[Arielle]

http://www.harvesttotable.com/2009/06/carrot_and_parsnip_growing_pro/


http://www.harvesttotable.com/2009/06/carrot_and_parsnip_growing_pro/


While I am learning to provide for my chickens, and my family, I am pulled to thoughts about my community. ANd how many are not eating enough vegies. . . . . How to get kids to try a new vegie, or get a family to pot up a tomato . . . .

 

[Arielle]

http://www.harvesttotable.com/2011/04/small_vegetable_garden_space_s/

An article that explains several methods to grow more than one crop in the same space.

THe key is to grow a faster maturing crop that will be harvested in realtively short time, and then leaving the other crop to fill in that space as it matures days, weeks later.

Getting there!!!

 

[Arielle]

Excepts from the above website-- Thank you to the creator!!
http://www.harvesttotable.com/2011/04/small_vegetable_garden_space_s/


Space must be conserved in every possible way in a small vegetable garden. Here are five tips for getting the most out of a small garden:
1. Vertical growing. Garden vertically as much as you can. Use the up-and-down space in your garden and conserve your ground space. Use a single square foot of your garden surface as a foundation for crops that grow up.
Instead of letting winter squash, melons, cucumbers and other vine crops roam horizontally, give the roots the soil they want and let the rest of the plant grow up. Same goes for tomatoes and beans–both snap and lima. Give these crops support–stakes, wire cages, and trellises–and tie the stalks in with strips of cloth or horticultural tape.
You can grow six cucumber plants in a two-foot tall cage that is just 18 inches in diameter. These vertically growing plants will outproduce sprawling plants that might take 15 square feet of ground space or more.
Determinate bush tomatoes can use 2- to 4-foot tall cages 18-inches in diameter. Use 5- to 6-foot tall cages for indeterminate tomato varieties. Grow a cucumber in 4-foot-high, 18-inch-diameter cage. Grow summer squash, including zucchini, in a 2- to 3-foot-diameter, 2- to 3-foot-high wire cage.
Use a standard trellis or ladder trellis for vines and creeping crops. A trellis 4 feet long by 4 feet wide can be used for growing cantaloupes or cucumbers. You can place a carrot, beet, or spinach bed along the north side of the trellis to keep those crops cool. Lean two trellises together to create an A-frame. You can plant peas, pole beans, acorn squash, Armenian Yard Long cucumbers on one side and Italian Romano beans other. Beneath the A-frame plant radishes, turnips, leaf lettuce, bunching onions and other quick-maturing crops.
Vertical growing vegetables are less susceptible to fungus attacks when their leaves are well off the ground. Vegetables that never make contact with the ground are less liable to rot.

 

[Arielle]

Here it is in the entirety----



Small Vegetable Garden Space Savers

By Steve Albert On April 20, 2011 In Gardening Tips, Plant, Tips
Share on facebookShare on twitterShare on emailShare on pinterest_shareMore Sharing Services9
Space must be conserved in every possible way in a small vegetable garden. Here are five tips for getting the most out of a small garden:
1. Vertical growing. Garden vertically as much as you can. Use the up-and-down space in your garden and conserve your ground space. Use a single square foot of your garden surface as a foundation for crops that grow up.
Instead of letting winter squash, melons, cucumbers and other vine crops roam horizontally, give the roots the soil they want and let the rest of the plant grow up. Same goes for tomatoes and beans–both snap and lima. Give these crops support–stakes, wire cages, and trellises–and tie the stalks in with strips of cloth or horticultural tape.
You can grow six cucumber plants in a two-foot tall cage that is just 18 inches in diameter. These vertically growing plants will outproduce sprawling plants that might take 15 square feet of ground space or more.
Determinate bush tomatoes can use 2- to 4-foot tall cages 18-inches in diameter. Use 5- to 6-foot tall cages for indeterminate tomato varieties. Grow a cucumber in 4-foot-high, 18-inch-diameter cage. Grow summer squash, including zucchini, in a 2- to 3-foot-diameter, 2- to 3-foot-high wire cage.
Use a standard trellis or ladder trellis for vines and creeping crops. A trellis 4 feet long by 4 feet wide can be used for growing cantaloupes or cucumbers. You can place a carrot, beet, or spinach bed along the north side of the trellis to keep those crops cool. Lean two trellises together to create an A-frame. You can plant peas, pole beans, acorn squash, Armenian Yard Long cucumbers on one side and Italian Romano beans other. Beneath the A-frame plant radishes, turnips, leaf lettuce, bunching onions and other quick-maturing crops.
Vertical growing vegetables are less susceptible to fungus attacks when their leaves are well off the ground. Vegetables that never make contact with the ground are less liable to rot.
2. Dwarf and miniature varieties. Use dwarf instead of full-size vegetable varieties. Dwarf varieties of sweet corn, beans, peas, and other vegetables are just as tasty as the larger varieties. Look for seed or starts with give-away names like “Midget”, “Patio”, or “Tom Thumb.”
Here are a few varieties to look for: Baby Head and Morden Dwarf cabbages, Early Sugar Midget and Short ‘n Sweet cantaloupes, Bunny Bite and Little Finger carrots, Golden Midget and Golden Miniature Corn, Patio Pik and Pot Luck cucumbers, Early Black Egg and Slim Jim eggplants, Midget and Tom Thumb lettuces, American Wonder peas, Patio and Tumblin’ Tom tomatoes, Sugar Bush and Sugar Baby watermelons.
Midget and dwarf vegetable varieties are not only perfect for small gardens but ideal for container vegetable gardens as well.
3. Intercropping and companion planting. Plan your vegetable plantings with intercrops or companion plants. Intercropping means that between two rows of midseason corn, for example, which should be spaced about thirty inches apart, a row of early peas is interplanted. The peas will be harvested and the plants turned under before the corn has grown large enough to crowd the peas.
In nearly all plans for intercropping, the smaller crop which matures more quickly is planted in a row that runs between two rows of the larger, later-maturing crop. A row of dwarf corn is sometimes planted between two rows of pole beans or squash. A row of lettuce or spinach can be planted between two rows of cabbage or cauliflower.
Here are some intercropping examples: early peas between two rows of corn, early lettuce between squash, onions sets, between beets, spinach between parsnips, radishes between cucumbers, spinach between celery–think small plant row between two larger plant rows.
Companion-cropping means planting or sowing smaller vegetables between plants of a larger crop in the same row; or planting rapid-maturing vegetables such as lettuce, between slower-maturing ones, such as tomatoes.
Onion sets, lettuce plants, or beets planted in the same row between plants of cabbages or cauliflower are examples of companion-cropping. The smaller crops are harvested before the cabbages or cauliflowers have matured.
Here are some companion cropping examples: lettuce between tomatoes, onion sets between cabbage, radishes between cauliflower, beets between eggplants, Swiss chard between peppers, spinach between corn–think rapid-maturing plants between slower-maturing ones.
Companion and intercropping means using practically the same space to grow two crops.
4. Wide-row intensive planting. Wide-row intensive planting can double or triple your garden’s yield. The Chinese have intensively planted vegetables for thousands of years. In the last half century, French and American gardeners have widely adopted intensive vegetable gardening.
Wide-row intensive planting means placing plants in such a way that their outer leaves just touch one another when the plants reach about three-quarters maturity. When the plants are fully mature their leaves will overlap. An intensively planted garden means not only using less space but using less water and doing less weeding–the garden bed is carpeted with crops and the ground is shaded.
When intensively planting, space your crops just a little closer than suggested on seed packets. Stagger your crops instead of planting in rows directly across from each other. If you can’t quite get the hang of it, stretch 2-inch chicken-wire screen across a frame and use the grid as a template–planting in the middle of the of the squares. Remember to keep in the mid the foot-print of each plant at maturity.
5. Rotation or succession sowing. Rotation or successional sowing is using the same space two or three times over, during the garden’s growing season. Early, midseason, and late crops of the same or different vegetables may be sown or planted in the same rows in seasonal succession. Early beets may be followed in the same row by late beets, or by bush beans, spinach, or rutabaga. Lettuce, kohlrabi, or romaine may follow early spinach or early peas. There are many possible successions of crops. The way to schedule plantings is to determine the approximate planting dates, length of time from sowing to maturity, and space needed by each type of plant at various stages of growth.
For a continuous supply of vegetables from early spring to late fall, and to save space, sow successionally. Two or three sowing of each of peas, sweet corn, string beans, beets, carrots, lettuce, and cabbages will insure continuous supplies. First sow the early varieties, then the midseason, and finally the late.

 

[Arielle]

Excepts from the above website-- Thank you to the creator!!

Space must be conserved in every possible way in a small vegetable garden. Here are five tips for getting the most out of a small garden:
1. Vertical growing. Garden vertically as much as you can. Use the up-and-down space in your garden and conserve your ground space. Use a single square foot of your garden surface as a foundation for crops that grow up.
Instead of letting winter squash, melons, cucumbers and other vine crops roam horizontally, give the roots the soil they want and let the rest of the plant grow up. Same goes for tomatoes and beans–both snap and lima. Give these crops support–stakes, wire cages, and trellises–and tie the stalks in with strips of cloth or horticultural tape.
You can grow six cucumber plants in a two-foot tall cage that is just 18 inches in diameter. These vertically growing plants will outproduce sprawling plants that might take 15 square feet of ground space or more.
Determinate bush tomatoes can use 2- to 4-foot tall cages 18-inches in diameter. Use 5- to 6-foot tall cages for indeterminate tomato varieties. Grow a cucumber in 4-foot-high, 18-inch-diameter cage. Grow summer squash, including zucchini, in a 2- to 3-foot-diameter, 2- to 3-foot-high wire cage.
Use a standard trellis or ladder trellis for vines and creeping crops. A trellis 4 feet long by 4 feet wide can be used for growing cantaloupes or cucumbers. You can place a carrot, beet, or spinach bed along the north side of the trellis to keep those crops cool. Lean two trellises together to create an A-frame. You can plant peas, pole beans, acorn squash, Armenian Yard Long cucumbers on one side and Italian Romano beans other. Beneath the A-frame plant radishes, turnips, leaf lettuce, bunching onions and other quick-maturing crops.
Vertical growing vegetables are less susceptible to fungus attacks when their leaves are well off the ground. Vegetables that never make contact with the ground are less liable to rot.

I'm trying to think of cheap solutions. Like using branches, using scrap wood. NAd what is the impact when one side , the north side of the section is soooo tall that it creates shade on the other side. . . .. .in other words, how high is too high, and can the cooler side be used in some way to grow a "cool" crop in the heat of the summer . .. .. will it get enough sunlight . . . . .