Posted on 05/23/2010 7:12:12 AM PDT by JoeProBono
A garden will save you a lot of money over produce prices at the ‘grocery’ stores; the food will taste MUCH better, and provide much more nutrition.
My next garden project is a coop and chickens. I can have up to three hens and no roosters in my location and property size.
Only reason I haven’t done it yet is that I haven’t found a decent looking coop for under about $700. I’ll end up building my own from plans but getting the time to do it has been difficult.
Both the sewage treatment plants in Utah Valley, where I live, make incredible compost out of the sterilized sludge, mixed with chopped up green waste. They will load the back of your pickup for $20 to $25. Do they do that in other places?
We have used it for our square foot gardening boxes, along with peat moss and vermiculite. We use it to dress all the flower beds. One raised bed is filled completely with it. Our friend got us a dump truck load. Everything growing in that bed is three times the size of everything else.
BO’s food safety act has not yet passed. But we can ignore that law if we want anyhow since the federal government likes to ignore certain laws.
eff em
A truckload of live chickens overturned on the 405 fwy one day. That was one famous traffic jam. 10 lanes of traffic at a dead stop. News helicopters were flying around taking video of people chasing chickens around the place.
I gave my big rear tiller to our pastor 3 years ago as we spade all of our beds with a good sharp shovel. Just start small and add compost and old potting soil from any containers and put new soil in the pots.
Reddevil232 posts a weekly garden thread with lots of input from fellow gardeners... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2518116/posts
Don’t buy top soil. They’ll sell the worst of the worst. Add soil amendments (peat moss, vermiculite, compost, etc.) to your existing soil. Plant in raised beds for good drainage. You’ll be happier in the long run.
All of the beds are raised and filled with a mix of 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 compost and 1/3 peat moss with a few other things thrown in such as worm castings, etc. The corner of the pasture where we are building this is fenced and totally lined with huge pieces of cardboard to cut down on the perennial weeds coming through. The base of the fence is reinforced and framed with the same timbers we used to build the beds. 2 purposes -- keep the weeds out and provide an edge to mow against with my zero turn mower. The fence is to keep the deer and rabbits out. If you are on a city lot, you probably don't have to worry about deer munching your garden.
I'm just about ready to harvest my first crop of lettuce which was started by seed in the basement under lights. Onions are ready to pull to use as green onions in salads. Radishes should be ready next week, or the week after. Cauliflower heads are forming. Broccoli is doubling in size daily, but no heads yet. Peas are 2 inches high. I'll be planting corn, beans, squash and cucumbers as soon as I get back from VA for granddaughter's 1st Communion. Everything is growing well. Tomatoes should be ready in August. Pondering: Why don't lettuce and tomatoes mature at the same time?
In my climate, I should have to take up canning to make this garden "pay". But, right now, I just want home grown veggies for part of the summer.
One of my beds is pictured below:
There are 4 beds, plus inside perimeter beds, around the fence. It's a work in progress which is why you see the clutter laying around right now.
Go to Home Depot....They have a nice size resin building about the right size and price....Easy to wash down if you chose not to continue with the chickens after a while.
Love this magazine..I remember when it was like a newspaper and my brother sold them.
Years ago (IIRC 77 or 78) a buddy of mine purchased a Troy rear tine tiller
He advertised in the local ‘dandy dime’ shopper to till - charged per per sq footage- the machine more than paid for itself the 1st year and he made a ton of money on year 2.
This was in the Spokane area, lots of gardens.
are those pansies?...never saw them so blue....
its profitable in every way....
she’s one mean bitter itch isn’t she...
the deer are the MAJOR issue with plants in my area.....our garden is fenced but anything else, they’ll eat..including my single rhoddy...which is why its behind an ugly fence...
I’ve got about 100 square feet of square foot gardening beds. They are raised 18 inches high, so I don’t have to stoop, with an edge I can sit on. This will be our fourth summer. They are wonderful. My married kids have gotten inspired, and four of the six have built their own.
That is the same thing I thought when I saw the picture.
You may want to rethink that idea. I've heard some medicines don't compost completely and people flush leftovers which go into the sewage.
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