The end of July is speeding toward us and here at the My Edible Yard Urban Homestead that means it's time to ready the garden beds for planting in September with as much composted manure as we can get our hands on. The more compost we incorporate into the soil, the healthier the soil will be and, Mother Nature be willing, the healthier our vegetable plants will be, hopefully leading to higher produce volumes.
But with the all-encompassing lazy heat of the summer, it's been hard to even think about working in the backyard garden this year. So I haven't. I've concentrated on keeping the front yard beds presentable to the neighbors, trying to outsmart the heat by doing my weeding, watering, and harvesting either in the early morning or early evening hours.
As I forced myself this past weekend to start planning my attack on the backyard, it dawned on me that I've got help this year. The chickens. I don't have to do it by myself or even coerce my husband into doing it for me. All I have to do is let the chickens loose to do what they do best. Scratch, poop and forage. And they've joyfully obliged me. They have successfully fertilized all the backyard beds, dutifully uprooted weeds, and aerated the soil. Now all I have to do is lay down a thick layer of composted manure and let the girls do their thing.
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Backyard chickens hard at work.
They've just started on the bed in the back. |
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| I think they noticed the camera. |
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| Chickens at work. |
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| A chicken-finished bed. Just a few stray weeds for me to pull. |
With the girls' help, I can get to the other garden tasks on my chore list like getting seeds started and planning what vegetables will go in what beds. Now to figure out how I'm going to keep the chickens out of the beds once they're planted.
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8 comments:
Awesome job the girlz did and they don't gripe or complain about doing it either.
what ya gonna plant in September? Are your veggies all organic?
Not 100% sure everything that will be planted, Tricia, but I can assure you that there will be green beans, tomatoes galore (last year I had 27 tomato plants), cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, turnips and rutabagas, etc, etc.
My garden is 100% organic, as are the chickens.
And I forgot. There will also be all sorts of greens - mustard greens, collard, swiss chard.
I'd like to try some new varieties this year and maybe a few new veggies, too. And I should have the room as we have the addition of the 8 beds 3 x 8 beds in the front yard that we didn't have last year.
WOW that is a lot of tomato plants and a lot of beds to fill.
I have a notebook jam packed full of garden plans and pictures. I am planning for all organic gardens and have scouted out seeds and plants. I am planning on enclosing my raised organic beds inside of a wood framed structure we call a butterfly house. It is A frame with hardware cloth on walls and roof. The openings in the hardware cloth is 1 inch square so it will allow bees and other benefitial insects in but keep out bad bad bad things like bird, dogs, cats, moles, voles etc.
I have also devised a plan to lay the hardware cloth in the bottom of the raised beds then add all the soil and compost so no digging nasties can get in.
I have seen way to many neighborhood gardens be destroyed by bugs and birds. NOT gonna happen to mine.
I noticed your raised beds are 1 board high, do you have any higher?
Because of a back and knee injuries, I was planning on 2 possibly 3 board high. What do you think?
You are brilliant! Getting the chickens to pluck your weeds and enrich the beds with manure. I am truly impressed!
Tricia - you can make your beds any height you'd like. Also, I've seen beds that have legs and bottoms so that people don't have to bend over. My beds in the back are varying heights. I also use cinder blocks that I got for free in the back yard for some 16 foot long beds that are almost 2 feet high.
Susan - I am sure I'm not the first person to think of letting the chickens fertilize and weed pull. As a matter of a fact, there's an article in today's Miami Herald Living section on Bee Heaven Farm in the Redlands that raises chickens in portable tractors to keep their crops fertilized and weeded. But thank you for the compliment. It's too bad I can't let the girls out in the front yard.
Hi Ara,
I just came across your blog and noticed that CoMo Homestead was mentioned in your news section, so I thought I'd say hi! I'm looking forward to following your adventures.
Annette - It's great to meet you. I read the article on you and Charlie when it first showed up in the RSS feed on the blog. Tell Charlie that chickens are the way to go. They are extremely easy to take care of and provide much more than eggs - amusement, affection, fertilizer, pest control. They're fabulous.
I grew up in a small college town in Ohio with the same initials as your MU - only mine was Miami University. My dad was a professor there for close to 40 years.
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