Real food? - Mini vent.

[Myhouseisazoo2]

I like to compost everything, if possible. I have horses, I have been guilty of scooping poop and putting directly on the garden....... I borrow a phrase from my Daddy......"It'll either make it GO or it'll kill it." I have 7'x8' coop with a 8'x12' run. I pack leaves in all winter up to 3-4 feet deep. The chickens scratch it to bits, poop all over it and reduce it to black, crumbly garden GOLD. My chickens do all the work for me.

Hmm I may have to try this... Next year I'm trying to turn my entire front yard and half my back into a garden and this would probably help massively with nutrients. Twinnie clarified for me apparently the dairy place that's some where around here just processes the dairy items. So I probably couldn't get manure from them anyway.

 

[goatgurl]

goat poo or bunny poo works great too and neither of them will burn plants like chicken poo. keep an eye out on craigslist for people who are giving away bunny poo. and i, like baymule put bags and bags of leaves and grass in my chicken house for the girls to work on all winter. i just toss a couple of handfuls of cracked corn on the pile every day or so and they dig and toss around like it was fun. one note i did change from scratch grain to corn chops because when i put the compost on the garden not all the millet seeds had been found and would sprout in places i didn't want millet and the chopped corn won't sprout if they miss a piece. i also plant in containers some. i take 55 gallon plastic barrels and cut them in half not long ways but in the middle and then put stout wire cages around them. they will hold two tomato plants nicely and since the cage is 5 ft tall it contains them without having to stake them and vined crops also work well in them. up the sides they go and the beans, cukes etc are held up by the cages and are kept clean and easy to pick.

 

[Myhouseisazoo2]

Ooo! I've tried growing stuff in the smaller pots before getting my house but didn't have room for the bigger ones, I'll definelitly have to try this (even if its just tomatoes) the bunny poo is excellent news for me as we're planning on raising some rabbits for meat and I know from past experience that they poo... A lot!

 

[sumi]

DH is experimenting with growing some veggies in pots, beans and squash for now. I will let you all know how it goes.

 

[Myhouseisazoo2]

Yes please, I am very interested!

 

[Denim Deb]

And I'm going to try and grow some stuff over the winter in my greenhouse.

 

[sumi]

What are you going to grow and in what size/type containers, Deb? (Shamelessly after stealing ideas here )

 

[Denim Deb]

I have a bunch of buckets, so I'm going to be trying some beans (a bunny ate all mine), some tomatoes, some potatoes, some radishes and I'm not sure what else. I may dig up some peppers and see how they do. I'd like lettuce, but don't have any seeds. But if this works, then next year, I'd do even more. If I find that I can't keep it warm enough, I'll bring the buckets in and grow them in the basement.

 

[goatgurl]

DD lucky you, i have no basement so the greenhouse is my only choice for winter. and the greenhouse is small. I'm going to try a zucchini just for grins and giggles. also going to have spinach and lettuce in containers. i have the jalapeno pepper plants that Choco chewed down to a nub but are coming back nicely and am also going to try a couple of tomato plants too. going to drag some of my herbs in pots in there too and i'll pretty much be out of room.
@sumi for several years my mom grew tomatoes and peppers in 5 gal. buckets on her porch and they worked well. i am able to get 5 gal buckets with lids for $1 from a guy who has car wash soap in them so this year I'm going to fill buckets with water and put the lids on and line the walls of the greenhouse with them to hold heat, put wire shelves over the buckets and put the plant containers on them except for the buckets the zucc's and the tomatoes are in. What you think DenimDeb, will it work? this is the first year for me to try this so i'll keep youall posted.

 

[Hinotori]

I grow grapes in pots. I planted them two years ago. They produced a few bunches last year and quite a few this year.

I found out last year that neither is what it was labeled as. They were supposed to be Niagara, a white concord grape. Neither is a concord of any type, or a white grape. One of them is purple and not very tasty. The chickens like them, though.

I got some grape starts from from my Great Uncle this year. They are actual Niagara from his 40+ year old vines. Two are white and one is a purple.