09 Garden Update

This is the second year we've been cultivating this area of the yard for food production. We expanded it considerably from last year, and the tomatoes we planted in the newly tilled stuff are not doing very well.















All but the Sungold Cherries appear to have serious cases of blossom end rot, plus water and drainage problems as evidenced in the picture above.

However, the areas we cultivated last year are thriving, thanks in large part to rotating the crops and adding a huge amount of very well-composted steer manure. We got this from a local guy who came and dropped it right in the garden for us. We added it in generously and then Gordon tilled it all under again. The plants living in the "poop" are happy and producing nicely.







I went a little nuts with the potatoes this year (down to the left). Won't be doing that again. Hilling them up is a lot of work.




We block-planted soy and bush beans (left) this year, and it's a great strategy because the weeds don't get enough sunlight to actually grow. However, this year we planted things a little too close together, so walking between the rows is a bit tough at the moment. We have some big, beautiful chard and beet tops, but I can hardly get to them any more.




This is the block-planted soy to the left.



Our Oregon Sweet Peas (below) did great until about the first of July when it got above 90 degrees. They can't tolerate the heat.


We used a small piece of fencing and some three- or four-foot tall fence posts we had lying around for the trellis. It worked out great.









Our hot pepper patch looks great this year. We mulched with straw after things got established to try to cut down on weeds.

New Australorps - FINALLY

So we started this year with six Bantam chicks. Two yellow / two black featherfoots and two little brown ones that turned out to be Cochins.

Welll... We also raised 25 chickens for meat in our homemade chicken tractor.



One of them was determined not to die. We tried to cull him one day and as Gordon swung the axe down to separate him from his head, he DUCKED. Gordon took off the top whisps of feathers, but he tucked his head down between his shoulders, freaking Gordon out completely and earning himself a temporary Stay of Execution.

So the next weekend we started culling the rest, pulling them out with our homemade chicken hook one by one. Get down to the last one, and lo-and-behold, it's Mr. Duck-the-Axe. We named him Darwin and put him and the other two meat chickens that turned out to be hens in with the Banties.

So, long story short we ended up with four hens and three roosters. Needless to say, this has not been a happy arrangement for anyone.

Luckily, Gordon found an ad on Craigslist from a lady trying to get rid of nine laying hens at $10 apiece. This isn't a bad price if they keep laying for another year or so. We drove out last night in my Bug and put them two-at-a-time in bankers' boxes -- seven Australorps, two Rhodies. This has to be executed after dark, when they chickens are groggy and you can catch them. Catching a chicken in daylight is not an easy thing. They're small and FAST.

When we got home we pulled the Bug up to the coop and put all the boxes in on the floor. We opened them one by one and shook the new hens out on the ground. They had not been in the best living conditions -- outside in a filthy tractor, no heat lamp, we didn't even see any food or water -- and they jumped on the food.


Lil' Fry (left) hopped down from the coop to check them out, and even David Sedaris and Darwin seemed pleased. Now they have plenty of variety to choose from and they won't all have to fight over Brownie and Blackie every day. (Who, by the way, were growing ever more tired of the advances of three roosters multiple times a day.)

So, it's easy to add chickens to your flock, as long as you do it at night when everyone is groggy. So far we haven't had a lot of trouble with the roosters fighting, but it could still happen. The main problem is that they are incredibly, terribly noisy. Lately they have started a crowing contest at 3 a.m. every morning (doesn't even start getting light until 5), causing me to think evil, murderous thoughts until I squeese my earplugs in.

We live in a very quiet valley, too. You can always hear your neighbors fighting, yelling at dogs, etc. etc. I swear we have the noisiest yard for miles around. I just hope if they decide to take someone out, Fry and Darwin go before I do.

Farm From Scratch

A year and a half ago, my boyfriend and I bought a house on four acres in the Columbia Gorge in Oregon.

We had already begun raising chickens and gardening at our rental house on less than one acre, so making the transition to a larger operation seemed logical.

We moved in, but left the chickens behind that first night because we were completely wrecked after starting  moving at 4 a.m. We crashed out early that night. I woke up at like 5:30 the next morning completely stressed about the chickens. (At that point, we had three Rhode Island Reds.)

Something felt off to me. I actually woke up because I "heard" one of them squwaking -- impossible, since they were 20 miles away. I fretted and bit my fingernails until I couldn't stand it anymore. At 9:30, I woke Gordon up.

"We have to go get the chickens!" I said frantically. It had frozen the night before, getting down into the lower 20s, and I had a terrible feeling that the chickens were suffering.

"Okay, okay," Gordon said grumpily. "Let me wake up for a second."

We finally got on the road. Twenty minutes later, we were at the old house. I rushed out to the barn to check on the chickens. They weren't in the coop! The little chicken door we had cut out of the wall was closed.

I ran outside and looked at the outdoor coop area. There they were, all huddled up against the door, shivering. Poor little ladies!

I went back in and opened the door for them and they all came tumbling in to the warmth of the coop, with its heat lamp, warm water and food. I felt terrible.

We had argued over how to transport them, and we had finally settled on a large cardboard box. They might not be the happiest chickens in the world for awhile, but we were traveling in my VW bug and we didn't have a whole lot of options. One by one, we caught them and, against vigorous protesting, shoved them into the box. (We had cut holes in the sides so they had fresh air.)

Happily for them, as soon as they were inside the dark box, they went to sleep. So, we arrived at our new home with our old chickens and a new coop all ready for them. 

Chickens are funny. They have a great sense of direction.

Their new nesting box was against a wall facing west, while the one they were used to faced south. In the morning, we found that they had lain eggs -- in the box opposite the one they had always used.

Please post comments and questions about organic gardening and raising chickens for eggs and meat.

Thanks for reading!