Garden and Chicken Run Expansions!!!!

After months of being holed up in the house, I took a "me" day today. Took the day off from work and dropped the kid off at the babysitter so I could work outside for a little while. Seemed perfectly logical considering the temperature has stayed above freezing for a few days in a row and the 1 foot of snow we had on the ground has diminished to about 2 inches in most places. I have been toying with the idea of a garden expansion for awhile, then we added 5 more pullets to our flock of 7, so the chicken run expansion seemed a good idea. So here's the plan....

The garden's original size was 25 feet by 40 feet. I am expanding the 25 foot dimension. I have decided exactly how far, but somewhere in the the 6 to 10 foot range, giving me somewhere in the neighborhood of 240 to 400 additional square feet, or put another way a 24% to 40% expansion. I started today by pulling the posts from the west side of the garden, and left it at that for now. Like I said I haven't definitely decided how much larger I want the garden. Decisions, decisions.

The chicken run expansion was more straight forward since I only had so much space to work with. The original chicken run was 15 feet by 20 feet or 300 square feet total. I am expanding the 20 foot dimension. The new dimensions will be 15 feet by 27 feet or 105 square feet more than I had before. At least initially the expansion will be separated by the original fencing which will give me 2 separate areas. The new pullets can be put into the new smaller area and hopefully when added to the flock will be integrated with minimal problems. I'm also hoping that once the new are living peaceably with the old I'll be able to put all the chickens into the newer run and get something green to grow in the original run, and rotate the chickens back and forth (at least spring through fall) growing grass and clover in one side while the chickens eat, scratch, and generally destroy the other. If that doesn't work out I'll remove the original fencing and just expand the run. The upside to that is I will be able to expand the chicken coop making more room for additional chickens. I can't keep up with egg orders as it is right now. I took 2 metal t-posts that I removed from the garden and put them into place. I also took the center wooden post I removed from the garden and used it for the corner post of the chicken run expansion.

I don't have any pictures yet since it wouldn't really look like anything has been done. I will post them in the future when everything is done.

Cabin Fever

Getting pretty sick of the cold and wet weather. The only gardening I've been able to do is repotting New Guinea Impatiens I took cuttings from in the fall. Even though they're doing well and I should have more of them than I can actually use it doesn't occupy much of my time off.

On the up side I've gotten about 20 seed catalogs to go through and can start planning my garden this year, but it's still 2 months until I can even start the seeds so in the end it's just a big time waster. I wish global warming would hurry up and get here so I could start in February, but in the end I don't think that's gonna happen, what with Al Gore working as hard as he is. Considering he helped invent the internet, this shouldn't be much of a challenge for him.

God I'm bored......

New Compost Bins

I just completed my new compost bins. The photo on the left shows the area they are located. n the background is my neighbor's small horse pasture and barn. Behind me was a Black Locust tree and a Hawthorn tree that I had to cut down to enable my tractor to get to and from the bins easily without hitting trees with my front end loader. I decided on a 3 bin system. The bin to the left will be for the newest pile, the center bin for half done compost and the third bin for finished compost. I wanted to do this as cheaply as possible so I decided to use posts cut from my property as well as making the walls from fairly straight limbs that I had laying around after the big wind storm of 2008. I needed 8 posts and found a 2 dead Black Locust trees about 6 inches in diameter, which yielded 5 posts, and I cut down a Hackberry also about 6 inches in diameter which gave the final 3 needed posts. I placed them 18 inches into the ground and packed the ever abundant clay around them to firm them up. Yes, I dug them by hand. Each bin is 6 feet in length, 5 feet wide, and 3 1/2 feet deep. It took many more limbs than I initially thought it would which meant I had to go looking for additional "wall" material, but in the end I'm happy with what I ended up with. I only placed a front wall on the newest pile bin. I may add them to all the bins in the future, but I needed to finish the first bin so I could fill it with all the Sugar Maples leaves lying around my property. The front wall is removable and I made it by building a wooden fram from .5 inch x 2 1/4 inch stock I had lying around in the shed. Then I cut about 5 willow shoots from around my pond and stapled and nailed them to the frame. The front wall rests on screw in hooks and the top is held in place by hooks andf eyelets. It weighs about 30 pounds and is easy to remove. I have the first bin abou 2/3 full with leaves, twigs, some kitchen scraps and finished compost. The photo on the bottom shows the completed bins, without the front wall, on the night I finished them (11-10-2009). All in all the project cost me about 30.00 the bulk of which went to 3 inch exterior screws and then the hooks for the front of the left bin. They took several weekends for me and my Dad to complete and totals maybe 30 man hours for the two of us.

This year in gardening

Well the garden is out and the cover crop is in place and starting to come up. It wasn't a terrible year, but certainly not the best. We had some screwy weather this summer. In total I think we had less than 4 days above 90 degrees, which is unusual. On top of that we had an above average amount of rain. I'm assuming that's why the tomatoes didn't do as well as last year. The corn was a dissappointment. It grew fine, but the ears weren't as big as advertised. Next year I will not be planting corn. It takes up too much space for too little reward in my opinion. On the up side the cucumbers were outstanding. I canned approximately 50 quarts of pickles. I did get enough tomatoes to make 6 pints of chili base and and about 12 pints of salsa. The green beans did well, but I was disappointed in the variety, just didn't have a good taste.

I did get a new toy about a month ago. A new John Deere 2305 with a front end loader and 54" mid-mount mower deck. I love it. Probably more tractor than I actually need, but who cares it's just plain fun.

First Eggs

Got my first egg earlier this week, and have collected at least one egg each day since July 15th with the exception of the 17th. Right now they are small, with each weighing about 1 1/2 ounces. I've been told they will increase in size to about 3-4 ounces in time. I certainly hope this is true. The roosters are driving my wife nuts with their constant "badgering" of the hens, and I don't know how much longer she will put up with it. They may not be among us much longer, if she has anything to say about it. I have to admit it was much more than I expected.

Been Awhile

Definately been awhile since I posted anything. My blog hasn't exactly been setting the world on fire with hits, which in all likelyhood is why I haven't been doing it. I have a lot going on right now, but that's just an excuse. So here is what I've been doing for the last couple of months.

Most importantly the chickens have grown into respectable Buff Orpingtons and are getting big. I ordered 10, requesting one rooster and nine pullets. I read somewhere that the success rate of sexing chicks is roughly 90%. Well it holds true, turns out I have two roosters and 8 pullets. One of the pullets met an early demise so now I only have seven pullets and two roosters. They are doing well and I am anxiously awaiting my first eggs which should arrive sometime around the end of this month with any luck.

The garden is going well. Tomato plants are setting fruit, but it should still be a couple of weeks before any are ripe enough for picking. Green beans have completely covered their poles and have blooms, but as of yet no pods. Onions and garlic were a disappointment, but this is the first time I've grown them so I didn't expect much. The corn has been a bit of a trial this year. My first planting didn't germinate well at all. I don't know if it was a problem with the seed, but of the approximately 180-200 seeds I planted only about 10 came up. I replanted after buying new seed of the same type and all have germinated, and are about two feet tall, so I'm a bit behind. Pickling cucumbers have exceeded my expectations. In the last five days i have produced 9 quarts of pickles. Four bread and butter and five kosher dill. I use a package mix because it so much easier than doing it from scratch. My Ball canner was a solid purchase last year. I use Mrs. Wages pickling mixes and am quite happy with it. It's much easier.

Almost Time for Gardening

I'm getting the itch to get my garden going. I've started several tomatoes indoors, including Better Boy, Delicious, and Cherokee Purple. The first two are hybrids I've had laying around for a several years, and was actually quite surprised when they germinated. The Cherokee Purple is a Heirloom tomato that I'm pretty "excited" about. It is said to be one of the best tasting tomatoes around. I only hope it produces well enough to justify planting it in my garden. I planted Old German tomatoes last year and wasn't impressed with the number of fruits I harvested, and it too was an heirloom. Same story with the Brandywine. So it would seem my experience with the heirlooms is less than perfect, but I'll keep trying.

I've also started yellow onion sets inside. I read about this in some magazine. I guess it will give me onions a couple of weeks earlier than most folks, but it won't be long until I can plant more in the garden, so actually I'm only gaining about a 4 week head start on those.

I'll also be growing about 100 row feet of corn, a bi color variety called Ambrosia, which I don't know much about but came recommended from my local feed store/nursery. Also can't wait for the pickling cucumbers, as they were a huge hit last year even though it was my first attempt at pickling. I hope to get more green beans from my heirloom pole beans than I got from my bush beans last year. A new addition this year is red garlic which I've never grown, as well as 3 grape plants, Thompson Seedless (2), and Pink Reliance (1). We'll see what else I can come up with between now and Mother's Day, which is the recommended planting date here in Cincinnati.

Would love to hear from everybody about what they're planting!!!!!!!!!!