Small Changes
Way back before I even had chickens, I started reading about them. Of particular interest to me, was the deep litter system. Sadly, I cannot implement this type of system in the coop, it has a wooden floor which prevents it. I can however implement a deep litter system in the run.
I’m in the process of doing this. When we arrived the run was one giant mud puddle. As I’ve been working in the garden, all the weeds have been going into the run, along with other dry material. The results are quite remarkable and the chickens are loving it.
The chickens were also happy to roam freely about the garden yesterday afternoon. I’ve been keeping them in their run to keep them out of the potager since I planted seeds. I finally collected enough little bits of fencing from other areas to put around the edible garden. Now my little seedlings will be protected. Eventually, a permanent fence around the potager would be nice.
Another thing I want to work on is growing more food for the chickens. For the same reason I like to grow the food we eat, I just like to know exactly what’s going into it. I won’t be able to do much until next spring, but I did start some flats of wheat grass for them. I plan on doing this throughout the winter to give them something green to eat.
Hopefully in a few years we’ll have a new coop with a dirt floor, a fence around the potager and we’ll be growing more food for the chickens. Until then, I’ll work with what I have and implement small changes here and there when I can.
Are you implementing any small changes in your garden with hopes of bigger changes down the line?
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Cultivate Simple 2: Winter Is Coming
Topic – Winter Is Coming
- Use leaves as mulch
- Wrap sensitive plants – Here’s a post about how I wrap my hydrangeas the same method could be used with other plants
- Move pots to a sheltered place for winter protection
- Planting cover crop – check out some of the books recommended below
- Weed now so you don’t have to next year
- Plant for a winter harvest
Book of the Week
Listener Questions
Rick Worden of Rise and Shine Rabbitry on Facebook
- The Self-Sufficient Gardener – Episodes 147 & 172
- The Human Path – Episodes 100, 116, & 117 – Herbs to use in your Rabbitry
- The Rabbit Podcast (not sure the status on this one) Rick was supposed to be a co-host
Support
Books mentioned and recommended in the podcast:
Find Chiot’s Run Everywhere
- Subscribe in iTunes
- Eat Outside The Bag
- Email at show@cultivatesimple.com
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on Flickr
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:23:31 — 58.1MB)
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Quote of the Day: Bernd Heinrich
The leaves of the red maple drop at the height of their color, and all the while that the forest is ablaze in color from the underbrush up through the tips of the crowns, the ground also is aflame as the magic settles onto the wilting ferns and last year’s decrying brown leaves. I want to pick up every leaf, for each one seems brilliant and unique. I want to know that the colors are even more precious because they are ephemeral–in a few days they all face to a uniform brown.
Bernd Heinrich (A Year In The Maine Woods)
Fall can be a flash in the pan kind of season. Some years it’s longer than others. When the weather cooperates, you get a few weeks of beautiful color and glorious weather. When it doesn’t, just about the time the leaves peak, the wind and rain arrive, washing most of the fall color to the ground, where it quickly turns brown.
This past week we had a windy rainy day that did just that. The nice thing about those windy rainy days, is that it clears the air, making things so crisp and clean. It seems this can only happen in the fall for some reason.
On Saturday morning we woke up to our first frost and freeze. It was 30 when I awoke, there was a skim of ice in my watering can when I went to the chicken coop. Winter is slowly creeping up on us!
How is fall progressing in your garden? Frost, freezes, changing leaves?
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A Bit of Restraint
I decided earlier this year that I wasn’t going to buy anything to plant this fall. Why? Because Mr Chiots and I want to spend the winter coming up with a master plan of where we think everything should go. We made the mistake at our last place of planting a few things early on then having to move them. We’ll spend the winter watching the sun travel across the sky, watching how the water drains, and looking for possible deer crossing patterns.
Yesterday, we went to the Fedco warehouse sale. I knew I didn’t want any bulbs, shrubs, or trees, but I was interested in buying a few herbs that I didn’t have. Just as I suspected, there were a few. I purchased just 5 plants: Sedum, Boneset, Licorice, Hyssop, and Codonopsis.
It wasn’t just about plants, we met and talked to a lot of great folks. No doubt people we’ll see again and again. You can bet we’ll be attending the spring sale to pick up all the trees and shrubs we want to add to new place.
Since we were in the area, we also stopped by Johnny’s Seeds order pick up office to chat. There is no real retail store, but they do have a few clearance items and sample tools to look at. We were pointed towards the research farm to have a look around, with a warning that most crops were coming out and cover crops being sown.
All-in-all it was a lovely day. We visited a few new places, traveled new roads, learning new towns and roads, met new people, engaged in lively conversation and were even invited to a secret farmers market and potluck that’s happening this morning at a local orchard. Sometimes you just never know where you’re going to end up or what’s going to happen.
Do you plant things in the fall or just in spring?
For more photos of both Fedco and Johnny’s, head on over to my Flikcr Photostream.
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Friday Favorite: Chores
I’m an active person, therefore I love having things to do around the garden. If there’s not a book in my hand, I don’t like to sit still. During spring and fall, I especially enjoy doing outdoor chores. There’s just something about those days with crisp cold mornings and warm sunny afternoons! It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, it feels good to be active and to be outside.
There are no shortage of chores around here. I’ve been weeding the main garden up on the hill. Half of it was tilled under by the previous owner right before we came, half of it was full of buckwheat going to seed and weeds. The songbirds were loving it, as were the deer. I’ve been slowly working my way through and putting all the weeds in the chicken run. We also cleaned the chicken coop and whitewashed the floor. I’m experimenting with different white wash recipes, when I find a really great one I’ll share.
Today I’ll hopefully be heading to the Fedco warehouse sale (anyone else heading there?) and to Johnny’s Seeds to pick up some Fall Green Manure seeds for the garden. No doubt I’ll return home with more fall chores to keep me outside.
What fall chores have you been enjoying?
