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Gardening!
13 years ago
Hello everyone, Pink here!
pink.ink
Today I took my old red wagon, which I have fond memories of since childhood, and made a flower bed. I truly love that wagon and the idea of it now being a flower bed for some native plants was fantastic to me. I am only planting flowers or herbs with short roots inside. So, I planted my fawn lilly and some cat nip thus far. Waiting till next pay day to buy some more plants for my little project. I also planted cucumbers, zuchini, and pumpkin. For those I put down some cardboard, old tires, lots of soil, and planted the veggies in the circle of the tires! It a fun way for these viney plants to tumble over the edge and continue to grow while giving them their own space.
Of course the chickens were right on that. Thank goodness for chiken wire!
Today I also recieved a note from one of our watchers that I would like to share with you!
This was a note I recieved from
yelleena
It has some wonderful ideas and is pretty interesting. We like to hear stories and ideas like this here! Thank you for sharing and keep them coming!
___________________________________________________
LifeStyle: - Tub Garden
We live in a suburban house and have several small court yards but very little tillable earth suitable for vegetables. This court yard gets the largest amount of sun so rather than rip up the bricks we decided on a raised tub style using childrens toy bins, large plastic tubs and the old wheel barrow. Some of the tubs were new others were recycled from trash. We have greater control over what is used in the containers, weeds are easier to deal with and we don't have to dig so much or bend down so far once they are set up. A definate bonus for me as I have back problems. We have chickens so we started by putting in a layer of used straw from the hen house, a layer of potting mix, a layer of soil from the hen yard and more potting mix, then we mixed the layers and let them stand for a couple of weeks topping up with potting mix just before planting. We also use a seaweed fertilizer occasionally. Rather than seeds most plants were purchased as seedlings and we had wire covers over the containers for a while to keep the birds out. As the plants got bigger we took the wire away and mulched with clean straw. Most of the water used on this garden has been recycled from our showers using buckets that sit around the edge of the shower cubicals and fill up. MrDuhast is amazing becasue he carries 8-10 buckets of water through to the garden every day, only on the hottests days in summer have we had to resort to using mains water for this garden. On wet days we harvest as much rain water as we can in open flat kiddy pools and then bucket this to a storage bin near the garden. We use 2Lt soft drink bottles that we fill and put into the soil upside down to make sure that in the hottest part of summer the plants had water and the pots less likely to totally dry out.
We have to date enjoyed a large range of herbs including sage, itallian flat leaf parsley, curly leaf parsley, basil, corriander, oregano, chives, a little dill (this died off unforturatly), nastersiums, thyme and we have had vegetables such as tomatoes (several varieties), cucumber (one was 55cm long), lebanese cucumbers, purple carrots, orange carrots, sweet potato, capsicum, a little lettuce and strawberries. Mrdhast and I are still experimenting with this and even in autumn (Australia) we are still harvesting from most of these plants.
Our Court Yard Vegetable and Herb Tub Garden created by yelleena and 
mrduhast
Photographs:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6830155/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6830174/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6830193/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6830134/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6830126/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6830114/
produce: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7007190/
As a part of our life style we have chickens and turkeys recieving up to four eggs a day or more sometimes and a lot of fun. We have 3 turkeys and 11 chickens. Only four of the hens lay regularly and only one turkey is laying at the moment.
turkeys: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7366648/
mrduhasts photo of our chickens
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7237459/
_______________________________________________________________
Now, I can say from my own experiance having chickens as part of your home and garden is a wonderful thing. But here are some tips and things you need to know:
- Chickens need a good solid roost that will protect them from the weather. But will also be ventilated so they don't get too hot. Common sense. But what some people neglect is room. Chickens need spage. You cant keep then in a small fenced area and expect them to not get aggitated. You want happy and relaxed chickens to have good eggs. If they become too upset the eggs can have spots of blook in the yolks or taste bad. You need to make sure they are all comfy and happy with room to explore, scratch, roll, and stretch.
- Also, make sure their pen is secure. Chickens tend to wander. they scavenge for bugs and are curious. Make sure they're locked in at night so possums, dogs, raccoons, and such don't eat them.
- Make sure they have the proper food, water, and scratch.
- Do research
- Remember that those cute little chicks you buy as Easter props grow up to be big chickens with needs and are still cute! Just in a different way!
- All eggs taste a little different. Duck eggs, chicken, quail, ETC.
- Duck eggs are really hard to bake with. But, ducks are best to have for your garden cause they love eathing slugs, snails, and other veggie eating bugs. Chickens are good for this too. But most chickens I've met aren't fans of the slimey bugs.
Over all just do reasearch! Raised beds, soils, plants, edible, non-edible, animals. All of it. Take time and really research before making decisions. It will yeild very satisfying results! :)
Thanks!
- pink.ink
pink.inkToday I took my old red wagon, which I have fond memories of since childhood, and made a flower bed. I truly love that wagon and the idea of it now being a flower bed for some native plants was fantastic to me. I am only planting flowers or herbs with short roots inside. So, I planted my fawn lilly and some cat nip thus far. Waiting till next pay day to buy some more plants for my little project. I also planted cucumbers, zuchini, and pumpkin. For those I put down some cardboard, old tires, lots of soil, and planted the veggies in the circle of the tires! It a fun way for these viney plants to tumble over the edge and continue to grow while giving them their own space.
Of course the chickens were right on that. Thank goodness for chiken wire!
Today I also recieved a note from one of our watchers that I would like to share with you!
This was a note I recieved from
yelleenaIt has some wonderful ideas and is pretty interesting. We like to hear stories and ideas like this here! Thank you for sharing and keep them coming!
___________________________________________________
LifeStyle: - Tub Garden
We live in a suburban house and have several small court yards but very little tillable earth suitable for vegetables. This court yard gets the largest amount of sun so rather than rip up the bricks we decided on a raised tub style using childrens toy bins, large plastic tubs and the old wheel barrow. Some of the tubs were new others were recycled from trash. We have greater control over what is used in the containers, weeds are easier to deal with and we don't have to dig so much or bend down so far once they are set up. A definate bonus for me as I have back problems. We have chickens so we started by putting in a layer of used straw from the hen house, a layer of potting mix, a layer of soil from the hen yard and more potting mix, then we mixed the layers and let them stand for a couple of weeks topping up with potting mix just before planting. We also use a seaweed fertilizer occasionally. Rather than seeds most plants were purchased as seedlings and we had wire covers over the containers for a while to keep the birds out. As the plants got bigger we took the wire away and mulched with clean straw. Most of the water used on this garden has been recycled from our showers using buckets that sit around the edge of the shower cubicals and fill up. MrDuhast is amazing becasue he carries 8-10 buckets of water through to the garden every day, only on the hottests days in summer have we had to resort to using mains water for this garden. On wet days we harvest as much rain water as we can in open flat kiddy pools and then bucket this to a storage bin near the garden. We use 2Lt soft drink bottles that we fill and put into the soil upside down to make sure that in the hottest part of summer the plants had water and the pots less likely to totally dry out.
We have to date enjoyed a large range of herbs including sage, itallian flat leaf parsley, curly leaf parsley, basil, corriander, oregano, chives, a little dill (this died off unforturatly), nastersiums, thyme and we have had vegetables such as tomatoes (several varieties), cucumber (one was 55cm long), lebanese cucumbers, purple carrots, orange carrots, sweet potato, capsicum, a little lettuce and strawberries. Mrdhast and I are still experimenting with this and even in autumn (Australia) we are still harvesting from most of these plants.
Our Court Yard Vegetable and Herb Tub Garden created by
yelleena and 
mrduhast Photographs:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6830155/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6830174/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6830193/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6830134/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6830126/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6830114/
produce: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7007190/
As a part of our life style we have chickens and turkeys recieving up to four eggs a day or more sometimes and a lot of fun. We have 3 turkeys and 11 chickens. Only four of the hens lay regularly and only one turkey is laying at the moment.
turkeys: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7366648/
mrduhasts photo of our chickens
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7237459/
_______________________________________________________________
Now, I can say from my own experiance having chickens as part of your home and garden is a wonderful thing. But here are some tips and things you need to know:
- Chickens need a good solid roost that will protect them from the weather. But will also be ventilated so they don't get too hot. Common sense. But what some people neglect is room. Chickens need spage. You cant keep then in a small fenced area and expect them to not get aggitated. You want happy and relaxed chickens to have good eggs. If they become too upset the eggs can have spots of blook in the yolks or taste bad. You need to make sure they are all comfy and happy with room to explore, scratch, roll, and stretch.
- Also, make sure their pen is secure. Chickens tend to wander. they scavenge for bugs and are curious. Make sure they're locked in at night so possums, dogs, raccoons, and such don't eat them.
- Make sure they have the proper food, water, and scratch.
- Do research
- Remember that those cute little chicks you buy as Easter props grow up to be big chickens with needs and are still cute! Just in a different way!
- All eggs taste a little different. Duck eggs, chicken, quail, ETC.
- Duck eggs are really hard to bake with. But, ducks are best to have for your garden cause they love eathing slugs, snails, and other veggie eating bugs. Chickens are good for this too. But most chickens I've met aren't fans of the slimey bugs.
Over all just do reasearch! Raised beds, soils, plants, edible, non-edible, animals. All of it. Take time and really research before making decisions. It will yeild very satisfying results! :)
Thanks!
-
pink.ink
start with two tyres on top of each other with soil and straw in the first then place your seed potatoes and add straw and soil to the second tyre, allow the potatoes to grow to about half a foot above the second tyre before adding a third tyre and packing that out with soil and straw, repeat this for a fourth tyre and a fifth tyre if desired then allow the potatoes to grow full cycle. Once they are full grown and the vines dying off it is time to harvest.
To harvest tip the whole stack over (note set this up in a location that you don't mind covering in dirt etc) and harvest the potatoes. Its a no dig system. I've done the tipping part onto a tarpaulin and then reused the soil in another part of the garden.
I've also used old tyres to make potted retaining walls by stacking them brick fashion but receeding into the dirt bank and filling each layer with soil, once at the height I wanted I then planted out each tyre with shrubs preferably scented herbs. Worked great.
*hugs*
I would love to try this one year. Thanks for sharing!
*hugs*
-:iconpink.ink.