Earth Gardens: Edible-Medicinal-Wild Habitats (Permaculture Network)

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Comment by Deanna Lloyd on March 29, 2010 at 9:35pm

Hum, robins haven't got my peas yet, but they have been very successful at displacing my little radish, kale and chard seedlings with all their scratching!

Comment by David Pike on March 29, 2010 at 8:01pm

gardening wouldn't be challenging at all without all the critters that are trying to eat our food before we do. Last year I battled with wireworms, this year its been the chickens (finding holes in my fence) and now robins! At least I am suspecting robins for the decimation of 30% of my pea crop in one day...thats right...they are digging up my sprouted peas and eating the seed while discarding the foliage. I haven't actually caught them in the act yet...but based on the evidence I am suspicious. Now i've got bird netting over my pea sprouts. Can anyone verify my suspicions?

Comment by Merry Teesdale on March 28, 2010 at 4:23pm

Walter, you are so right when you say>The upshot may be that lacto-ovo-vegetarianism (tentatively) becomes the most energy-conscious way of eating....sic. Of course, the real kick in the pants is the amount of human labor needed to tend to the animals.< It is a time consuming responsibility to tend animals day in day out. However, most of us have pets which we feed a couple times a day and buy food for, who produce nothing we can use. We could, instead, regard chickens as a more productive kind of PET which gives us eggs (great source of protein made in our own yard) and chicken poo (very useful). The human work involved is feeding and cleaning once a day, possibly letting out and locking up at night entailing a second trip to tend them, and initially building the containment area, plus buying food for them if one goes that route. The whole trick is to not have more chickens than we need. Remember, surplus is a waste product which makes one expend time and energy to deal with.

If one is only after poo, the easiest way is to encourage the farmer's best friend - worms, either by making conditions right for them in the soil and let them do the work or by raising them in containers and spreading it around in which the human does the work. Work or no work, your choice! Time goes by, whether we want it to or not.

Comment by Brian Kerkvliet on March 27, 2010 at 8:42pm

I don't know what to say. Our ducks are about six pounds each. if they pooped 46 lb each day they would leave a constant trail behind them all day long. Our cow is about 800 to 1000 lb. and I haul about one large wheel barrel a day when the are in winter lock down mode. I would say it is over 100 lbs. with some hay. I would like to think that ducks have that much flow through, but I doubt it. That being said I still think ducks are beneficial to the system.
On another note I saw some free hay on craigs list for those that are looking for it.
http://bellingham.craigslist.org/grd/1663003503.html
Mulch and prosper!

Comment by David Culver on March 27, 2010 at 9:44am

Thanks to everyone for all of your tips. It's exciting thinking about creating a garden and permaculture yard in the process.

I need a couple of ducks, that is for sure. Someday I will try it.

I called the man with the hay for $40 a bale, but I think I will try to get some less costly materials. He will load them though if anyone has an idea to try him. He says they are dry in his barn on pallets and that he sells them to horse people for feed.

Thanks again. David

Comment by Juliet Thompson on March 27, 2010 at 9:05am

Mulching again: If you're planting trees or berry bushes, wood chip on top of cardboard works great - the weight of the chips has an effect on killing the grass, and stayed in place on the hill where we were working better than the hay we also used. We moved the wood chips aside to plant into. In this orchard we actually wanted the material to break down slowly, because we weren't covering the soil with plants as soon as possible, but creating paths and small areas of varied meadow grasses and flowers to attract pollinators. As usual it depends on your goal, the situation, etc.

Comment by Merry Teesdale on March 26, 2010 at 9:25pm

Hey Dave, why do it all at once? I do projects when the materials 'materialize' for me. It's free and more fun than work. I need a certain amount of grass clippings for mulching the annual garden bed seedlings to keep them weed free, so a bit of grass is useful at this point. My suggestion is to consider doing your place in stages.
You can create great garden beds over time by building compost piles and then using that spot for a garden after you use the compost.
Here's how. Make a big compost pile with cardboard underneath, surround it with bricks so it looks nice, and throw everything on it for 6 months. You can throw on anything and everything organic including sweaters, old jeans, paper, ashes, chicken poo, etc. Every six months, start another one. Now wait a year for the first one to cold-compost. By this time you should have three compost piles, one every six months. From now on you will have finished compost every six months. There is no turning the compost, no work at all involved with this method. After a year of sitting, use the compost in your garden beds along with some manure. YOU ARE NOW LEFT WITH A NEW PLANTING AREA where that compost pile was! I have used this method repeatedly to make many garden areas around my yard including a fragrance garden by my porch.

Comment by Brian Kerkvliet on March 26, 2010 at 7:44pm

In Permaculture the saying is "You don't have a slug problem you have a duck deficiency". We used to have a lot of slugs until we got ducks. I would be lying if I said we don't have any slugs but the population is defiantly less. I plant a few more starts in anticipation of the slugs arrival. Our four ducks have a lot of ground to cover and we use masses of mulch that tends to give the slugs a place to hide. The ducks do a good job of poking their bill into the mulch and finding the slugs somehow without disturbing the mulch. The ducks free range most of the time but we do have to confine them when the berries are getting ripe.

Comment by Jamie Jedinak on March 26, 2010 at 6:24pm

I like to use cloches, you can take a plastic container and cut the bottom off and cut up the side, put it over the seedling and when the plant fills the cup or container you can then open it up and peel it away from around the plant...make sense? I use plastic coke cups that I got at sunshine liquidators...I can show you Jean if you like. I can give you one.
I use them as slug resistance for my dahlias, works well! creates a mini hot house too!

Comment by Jean Kroll on March 26, 2010 at 6:05pm

Okay you gardening experts, here is a question for ya:
I have many adorable seedlings in my cold frame that will soon be ready to put into the ground. However, slugs could quickly mow down these little beauties with just one bite. I've used beer traps, and they are effective at drowning the slugs, but it is a bit of a pain to keep up with them. Any suggestions?

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