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Mobile Bay Area Backyard Chicken Club (Mobile, Alabama)
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Return to: Gardening, Plants And The Backyard Chicken
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#Post#: 502--------------------------------------------------
Permaculture gardening with chickens
By: Susan Austin Coulange Date: March 6, 2018, 2:34 pm
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Hello to all members ! I am a new member living in Vancleave,
MS. I practice permaculture gardening. The principle is to use
every resource in combination so that there is a synergistic
effect. For example, I started vermicomposting with European
night crawlers about a month ago. They convert kitchen scraps
into worm castings. If you have ever bought worm castings, you
know how expensive it is. Worm castings can also be made into
worm tea. The other use for the worms will be fishing in our
pond, when the weather warms up. The worms also reproduce.
(There are actually commercial worm farms which sell worms, worm
castings and worm tea.) Likewise, I use the chickens for eggs,
entertainment, herbicides, pesticides and fertilizer. They also
till the garden in the fall. My garden is completely organic,
especially after I learned the shocking truth about GMOs and
Glyphosate (Round Up)...but that's another topic. When we lived
in a subdivision, I used the Square Foot Garden method, but
since moving to the country, I am converting to traditional row
garden. My future plans are to create a "food forest" which will
lean heavily on perennials. The garden and fruit trees will feed
us and the chickens. This spring, we plan to get rabbits for
meat and manure. Avoiding preservatives and the awful random
DNA found in GMO plants (which make their way into our meat
supply via such things as BT corn) is a major goal. Many of you
may already be familiar with all of this. If I am repeating
things you know, forgive me. If you are not aware of these
issues, I am happy to share what I have learned.
I have been following Justin Rhodes' vlog for over a year. He
is very informative. His entire family (wife, "the beautiful
one", children: Jonah, Josiah, Lily and "Mr. Brown" Gideon) are
permaculture farmers. One really interesting thing the family
did was travel to all 50 states (in a converted school bus) to
see (and vlog) how other people garden and farm. (OK... they did
fly to Hawaii and Alaska) It was fascinating and made it
possible for thousands of people to be exposed to successful
farming techniques not otherwise available. To get started with
Justin's vlog for anyone who is interested, just go to You Tube
and search: Justin Rhodes. Let me know how much you love him
and his family!
Happy Permaculture!
Susan
#Post#: 504--------------------------------------------------
Re: Permaculture gardening with chickens
By: Travis Rayner Date: March 6, 2018, 6:02 pm
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Susan,
Thanks for the great info. We do hydroponics, mainly tomatoes
and leafy greens. I will look forward to your continued posts
on our forum!
Travis :)
#Post#: 506--------------------------------------------------
Re: Permaculture gardening with chickens
By: Susan Austin Coulange Date: March 6, 2018, 6:40 pm
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Thank you, Travis. I have seen hydroponics on you tube videos
but don't know a lot about it. It looks complicated to set up.
Do you have fish in it?
I am always experimenting with new things. Life is one big
experiment for me. I built an "hugelkulture". It's a German
technique. Henrie, my hubby, says it looks like a Viking
funeral pyre...and it sorta does. LOL Basically, it's a raised
bed made with large logs, branches, leaves, mulch, dirt,
straw... in ascending order. The idea is the logs will retain
moisture so cut down on the need to water. As the organic matter
decomposes, it feeds the plants. I am going to plant melons on
it so they can vine down the sides. We'll see... I'll post pics
as it progresses.
I'm also intrigued by the Moringa tree and have some seeds to
plant. It's tropical so I hope it survives our winters. It is
super nutritious and all parts of the tree are edible. The
leaves taste like spinach, flowers taste like mushrooms, seed
pods taste like asparagus, and the roots can be used to make a
condiment similar to horseradish. The nutritional value far
exceeds what we think of as healthy. Like, it has more Vitamin
C than an orange, more nutritious than spinach, etc. (At least,
that's what I read). They are being planted in third world
countries to feed the starving people. I think I read they
planted 400,000 in Bangladesh. The only down side is how fast
it grows. They say it will grow 10' in a year! Well, at least
if it dies in the winter, I can just plant another. Does anyone
in the group have a Moringa tree?
#Post#: 507--------------------------------------------------
Re: Permaculture gardening with chickens
By: Travis Rayner Date: March 7, 2018, 8:08 am
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[quote author=Susan Austin Coulange link=topic=253.msg506#msg506
date=1520383246]
Thank you, Travis. I have seen hydroponics on you tube videos
but don't know a lot about it. It looks complicated to set up.
Do you have fish in it?
I'm also intrigued by the Moringa tree and have some seeds to
plant. It's tropical so I hope it survives our winters. It is
super nutritious and all parts of the tree are edible. The
leaves taste like spinach, flowers taste like mushrooms, seed
pods taste like asparagus, and the roots can be used to make a
condiment similar to horseradish. The nutritional value far
exceeds what we think of as healthy. Like, it has more Vitamin
C than an orange, more nutritious than spinach, etc. (At least,
that's what I read). They are being planted in third world
countries to feed the starving people. I think I read they
planted 400,000 in Bangladesh. The only down side is how fast
it grows. They say it will grow 10' in a year! Well, at least
if it dies in the winter, I can just plant another. Does anyone
in the group have a Moringa tree?
[/quote]
Negative on the fish...that would be aquaculture. Actually
setting up a simple system is not that difficult. I have
developed several techniques to make things easier. The last
hurricane and subsequent flooding of our property took its toll
on my system. I am currently considering scrapping and starting
over so I can utilize the more simply system I developed. My
original system was modified several times over several seasons
as I learned better ways to manage the water. When you look at
my videos, I even mention something about that, but...when I
rebuild, it will be much simpler, less plumbing, more efficient
and super easy to maintain at end of season (which is NOT the
case now!). :)
Below is 1 of two videos on my YouTube channel (FlyboyTR). When
this one reaches the end, it should automatically pull of the
second one where you can see they growth that has taken place in
5 or 6 weeks....crazy!
OH...your garden bed sounds like a mix of jungle magic...but I
like your thinking out of the box! Good stuff!
OH...Moringa...I studied that tree a few years ago. I have the
seeds but never planted them. I may need to move ahead with
that! Only problem is...is that it is a VERY UGLY tree! LOL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRn57Z4SNzc&t=0s&index=1&list=PLtght_y_19BJwVbu…
#Post#: 508--------------------------------------------------
Re: Permaculture gardening with chickens
By: Susan Austin Coulange Date: March 7, 2018, 9:40 am
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Great video, Travis! The second one didn't come up and I tried
to find it on you tube. No joy. It looks like less work, once
it is set up. None of that nasty weeding! Good job!
LOL on the fish. I said I didn't know much about it and I proved
it. hahaha Keep me updated on your results!
Happy Gardening!
Susan
#Post#: 511--------------------------------------------------
Re: Permaculture gardening with chickens
By: Travis Rayner Date: March 7, 2018, 6:07 pm
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[quote author=Susan Austin Coulange link=topic=253.msg508#msg508
date=1520437235]
Great video, Travis! The second one didn't come up and I tried
to find it on you tube. No joy. It looks like less work, once
it is set up. None of that nasty weeding! Good job!
LOL on the fish. I said I didn't know much about it and I proved
it. hahaha Keep me updated on your results!
Happy Gardening!
Susan
[/quote]
Susan,
Sorry it didn't come up. that video is below. this is 5-6
weeks after transplanting into the hydroponic system.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF9EiVGkGuo&index=2&t=4s&list=PLtght_y_19BJwVbu…
#Post#: 512--------------------------------------------------
Re: Permaculture gardening with chickens
By: Susan Austin Coulange Date: March 7, 2018, 6:30 pm
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WOW Travis, that is amazing for 5 weeks! What do you feed
them? Amazing results. Have you tried to grow long beans? I
started growing Taiwan long beans a couple of years ago. They
are the beans you see at a Chinese buffet. You can actually
watch them grow: 2" a day! You harvest them when they are
16-18" long. Obviously, you don't have to plant loads of plants
to get enough beans to eat. I saved seeds last year. I'll bring
some seeds to the next meeting, if you want to try some
(assuming I remember!) LOL
Thank you for posting this video. It is very impressive.
Susan
#Post#: 514--------------------------------------------------
Re: Permaculture gardening with chickens
By: Travis Rayner Date: March 8, 2018, 8:20 am
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Thanks, Susan. Glad you liked the video. I use a special
fertilizer, CHEM-GRO TOMATO FORMULA 4-18-38. To that I add
magnesium and calcium. This is for hydroponic use. After much
experimenting, I found the ratios that seem to be the perfect
blend for my needs. It is measured by weight in grams. I
created an Excel spreadsheet for calculating how much of each I
need for a given amount of water. I use the same combination,
but in different ratios for leafy greens. The tomato plant
foruma is a bit too strong for the greens.
That fertilizer is not available locally and can be ordered from
Hydro Gardens. It is, however, very expensive. Seems like it
was close to $95 shipped for 25 pounds. But, I have been using
out of it since the spring of 2014 and have used less than 1/4th
of it. A little goes a long way! Below is a mix ratio formula
I use for tomatoes and lettuce
Tomatoes
Tomato Blend
TOMATO FORMULA 4-18-38
Calcium
Magnesium
Dutch Bucket hydroponic system: 52 Gallons
Hydroponic Rail System: 16 gallons
Anyway...hope that gives you a better idea about the fertilizer!
Travis :)
#Post#: 521--------------------------------------------------
Re: Permaculture gardening with chickens
By: Susan Austin Coulange Date: March 8, 2018, 12:15 pm
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WOW! A spreadsheet? You sound like my husband. LOL Thank you
for the info. I'm not that organized! ha. I use azomite,
organic compost, worm castings,rabbit manure. It's totally
different with dirt. It's always an experiment. I am also
going to start using wood chips for mulch. We'll have to compare
results. It looks like you might win that competition! :)
Happy gardening!
Susan
#Post#: 524--------------------------------------------------
Re: Permaculture gardening with chickens
By: Travis Rayner Date: March 8, 2018, 12:58 pm
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[quote author=Susan Austin Coulange link=topic=253.msg521#msg521
date=1520532902]
WOW! A spreadsheet? You sound like my husband. LOL Thank you
for the info. I'm not that organized! ha. I use azomite,
organic compost, worm castings,rabbit manure. It's totally
different with dirt. It's always an experiment. I am also
going to start using wood chips for mulch. We'll have to compare
results. It looks like you might win that competition! :)
Happy gardening!
Susan
[/quote]
I don't care what works...as long as it works! :) LOL I am
going out leaf scrounging this weekend... I like it when I can
find prebagged leaves sitting on the curb ready for trash
pickup!
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