Yep, I should've been more clear. That's exactly what I meant, planting a cover crop, turning it into the bed this fall and letting it rest over the winter. Clover and vetch would add some nitrogen to the soil. But veggies would be good too. I just didn't know if you were wanting more veggies...
There's no chicken wire over the top, but I think you're seeing the framework I originally put in place to attach the vertical wood framed chicken wire panels to. I no longer use those panels, but that framework has come in handy for attaching trellises to. Last summer I used it to support some...
That makes a lot of sense. My raised beds are spaced just 2 or 3 feet apart. Dang deer! I don't have a squirrel problem, had a rabbit problem and it was resolved with herbs and 5 hours of braising on the stovetop.
I tried enclosing individual raised beds in cages but it got to be too much trouble getting in and out of them so I put up a tall deer fence around the perimeter of the raised bed garden. Made life much easier.
With my new garden area I put up an 8.5 foot tall deer fence from the get go. 4 feet...
I think that the warmth from below coming from the decomposition of the compost helped keep the plants growing, even in cooler weather.
:old Back in the day my grandpa used heat from rotting steer manure to keep sweet potatoes warm when growing out the slips in early spring. He buried a layer...
I mentioned here a month ago that I was thinking about planting butternut squash seeds in the top of my pallet chicken run compost pile. They are doing great so far, not vining yet but when it the weather gets warmer next month they should start growing fast.
These are supposed to be a bush...
For me, the big downside about using narrow crown staples for attaching boards is that if I decide to to disassemble the project and reuse the boards, those flimsy staples are nearly impossible to remove. The legs can be clipped off or bent over, but there will always be small shards of metal in...
I had to put my Y adapter in my garden hose system a couple days ago too. I had to buy a new 50' hose because I didn't have enough to reach my new garden bed down by the woods. I have four hoses now, three 50 footers and a 25 foot long hose.
I put the Y in the raised bed area, with one hose...
I read that the biggest problem with growing squash directly in the compost is that it's difficult to keep the compost moist enough for the plants to grow. One recommendation was to bury a half gallon milk or juice jug next to the plant, small end down, bottom (at the top now) cut off. Fill it...
This morning I noticed lots of tomatoes are sprouting out between the pallet slats on the sides of my compost pile. I threw lots of tomatoes to the chickens over the last couple of years, both grocery store tomatoes and tomatoes I grew, so no telling what kind of fruits the plants will produce...
My biggest problem with my chicken runs is that when I shovel it or move it around, most of the dust is pretty much all desiccated chicken crap and I don't want that stuff in my lungs or on my clothes and hair.
Unfortunately I can't successfully compost in the chicken runs since both are under metal roofs and stay pretty much bone dry year 'round. Poop just soaks into the wood and dries up, but there's not enough moisture to get things composting enough to eat up all the nitrogen in the poo and...
I checked today and the compost pile temp is still at 105°F ten inches deep, 8 days running. As you said @gtaus , I'm assuming that the temperature at the center of the pile is somewhat higher.
My compost is still at 105°. I was thinking about attaching a small section of tubing or pipe to my compressor trigger nozzle and injecting air into the center of the pile instead of turning it. Think that'd work to introduce air?