Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Carrie Shepard <carrieshepard@yahoo.com>]

I've got free range guineas and chickens, but the ducks and geese I fenced into the orchard.  Geese come after anyone new to the property and poor little kids have not a chance.  Of the two, the geese are by far the better weeders and fenceline cleaners.

 

I've tried fencing the chickens out, but they all fly and go where they want and lay where they want.  I've experimented with cooping them during certain of the garden seasons, but then production goes down in eggs and it's more work.

 

What I've found works is to buy polypropylene row covering from www.robertmarvel.com and use it to protect the new plantings until they plants are big enough that the birds won't bother them.   If you plan intensively on wide rows, this works well.   My first roll lasted several years as I only need the row covering till certain points and it can be removed, rolled or folded and stored till the next new planting.

 

Last year's tomatoes mostly fed my guineas, till I realized I COULD think.  I hung up the freebie CD's around the tomatoes with twine and then was able to get a few ripe ones before the birds did.  I've seen some pretty cool whirligigs that I may experiment with this year if I can get to it, freebie CD's are cheaper, but whirligigs are just so much fun to watch in the wind.

 

The more shrubbery and plant life, the more there is for the chickens to entertain themselves with besides your garden.  I'm trying always to think in layers, looking at what's growing at each level in my yards and trying to plug something in to fill each growing level...bulbs, perrenials, shrubs, cane fruit, roses, short trees, skinny trees, evergreen trees/shrubs, etc...

 

Hope this helps,

Carrie

 

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