No “tomatoes” because Alabama’s lawmakers are still watching the “Reefer Madness” movie. Wait till they see “Up in Smoke”.
Leveled the raised beds a couple weeks ago and cleaned them out completely to refill with “new” dirt. What was in them was a sand/pine bark mulch mix that was pretty depleted after 4 years. I made a homemade soil screen and mixed new compost (with a LOT of chicken poop in it on a 2:1 ratio of old dirt with new compost.
The photo was taken right after emptying the first raised bed. I shoulda been an Aussie because if I throw something away, it simply aint worth having anymore. That’s a tailgate from a trailer that my neighbor had 20+ years ago. The posts are from my recent deck rebuild. Total cost was about $4 for some rather expensive (but really good) lag screws.
Ennyhoo, fast forward to today and I planted 18 broccoli, 12 cabbage, and 6 curly leaf kale plants for us and our precious family of chickens which now stands at a total of 35 birds. What we don’t eat, the Chunky Stinkers (combination of the Chunky Chicks and Stinky Peepers) as well as the Peewee Peckers will. We spoil the girls horribly and it shows.
The little sprinkler is the cat’s pajamas for watering a couple rows without making a third too muddy to plant. I’m going to add 18 Brussell Sprouts (which takes FOREVER to grow) in the row closest to the house (nice warming effect from the bricks).
I also planted a multitude of green leafy things in the closest and farthest raised planters on the right. Radish and mixed salad greens in the closest, turnips, onions, carrots and more lettuce in the farthest. Gotta order a few parts from VegePod (Aussie folks) to get a little maintenance done on the raised beds. UV has taken a toll on the velcro strips that hold the netting on the frames as well as the clips that allow the frames to hinge on the edges.
We had a bit of bad luck with the birds (chickens) earlier this summer. One ate something she couldn’t digest and got sour crop from that. I think it may have been a wild scuppernong, which has a very tough skin. Another was watching while the missus was trying to purge her (several times), and she aspirated and died(the chicken, not the missus), which put the one watching in a deep depression. Never knew chickens gave a sh** about each other, but the loss of a flock mate can (and DID) put them into a depression that can kill them. One of her hatch mates decided life wasn’t worth living without her sister and we fought for weeks keeping her alive until she finally snapped out of her funk. Not the same chicken she was, for sure. Then she started molting…….
Meanwhile, chicken math had struck again bringing us to 35 birds including 3 Polish Crested (1 white, 1 grey, and 1 black). That has to be the weirdest looking chicken I’ve ever seen.
Ennyhoo, I digress, but lotsa stuff planted today, more to plant later. For now it’s all winter resistant plants that “normal” Alabama winter won’t hurt. Gotta figure out what herbs we can grow through winter. As I said, we spoil our birds with stuff they love because we can’t let them free range One thinks she’s a lap dog and follows me around in the pen until I pick her up and hold her a few minutes. It’s hard to walk in there when I go in for their morning treats and tending.
