Chicken and greenhouse stuff

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I had a pleasant day today. We put down the base layer of leaves to day in what will be the first of two growing beds in the greenhouse. We'll be building the soil via the chicken tractor method. I spead a little scratch around and the girls got right to work. It was fun to watch. One of them got out of the coop when we first went in and we just left her in the greenhouse with us. She was very companionable and followed us around. In fact, during a break I picked her up and she seemd quite content to sit in my lap for quite a while. I guess that would make her a lap chicken.

One of my pigeon hens is sitting on two eggs she laid about a week ago. We've had the pigeons for about 1 1/2 months now. They were about 12 weeks old when we got them so the timing is just about right cause they start laying at around 16 weeks.

Up till this last week the pigeons were kinda spooky and wouldn't let you get too close but this last week they've made great progress. Even the hen stays on her eggs when I come in and get within inches of her. I hope to have them eating out of my hands by winters end.

If everything goes according to plan I'll be planting the first of the greenhouse beds in about two months. Thats how long Andy Lee, author of chicken tractor, says it takes to build soil, ready to plant, and about 6-8" deep. The local natural foods co-op pays $5.00/lb for mesclun mix lettuce.

Any of you square foot gardeners know what the expected yields/sq ft is for lettuce?

-- john leake (natlivent@pcpros.net), January 08, 2001

Answers

John, have you seen John Jeavons book, How to Grow More Vegetables than you Ever Thought Possible on less land than you can imagine? (Long title, huh?!?) He has yield charts for just about everything. Not mesclun, as the books are fairly old now, but if you do a little juggling with the figures for various greens, you should be able to get a rough idea -- and that's all you need, anyway, as your mileage will vary!!

-- Kathleen Sanderson in NH (stonycft@worldpath.net), January 08, 2001.

Last season, we got 16 heads out of 2 4ft squares and 2 plantings in our squarefoot experiment.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), January 08, 2001.

My BISF guru gave me the site www.context.org/iclib/ic42/jeavons.html for more info on high yield gardening.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), January 08, 2001.

john, diregard the above web address. The url uses upper and lower case and I copied it all lower. Instead goto www.context.org and use the search feature for "Jeavons". Sorry for any inconvienence.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), January 08, 2001.

Mel Bartholomew, author of Square Foot Gardening (I love this book!), says you should plant lettuce (all kinds) 4 per sq foot (1 every 6" sq). The actual crop depends on variable factors such as fertility, water, heat, sun, shade, and etc, but you can expect full size/flavor produce with ferile soil in the intensive growing method. The time would just depend on the variety in a perfect garden.

Happy mesclun growing!! (Where do you get your seeds from? I get my saleds from the Cooks Garden catalog)

-- Marty (Mrs.Puck@Excite.com), January 08, 2001.



Mels' book has turned into my garden bible. Only thing, I want to put in about 30 squares and do it as a full time family ag project.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), January 09, 2001.

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