I've Got the Dirt

I'm not even sure how it happened, but I became obsessed with our dirt. Somewhere I read about testing soil, and adding amendments and alkaline and acidic and nitrogen and peat moss and compost, manure, mulch, organic matter, lime, blah blah blah.....

So, I tested our soil with a cute little kit. Found out our soil was alkaline. No doubt about it. And, further evidence of hard mud clots and clay like mud reassured me of that. Alkaline soil has pros and cons, but mostly cons and it can be hard to get stuff to grow because the soil doesn't let roots expand and take in the nutrients it needs. 

Then, I had to decide how I was going to improve or "amend" it. Man, everyone has their own opinion. Almost everyone agrees that you need organic matter, like compost. Well, we left behind a beautiful but never used compost pile in La Grande. We've started one here, but obviously it hadn't "composted" yet. 

Anyway, here's what I did to try and improve our soil. 

1.) I used peat moss. Why? According to peatmoss.com, 

"Canadian sphagnum peat moss is a natural, organic soil conditioner that regulates moisture and air around plant roots for ideal growing conditions. It will help to:
 Save Water.
• Peat retains up to 20 times its weight in moisture, and releases water slowly as plants need it.
 Aerate Heavy, Clay Soil.
• Peat moss allows for proper root growth by loosening and aerating soils.
 Reduce Leaching.
• Peat moss reduces leaching of nutrients in or added to the soil, releasing them over time. This will save on fertilizer.
 Protect Soil.
• Peat moss protects soil from hardening and adds organic material."

2.) I used composted chicken manure. Chicken manure is very high in nitrogen and also contains a good amount of potassium and phosphorus. The high nitrogen and balanced nutrients is the reason that chicken manure compost is one of the best kinds of manure to use. But, it's very "hot" and thus has to sit and compost for a while before it won't burn your plants. 

3.) I used a soil conditioner that consisted of fine bark mulch. It loosens soil, helping with aeration and the penetration of water and nutrients. It also adds nutrients, nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous, iron, magnesium and other minerals to the soil. Plus it's an organic matter which encourages good things like worms! 

4.) Blood meal. Yum! Blood meal is dried animal blood, usually that of a cow, though the kind I used was porcine (pig) blood meal. Blood meal adds nitrogen and acid to soil. 

5.) To top it off, I threw on some top soil. 

Topsoil is just what the name implies: It is soil removed from the surface of the earth. Topsoil has organic matter in it from whatever grasses, leaves or bark that have decomposed on it.

 

And then I crossed my fingers, said some prayers and let it sit for a while. 

A couple weeks ago I transplanted pea starts the neighbors gave us and planted radishes and carrots. I hoped stuff would grow in there, but I was nervous. I'm a beginner, what do I know? Weeds weren't even growing in the garden space, so I was worried. 

While I was out of town this weekend, the husbando called and told me my radishes had sprouted! Yay! And as of today, I have several tiny carrot sprouts. And yes, little weeds have started growing, too. I hope this is a sign of good things to come! 

This week, I've begun transplanting many of our plants and reclaiming our dining room table. So I thought I'd show you some pictures of the progress. 

Here are our tomatoes. On the left we have Gold Nugget yellow cherry tomato plants and
on the right we have Fantastic red tomato plants. 

Our onions. Again our neighbors gave us some Idaho bulbs, those are on the left, and then
we have Japanese Summer Isle onions on the right. We will use them all as green onions. 

Radishes. 

The peas haven't passed away yet, so that's good. 

One of four Broccoli Saabe that I transplanted this week. 

Tom Thumb Butterhead lettuce starts that I transplanted. 

Three raider cucumber plants and two boston pickling
cucumber plants ready to move up the trellis. 

I forgot to mention, that with the arrival of my chickens arrived the desire to grow herbs to feed them and to put in their nesting boxes. 

Parsley, peppermint and spearmint. 

Lemon Thyme, lavender and more parsley. 

The trellis, lettuce underneath, herbs in back. 

Marigolds that I'm growing. They are edible and also deer deterrents. 

Ella and I planted some seeds way back with my Activity Day girls.
From those seeds I have five flowering plants, the first of which bloomed today! 

Here are some more herbs that I started from seed. That's chamomile, catnip, lavender, and cilantro. Not pictured is the greek oregano that I also started from seed. I got a little impatient and doubted myself, so I ended up buying chamomile, lavender and catnip plants while waiting for the seeds to come up. I thought surely I had ruined the seeds some how and they wouldn't grow....well, they did. So I guess I've got extras of the chamomile, catnip and lavender.
I also have basil and sage plants that I forgot to mention. Whew! 

Flying the Coop, but not really...

About the time we started getting the garden space ready, I casually told Eric he should let me get some chickens. We had the shed in the corner that would make a perfect coop! Much to my surprise he was pretty open to it. Little did he know the Pandora's box he had opened! 

The local feed store was getting chicks in over spring break. We were going to be at the coast, so I was hopeful they would have some chicks still when we returned. After a little bit (very little, in retrospect) of research, I'd determined I wanted Buff Orpingtons. They had a reputation of being docile, not aggressive (important factor as both Eric and I had real fears of chickens and birds in general, which makes getting chickens all the more non-sensical), good egg layers, adaptable and fairly hardy. 

When we returned from the coast, I went to the feed store the very next day. They only had three of the Buff Orpingtons left. The guy put them in a box for me, loaded me up with a 25 pound bag of feed and I was on my way. 

When I got home, I soon realized one of the chicks didn't seem to be doing too well. I was terrified! I noticed it had an old, infected injury on it's foot. I did everything I could do with my limited knowledge, but the little thing died later that evening. I tried not to get discouraged. 

Our surviving two buff orpingtons. 

By then, I had caught the bug, the chicken bug (not to be confused with chicken pox or the Avian flu). I ordered the book, "A Chicken in Every Yard" by Hannah & Robert Litt. They live here in Oregon and run a little chicken shop. It was so fun to read! It totally reminded me of Portlandia (the show). 

My mom, of course, was jealous of my chicken keeping and said she wanted to get chickens. So, I hatched (pun intended) a plan for us to order specific breeds of female chicks through Murray McMurray Hatchery (okay, seriously, this guy was named Murray McMurray, such creative parents!). 

Two of those chicks didn't make it during the trip and another died a day later. It was hard on this newbie chicken keeper. I "babysat" 14 chickens for about a week before taking half of them to my mom. 

Baby Lois, a speckled sussex. 

As my first two chicks aged, it became pretty clear that one of them was a boy. I was eventually able to find him a home on a ranch in Prairie City. As of right now, I'm pretty sure my seven remaining chicks are all girls. 

Anyway, so here's the coop and run! Much of it is made out of salvaged wood. Some of the metal fencing panels are also salvaged. Kudos to my brother Max for helping me tie those suckers up on top of the car for a trip from La Grande to Canyon City in a wind storm! I legitimately felt like a hillbilly that day. 

Here she is! I replaced the window with this glass paned one we found on the side of the garage. I bought the door from the antique/thrift store down the road. The roof had half a metal panel on it, I found another chunk of roof panel at Mom's and brought it from La Grande...tied on the roof of the car. I added the door handle and the lock. The hinges I found in the shed. To the left there is the "run," the outdoor area for the chickens to roam during the day. 

Here is the door to the run. I used a handy saw of my mom's to make the rectangular opening. I cut the board, installed hooks and the chain. 

The window has chicken wire so that I can open the window to allow ventilation.
Below the window are the "nesting boxes." They have a slanted roof so that the chickens don't sit up there and poop. 

These are the nesting boxes. I bought all of these boxes at the same thrift store down the street for about $5 each. Two of them are wood fruit boxes. I added the front lip to each box. They are sitting on shelves I found in the garage and I made a "railing" in front from wood I found around the back yard. 

I made this ramp from a wood shelf I found in the garage and I cut pieces of an old lattice that was falling apart behind the garage for the "steps." 

My mom had this ladder (I hauled this from La Grande, too). I cut off a few runs and elevated it off the ground with a scrap 2x4 that I cut. Apparently, chickens prefer to "roost" (which means where these settle and rest at night) at a height that's higher than the nesting boxes. 

Here is the "run." It's a mix of new and old wood, old fence panels and new chicken wire. It actually looks a little different now. I have one piece of plywood in the middle with chicken wire roofing on each side. I made a gate towards the center to get in and out...like to open the coop door and to access their food and water. The plywood is hinged so I can lift it, too, to throw in grass, weeds and food scraps. 

This is Marge and Frank (formerly Pheobe) testing out the run for the first time.
Obviously, before Frank moved to Prairie City. 

I saw this idea on pinterest. I cut and sewed a tarp and used hooks to attach it to the ladder/roost to catch the chicken poop while the roost. It works great! It's easy to just take the tarp, dump it on the compost pile, rinse with the hose and rehang. 

Ella, about to "shower" the chickens. 

I told her no, so she decided to "clean" the run door instead.

All the ladies, or pullets (adolescent female chickens) squeezing on the top rung of the ladder/roost. They are almost too big to do this, those sillies. I haven't named them all yet, but from left to right we have Marge (a Buff Orpington), Lois (a Speckled Sussex), Betty (a Plymouth Barred Rock), Sally (another Sussex), two Ameracaunas, and the runt Plymouth Barred Rock with no name yet.