The Modern Victory Garden

I started my Saturday out by cleaning the chicken coop and yard thoroughly.   It was the first task I did Saturday because the weather forecast was calling for a substantial soaking rainstorm to arrive about noon and hang around through the early evening.   The soiled litter was swept out of the coop and combined with the chicken yard rakings to feed the compost pile.   I then used our shop vac to get all the remaining bits of shavings and dust from the corners, ledges, and floor of the coop.   The shop vac was then also emptied into the compost pile.   Scrubbed and refilled the water containers and feeders and then put down a deep layer of clean shavings in the coop as well as some fresh dry timothy hay in the nest boxes.   It takes me about an hour to do a thorough coop and yard cleaning and I timed it just about right because as I headed back into the house at about 11:30 am the rains arrived and settled in for the day.           

Since the weather Saturday made doing anything outside miserable, I spent the afternoon indoors watching a couple of movies, sorting and putting away laundry, and making applesauce.   I had a box of Gala apples that I purchased on my way home from a recent visit to my mom.   I cut them into quarters, steamed them for 15 minutes until tender, and then processed them through my Roma strainer to remove the seeds and skins - creating a beautiful applesauce for canning.   Ended up with 5 quarts of applesauce for the pantry and a bowl of it in the fridge for immediate eating.  

This morning (Sunday) after the jars were thoroughly cooled and I verified they all sealed properly, I put them with the rest of the home canned items in my hallway closet.   I use this closet for storing most of my jarred goods because the shelves are really deep and very sturdy.   The white packages and wood box  on the lower left are my fine china and silver storage.   The shelves below (not visible in the photo) are where we store the extra bedding and linens.

The rain we had yesterday and through most of the night helped my recently seeded green manure/cover crop of crimson clover sprout and grow on.   The large bed is sporting a definite sheen of green this morning.  

If you notice in the picture above, the beds that have crops growing in them that the chickens may find attractive to eat are covered with hoops and bird netting to protect them.   The unprotected beds either do not have anything growing in them currently or are items the birds leave entirely alone.   Protecting the beds with crops in this manner is simple and allows me to then let the chickens have free range of the entire fenced in back yard of our property during the day.   They graze the weeds and grass down from the walkways and actively search out bugs which provides them with lots of free organic forage and keeps my garden area in good shape.  

By letting them have access to the garden walkways like this, I have been able to stop doing the monthly chore of weed whacking the garden walkways.   I will still have to use a machete to whack back the blackberry brambles that encroach from the edges of the surrounding woodlot, but the chickens are keeping everything else mowed down pretty nicely.   It does require me to cover and protect the garden beds and crops though, but honestly I used to have to do that anyway when our old dog was alive as she would dig up and walk through the beds regularly if I did not.

The chickens usually finish laying eggs by mid morning and are then allowed to spend 6 to 7 hours roaming about the fenced back portion of our property foraging.   They always have access to the coop and the safety of the covered chicken yard but only return to it during the day briefly to get a drink of water and feed on the layer crumbles.   In the evening, they return to the chicken yard and coop and we lock them in for the night to keep them safe from raccoons and other nighttime predators.

The hens have been excellent about using the nest boxes in the coop for laying. We placed a fake (wooden) egg in each nest to encourage them to use the boxes for laying and they figured it out right from the start without any problems.   They use all six of the nest boxes in the coop but they seem to particularly like the two end boxes. 

I often find two eggs in the end boxes because the hens will take turns laying and tend to pick those nest boxes to lay in. 

The light colored egg is the fake wooden one and the two brown ones are the real eggs.                 

Monday is a holiday for me (Columbus Day) so I will be home from work and it is forecasted to be drier and more pleasant than either Saturday or Sunday.   I am planning to plant out my garlic and do some more fall garden clean up on Monday as a result. 

Fall is here. The cold fall rains have arrived, the days are getting much shorter, and the sun strength is definitely dwindling.   I am lucky if I can get home from work in time to be able to harvest something for dinner before it gets too dark to see well.   Luckily, the garden is not in need of much ongoing attention at this point, so the diminished amount of garden time is not a problem.   What does need to be done is easily taken care of on the weekend.   Before long it will be time to rake up leaves for the compost pile. 

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener