Next Project: Raised Garden Beds

Last year, we tried a tilled-in garden and didn't have alot of luck for several reasons:  (1) we didn't plant enough - especially the corn, (2) we got busy and didn't keep it weeded, (3) we planted in the wrong location, and (4) our soil is really crappy.  It doesn't help that the soil is compacted from where they bulldozed the house that used to sit on the lot.

So, after reading Square Foot Gardening and doing much research,  I decided early this year that we would try raised bed gardening instead.   The obvious benefits are that you can better control the soil content (new dirt and compost!) and the height of the beds saves your back from bending over so much. 

I'd read that you shouldn't use CCA- or pressure-treated wood for your beds because the chemicals can leech into the soil and your plants.  Some folks use cedar but it will turn grey from weathering and I wanted something a little cuter.  So I came up with the hair-brained idea of using PVC fencing panels and posts.  These are normally $49 per 6'x6' panel from Home Depot or Lowes, but I caught them on sale for just $37 from HD:

The only thing holding these panels are together is PVC glue where the individual slats meet the top, middle and bottom rails.  We used our Sonicrafter oscillating tool to easily cut these apart at the rails every other slat to create foot high panels (2 slats per panel).  You could use a jigsaw or hand saw to do this also.  Then we cut the 4"x4" vinyl posts to 18" each (getting 3 usable posts out of each one).  And, finally, we cut out rectangles in the posts where the panels would fit into them.

I wanted two beds in front of the chicken coop, with a path between them leading to the door.  Both beds would be identical at just over 5 feet wide by 11 feet long, so we did cut a couple of inches off of each panel.  We then leveled out the ground and set the posts in place.  Then we hammered rebar down into the ground to keep them in place.  No digging to set the posts (although you could, I guess).   

It took a 3 pallets of 20 lb bags of compost\dirt to fill both these beds.    We did get some slight bulging of the panels, but it was minor. Time will tell if we have a problem with the weight of the dirt pushing the "panels" out. 

Then we added the post toppers. (The one in the lower right hand corner is a solar light).

I hope you think the finished product looks as nice as I do!  Next project:  replacing the plywood path to the coop with something nicer.

Til later, I am one tired and....

Coop is finished!

Finally, after many months of hard work and rained-out weekends, the coop is finished.  *sigh*  And J and I are taking well-deserved time off to rest.  In the meantime, some pics for you...

From the run looking into the coop.  I love the large windows (that ended up being FREE from Craigslist!).  If you look closely, you can see Kermie the Austrolorp peeking out to see what's going on.

I'm hoping that the climbing rose will eventually grow up over this trellis. 

Here's the mural on the back of the coop wall inside.  J. says this is incredibly nerdy, but I think the girls need something pretty to look at when they're inside.  Or maybe I do.   :-)

Gotta have plenty of storage for chicken stuff - grit, treats, egg baskets, etc.  When you walk in the front door, there are these shelves on either side. 

And here are the girls waiting for me to finish the photo shoot and fill their empty feeder.

Exhausted and heading to bed,

Caution: Chicken Crossing

Before we put up the plywood on the inside of the coop, I wanted to come up with an inventive way to open and close the pop door that allows the chickens to get out to the "playpen".  I didn't want to spend $100+ on an expensive door opener, so we headed to Home Depot to see what we could cobble together and ended up with an expensive set of 16" drawer glides.  Think of a drawer mounted standing up with the front on the bottom sill of the wall like so (picture taken looking down at the closed door):

The glides are mounted fully extended so, when the door opens, it moves along the glides that are mounted to the wall studs.  We placed a piece of 2x4 between the studs right above where the door lands when it is open.  That will prevent critters\bugs\etc. from trying to get up into the enclosed walls.  Here's another pic from the side:

Later, we'll  put an eye bolt on the outside of the door and run a wire from it to the front of the coop so that you can manually open and close the door.  Yeah, it's not automated to open or close on a timer, but cost less then $3.  I can live with that.

Ingeniously yours,

My Babies are Growing Up!

Here are the barred rock chicks at just a little over 2 weeks old, I think (we don't know their exact hatch date).  They're starting to get their wing feather and look at those little tail feather!  I wish I could get an up-close shot of them.  They're used to us picking them up, which we do several times a day so that later on they won't mind us "inspecting" them.  I just can't believe how quickly they are growing and I'm starting to worry that we won't have the coop done in time to get them out of the kitchen!

Too Shy

I think the new chicks are camera shy.  They just couldn't stay still enough for me to get a pic of their cute little faces today.

Frustrated,

Chicken Little

 

Our order of 5 Austrolorps has arrived!

Are these little girls not just adorable little balls of fluff?  I got the call today that I had a peeping package at the Post Office and left work early to be certain I would be there to pick them up.  The ladies at the PO were begging me to open the package, but I didn't want to stress the chicks.  Luckily, I was just a couple  of blocks from home, so I didn't have to wait long to get a peek at the babies.  When I opened the cardboard box, I had to giggle at the "nest" that they were shipped in.  It looked like a real nest!  I should have taken a pic when I first opened the box, but here's a similar pic courtesy of Serene Dwelling:

Right now, they're in a clear 18 gallon storage container on my kitchen counter where I can keep a close eye on them.  I put newspaper in the bottom, covered by clean pine shavings - from what I've read, you should never leave chicks on just newspaper because it's slick and can cause them to get splayed leg syndrome.) Their water and food dishes were improvised out of Rubbermaid container lids and I've got a heat lamp clamped onto my cabinets.  It's a toasty 90 degrees in the container and they seem quite content.

Peep! Peep!



It's Official: We're Getting Chickens

I'm so excited!  I just placed an order for 5 female Austrolorp chicks from MyPetChicken.com.   After much research, I selected MyPetChicken because they don't requite that you purchase a minimum of 25 like many other hatcheries (25!  Jim would kill me.)  In fact, their minimum is a more manageable quantity of 3 for my zip code. But the closest hatch date they had available is May 23rd, so I am going to have a hard time waiting for them to get here.

How cool is it that you can order chicks over the Internet from the comfort of your own home and have them delivered via USPS Express as soon as they are a day old?