Terra do Milho

Tag: Starting a vegetable garden

  • Start your vegetable garden in only three weeks time.

    Start your vegetable garden in only three weeks time.

    What could you do to become more self sustainable? Well, start your own vegetable garden.

    These are not easy times, things are not as they used to be and nobody knows what we can expect in the coming year.

    What keeps us going is that we can become a bit more self sustainable on our homestead. And so can you, I will show you in a bit.

    This year we were not going to do so much in our vegetable garden. We have our goat cheese project going and we needed to upgrade our tourist accommodations. Since we thought that would be a lot of work already we decided not to grow a lot of vegetables this year.

    But it all changed. There will be no tourists coming this year, the ones that booked cancelled their bookings.  Apart from that we fear that prices for food will go up in the unavoidable economic crisis that will follow.

    So there we were. We had to go a step back, or maybe it is a step forward in a way. We dug out the garden tools, filled a lot of bags with the compost we had made from the goat manure and off we went to the vegetable garden. Now our garden down on the river terrace on our land is planted with a lot of small vegetable plants. Hopefully they will grow and we will have plenty.

    For us this is just a little move back to self sustainability, we’ve been there done that and now this comes in handy.

    But what if you’ve never done anything like that? Where and how could you start?

    Here is a simple guideline how you can start your own vegetable garden!

    Well, its a bit of an effort, but imagine you’ll be growing your own food!

    To make it doable I broke it down into weekly tasks.

    Week 1

    Pick a place for growing your vegetable:

    in your garden in the soil or on raised beds. Or if you have no space around your home, you could rent an allotment at the edge of the town where you are living. Go to the allotments and ask the people that are working there on a Sunday morning. They will be able to tell you where and how to rent one of the allotments.

    Get yourself some tools,

    like a haw and a spade and some handtool to clean up the place and get rid of the weeds.

    Look for some compost or manure.

    Ask the people from the allotment where to buy it. There might be a farmer in the neighbourhood that wants to get rid of some manure. People that are keeping horses are often a good source of compost or manure. If you can not get hold of it buy a bag of sheep manure pellets or something similar. A garden center will have it. And when that’s closed try the places where they sell animal food for sheep or cattle, these places often have a department that sells gardening stuff as well.

    Week 2

    Divide your vegetable garden into plots

    in 1.20 m wide beds with 60 cm path in between.

    Enrich & prepare the soil

    of your cleaned plot with the compost, manure or pellets. Don’t overdo it. Two or three buckets of horse or cow compost per m² will do. When you bought pellets, a hand or 5 per m² will do fine. Work the compost or the pellets well into the soil.

    The end result should be nice loose manured soil.

    When the soil is sandy and soft, mixing the compost or pallets into the soil well will be sufficient.

    With compacted soil: till the compost or pallets into the soil. This is how you do it:

    • push a spade or a fork into the soil vertically (with your foot or even by standing on the edge of the spade),
    • push the handle down to push up the soil on your spade or fork,
    • then simply flip the soil back into the hole upside down,
    • if the soil stays in one block: break up the block.

    This way you turn the first layer of the soil. You are doing 2 things at a time: working the manure into the soil and loosening up the soil.

    Tom my husband is showing a haw and a spade.
    Tom is showing you a haw (left) and a fork (right).

    Week 3

    Buy plants for your vegetable garden.

    Really, that is the easiest way to get good vegetables fast.

    You’ll save time growing them from seeds. And growing plants from seeds is more complicated.

    Why?

    Because you have to know how they look when they sprout and you will have to take the weeds from in between the tiny plants. It’s a risky business and something you will have to practice over time. For a starter who wants quick results it’s much easier to start with plants that you buy.

    When buying plants is not possible try your friends and neighbours that already have a vegetable garden, they often have too many plants seeded and are likely to give you some since they find it hard to throw away plants that they have grown from seeds.

    Plant your plants in the beds.

    Look up the distancing of the plants on the internet. Tomatoes need a different distance from each other then beetroots.

    At the beginning the plants look tiny in their big space, but no worries the space will fill up. Properly distanced plants will grow better.

    Don’t go into fancy gardening methods.

    Plant e.g. all tomatoes together in nice rows. Do the same with the other vegetables. Over the years you can start experimenting, but give yourself a chance to get started.

    Fancy gardening methods can be complicated for a starter and instead of making gardening fun it can become a nightmare with no results. So: start simple!

    After that: Keep your garden clear from weeds.

    Believe me: there are no gardening methods that save you from clearing weeds.

    No escape, you will have to do it.

    What we find the easiest is using a haw. You can use the tool standing upright. Important thing with a haw is that you weed very frequent, like ones a week. The trick is that you weed the weeds when they are still tiny, do not let them grow big. This way weeding will be easy and quick and no big effort.

    Tip: to avoid weeding your vegetable plants by accident do not use the how around the plants but use your fingers to clear away the weeds around the plants.

    Water the plants when needed.

    This is what I do to know whether the plants need water: I stick my finger in the soil right next to a plant. When the top 2 cm are dry and i feel just a little moisture at the tip of my finger I water the plants.

    [success icon=”fa-picture-o” ]If you have doubts about starting to grow your own vegetables or need any help or advise: send me an email and ask! Really I do not mind at all to get your email. I am looking forward to get it. I really hope you will start to grow your own food and enjoy its results.[/success]

    Do you want to know more about vegetable gardening?

    Here are some of our other blog posts:

    Where To Start Your Vegetable Garden, Some Things To Consider.

    How To Analysing The Soil From Your Vegetable Garden.

    Two Ways of Making Compost

    Prepare your Vegetable Garden with Chickens

    Our Vegetable Garden in Monchique

     

  • Float Gardening in British Columbia

    Float Gardening in British Columbia

    A guest post written by Margy Lutz. Margy describes her life on a float Cabin Home on Powell Lake in Coastal British Colombia. She has a very special float garden. Her husband writes interesting books about their off-grid life.

    I want to thank Monique for inviting me to write a guest post. She’s an amazing homesteader with lots of experience and knowledge to share with her readers and visitors.

    A Float Cabin Home on Powell Lake

    First, I’d like to share about where I live. My husband and I have an all-season off-the-grid water-access float cabin on Powell Lake in Coastal British Columbia. We’ve lived here full time since our retirement and Canadian residency approval in 2008. British Columbia has a long history of using float cabins and workshops for forestry and fishing along our remote and steep coastline. Historically on Powell lake, float cabins were inexpensive retreats for paper mill workers.

    Our cabin is just above sea level. We get a dusting of snow in winter, but the weather is relatively mild for our location. Fortunately, the lake is unusually deep and doesn’t freeze. And long summer days are perfect for gardening.

    Float Cabin BC

    A Raised Bed Floating Garden

    I’ve always liked gardening. Maybe I got it from my grandparents who were farmers.  I wanted to grow some food of my own. Our good friend John, who built our cabin, came up with the solution, a special float that holds four 4X10-foot raised beds.

    The float garden is separate from our cabin. A rope pulley brings it in for me to garden, then it goes back out to the front log boom where it’s protected from nibbling critters.

    Nutrients are leached from the shallow soil by rain and frequent watering. In spring I augment it with compost and mushroom manure. Several times throughout the growing season I add plant food. Even here I get traditional garden pests, but I don’t use insecticide. We don’t want poisons in the lake water we drink.

    My garden has spring daffodils, then summer marigolds and alyssum for color and pest control. My crops include herbs, garlic, onions, radishes, beets, carrots, kale, broccoli, bush peas, spinach and a variety of lettuce. Over the years I’ve grown strawberries, asparagus, Brussels sprouts and potatoes in my beds. Crop rotation helps to reduce pests and provides variety.

    For watering I use a solar powered boat bilge pump with a hose.  It’s much easier than a watering can and gentler on the plants. When I had a small plot on shore I used a tarp and rain barrel system. That was a good solution for a spot without a water source.

    Container Gardening on the Cabin’s Decks

    In addition to my float garden I have numerous pots and large containers on the cabin’s many decks for additional plants, especially ones that take up a lot of space. Here you will find potatoes, tomatoes, beans, peas, cucumbers, peppers, squash, rhubarb, blueberries, red currants, more flowers and herbs for easy access.

    Gardening takes a lot of time from May through September, but the rewards make it worth it. The garden isn’t large enough to be self-sustaining, but each dinner has something I’ve grown myself. I’ve also learned how to preserve excess produce for use during the off season.

    Deck garden

    Winter Gardening

    Fall is the time I put most of my garden to bed. With a little effort, the growing season can be extended for some plants. I leave my kale, beets, carrots and broccoli in the ground with extra mulch around them. Clear plastic bags protect plants in containers. They ward off heavy rain, focus warmth from the waning sun and reduce damage from freezing.

    Composting

    Composting is an important part of my gardening. I do it all onboard. During the growing season I use the chop and drop method. Garden and kitchen vegetable waste is chopped into small bits and used as mulch. In fall I use my empty potato growing barrels to compost the large amount of plant cuttings. Monique has an excellent post about chop and drop. It’s how I discovered her website and blog.

    More Gardening Information

    You can read more about my gardening exploits and other aspects of float cabin living in my husband’s books Up the Lake and Off the Grid: Getting Started available in print and Kindle formats from Amazon. Also, here is a quick link to the Gardening Category on my blog.

    My story shows you can garden just about anywhere: containers on an apartment balcony, sprouts in your kitchen, a plot in the back yard or edibles interspersed with ornamentals. The options are endless. Start small and learn as you go. If it can work for me, I know it will for you. Thanks for reading my post. If you have any questions leave a comment, visit my blog or email me through the link in my blog profile.

    Happy gardening! Margy Lutz

  • Where to start your vegetable garden, some things to consider.

    Where to start your vegetable garden, some things to consider.

    The first step dealing with when you want to start a vegetable garden is where to start your vegetable garden. Picking the right spot requires a bit of time. In this blog you will find some things to consider while finding the right spot.

    After all you are going to put a lot of effort into your garden. It is best to pick the right spot from the beginning. It will save you a lot of frustration afterwards. Changing places for a vegetable garden usually means starting all over again. So in the end picking the right spot will save you a lot of time.

     

    Water, light, protection and the right soil.

     

    Water

    Water is, no doubt, going to be used in your garden. It is the most important thing to make plants grow. Although there are systems that work without additional water, even in the dessert. A system like that is not something you would wish to start with since these are complicated systems.

    Most practical will be a tap right next to the garden. On this tap you can later, if you wish so, connect any irrigation system. You can also fill your watering can to water your newly planted vegetables. Which, in a dry period can just give them the little extra to survive until the next irrigation round.

     

    Light

    What your plants will also need is a lot of light. They simply need that to grow. Some things might need some shading in the summer, but it is easier to shade those things with a shading net then to have the whole garden in the shade and to struggle with all the other plants that need sunlight.

    Gardening in a shady place or under big trees is extremely difficult. Especially trees make it even more difficult because their roots are mostly not so deep and in the way. The trees will take all the water for themselves. Some kind of trees even do not tolerate growing something under them. So check where the light is and the trees are not.

    Sure there are agricultural designs that involve trees. These designs work extremely well. The thing is that you will need a big space for these systems. Not something for a moderate vegetable garden. Some systems do not translate from big to small or vise-versa.

     

    Wind protection

    When you are living in an area with a lot of wind it will be wise to protect your vegetable garden against the wind. Sometimes a hedge or fence at one side of your garden will be enough. This depends of where the winds are coming from. A building can also function as a wind protector, but make sure it does not shade the garden too much.

     

    A little breeze in the garden is, by the way, not a problem at all. Too little air movements can also lead to an accumulation of dampness inviting fungi.

     

    The right soil

    Since looking into the topic of finding the right soil is a quite broader I will not discuss this here. It is worth checking out on soil though. This is where you can find more information:

    About The Soil In Your Vegetable Garden, What You Need To Find Out.

     

    A social place or a place where you have your own peace.

    Some people like their vegetable garden as a peaceful place where nobody disturbs them. Someone has told me once that without his vegetable garden he would never have been able to do his daily paid job. He had a lot of responsibilities in his job and a busy family at home. Other then his vegetable garden he had no place to relax. When this is you, it might be a good idea to create that peaceful place somewhere a bit hidden.

    Other people, like me, like a vegetable garden as a social place. A place where you meet other gardeners to exchange knowledge. Somewhere to sit and picnic and enjoy time with family and friends. I am not happy in a hidden away garden. So mine is part of a community garden right in town. The hidden away garden on our own land I barely use.

    Gardening in your own yard/land, on an allotment or with a group

     

    Gardening in your yard

    When you have a front or backyard you might choose to have your vegetable garden there. The advantage is that it is very close to home.

    When you have small kids, you might want to do some gardening when they are sleeping. Or when you are an ‘at home worker’ you can fill the little spare time gaps with some garden activity.

    Another advantage is that you do not need to travel. You can just walk to your garden. Even if you have a big piece of land you would probably put your garden close to the house.

     

    Some practical things when you are gardening on your yard

    How far is your vegetable garden going to be from the kitchen? Since that is the place where you are going to use most of the vegetables. It is very convenient to be able to harvest a view thing even while you are cooking.

    Another thing is the access. Can you park a car close to the garden? There will be heavy things that you will have to bring to your garden. Like manure, seed potatoes, compost, wood for raised beds, cans, containers, straw, tools, and in case there is no tap, water. It is much more practical if you can bring it there by car instead of having to carry everything a long way. When you have a homestead you might want to make your own compost from the animal manure that your goats or cows produce. It is handy that you can transport this manure, or the final compost to your garden in an easy way. Either by wheel barrel or by car or tractor.

    Something more to consider is where are your tools going to be. It is most practical that they are right at the spot. A small shelter where they can be protected from the sun and the rain extents their live time a lot. Maybe your tools are in your barn or garage. In this case you might consider to place your garden not to far from there. You might have to compromise with the distance to the kitchen and the distance to a water point though.

     

    Disadvantages

    Disadvantage can be that you do want to have that peaceful place for yourself. That will probably not happen when your vegetable garden is in your yard and you have a busy household.

    Your yard might be very small. You can get a long way with containers and going vertical, but you might still not have enough vegetables for the year round. Small yards can also be very shady.

    If the soil quality makes you cry, it might also not be a good idea to garden on your yard.

    When you want your peaceful spot, have a small yard or a yard with bad soil you might want to consider the next option.

     

    The use of an allotment

    Lot’s of towns have small allotments in or outside of the city. These you can rent for a small amount of money.

    Some allotments even allow little houses where you can picnic with the whole family or with your allotment neighbours.

    Allotments can be a very social thing. Some are organised in groups, so you will have your plot as part of a garden that belongs to a group using utilities together. Be aware of the fact that groups always have rools. It can be very nice and beneficial but you have to make sure you and the group are some kind of a match.

    Other allotments will provide you with a peaceful spot of your own.

    When you have a choice between different allotments, which one are you going to take? You might think of this: is an allotment somewhere on a route that you take anyway? For instance from the shop to your home or from your work to your home. This way you can easily pop by and save petrol.

    Again the acces by car and a tap at hand are an important thing to keep in mind.

    Also: can you store your tools there or is that not an option. Sure you can take your tools to the allotment when you are going there. But forgetting something is easy and can be annoying when the allotment is at the other side of the town.

    Disadvantages of an allotment

    Disadvantage of gardening in an allotment is that filling small time gabs with garden work is not possible. You will have to plan your garden work ahead. You also need to harvest in advance. You can not go out of the kitchen and quickly pick a lettuce.

     

    Gardening in a group

    When you are living in a compound there might be another option. Running a garden together with the people in the compound. Again make sure the group is a match.

    My experience is that groups gardens work best if everybody has his or her own plot. When there is a lot of space you maybe can run a potato fields or corn field together.

    I did garden in groups sharing one plot and all the tools and it was a good experience, I liked it a lot. The thing was that we were already a cohesive social group and started the garden together. So it was more like a family having a garden. At other times it would have been a nightmare to share a plot and I was very happy that I had my own.

     

    Fun for kids

    When you have small kids, that are interested in plants, it is very nice to give them a square meter in the garden all for themselves. This way they will learn something gardening. And they will sure be very proud to produce their first carrots.

    This is the way I got hooked to gardening. I had my small corner in my grandmothers garden where I would grow some lettuce, carrots and radish. I was very proud of my first harvest. When ever I was at my grandmothers house I would go into the garden and check my small corner. I loved it!

    Go ahead!

    I hope this information will help you pick the best spot for your garden. If there is anything you want to ask, please do. Leave a comment and I will answer.

    If you want to know more about what we are doing on Terra do Milho, check out our Facebook!

  • How to Analysing the soil from your vegetable garden.

    How to Analysing the soil from your vegetable garden.

    In this blog we will look into how you can find out what type of soil you have and what pH and nutritional value your garden soil has. We will do this by analysing the soil.

    We have already looked into what you need to know about your soil in your vegetable garden to be able to manage your vegetable garden. When you have missed the blog check it out here.

     

    Type of soil test with a jar.

    First of all we are going to look into the type of soil. For this there is a very simple method. It’s done with a jar and water.

    The ‘Type of Soil’ test is based on a very simple principle. You add soil and water to a jar and shake it. Sand particles are course and heavy so they will sink to the bottom of the jar first. Silt particles are less course and heavy, they will sink less fast and settle down on top of the sand. Clay particles are tiny and light, they will float around in the water quite a while. Finally after hours they will settle down on top of the silt.

    Depending on the composition of the soil in your garden the separate layers that settle down in your jar will be thicker or thinner. On of the layers can even be absent. You can measure the layers and see what the percentage of the layer is compared to the whole. With the help of a diagram you then will be able to find out what type of soil you have.

    You can do this test as a stand alone, but I prefer to do the ‘type of soil’ test and a pH/NPK test at the same time. This way I only need to take the sample from the garden one time. I just make sure you have enough soil for both tests.

    A practical session: type of soil and pH/NPK

    For this session you will need 2 jars of more or less 12 cm high and a with diameter of 6 cm. It does not need to be exactly this size. Usually the ordinary jam jar has about this size.

    You will also need: a bucket, a garden trowel or small spade, a waterproof garden marker.

    Now take a bucket and go to your plot. Pick a spot, scrape of the first 6-10 cm (2 or 3 inches) organic material. Then with the garden trowel or a small spade, dig some soil and put it in the bucket. Do this at about 6 spots. Mix the soil in your bucket well.

    After that take out soil that would be enough to fill about 2 jars. Some of it you will need for the type of soil test and some will be used for the pH and NPK test. Let the soil you have taken out dry.

    When the soil is dry take it through a sieve.

    Fill one jar for ¾ with the sieved sand. Mark the level of the soil in the jar. Then add some water leaving enough space to shake the soil and water.

    Fill another jar with 2 levelled tablespoons for the test and set aside for later when you are doing the pH/NPK test.

    Add some clean water into the jar that is filled for ¾, leaving some space at the top to be able to shake the liquid in the jar.

    Close the jar well and shake the mixture. When the soil you put in was very dry, it is good to wait 20 or 30 minutes and shake it again. You might have to add a bit more water. Now the whole mixture looks quite messy.

    So now, after you have shaken the jar. When there is sand in the soil, the sand will settle down in 5 minutes. Use the marker to mark the top of the sand. The rest will take longer to settle down. You can leave the jar for some hours, up to 24 hours or more. When the next layer has settled down, mark the top of this layer. This second layer will be silt. What settles on top of the silt will be clay. You can either wait for it to settle down or use the drawing to find out. I will explain this a little bit further down.

    Type of soil on your plot

    Measure the height from the bottom of the jar to the top line of the soil that you had made before adding the water. This is your 100%. Now Measure the the thickness of each layer and calculate the percentages.

    Now we will need the diagram below to find out the type of soil you have. On this triangle you can see that each side represents a scale. You can read out the percentage of sand and silt and see where the lines cross.

    Write down your data in your garden book. Or make a file for your garden where you will keep the data from your tests. The type of soil you have will not change, but the nutrition values will. It is practical to have all the data together in a file or a notebook.

    This is how you use the diagram below

    You have a soil of 60% sand and 30% Silt. You can then assume that 10% of your soil is clay. When you look into the drawing you follow the 60% line of the sand and look where it crosses the 30% line of the silt. Note that there are two lines starting from each position. One of the two will cross one of the other two.

    In this case your soil is a Sandy loam soil.

    Soil triangle

    Our own soil as an example

    This is what the sample of our vegetable garden look like after everything has settled down.

    soil test with jar

    It has about 55% Sand and 45% silt and if at all very little clay. So our soil is a Sandy loam soil.

    The stuff that is floating around is organic material, by the way.

    Testing the pH and NPK levels.

    For testing the pH and NPK levels of the soil I use this simple testing kit:

    It is not so expensive and it will give you all the information that you will need to get your garden going.

    The kit comes with a clear description. It is wise to read this description carefully before you start, so you will not spill any of the tests.

    I did the test for our soil. The results were easy to read from the test. The pH of our soil is 6.0. The tels us that a pH of 6.0 is an acid soil. As you can see in the previous blog. It is still very much in the growing range of most plants. The test kit gives you an extended list with the pH preference of a lot of garden plants. This is very practical when you are growing vegetables.

    The levels of N and K in our garden where between sufficient and surplus. The level of P was sufficient. That is a happy result for now. I do not need to add anything. At the end of the summer I will test the soil again. So i will know how to organise my winter garden.

    A simple laboratory test.

    You can also send in a soil sample to have it tested. A laboratory will do the test for you.

    Apart from NPK the laboratory test also gives you information about the most important, so called micro-nutrients: Calcium; Magnesium; Sulfur and Natrium.

    An extended laboratory test.

    Sending a sample too an official agricultural laboratory can be very expensive. It does come with a more in depth advice though. It will often give you the amount of organic matter that you have in your soil as well. As a starting gardener I would not spend the money. With the information you get from the simple test kit or from the more complicated you will have enough information to get your garden going. Large laboratory test provide a lot of data which are important for a larger scale farmer, but not to us small scale farmers. Too many data can also be confusing…

    The next step: how to improve your vegetable garden soil.

    You can be lucky and find out that your soil is very good and has all the nutrients that a plant needs to grow. In that case you might not need to add anything right away. You will still need to prepare your garden. If something is lacking you might need to add something. In the next blog we will tell you more about it.

     

  • Sweet Basil, all you need to know to grow it.

    Sweet Basil, all you need to know to grow it.

    Sweet Basil is an easy, straight forward plant to grow. In this blog you will find all the things you need to know for planning, companion planting, use and storage of Sweet Basil. It also provides you with information about the type of soil it needs and the pH it will grow in. One place to find it all.

    Sweet Basil is just a choice of many types of Basils that are available for growing. I like the Genovese. It has big tender leaves to harvest and I love the taste and structure for making pesto.

    From all the anual Basil I tried to grow, this one came out the best. It grows relatively easy. The other thing is that I think, most smaller leaved anual basil have a hard leave for harvesting. I don’t like hard leaves in salad and for making pesto. For me salad contains tender things. For pesto making the small leave variaties don’t quit make a smooth paste.

    Plant characteristics

    English name: Basil, Great Basil, Saint-Joseph’s-wort

    Latin name: Ocimum basilicum

    Family of: Lamiaceae (mint)

    Maximum size plant: height, 20-60 cm width 15-20 cm

    Root structure and depth: 20-30 cm, round structure

    Spacing (plantafstand): 20-25 cm

    Companions: tomatoes, apricot, asparagus, cucumber, fennel, zucchini, stinging nettle. Sweet Basil needs sunlight to grow. When growing them next to high plants like tomatoes and asparagus, make sure they are on the sunny side of the high plants.

    Not companion with: Rue Herb, Chard/Silverbeet, Wormwood

    Remedies for: Aphids, Fruit Fly

    Water needs: medium in loamy soils. In sandy soils water properly otherwise they will go into flowering very quick.

    Food needs: no fresh manure, compost, tolerates fresh compost.

    Light: lots of sun

    What type of soil: Sandy soils of any kind, loam/clay soils when they are rich in organic matter. Loves it fluffy. For more information about soil types click here. For finding out more about analysing your vegetable garden soil click here.

    pH: 5.1-8.5

    Weed tolerance: does tolerate some weeds as long as it is bigger than the weeds.

    This is how it looks:
    Basil Genovese
    Picture 1: Full grown Sweet Basil, time to harvest.
    Young Sweet Basil plants
    Picture 2: Young Sweet Basil plants. The first two leaflets are still visible.
    Flowering sweet basil
    Picture 3: Flowering Basil. Leaves will be less tender. When you take the flowers out it will continue growing. You can use the flowers as well.

    How to seed

    Pre seeding: When the season, where you are, is short you can pre seed in pots.

    Make sure you buy the right soil. Soil for growing pot plants is to rich for seedlings. The special soil for seeding is the one that works.

    Handy and time saving is to seed them in trays. Peet seeding trays can be used integral. You do not need to take the plants out but plant the plant together with the pot. This way you do not disturb the roots, which gives the plant a growth advantage. This might be handy if you only have a short growing season.

    You can also use the cheaper reusable seeding trays, when your season is longer. I would put some flat trays under the seeding trays to catch the surplus water when watering the trays. Here you find some affiliate options. When you use these links you will support our farm. Please feel free to click on the picture.

    Seeding directly: In long season areas you can seed directly. I usually seed a small row next to where I want to grow them so I can easily plant them out. To recognise the small seedlings: make sure the seedbed is well weeded and raked.

    Seed distance: 5 cm

    Depth of seeding: 0,3 cm

    Tip for saving time:  buy a pot with basil in the supermarket and plant them in your garden. The growers usually squeeze a lot of plants in the pots. Turm the pot you bought up side down and carefully take the earth and plants out. After that carefully separata the plants. Now you have lots of plants to plant out. They will still grow a fair amount.

    This can be done until later in the season. When you just want to grow a few plants this might be a good option.

    Growth

    Germination temperature: 21-29°C. This is essential for growing Sweet Basil. It will not germinate when the temperature is not high enough. Best is when the soil has warmed up till 21°C. Give the soil a week or so to warm up a bit. Note: in clay soils the temperature of the soil stays cool longer, this might stop your Basil from germinating.

    Germination time 5-10 days

    Duration from seed to Harvest: 60 days max

    Seedlings: Seedlings start to grow with two heart shaped leaflets. In picture two these small leaflets are still visible.

    Harvest

    Harvest when full grown and leaves are lush (see: picture 1). You can stil harvest when it is flowering, leaves will not be as tender. The flowers (picture 3) have a strong taste and are good to harvest too.

     

    How many plants will you need?

    It depends on what you want to make from it. With the two of us we, ideally, grow between 30 and 50 plants. We grow them only once a year. We make a lot of pesto for the rest of the year. When we have no time to cook a big meal we use the pesto with some pasta and dried tomatoes. Easy and quick. So a lot of basil fits in our household.

    When you just like it every now and then in the salad you might be all right with just 10-12 plants. When you have a long growing season you can plant a few plants early and some later in the season.

    Storage

    When you dry Sweet Basil it will lose most of it’s charming taste. So, I think that is not really an option. I think eating it fresh or making it into pesto are the best two option for Sweet Basil.

    To preserve I freeze the pesto (see: recipe). You can also use jars to keep the pesto, but do not add the cheese. I do not know why it works with the jars of pesto that you buy in the supermarket. It always goes of when I add the cheese, no matter what I do.

    When you preserve pesto in jars be aware that there is, however small a change of getting botulism into your jar. For this add some lemon juice to the mixture. It will keep the color nice and prevent the bacteria that cause botulism to produce the poisonous botox by lowering the pH.

    Recipes

    Pesto

    Fill up an blender jar for 2/3 with Sweet basil leaves. Add three or four hand full of nuts. Just any nuts will do.

    The official recipe is with pine nuts, but these are very expensive where I live. Almonds and wall nuts are much cheaper here so I use those.

    Add the juice of halve a lemon and two or three cloves of garlic.

    Blender it & freeze it in portions. It is not easy to cut it when frozen, so it is better to freeze it in desired portions.

    Add some grind cheese when used.

    Tomatoes, Basil and Mozzarella

    This is so easy to make and it is delicious.

    Slice some tomatoes in 1-2 cm thick slices.

    Lay them on a large plate.

    Slice the mozzarella in 1-2 thick slices.

    Put the slices on top of the tomatoes.

    Sprancle on a fair amount of Balsamico.

    Cover the whole with Basil leaves (one leave per tomato slice).

     

  • About the soil in your vegetable garden, what you need to find out.

    About the soil in your vegetable garden, what you need to find out.

    Let’s go deeper into the soil matter. In this next chapter you will see what you need to find out about the soil in your vegetable garden.

    lettuce

    Soil… What is soil anyway?

    Soil that is good for agriculture consists of more or less: 48% minerals, 25% water; 25% air and 2% organic material. These 2% organic material seem to be very little, but it is of the greatest importance. From this 2% just 5% is alive. The living soil is small in volume but incredibly large in numbers of microorganisms.

    What organic material does.

    A lot of creatures are living in the soil of our garden. Moles, mice, worms, insects. These once you can see, but there is also live in the soil that you can not see. Microorganisms they are called. And they are large in numbers.

    These invisible creatures munch the bigger organic matter in the soil into smaller parts. And then in even smaller parts until what is left is a chemical part that can be ‘eaten’ by the plants. Some of it is eaten by the plants and some stays in the organic matter as a buffer for later. Like a pantry.

    Besides the food for the plants that is produced by the microorganisms in the organic matter, the organic matter contributes to a good soil structure. The soil will be able to contain air and water in a good balance as well.

    Learning more about the soil in your garden

    What type of soil you have in your garden will determine what you will be able to grow well. By knowing what kind of soil you have, you will also know how you can improve your soil so you can grow as many different vegetable as possible. Learning about your garden soil is the basis of good gardening. It is very important as you will see as we go along.

    There are three main thing you need to know as a starting vegetable gardener:

    What acidity your soil has; what type of soil the garden plot has and the amount of nutrition that is available for the plants in the soil.

    Acidity

    Some plants like potatoes like it more acid, some like peas and bell peppers, like it a bit less acid. Where potatoes can still grow, bell peppers might not. The acidity of the soil influences the amount of nutritions that the plants can take out of the soil. Bell peppers might not be able to get as many nutritions as they need out of the soil when it gets too acidic for them, while at the same acidity potatoes would still do fine.

    Knowing what acidity the soil in your garden has, means to know what grows well. It is also possible to influence the acidity of the soil by adding something alkaline, like lime. But you need to be very careful with adding lime, because once added too much you can not reverse to getting it more acidic. A lot of plants can not grow on a soil that is too alkaline.

    So be aware that you can create an irreversible problem by adding too much lime. There might be other reasons why your plant does not want to grow. Check these first before applying lime. How to check your soil will be discussed in the next blog.

    Acidity is scientifically expressed in pH. The pH scale goes from 0 to 14. A value of 7 is called neutral. That means it is not acid nor alkaline. Values under 7 are called acidic and values over 7 are called alkaline.

    Pure water has an acidity of 7. Lemon juice, vinegar and rain water are on the acidic side of the scale. Egg white, solved chalk and soap are on the alkaline side.

    If you want a more scientific explanation of pH click here. This link also tells you something about the history of the term pH. Ever thought about it why it is called pH?

    pH tolerance of vegetables

    To give an idea of what grows in which range here are some examples:

    Potatoes: 4.2-5.3
    Onions, leek, lettuce, spinach:  5.4-6.4
    Cucumbers, tomatoes: 5.7-6.4
    Bell peppers, beans: 6.0-6.5

    You can find a longer list of pH tolerance of plants when you click here (scroll down the page).

    Why are the potatoes in the link growing at an acidity of 4.8-6.5 and in this blog from 4.2-5.3 ? It might be that the potatoes are from a different variety. Or the soil that functions as a standard is different. The 4.2-5.3 counts for a sandy soil. The 4.8-6.5 might counts for a loamy soil. This is quite a technical story so I will not go there. But be aware that these indications are an indication and not an absolute figure. And that there is always a correction depending on the soil you have. The correction for the sandy soils more to the acidic side and the correction for the clay soils is more on the alkaline side.

    The type of soil

    Roughly soil types are divided amongst clay, sand and silt soils. The clay soils have a very fine structure, the particles are very small. Clay is sticky and greasy when wet. The sand has a more coarse particle then clay, the particles are loose, even when wet. Silt soil is somewhere in between the two.

    There are three main reasons why you want to know what type of soil you have.

    1. The ideal pH for your garden depends on the type of soil. In the description below I will point out the ideal pH per type of soil.
    2. The different type of soils can contain more or less air and/or water.
    3. Specific plants can have preferences for a certain type of soil.

    Here is a quick overview which soil does what:

    clay

    Clay

    Clay contains tiny particles that are hard and which compact easily. It is a heavy difficult soil to plant and shovel in. In Holland heavy clay soils are ploughed before the frost, leaving big wet lumps of clay on the fields. The water in the lumps freezes in winter. And because water expands when frozen it breaks the clay. This way the clay becomes workable for agriculture in spring. Potatoes, cabbages and onions are grown on these soils.

    These soils are not 100% clay, if so they would be you could not work them. Pure clay is the soil that you make pottery from. Clay hold water when soaked. But because the structure is so dense the water will run of very easy when the clay is dry. Clay that dries can crack and it will not hold a lot of air.

    Clay soils when wet feels a bit greasy and it is sticky. When rolled between the hands the clay forms a role that will not break.

    Clay is slightly alkaline. The ideal pH to grow vegetables in clay soils is 7.2-7.7 .

    Sand

    Sand

    Sand particles are relatively course. You can see them with the bare eye. There is a lot of air between the particles and it does not compact. It drains the water too well so the water does not stay around the roots of the plants. It does not hold nutrition for the plants. Sand soils need a lot of compost or manure every year because the compost and the manure get washed through the sand with the rain. Roots however can easily find their way in the sand. Carrots, radishes and asparagus grow well in sandy soils.

    Sand is gritty to the tough. When squeezed it does not stick together at all.

    Sandy soils are usually slight acidic. The ideal pH to grow vegetables in sand is 5.2-6.5 .

    silt

    Silt

    The size of particles of silt are between those of clay and sand. It holds the moisture better than sand. Nutritions are better kept around the plants as well, so it is often fertile. It can still compact easily and is prone to erosion when not well maintained.

    The ideal pH to grow plants in in silt is 6.7-7.3 .

    loam

    Loam

    Loam is a mixture of Clay, Sand and Silt. It is easy to work with, holds the moisture and nutritions. This is the best garden soil, I think. It also contains enough air.

    There are all sorts of mixtures between Sand, Silt and Clay. In this drawing you will find them:

    Soil triangle

    Nutrition value

    Another thing that is important to know is: how fertile is your soil? How much nutritions does it have?

    The main food that plants need are Nitrogen (N); Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K). Apart from that there are some important spore elements like Magnesium.

    The plants need Nitrogen for growth, color and density. Phosphorus supports the growth of new roots and shoots. Potassium supports the plants health in general. It also supports stress, disease and cold resistance in plants. All three elements are vital for plant growth.

    Back to your vegetable plot & the next blog

    So now that you know all this, how are you going to find out what the soil is like in your vegetable plot? What pH will it have? What type of soil? And will it have enough NPK?

    For this you need to analyse the soil. You can find out how to do this in our blog: How to Analyse the Soil from Your Vegetable Garden.

     

     

  • Growing Asparagus

    Growing Asparagus

    When wanting to grow a vegetable cash crop why not choose a sexy one? Figs are supposedly the most erotic fruit, but its vegetable compeer is without doubt the asparagus.

     

    Nowadays asparagus is a speciality in North-West Europe, but it has a history that goes back to Roman and originally even Egypt times. That history gave us the idea to start growing them in the Algarve. If the oldest terraces in the Algarve are built by Romans – as they say – , why not grow ancient Roman asparagus on these terraces today?

    Two varieties are known by the consumer: white and green ones. These two are actually not different species, but differently grown. The white ones are white, just because they don’t see daylight before picking: they grow in sandy mounds, you have to dig them out. The green ones simply grow above the soil, as you would expect from vegetables.

    This is how you grow the plants.

    To start growing asparagus, you have to be patient. Especially when you seed them, like we did.

    First, in springtime, you seed them in a tray, under plastic. A month after seeding, when the young and fragile plants are already up to 20 cm, you have to transplant them into separate pots. Forget about the rule “transplanting when the first real leaves appear, after the two germ-leaves, because asparagus is a Lily-variety, a monocotyledon, so it doesn’t have germ-leaves. You just transplant them, when they’re big enough.

    Then it takes a year for the fragile little plant to become firm enough to be planted on the spot where you want to keep them for their lifetime. Make sure you put them in sandy but very fertile soil. Once they are planted on their spot, it takes another 2 years before you can start harvesting them. The picture below shows the plants in the second year on their spot. But once they are strong enough to do so, oh my dear, what a yield you have.

    The harvest.

    To avoid exhausting the plant, you shouldn’t harvest them longer than 21/2 months per year though. In north-west Europe that period is from april up to mid June, but in our Algarve we have them already at the end of February and the harvesting goes on till mid may.

    After the harvesting months, the asparagus sprouts grow rich and high (up to 2 metres!) until late autumn. Asparagus takes a lot of space, in width and height.

    When you give the asparagus compost every year, they will stay alive for about 15 years. They also appreciate a bit of chalk now and then. After all those years, when the plant starts to grow weaker, and eventually dies, you can not plant new asparagus on the same spot, it simply refuses to grow there. So, make sure that you migrate to another piece of soil when you want to continue growing asparagus after 15 years.

    Asparagus is a nice cash crop for us, and we enjoy the aphrodisiac asparagus frequently ourselves.

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    growing asparagus

  • Two ways of making compost

    Two ways of making compost

    This blog teaches you two ways of making compost. It gives a detailed description of how to make quick and slow compost.  What you need, how much you need and what type of construction you need.

     

    What you basically need to make a compost heap is three types of organic material: brown material, green material and manure. Brown materials are dried weeds, hay, straw or dried or rotting leaves; green materials are fresh greens, herbs or grass; manure which can be from any animal, even from humans.

    If you want to use humananure (from a compost toilet) for composting make sure it is pre-composted on its own for 9 month. This way you get rid of all the pathogens that can be in human faces, which can make you ill.

    You can also mix your kitchen scabs into the compost heap. They will probably be some kind of mix of the first two, brown and green materials. Other things we mix into the compost are a bit of lime, wood ash and some clay. If your soil has clay, you can also add a bit of soil. I use the special clay from the cat litter box, the one that makes the lumps. I use this because our soil has very little clay. What you exactly use depends on what you have on your site. So have a good look around to find what you have available, you will need quite a bit of everything.

    How much compost do you need for your garden

    If your compost is well made and mature you can not use too much. When you notice that plants in your garden get signs of over fertilisation It usually means the compost was not mature. So you might have to adapt the process.

    Ideal is to put a layer of 2 cm of compost on your garden beds every year. In our 400 m² vegetable garden which is organised in 1.20 m beds and 60 cm paths we need about 11 m³ compost to have this layer of two cm in the whole garden.

    Some things, like potatoes we do not give compost but fresh manure. That saves us making some m³ of  compost. It is worthwhile to keep a compost plan of your garden so you know which part had compost when. It is easy to lose track because usually you can not make all the compost at once, unless you have a small garden.

    Since you might not have all the material at hand for making one heap at once it is not a problem to collect things first in separate heaps. Only the green stuff needs to be fresh, but the collected older green stuff can be used as brown stuff.

    We make two types of compost, one quick compost that takes 5 weeks to be ready and a slow compost that takes 6 month. Here are two ways of making compost described. There are some other ways which I find also interesting. Making compost with chickens is one of them. We do not have this system (yet), but Geoff Lawton did some pretty nice experiments with this method. Here is the video. There is also one method that provides compost in 18 days, interesting, but I find it a lot of turning in a short time. Besides this, you need to stick to a tight schedule which can be problematic in our case, but might not be in yours. Here is an article about this method.

    Quick compost

    Construction and site of the quick composting heap.

    For the quick compost we constructed a frame with two compartments, each one has a volume of a cubic meter. The frame is made of old planks, we brushed on a layer of line seed oil to slow down the rotting of the wood a bit. It will be eaten in the end, we know. That is okay for us, we will make a new one every so many years.

    I did not use branches or bamboo because my fork, I turn the compost with always gets stuck between the branches, this way I ruin the construction very fast. So sheets or planks work better for me. Just use anything you like as a material. Important is that the heap stays together and does not wash or blow away. You will have to make two compartments next to each other so it is easy to scoop the heap from one to the other.

    Around the heap I have some extra space for collecting material that goes into the next heap. I also make some space where I can put things like sunflower and cabbage branches so they can pre compost and become soft before they go into the main heap.

    Building up the compost.

    So I start building a m³ of compost which in the end this will shrink to about ⅓  of a m³ . I build up the composting heap by making layers of brown and green material and manure. I start with a layer of brown material then add a layer of green material and then a layer of manure. These layers are about 8 cm thick.  After that I sprinkle a bit of lime, clay and wood ash on top. I repeat this until the material is finished.

    In total I use 3 full big bags of manure, the 30 kg bags where you buy the animal fodder in. Then I use two equal parts of brown and green material in total.

    What exactly you put in depends on what you have, but what you put in will influence the end result. When you put in nitrogen rich material this will make your compost richer, therefor we like to put in green material that is rich in nitrogen, for instance lupines. I use lupins in the vegetable garden, a nitrogen fixer, as a green manure and when they get too big (not too big, then they become woody) I pull them out and put them in the compost heap.  The same for the brown material, in autumn I like to use the Alder tree leaves, another nitrogen fixer. So you could if you wish, grow stuff in the garden that is good for the compost heap. Comfrey is an example. We do not have it because it does not grow well in our climate zone, but it might grow in yours.

    Balancing the heap.

    The lime that is added balances the pH, it needs just a view hands, not too much. You do not want an alkaline compost heap since most plants will not like that. Cabbages, which do like lime can have some more when you plant it. Potash comes with the wood ash, I think I add about halve a 10 l  bucket of wood ash, again not too much. Another thing you could add is urine, it contains valuable phosphorus. Wee in a bucket dilute it 1 to 8 and you can pour it in and over the compost heap You can also use it to fertilize any plant you like. It is incredibly potent. What the clay does is a bit of a mystery to me, but it really improved the quality of the compost.

    There are also some things that you do not want in your compost heap. When you add grass cuttings be careful to spread them through the heap so they do not form lumps that are not digestible. Make sure all the material is soft. If you put in branches or woody herb or cabbage stems turning the compost heap will be a nightmare. The woody bits intertwine. You want to be able to scoop out the heap little by little and not in big pieces that are to heavy because of the intertwined woody bits.

    Adding water.

    Now comes the crux of the compost making: the amount of water you need to add. This is not easy at all. It is important in order to get the right circumstances for an aerobic digestion in the heap. Too much water will suffocate the microorganisms you want in your heap and favour the once that you do not want. When the the heap is to dry it does not work at all.

    It depends on the weather conditions and on the material you are using and how humid this material is. Grass, dry weeds, hay and straw use quite a bit of water in the composting process.

    The best is to add water while you are building up the heap, to make sure that the water is also in the heap.  Adding the right amount of water is something you will have to find out by practising. And even after a lot of practice it can still go wrong. You simply do not know all the weather conditions ahead. In dry weather you might give it a good go and then the weather changes and the heap turns out too wet….

    This is how I test whether the amount of water was right or not: when the soil sticks together like a cream it was to wet, when there are ants in the heap it was too dry. The end result should be smelling like forest soil. If it does you know the amount of water was good.

    When it rains a lot I cover the heap with some plastic against too much water, when it is too hot I cover it too, so the water doesn’t evaporate. You will have to play around with it for a while to get it right.

    Turning the heap.

    I leave the heap for a week, because I go to the garden once a week. It works good for me and for the compost. After a week I scoop the the layered heap into the other compartment so everything gets mixed. During 5 weeks I repeat this every week and then I sift and use the compost.

    If you want to do this more precise you can do the following. Buy a compost thermometer. This is a 40 cm long thermometer that you can push into the heap to measure the temperature inside the heap. After you have made the layered heap it starts heating up inside. It takes a day or two but then it really goes up. As soon as the temperature hits 55°C you turn the heap. Then wait until the heap warms up again and when it hits 55°C, turn it again until it stops doing that, which should be 3 or 4 times.

    Compost making is all about feeding microorganisms. Because you create an optimal situation for microorganisms to grow, which is what you do. When you build up your heap in layers, you are practically setting the table for them. Once your heap is set up the feast begins, and this creates the heat in the heap, just like a party. But it can also overheat, just like a party. That is why you stop the heap from heating up further by turning it in time. This way you keep the optimal circumstances for the microorganisms to grow.

    The active compost that you are making contains all the ingredients that the soil in the garden will need to feed your plants. It contains many microorganisms that help to transform the minerals and materials in the garden soil  into edible portions for the plants. That is why good compost works so well. You are not just spreading homemade soil, you are spreading live. I think that is amazing.

    Some compost makers think that heating up the heap to 55°C is not enough. It should be at least 60°C they say. At 60°C all the weed seeds that are still alive in the heap will be killed, so you will not spread weeds with your compost. This is hard to achieve if you do not have a professional installation. I think it is questionable too. I Weed my garden any way and I have not noticed an extra amount of weeds because I am spreading my compost. If you want to raise seedlings you can pasteurize the compost before you use it.

    Sifting the compost

    Not everybody sifts the compost since it a quite a bit more work, but I found out that it works much better in the garden. For this I made a sieve from some small square planks and a piece of rabbit wire. I make it so it fits on a wheel barrel, so I can easily bring the sifted compost to the beds. The pieces that do not pass the sieve, I through into the next compost heap I am making.

    Sometimes I make an exception, that is when I see that the earth is fiberless and makes a crust. The fibers stop the crust from forming. v

    Slow compost heap.

    Compared to the quick compost making this is a lot less work, but it takes longer too. It is basically the same thing but you just leave the layered heap untouched for halve a year. This is how we use this method.

    In our goat place we use a system that is called deep litter. We clear out the goat place twice a year. After it has been cleared out, a thick layer of straw is put back on the floor of the goat place, when this layer is starting to soil we put in another layer. We keep the top layer fresh. The layers below the top layer start composting, it is always nice and warm in the goat place.

    When we clear out the goats place we already have the brown material and manure mixed. And it is already pre composted. So we pile the compost heap in layers of stuff from the goat place and with green material. We make sure the composting heap has enough water, this process needs more water than the other, I am not sure why. Maybe because of the straw that is in the heap, but that is just a guess.

    The construction of the slow composting heap.

    We support the pile with a construction as you can see in the picture above. The terras above the heap is used to pour the goats place litter into the construction. The construction is made of concrete reinforcement iron rods hammered in the ground in a semicircle. Then we fix ( with tight ribs) a piece of goat fencing in the inside, and on the inside of the goat fencing we fix a piece of rabbit wire. This way the compost stays inside.

    We make sure the whole thing is fixed to the terrace bank so the chickens will not be able to get into the sides of the heap. If they could they would undermine the whole heap. It is okay if they roam around at the top since the heap is well contained. Again like with the other heap, you can use what you have available, for us this is a cheap well working construction.

    Building up the heap.

    This is how we build up this heap. One person stands in the construction to organise the layers. Two or three people empty the goat place and carry it to the compost heap.

    The amount of water we have to add depends a lot on the weather conditions. But by experience we know it uses a lot. We spray water on almost every second layer, with a garden hose. The layers are thicker then in the quick composting heap, about 10-15 cm. After the heap is build up we leave the heap open since we discovered that works best. In summer we irrigated the compost heap together with the trees around it, without this irrigation it gets too dry.

    After halve a year we use the compost. It works as well as the quick compost. You can also sift this compost before use.

    Finally

    If you want to make your own composting heap you will have to translate what we do to your own circumstances. There is not a site the same. In cold climate zones the whole composting process stops in winter because it is too cold.  In tropical areas the process will be much faster and you might not need to pre compost branches and stems. You might also be better of using bamboo instead of wooden planks since the termites will eat the planks. In climate zone 9, where we are, we can make compost the whole year but we need to water the compost heap in summer. As long as you get the principle idea you can work it out.

     

    I hope you enjoyed my blog. Feel free to send me an email when you have any questions. We would love to help you. If you want to give some feedback be welcome especially when your experience is very different from ours. Making the perfect compost is a big debate after all.

    Would you like to follow our activities on the farm on a more daily basis, please follow our Terra do Milho facebook.

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    Two ways of making compost

  • Prepare your vegetable garden with chickens.

    Prepare your vegetable garden with chickens.

    Did you know you can prepare your vegetable garden with chickens? Chickens can help you in your garden and orchard in many ways. We use them as our little helpers. One of the things we use chickens for is to prepare the vegetable garden.

     

    A month before we start  the garden, we fence in the area where we want to make the vegetable garden. We use an electric chicken fence with a portable fence charger with a battery feed. It has to be powerful enough to charge the whole grid of the fence. It not only keeps the chickens in but also keeps the animals that want to eat the chickens out.

    The chickens will eat all the weeds and weed seeds that are on the plot. Which will make weed control in the garden very easy at the beginning.

    For 100 m² you will need about 5 chickens for a month to do the job. They will need a small shelter where they can roost and a place where they can lay their eggs, fresh water and some extra food. We made an A-frame chicken house with handles so we could carry it around on our steep land. For the future I will make one from lighter material that can be moved easily.

    On the plots where we have vegetables every year I want to make permanent chicken houses, so we only need to move the chickens. We move the chickens during the night in the dark when they are not so active. We put three chickens in a jute bag, the once that can carry 30 kg of grain. They stay very quiet in the bag and three chickens are easy to carry. If you think that is still to heavy you just put in two chickens. Sometimes we had a group of chickens that would just follow the chicken house wherever it went, but unfortunately this did not work with all the chickens that we had.

    At the end of the month I start bringing some extra compost to the plot. I just make small piles here and there, the chickens will spread it and clear it from weed seeds that survived the compost making process. After that we simply take the fence away and use a rotavator to soften up the earth because the little chicken’s feet make a dense crust at the service of the soil we have here. This might be different with the type of soil you have. Then you can go ahead and start organizing your vegetable garden and start seeding and planting.

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    Prepare your vegetable garden with chickens