You may remember the ongoing saga of the chookpen (chicken house). When we moved in it 10 months ago it was a nightmare, full of creepers you wouldn't give to your worst enemy and falling apart at the seams!
We added a very large nesting shed, pulled down a massive old (badly designed) composting bin from the front), and added netting to sheild them from cats, wild birds and foxes.
We have yet to paint the nesting shed inside and the pen itself outside. More plants will be added to the area in the front as time progresses.
Are you wondering why there is a wire section in the front? Two reasons really.
1-I can sit on the patio and watch the mad things running about and 2-it allows an air flow for our super hot days.
Once the painting is finished and the plants added and grown it should be quite spiffy!
The garden is surviving the heat, although it takes regular heavy watering for it to do so. I truly have not known a summer like this, which doesn't surprise me, they say it is a record breaker, nothing like this in all the time records have been kept!
The back yard is slowly taking shape. There is still underplanting to be done, and I am planning on putting in a lot of groundcovers, edible if I can find them. Any suggestions?
The constant attention to the soil has paid off, 10 months later what was rock hard soil or simply sand has now turned into some magnificent dirt!
Bales upon bales of pea straw, gypsum, chook manure from the pens, rock dust, shredded paper and a massive amount of worms brought in has seen a very rapid turn around.
Hope your week is a productive and happy one:)
9 Responses:
You could try Kunzea pomifera, although they are a bit open and if the weeds get in they are hard to get at. The berries are worth the effort though.
http://www.cse.csiro.au/research/nativefoods/crops/muntries.htm
Great work... so much done!
Hi Molly,
Best to have flow through ventilation and get some evergreen tree shading around the shed and pen area for chooks. Also I'd put high shade shade cloth over the roof with some bits of wood under it... and have it loose hanging over the edges.. especially on the west side.
Artemesia is supposed to be really good around pens for reducing parasites. Mites and worms are the biggest issue for sustainable healthy chhok keeping in my experience. Longer term consider building another run and perch housing so you can rotate them to break the cycles of the parasites.
Congrats on turning the soil around. A great acheivement. One year! Unbelievable.
Good news is they say high organic rich soil can hold much much more moisture
Food ground covers? hmm strawberries, native pig face, ah.. comfrey (especially good for chooks, sprawly herbys like thyme / oragonos, mints.
CU
Molly
If you have the chance, get into Perth, Steve Kilbey's there playing stuff like Grant Macllenan's Providence
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z44Okz3drvQ&feature=related
Hey Jonesy, thanks, the muntries look interesting, will have to see if I can get hold of some!
Dixie, thanks!
Gav, I agree on the ventilation. We have all our fruit trees in the pen, about 10 or so, plus a massive flame tree, so there is plenty of the deciduous going on.
The shed is actually shaded by a massive gum tree behind it, so plenty of shade in the summer and it keeps the frost away in the winter.
Our chooks drink garlic water, there is always a couple of them in the water bowl, so far parasites are not an issue thankfully, it seems to work.
The chook yard is actually deceiving because it creeps around the back of the garage, it is actually 3 large pens so plenty of room to swap them around every now and then.
I never thought of herbs for ground covers, thanks for that, perfect idea!
Thanks too for the heads up on Steve Kilbey. I have to tell you though, I avoid Perth like the plague, nothing could induce me to the city unless it was absolutely urgent lol
The chicken pen is wonderful! And I must say the before/after picture doesn't even look like the same place! Y'all have done an excellent job in such a short period of time! What a beautiful transformation.
Thanks B2B, it is all slowly coming together!
Looks wonderful!!
Thanks ER, its getting there lol
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