Tanglewood Hollow

Planning time. Or I guess it would be more a refinement of plans. Basically I’ve been convincing myself into a circle about a few issues concerning the garden.

First off: Rain barrels. Or water on the most fundamental level. Ideally I’d like to have the entire garden be fed with soak hoses, with supplemental water coming from a hose in hand and possibly a sprinkler too. My problem is that my well pump doesn’t have enough umph to power a sprinkler (has to do with the 1/2″ pipes that my entire house is plumbed with. Sigh…).

My thoughts went right to rain barrels as a solution because the downspouts on the back of the house could use a little work anyway, and could easily be set up to drop their water into a barrel or three. They’d be perfectly situated as to provide the maximum amount of pressure possible (without building towers and involving pumps).

But now I’m reading that the soak hoses that I got on special may not work unless they are under pressure. I’m guessing the meager pressure from the house spigot will be enough to run them, but I’d still love to do the rain barrels. Hmmm…

Another of the plans that I’ve been refining of late is my chicken moat. I came across the idea in a Mother Earth News article a while back.

Here’s what caught my eye:

My moat is simply a strip of dry land, enclosed by two parallel fences, which surrounds my family’s garden. Throughout the day, the hen patrol moves all around the garden (but never in it), munching on all those things hens love: weeds, seeds, worms, tiny pieces of stones and (best of all) bugs.

from The Chicken Moat – motherearthnews.com.

Love it. There’s just something very satisfying for me to see things that work together on many levels. Of course all the chicken poop goes into the compost pile. You get healthier eggs because the birds end up foraging over a relatively large space and get lots of insects and plant shoots. You can also get your poultry to help turn your garden under in the fall I’ve heard.

I’ve got most of the posts cut, and my 150′ roll of poultry mesh arrived a couple weeks back (it was actually cheaper to order it and ship it – Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?). Now I have to cut the rest of the poles, come up with an interesting and cheap way to make two garden entrances and borrow my da’s post hole digger.

Also, the design for the moat includes the need for making two underpasses for the chickens below the entrances to the garden. I have some cement square blocks that came with the house (think extra large stepping stones) for one side. For the other I only have some marble pavers (kind of aesthetic overkill if you ask me).

As for the chickens, we have narrowed it down to at least two breeds that we want to try (if i can ever get the coop built!).

They are Silver Laced Wyandottes and Buff Orpingtons. They are both heavy breeds that are good layers, so they are called “dual purpose.” They are great for omelets and they are great for dinner too.

So much to do!

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