farm, garden

Raised Beds – Trash to Treasure

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I love my garden. I don’t like spending money to have nice things.  Oh trust me we spend our share, but every once in a while it’s nice to get a break. One way that is cool to save money and materials from the landfill is to recycle.

I know I’m not the first to discuss the topic or share a nice story, but this story is mine 🙂

Behind my workplace is normally many pallets. These pallets are brittle and full of nails and staples. It’s difficult to find one that is usable. All the good ones get snatched up fast by the guys that drive around and collect pallets. They like the standard sized shipping pallets that make such nice things like compost bins and tables. Then one day…. I found this.

This is no where near standard size. This is big and heavy.  There are very few nails in it and not staples. This just has to be mine! Yep, I drove the truck the next day to work and loaded it up.

I wasn’t sure at first what I would use it for. Those nice 2×6 planks had so much potential.  They could be used for just about anything. Well, as I was building raised beds for my garden I decided to take this pallet apart to make a couple of smaller beds for the kids. It came apart nicely and went together even better.

Trash to Treasure Raised Bed – Daddykirbs Garden Blog

The kids are thrilled!  They can’t wait to start growing their own peas and spinach! Yay!

Kids Showing Off Raised Garden Beds – Daddykirbs Garden Blog
Kids Showing Off Raised Garden Beds – Daddykirbs Garden Blog
UPDATE! Here are the beds full of nice dirt and some plantings. So far there is lettuce, cabbage, tomato, arugula and chives.  They still want to plant seeds 🙂
Kid’s Planted Raised Garden Bed One – Daddykirbs Garden Blog

Kid’s Planted Raised Garden Bed Two – Daddykirbs Garden Blog
Here are some advertised raised beds you can buy if you can’t find palettes. 

garden

Making Compost Happen

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For a long time I’ve wanted to compost and in small ways I have.  This year I have lots of ideas to make it happen on a larger scale. My goal is to have compost for the gardens whenever I want it.  Well, that means that it has to get started.

Right now I have my “Every Day Scraps” composter that is working pretty well for taking care of the kitchen scraps.  This compost barrel is pretty efficient, but doesn’t produce a lot of compost.  Inside is an active colony of Black Soldier Fly (BSF) larvae. They are amazing at reducing the scraps to just a brown goo. Because the BSF are there and it is a closed container I don’t mind throwing in small amounts of meats and fats.

What I really want is big pile of manure type compost for the garden.  This bin will be the start of making that happen. I have talked with the horse farmer down the road and we have a deal. I shovel the poo out of the stalls and take it as my payment. I will be looking for a good source of carbon as well to mix with the poo. For now I am picking up bags of leaves in the neighborhoods that are out for pickup. I am also considering talking to the local company that makes trusses and seeing about picking up the sawdust from the large saw.  I happen to know that they only use untreated wood.

Chicken Checking Out New Crate for Compost – Daddykirbs Garden Blog
The cool thing about this new compost bin is that it is a shipping crate that I didn’t have to pay for or construct. It was sitting behind my workplace just like you see it. I just put it on the pickup and brought it home. Once in place I put some cardboard in the bottom to start the first layer. You can see Helena the hen is very interested in whats going on here 🙂
I also have a compost pile that I add manure and leaves too. Here are the chickens enjoying tearing my pile up.

This is a short clip that shows me adding leaves to the big pile. Check out the steam!

There are many things that can be composted. I seem to have plenty of “greens” but don’t always have plenty of “browns”. I started tossing in my toilet paper rolls to help fluff up the mix and to add the important browns.
Here are some advertised products that may help you get along in your composting adventure:
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My New Garden Blog

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This new blog is an extension of my “main blog” daddykirbs.blogspot.com

I felt like it would be better to group all my garden posts in it’s own blog. My orchard will be included because it’s like gardening trees 🙂

All the tabs at the top of this Garden Blog point back to the main Daddykirbs Blog. Once you find your way back to the main Daddykirbs Blog, the Garden tab will bring you back to this Garden Blog.

Ok, I don’t mean to confuse you… you shouldn’t notice any difference really. The only real difference is that the Garden Blog has it’s own Web URL.

Why am I explaining all of this…. I’m such a Nerd.

Anyway, Enjoy Gardening!

chickens, farm, Homesteading, projects, video

How to Water the Chickens Easier

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Chicken Watering Solutions!

It is a real chore getting out to water the chickens if you are using conventional gravity fed containers. Worse yet you are filling up bowls for them.  They make a real mess and can be very thirsty.

Chickens need water… lots and lots of fresh clean water. I was forever running out to clean and fill containers. I just had to think of something else.

Here are a couple of videos showing how I solved my problems. This first one is for the main flock of layers.

This next one was made for the meat coop.

Enjoy!

Hi! I'm Blake. Online I go by "Daddykirbs". My farm and blog is a place to learn about my journey with Permaculture, Homesteading, Gardening and more. Thanks for visiting!

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