RE: Marching towards spring

I do let my chickens out in the veggie garden during the winter in hopes
that they will clean up weed seeds and bugs. I always seem to have
plenty of weeds later and who knows if they do any good on the bugs, but
we never have a huge problem. I am still wondering why they didn't find
all those june bug larvae, my current theory is that we must have piled
a lot of spoiled hay/manure on that area and the chickens couldn't get
through it. I don't remember raking a lot off before tilling and neither
does husband, but we both have memories the size of a, ummm, flea. 
But if you want to clear up a grassy area, confine chickens on
it...they'll take it down to bare ground. Slower than rototilling but
you won't have anything growing back.  

Cyndi


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gardenchat@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On
Behalf Of Bonnie Holmes
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 1:13 PM
To: gardenchat@hort.net
Subject: RE: [CHAT] Marching towards spring

I thought that I had recently read that when you have ducks and
chickens, you have far less pests, such as slugs, fleas, ticks.  I wish
we could have some...we do have a small flock of mixed domestic and wild
ducks on the lake.  They swim by, demanding that my husband attend to
their supper...Biscuit, our lab/husky mix, also insists that she get
some of the cracked corn.  

Bonnie Zone 7/7 ETN
Remember:  The River Raisin, The Alamo, The Maine, Pearl Harbor, 9/11


> [Original Message]
> From: Johnson Cyndi D Civ 95 CG/SCSRT <cyndi.johnson@edwards.af.mil>
> To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
> Date: 3/20/2007 3:58:09 PM
> Subject: RE: [CHAT] Marching towards spring
>
> We have been riding in national forest/park areas, no chickens to be 
> seen. Plenty of ticks apparently. There aren't any at my house; I 
> think (but I'm not sure) that even if we didn't kill them off they 
> would not be able to reproduce. I don't know why that is but no one I 
> know has ever seen them here on the valley floor and yet there are 
> lots in the hills around us. Same for fleas, we have never had them 
> and no one I know has ever had them on their pets.
>
> Cyndi
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-gardenchat@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On 
> Behalf Of Bonnie Holmes
> Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 12:37 PM
> To: gardenchat@hort.net
> Subject: RE: [CHAT] Marching towards spring
>
> Hmmm...and, I thought chickens would eat ticks.
>
> Bonnie Zone 7/7 ETN
> Remember:  The River Raisin, The Alamo, The Maine, Pearl Harbor, 9/11
>
>
> > [Original Message]
> > From: Johnson Cyndi D Civ 95 CG/SCSRT <cyndi.johnson@edwards.af.mil>
> > To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
> > Date: 3/20/2007 12:04:44 PM
> > Subject: [CHAT] Marching towards spring
> >
> > We are back to "normal" spring weather - if there is normal any more

> > -
>
> > it's cool, windy, and cloudy. I doubt we'll get rain but my fingers 
> > are crossed, anything would help.
> > I did more pruning back the dead stuff in the dry garden on
Saturday.
> > Sheesh there's a lot of that. I have seen a very few living parts on

> > the bigger salvias, I think those are all salvia clevelandii, mostly

> > near the bottom of the plant and in one case on the end of a branch 
> > that had been buried by a gopher mound. I am not sure if they will 
> > come back from the roots or not, so I left them about a foot tall 
> > and I'll call Theodore Payne nursery today for advice. I didn't have

> > time to do all of them so just in case the nursery screams at me 
> > "Don't touch them!" I'll still have half left alone. However what I 
> > cut off was really dead, crunchy brittle dead, and I don't think 
> > there are plant zombies; so I'm pretty sure pruning was okay.
> > Husband rototilled the entire veggie garden. In one bed where I had 
> > left the leaky hose attached it must have been getting water, nice 
> > moist dirt. We pulled at least a hundred june bug larvae out of
there.
>
> > EEUUWW although the chickens were happy about it. No kidding there 
> > were quarts of them, I don't remember seeing that many June bugs
> around last year.
> > Makes me wonder what's in all the other beds, maybe they are lurking

> > farther down in the soil. And I let the chickens out all winter, 
> > they are supposed to take care of that sort of thing, what's wrong 
> > with
> them?
> > Anyway I sowed the green beans; I meant to get more stuff in but I 
> > ran
>
> > out of time. We did fill up the dumpster with debris though. This is

> > becoming our standard for a successful weekend - if we fill up the 
> > dumpster we know we've worked enough. :-) No gardening on Sunday, we

> > took the horses out. Nice ride, too bad about the dry winter, the 
> > hills would have been covered by wildflowers in a wetter year. Oh 
> > well. And despite my sister telling us "Oh I never see ticks around 
> > this area" there were plenty of them. I must say this whole horse 
> > thing has me learning about some stuff that I never really wanted to

> > know, like ticks. But we do have fun. It was great weather and I 
> > only wish I'd thought to put sunscreen on my arms and not just my
face.
> > Next weekend more garden maintenance. I know we have at least two 
> > broken sprinklers, and then there's more pruning.
> >
> > Cyndi
> >
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