[Squashmania]

It’s growing chicken time and I am building a coop as well. Carpentry doesn’t seem to have taken root in my DNA, but just like in the kitchen, I can follow a “recipe” and end up with something that doesn’t look like I made it in the dark with my feet. And I have very forgiving chickens with an awesome sense of humor. I make them laugh every day. (Seriously….don’t chickens have the most judgy expressions ever?)

[Squashmania]

#1 There are varieties of comfrey that are sterile, and spread only by root cuttings (bokking #14 and 44) and there are varieties spread by seed. 98%of gardeners want the sterile variety. Perma Pastures had a fantastic vlog on how large of a root piece was required to propagate…..only an inch or two, and it will be coming back next season where you planted it. I was surprised the segments were so small. Some people just rototill the comfrey bed when they want it to spread.

#2Plant comfrey where you will WANT it. (It will never leave, because it has an 8-12 ft. tap root.) Kinda like grandpa’s horseradish.

I chop and drop the entire stem and lay it at the base of my rhubarb. The parts I chopped grew back to 3/4 the size of the unchopped stalks in two weeks. So fast! Multiple harvests per season are possible. Fresh leaves degrade quickly without any bad odor. Stalks take longer to break down, but the rhubarb doesn’t mind.

When I put it in water for the ducks, it turns a pretty atrocious color of brown quickly…by the end of the day, but probably makes a lovely plant food tea. I have put it in my anaerobic weed tea fertilizer before (David the Good’s fetid swamp water fertilizer)

Chickens ducks and quail ALL love the leaves and decimate them when put into cages or enclosures. Quail have tiny beaks, so the stalks tend to go in the compost bin. It has a good protein content….I think about 14%, and an excellent supplemental livestock food source.

It can be chopped and hung to dry for feeding in the off-season. I want it so badly to be frost tolerant, but it’s just not in zone 6a/6b.

I have dug up roots from the original plant, and have one plant at each fruit tree in the orchard. I was told that comfrey is a “mineral miner” because its tap root draws nutrients from deep in the soil and is a good companion plant for fruit trees. My orchard has atrocious clay, and I basically made “hugel holes” for my fruit trees. 3′ x 3′ hole with logs in the bottom, twigs, straw/grass and then soil. The comfrey is part of the long game in improving the soil.

[Squashmania]

They eventually had to move the prayer grouping to a local stadium to accommodate all the faithful who are waging the most beautiful war I have ever seen. Praise God, for He is worthy above all others.

[Squashmania]

After reading all the other replies (as I was going to suggest juicing and freezing as ice cubes to add to summer teas, and candying the rind slices) I realize you need more limes for all these great ideas. (I am totally behind the key lime cheesecake idea, even though you probably have standard limes)

[Squashmania]

Doa periodic “teat check” when “doughnuts” form around the nipples, that is a sign of impending labor.

[Squashmania]

And all the time, God is good 🥰 Praise the asparagus! (words I never thought I’d utter!)

• This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by  Squashmania.

[Squashmania]

I LOVE my mobile coop. I hate scooping poop, and have enough grass to rotate paddocks using mobile poultry netting. I power wash it once or twice a year, I have milk crates with astroturf for nesting boxes (they like red best, orange second and will NOT use black. There are many styles from human moveable to tractor moveable.

I built Justin Rhodes’s Chickasaw 2.0, that is good for up to 15 chickens, but he has other sizes.

Polyface micro is a good book for resources.

[Squashmania]

I know I am looking for a unicorn that had a baby with a sasquatch and is vacationing in Seychelles, but I sincerely am looking for “farm -friendly” insurance companies.

[Squashmania]

Well isn’t that a Bob Ross “happy accident”. 😁 Beautiful photo!

[Squashmania]

HELP!

The cute little fluffballs have had a crisis. 7 total. Approx. 5-6 weeks old. One apparent male, two are ambiguous that won’t share their pronouns, and the rest appear female, at least in size and morphology.

This morning the big one is pulling at the other’s wings during morning tub time, and continued it when returned to the living room cage, that I expanded by 70% last night. Working on building their coop this weekend, even in the rain. It’s gotta happen.

The husband comes home in between jobs today and finds that the big one has continued this today and the smaller ducks have bloody and missing feathers on or around where their wingtips rest on their back. He put the big one ina dog crate, and I have managed to keep him near his siblings but segregated, so he can’t keep harassing them. What a mess.

ADVICE PLEASE! I am new to ducks, and had no idea Muscovies were supposed to be a post graduate course.

[Squashmania]

Square foot garden like there’s no mañana. You will be shocked at what having a succession plan and a good fertilizer routine can produce.

Tickle the earth with a hoe, and she laughs with plants.

[Squashmania]

Any positive feedback is welcome. Thanks!

[Squashmania]

Good call. Just what I was thinking. I am too far North for azolla to love me, but duckweed is in my fan club.

[Squashmania]

Holy minestrone! You’re making the most of every inch of soil!

I want to grow carrots! I can grow most everything except carrots and parsnips, which of course, are my favorites! 🥴

[Squashmania]

How wide are your rows? Your garden looks so richly voluptuous and green. I’ve missed it so, even though I gardened in the basement this winter.