Hi there, Just thought I would share my recent efforts. Have learned a lot from the threads/posts here, so any advice or criticisms are welcome:y: I live in a subtropical climate just north of Brisbane in QLD, on a 3/4 acre block. I haven’t done too much with the land in the way of earthworks, planting fruit trees and gardens at this stage due to being too busy fixing the house, guttering, clearing rubbish and waste from the yard and gathering materials. It’s taken quite a long time to get it back to a workable clean slate but now I have finally started getting into it. A bit about the place, it’s on a pretty steep south facing slope, so not ideal but we have to work with what we got. There are a lot very large trees, so light is an issue which I have been trying to tackle by clearing all the invasive or poorly placed trees. There is 1 large semi flat area that now gets some good light and has nice soil, so will be a bit of action there. The bottom of the property has a creek and floods when we get heavy rains. We have already started to plant some natives to control erosion down there but we need more....really tough ones too! Here's why... View attachment 2559 This is the area where the gardens/chicken tractor will be. The ‘shed’ on the right is the chicken coop in construction. Yes its big....Over the years I've had so many challenges with the weather, predatory animals, rodents and space issues during the breeding season. This coop however will eliminate all these issues I've had, plus no bending or being hunched over or hitting your head either. It also has enough space for animal food storage. It’s placed directly next to where a row of intensive gardens beds will be. The chickens will be rotated through the beds over a year and will have access into a new garden bed/run every 3 months and all the garden beds will be fully enclosed. View attachment 2560 I've designed it this way is because of all the destructive birds like cockatoo’s, parrots, brush turkeys and even my own chooks when I free range them. Yesterday I counted 12 brush turkeys wandering through the yard and they will devastate a garden in minutes. Then you have the possum and bandicoot raids and night. I've planted a lot of things but most things are gone by the morning if not protected, so I'm just enclosing the whole thing so I can relax and enjoy a stress free garden. There are a few slopes like this that need stabilising and weed control but reading some of the posts here on vetiver, I might be sold. I was going to use lomandra and other native species that are endemic to the local regional ecosystem but I might do a few experiments with this vetiver and see how it goes. I'll be putting in a swale above this slope and this is where the fruit tress will also be placed Hard spot to access so unfortunately will most likely be digging the swales by hand =( Not looking forward to that job... View attachment 2557 Here are some natives Ive already put around the place, we had some random guy walking through our property doing plant ID, when we showed interest he gave us 90+ natives! What a score and what legend! Have also put some E, grandis down by the creek View attachment 2558 Hopefully more will be happening soon....
Hi Chookie, Sounds great!. I'm glad I only have to deal with chooks in the vegie garden. Your idea of enclosing the whole thing sounds wise. I'm wondering if you are able to make more use of that seasonal water surplus by somehow pumping it up the slope to a holding tank.
Random plant gifts - aren't you lucky! My grandparents (farmers on a farmstead that was built in the 18th century) used to have their chickens in a shed of similar size and material, though theirs was in a row of other animal stalls (unused, by the time I was born). Inside they had several rows of nesting places with straw stacked on top of each other along the back wall, like a large shelf, and a few horizontal sitting poles at various heigths around the room. I don't remember if the chickens even had a ladder or if they got into the higher nests via the poles. They normally ran free around the main yard (I have no idea why they weren't slain by foxes, though originally the farm would have a few watchdogs, of course. Maybe my grandmother's half-wild pack of cats helped keeping the foxes away.) They also had enclosed the vegetable garden with a breast-high wall (chickens can jump surprisingly high), though the chickens would be let into the orchard sometimes to feast on fallen fruit and pests.
Hi and thanks mischief, I like the way you think Saving up for a tank at the moment so I've replaced all the guttering and redirected the down pipes where the tank will go. If the roof isn't capturing enough, that might be a good option or place another tank elsewhere and have it as a pack up during dry spells. I think that's a great idea :y:
Cheers Antje, sounds like your grandparents were on the right track It's not as aesthetic compared to other chook houses but very practical.
Looks like a nice spot! We're also planning to enclose the whole veggie patch. DH wants to put in a straw bale wall around the raised beds and fruit trees (none in situ yet) and use metal piping (like school fencing) to create a structure which we can put chook wire all over. The cockatoos can land in the hundreds here and would decimate any crop they can access. I'm interested to hear your plans for enclosing your patch because I'm not convinced DH's plan is the best it could possibly be.
Thanks Possum, it's taking a lot more time then expected to build it this way but I know it will save the heart ache of finding a freshly planted garden ruined overnight. The biggest challenge has been finding materials, especially due to the size of it. Slowly collecting some nice second hand timber I can use and have scored quite a few pavers for pathways etc. Will be setting a few posts for the garden system soon and will post some pics when I've done more Ive been busy doing more fencing around the place due to some free ranging neighbourhood dogs harassing my chooks and to prevent my young child from tumbling down hills!
I thinks its a great it idea using that metal piping to use as framing. It would be a really robust structure and last forever, Ive seen some around second hand on the gumtree pretty cheap before and did consider this but will use timber for now due to availability and cost mostly, a lot of timber I've been able to get for free. I hear what your saying about the cockatoo's, even though they have endless personality they are so destructive! Well its been a long dry season so glad spring has arrived with a bit or rain. Still losing most of what I plant lol so just focusing on composting and getting the garden beds in asap. The chicken tractor system is slowly coming along, now the main shed is completed Ive started on the enclosed garden sections and am working on the main pathway which comes of the chicken shed. In the picture attached you can see the front of 2 of 5 garden sections which come off the main path. Each section will have it's own door, which I can just open or take off after a year and get the chickens back on that section for a few months, before planting it out again. So hopefully no moving chickens or coops anymore, just opening and shutting doors. The structure is 2m high, so ample room to walk under and to grow certain plants and each garden bed is 2.4m wide x 8.4m long. View attachment 2692 Who knows if this will work or not, its just an experiment to see if I can makes things easier and tackle issues I've had with chook tractors and the crazy wildlife here at the same time. Its a work in progress and time will tell I suppose
Looking good Chookie! Like you, we are doing everything on our land by hand. Takes longer, but it will either whip us into shape or kill us LOL. We are going to fence in most of the gardens since we have deer come through. Wife, Wolf has decided to put a couple in the dog run (1/3 acre). The orchards will start going in around feb. 2015 if we can get far enough along on everything else. I also hope to be able to make some progress on widening the road up the hill and filling in the wash outs. Since it is heading towards fall for us, we are trying to get our winter garden going as soon as possible. We are going to use straw bales for growing some of the items, lettuces, Kale, Collard greens and keep the in ground beds for the root veggies; beets, carrots, rutabagas, etc. I have a storage next on my own list. Then it will be on to the new Coop build. Wolf will be doing the gardens with help from me when she finds big rocks to be lifted out of the ground. I also have to get the compost area ready for the fall drop of leaves, clear and step the orchard areas. Good old Blackberry canes are everywhere, but they make good fodder for the compost piles. Looks like you are making great progress to me.
Thanks Bryant, I feel quite lucky not having to contend with stronger animals like deers, I bet they can be very destructive. Ive never planted straight into straw bails, keen to see what you come up with and always keen to see other peoples coops for ideas as well. Maybe post some pictures once you've finished
Got a little more done on the enclosed garden...... View attachment 2698 Spent a lot of time in western Australia and the soil in the last few gardens was mostly sandy loans. Here in Queensland however I've got a clay loam which I've never worked with before. So now I'm thinking about which cover crops to use and how to improve the soil. Still have a good layer of top soil with a some organic matter throughout but its a little compacted and gets water logged quite quickly, definitely needs more organic matter. I'm not too keen on digging either as this will probably do more damage then good. A lot more work to do, so a bit more time to figure it all out.
Broadfork when moist, don't invert it, sow a variety of green manure seeds to see what works. Cowpea and Millet in a kit from Green Harvest worked out ok during Summer for me (includes inoculant). Lucerne and Clovers good too. Daikon radishes grow fast. Buckwheat is super quick.
Thanks for that SOP. I might do just that and try a few different ones in each section. I'll give the green harvest mix a go and there was another sunflower, mungbean and millet mix I saw on green patch, so it'll be interesting to see what works well. Will probably get in a bit of compost to throw over to top of them.
Good idea. Sunflower and millet are gross feeders and will strip the soil of nitrogen to grow. Make sure you chop/drop/lightly till your mungbean before seed set. Try a Good Bug Mix too. BOGI Fair will be coming up in not too long, a great place to get seeds for cheap.
Interesting you mentioned the nitrogen factor in using sunflower and millet. Im thinking that once the chickens have been over a section it will most likely have an excess of nitrogen, so maybe a cover crop like that would be best planted just after the chooks have finished. Then chop and drop just before it all seeds and then plant out. Is going to be interesting figuring out how to time the chooks and crops. Didn't know about the BOGI fair but it looks great and only a couple weeks away, so will definitely be going to that! Got a bit more done on the tractor, starting to make an impact on the yard. Looking into good water tanks as well, would like to have something going before I plant out these cover crops. I have a massive roof area and recently had new gutters fitted and the pipes redirected to exactly where the tank will go, so it should be quite easy to pop in. Will most likely be using a drip irrigation system for this system. View attachment 2699 Also found a small mulberry which came up out of no where, it's along a temporary fence line which can be moved later. Just love free fruit trees View attachment 2700
Chookie: If you would like, I recently went to a drip irrigation demonstration day performed by one of the members on this forum. If you PM me your email, I can send through photos and a short writeup I did. Nothing special but it's better than nothing.
Going to go with your standard chicken wire at this stage eco4560. Will most likely get the 50mm hex wire in the heaviest gauge I can afford. For the area I'm looking at It won't be cheap either Will need approx 150 metres of 1.8 metre high wire which will work out around the $300 mark. Trying to source second hand chicken wire for this scale but has been difficult, so may have to get new wire. Looked into netting for the roof but that seemed even more expensive then the wire. Certainly open to ideas!
