onemilegarden.com

Contrary to what most people think organic indoor gardening is very much possible even if they are living in a city apartment. So as long as you have several windows, you can grow almost all vegetables in containers. Vegetables, herbs and flowers can be grown organically indoors by using pots, hanging baskets and numerous other containers. Just make sure to match the vegetable or any other plant you wish to grow with the proper sized container. Needless to say, the larger the plant will be at maturity the larger the container you will need.

Click Here For My Organic Garden Instant Access Now!

Once you have figured out the type of vegetables you want to grow, make sure to buy only the strong healthy plants and seeds which is available at any good garden center for obvious reasons.

The next thing to do is to purchase organic potting soil; you can also buy pre packaged compost at the same time to increase the nutrient value of the potting soil.

In order to provide the plants the chance to adapt to their new environment, it is best to give them a day or two in front of a sunny window before transplanting them to the containers. When you are ready to transplant you can check the seeds package for planting instructions.

However, for those who cannot find room at all for container gardening, sprouts can be the best solution. You can buy organic alfalfa, mung beans, or any other sprouting seeds at your local health food store. Make a research about how you can plant these seeds in a jar. The sprouts will be ready in three to five days depending on the type of seed you are using. If they have reached the right size you can set the jar in a window and let them to green up.

Organic indoor gardening can be fun, plus it provides you with the opportunity to have the freshest vegetables and herbs that is healthier than what you can purchase at any regular supermarket.

Click Here For My Organic Garden Instant Access Now!

Vegetable gardeners with experience know that what you put in the soil is one of the deciding factors when it comes to the amount and quality of fruits and vegetables your plants produce. Without the right plant food, nothing else you do is going to matter, and your crops are doomed to fail. The soil must be rich or the garden will be poor.

One distinction that needs to be made when it comes to plant food is the difference between available and non-available plant foods- that is, between foods which it is possible for the plant to use, and those which must undergo a change of some sort before the plant can take them up, assimilate them, and turn them into a healthy growth of foliage, fruit or root. It is just as easily possible for a plant to starve in a soil abounding in plant food, if that food is not available, as it would be for you to go unnourished in the midst of soups and tender meats if they were frozen solid.

http://www.on2url.com/app/adtrack.asp?MerchantID=124681&AdID=380901

Plants take all their nourishment in the form of soups, and very weak ones at that. To be available plant food must be soluble to the action of the feeding root tubes; and unless it is available it might, as far as the present benefiting of your garden is concerned, just as well not be there at all. Plants take up their food through innumerable and microscopic feeding rootlets, which possess the power of absorbing moisture, and furnishing it, distributed by the plant juices, or sap, to stem, branch, leaf, flower and fruit. There is one startling fact which may help to fix these things in your memory: it takes from 300 to 500 pounds of water to furnish food for the building of one pound of dry plant matter. You can see why plant food is not of much use unless it is available; and it is not available unless it is soluble.

Plant foods consist of chemical elements, or rather, of numerous substances which contain these elements in greater or less degrees. There a very interesting science of this matter. It is evident, however, as we have already seen that the plants must get their food from the soil, and that there are but two sources for such food: it must either be in the soil already, or we must put it there. The only three of the chemical elements mentioned which we need consider are: nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash. The average soil contains large amounts of all three, but they are for the most part in forms which are not available and, therefore, may be dismissed from our consideration. (The non-available plant foods already in the soil may be released or made available to some extent by cultivation.) In practically every soil that has been cultivated and cropped, in long-settled districts, the amounts of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash which are immediately available will be too meager to produce a good crop of vegetables. It becomes absolutely necessary then, if you want to have a really successful garden, no matter how small it is, to add plant foods to the soil abundantly. When you realize, (1) that the number of plant foods containing the three essential elements is almost unlimited, (2) that each contains them in different proportions and in differing degrees of availability, (3) that the amount of the available elements already in the soil varies greatly, and (4) that different plants, and even different varieties of the same plant, use these elements in widely differing

proportions; then you begin to understand what a complex matter this question of which plant food to use is and why it is so much discussed and so little understood. What a labyrinth it offers for any writer- to say nothing of the reader- to go astray in! I have tried to present this matter clearly. If I have succeeded it may have been only to make you hopelessly discouraged of ever getting at anything definite in the question of enriching the soil. In that case my advice would be that, for the time being, you forget all about it. Fortunately, in the question of plant food, a little knowledge is not often a dangerous thing. Fortunately, too, your plants do not insist that you solve the food problem for them. Set a full table and they will help themselves and take the right dishes. The only thing to worry about is that of the three important foods mentioned (nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash) there will not be enough: for it has been proved that when any one of these is exhausted the plant practically stops growth; it will not continue to “fill up” on the other two. Of course there is such a thing as going to extremes and wasting plant foods, even if it does not, as a rule, hurt the plants.

http://www.on2url.com/app/adtrack.asp?MerchantID=124681&AdID=380901

So you know that your plants need available food. The question then becomes what to use. The terms “manure” and “fertilizer” are used somewhat ambiguously and interchangeably. I use manure in a broad sense meaning anything that will rot and enrich the soil, such as well rotted stable manure, or decayed vegetable matter. Organic fertilizers can be purchased pre mixed in any garden center, but for about three to four times as much money as to use natural things or mix the chemical elements into the soil yourself. It depends what you value more, your time or your money!

Between the organic manures, or “natural” manures as they are often called, and fertilizers there is a very important difference which should never be lost sight of. In theory, and as a chemical fact too, a bag of fertilizer may contain twice the available plant food of a ton of well rotted manure; but out of a hundred practical gardeners ninety-nine-and probably one more- would prefer the manure. There are two reasons why. First, natural manures have a decided physical effect upon most soils (altogether aside from the plant food they contain); and second, plants seem to have a preference as to the form in which their food elements are served to them. Fertilizers, on the other hand, are valuable only for the plant food they contain, and sometimes have a bad effect upon the physical condition of the soil. When it comes right down to the practical question of what to put on your garden patch to grow big crops, nothing has yet been discovered that is better than the old reliable stand-by- well rotted animal manure. Hold your objections! We have already seen that plant food which is not available might as well be, for our immediate purposes, at the North Pole. The plant food in “green” or fresh manure is not available, and does not become so until it is released by the decay of the organic matters inside. Now the time possible for growing a crop of garden vegetables is limited; in many instances it is only sixty to ninety days. The plants want their food ready at once; there is no time to be lost waiting for manure to rot in the soil. That is a slow process- especially so in clayey or heavy soils. So on your garden use only manure that is well rotted and broken up. On the other hand, make sure it has not “fire-fanged” or burned out, because manure, if piled by itself and left, is very sure to do. If you keep any animals of your

]]>

own, see that the various sorts of manure- except poultry manure, which is so rich that it

is a good plan to keep it for special purposes- are mixed together and kept in a compact, built-up square heap, not a loose pyramidal pile. Keep it under cover and where it cannot wash out. The pile should be turned from bottom to top and outside in and rebuilt, treading down firmly in the process, every month or two- applying water, but not soaking, if it has dried out in the meantime. Such manure will be worth two or three times as much, for garden purposes, as that left to burn or remain in frozen lumps. Of course you can purchase your manure in any garden center or buy fresh manure from a local farmer if you live in the country. When possible, it will pay you to start saving manure several months before you want to use it and work it over as suggested above. In buying manure keep in mind not what animals made it, but what food was fed- that is the important thing. Better manure is more expensive, but well worth it. For instance, the manure from highly-fed livery horses may be, weight for weight, worth three to five times that from cattle wintered over on poor hay, straw and a few roots.

http://www.on2url.com/app/adtrack.asp?MerchantID=124681&AdID=380901

There are other organic manures which it is sometimes possible to obtain, such as refuse brewery hops or fish scraps and sewage, but they are as a rule out of the reach of, or objectionable for, the purposes of the home gardener. There are, however, numerous things constantly going to waste around the house, which should be converted into manure. Fallen leaves, grass clippings, vegetable and fruit tops, roots & peels, green weeds, old pieces of fruits and vegetables, egg shells, coffee grounds, anything that will rot away, should go into the compost heap. These should be saved, under cover if possible, in a compact heap and kept moist (never soaked) to help decomposition. To start the heap, gather up every available substance and make it into a pile with some fresh manure if you have it. Fermentation and decomposition will be quickly started. The heap should occasionally be forked over and restacked. Wood ashes form another valuable manure which should be carefully saved. Beside the plant food contained, they have an excellent effect upon the mechanical condition of almost every soil. Ashes should not be put in the compost heap, because there are special uses for them, such as dusting on squash or melon vines, or using on the onion bed, which makes it desirable to keep them separate. Wood ashes may be bought for this purpose at a very cheap price, or use your own if you make fires. Coal ashes contain practically no available plant food, but are well worth saving to use on stiff soils, for paths, etc. If you would rather not go through the trouble of stacking, turning, and restacking manure, there are compost containers you can buy to put these things in to rot. Do make sure you turn it with a pitchfork occasionally and mist it with water enough to keep it moist (not soaked) either way.

Another source of organic manure is called “green-manuring”- the plowing under of growing crops to enrich the land. Even in the home garden this system should be taken advantage of whenever possible. In farm practice, clover is the most valuable crop to use for this purpose, but on account of the length of time necessary to grow it, it is useful for the vegetable garden only when there is enough room to have clover growing on one plot, while the garden occupies, for two years, another plot and then changing them around.

This system will give an ideal garden soil, especially where it is necessary to rely for the most part upon fertilizers. There are, however, four crops valuable for green-manuring

the garden, even where the same spot must be occupied year after year: rye, field corn,

field peas (or cow peas in the south) and crimson clover. After the first of September, sow every foot of garden ground cleared of its last crop, with winter rye. Sow all ground cleared during August with crimson clover and buckwheat, and mulch the clover with rough manure after the buckwheat dies down. Sow field peas or corn on any spots that would otherwise remain unoccupied six weeks or more. All these should be sown on a freshly raked surface. Such a system will save a very large amount of plant food which otherwise would be lost, will convert unavailable plant food into available forms while you wait for the next crop, and add humus to the soil.

I am aware that some of you will not use manure because it grosses you out too much. That’s alright, organic fertilizer will do also. You can buy it or mix your own. I’m going to explain how it works. We have already seen that the soil contains within itself some available plant food. We can determine by chemical analysis the exact amounts of the various plant foods-nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash, etc.- which a crop of any vegetable will remove from the soil. The idea in scientific chemical manuring is to add to the available plant foods already in the soil just enough more to make the resulting amounts equal to the quantities of the various elements used by the crop grown. In other words: available plant food elements in the soil + available chemical food elements supplied in fertilizer= amounts of food elements available to crop.

http://www.on2url.com/app/adtrack.asp?MerchantID=124681&AdID=380901

The raw materials from which organic fertilizers are made up are organic substances which contain nitrogen, phosphoric acid or potash in fairly definite amounts.

Some of these can be used to advantage by themselves. Those most practical for use by the home gardener, I mention.

Ground bone is rich in phosphate and lasts a long time; what is called “raw bone” is the best. “Bone dust” or “bone flour” is finely pulverized; it will produce quick results, but does not last as long as the coarser forms. Cottonseed meal is one of the best nitrogenous fertilizers for garden crops. It is safer than nitrate of soda and decays very quickly in the soil. Peruvian Guano, in the pure form, is now practically out of the market. Lower grades, less rich in nitrogen especially, are to be had; and also “fortified” guano, in which chemicals are added to increase the content of nitrogen. It is good for quick results. Palm bunch ash is one of the best raw forms of organic potash.

There are many brands of organic fertilizers available for sale in any garden center. You can make your own much cheaper, but some people prefer to buy it pre-made for the convenience. It is little use to pay attention to the claims made for them. Even where the analysis is guaranteed, the ordinary gardener has no way of knowing that the contents of his few bags are what they are labeled. The best you can do, however, is to buy on the basis of analysis, not of price per ton-usually the more you pay per bag, the cheaper you are really buying your actual plant food. Email the Experiment Station in your state and ask for the last bulletin on fertilizer values. It will give a list of the brands sold throughout the state, the retail price per ton, and the actual value of plant foods contained in a ton. Then buy the brand in which you will apparently get the greatest

value. For garden crops the mixed fertilizer you use should contain (about):

Nitrogen, 4 percent. Basic formula

Phosphoric acid, 8 percent. == for

Potash, 10 percent. Garden crops

http://www.on2url.com/app/adtrack.asp?MerchantID=124681&AdID=380901

If applied alone, use at the rate of 250 to 375 pounds per quarter acre. If with manure, less in proportion to the amount of manure used. Basic formula (see above) means one which contains the plant foods in the proportion which all garden crops must have. Particular crops may need additional amounts of one or more of the three elements, in order to attain their maximum growth. Such extra feeding is usually supplied by top dressings, during the season of growth.

If you look over the Experiment Station report mentioned above, you will notice that what are called “home mixtures” almost invariably show a higher value compared to the cost than any regular brand. In some cases the difference is fifty percent. This means that you can buy the raw materials and make up your own mixtures cheaper than you can buy organic fertilizers. You can also use things you would normally throw away for free!

More than that, it means you will have purer mixtures. More than that, it means you will have on hand the materials for giving your crops the special feedings that the individual types need. The idea widely prevails, thanks largely to the fertilizer companies, that home mixing cannot be practically done, especially upon a small scale. From both information and personal experience I know the contrary to be the case. With a tight floor or platform, a square-pointed shovel and a coarse wire screen, there is absolutely nothing impractical about it. The important thing is to see that all ingredients are evenly and thoroughly mixed. A scale for weighing will also be a convenience. Further information may be had from the firms which sell raw materials, or from your Experiment Station.

In conclusion, manure is preferred, but organic fertilizer can work well also. The most important distinction is that the plant food is available. You should also realize that different crops thrive off extra helpings of certain plant foods. I give detailed descriptions of how to grow many different fruit and vegetable crops including what plant foods to give each in my most recent work, “Organic Gardening Secrets”. Just click the link below to check it out.

http://www.on2url.com/app/adtrack.asp?MerchantID=124681&AdID=380901

Find More Garden Center Articles

The purpose of an organic garden is to keep things as pure as possible. According to the U.S.D.A., to be organically grown, it must not have been made using any type of synthetic fertilizer, pesticide, insecticide, irradiation, genetic modification or have received growth hormones or antibiotics. To be a stickler about it, that would mean that composted manure would have to come from cows that were not treated with hormones or antibiotics, and they could not have eaten food that was treated with any type of synthetic fertilizer, pesticide or insecticide. This would also necessitate using organic seeds.

TEST THE SOIL

It may seem like something that is impossible to accomplish, but it isn’t really as difficult as it seems. To create an organic garden, one would start out like anyone else who is trying to create a garden. Before doing anything, one should start by doing a soil test. If you are really concerned about adhering to strict organic standards, it will probably be necessary to take the soil sample to the county extension service to have them advise you as to where to get it tested. Once you are armed with information about the pH level of your soil and other levels in the soil, you can proceed to amend it.

MEASURE THE GROWING SPACE

It won’t be possible to make decisions regarding what you want to grow unless you know how much growing space you have. Try to make sure that as much of the growing area is in a place where it will get full sun. Most food crops require full sun to grow properly. A lack of sun can result in a smaller harvest and poor quality crops.

PLAN THE GARDEN

Once you know how much space you have, then it makes sense to decide what you want to plant. A lot may depend on how long your growing season is, whether or not you can start seeds for things indoors in advance, and whether or not it will be possible to plant  for multiple harvests.

Some wonderful things to grow and that can be adapted to organic gardens are:

Vegetable Suggestions:

* Lettuce

* Spinach

*Swiss chard

* Radishes

* Tomatoes

* Broccoli

* Green Beans

* Peas (Sugar snap and snow peas)

* Leeks

* Brussels Sprouts

* Bright  colored peppers

Fruits:

* Strawberries

* Raspberries

* Blueberries

SELECTING SEEDS:

When selecting seeds, the only way to ensure that what you are growing is completely organic, and free of any type of residue from fertilizers, insecticides or pesticides is to purchase only organic seeds.  The two most high profile reputable places for organic seeds are reneesgarden and seedsofchange.

Lettuce, spinach, radishes and peas generally don’t need to be planted ahead of time. Lettuce, spinach and radishes can be sowed directly into the ground as soon as all danger of frost has past.

PREPARING THE BED:

Before anything can be planted, it is necessary to prepare the bed. To do this, the bed will need to be tilled. Many gardening centers have tillers they will rent out, so it is possible to till a garden without having to purchase a tiller. Tilling the soil will loosen it by digging up the soil and turning it over. This is also a way by which to recirculate new soil and allow the old top soil to rest.

This is the time during which any amendments to the soil should be added. Any type of organic matter that will nourish the soil or improve the quality of drainage and air flow is always beneficial. The best and cheapest compost one can get is that which they make themselves. A compost heap can be made from garden and kitchen scraps as long as meat and dairy products aren’t included. Composted manure can also be added to the bed.

PLANTING:

Some things are best suited to planting in rows. Lettuce, spinach, peas, beans and radishes should definitely be planted in rows. Lettuce and spinach don’t mind being cramped so they will do well when confined to a smaller area. Because tomatoes and other larger plants tend to get wider as well as taller, it is sometimes better not to plant these things in rows.

FERTILIZER:

Fertilizers such as bone or blood meal, fish emulsion or sea weed emulsion are all organic. Coffee grounds and egg shells can also be used. It will be important to make sure that the fertilizers you use aren’t synthetically produced, and that they don’t contain synthetic ingredients. It is possible to find these, but it will be necessary to do some looking and double checking.

DEALING WITH INSECT AND PEST PROBLEMS:

When it comes to dealing with insect and pest problems, there are insecticides and/or pesticides that are natural products and that don’t contain any chemicals. Again, it will be necessary to do some searching to find what works best for different problems. Some of the most well known natural products include Bacillis Thuriengis, pyrethrum, Rotenone and Neem Oil. Pyrethrum is the most widely used of these natural insecticides. It is made from pyrethrin, a substance that is extracted from the  Chrysanthemum plant.

Having an organic garden is not out of reach for anyone. It is easy to create, but to be true to organic principles, one must be careful about anything they use in the growing process. The key to successful organic gardening is a willingness to be open to learning about new things. In the end, it will be easy to see how worthwhile an endeavor organic gardening is, because it will be most evident in the way the things you harvest taste.

More Garden Center Articles

Chickens need a balanced and nutritious diet to maintain their health and egg laying capabilities. Organic chicken feeds are a great option to offer the best quality feed and it is the safest feed for the humans eating the eggs laid by their flock.

The average hen consumes about 5 1/4 ounces of feed daily with grain providing about 3/4 ounce of that amount. Adult hens need protein (16%), carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals. In winter most hens increase their grain consumption as the free-range foods they eat the rest of the year diminish.

Free-range hens are able to pick and choose their own foods. Most organic chicken raisers prefer to free-range to take advantage of the nutritious grass, weeds, insects and other bounty only nature can provide fresh to the hens. They also provide organic chicken grains, which one can buy at local feed stores.

Many feed stores offer organic chicken feed by special order only. Some carry a few brands of organic chicken feed blends. The drawback to purchasing organic grains is the expense; much higher than standard chicken feed. In some areas they may also be difficult to find. So, how can you supply the necessary nutrients to your chickens to supplement their free-range diet? You can grow an organic chicken garden and use other vegetables, seeds, nuts and grasses to balance out their daily diet.

An organic chicken garden is a special garden that provides your chickens with the nutrients they would normally obtain from organic chicken feed blends, which are primarily grains. It takes a bit of trial and error to discover what your hens prefer to eat, which can easily be done by observing them in the chicken garden and looking to see which plants have been stripped of their leaves and seeds. It is best to slowly wean your chickens from standard chicken feeds as you introduce them to the new chicken garden.

First, choose a sunny location in an area away from predators. Your chickens will need a safe place to scratch and peck without worrying about the big bad coyote. If predatory birds are an issue you can opt to place a chicken wire canopy over the entire garden area to avoid swooping eagles or hawks. Grow climbing vegetables up the poles for the chickens to eat.

Choose either a plot level with the ground or a raised bed, but not so high that your chickens can’t access the garden easily. Keep the raised garden sideboards around 12-18″ high maximum.

Next, prepare your soil just as you would prepare it if you were planting an organic vegetable garden for human produce. If using raised beds you can place a bottom layer of weed barrier cloth with a six inch layer of crushed rock on it to help the raised bed drain properly.

The size of the organic chicken garden is entirely up to you and largely depends on the number of hens, what you plant and how much you want to plant. Again, trial and error will let you know if you have planted enough for the size of your flock. Start with at least a 6 X 6 foot bed or plot for six chickens or less. Add more area if you find they devour the garden too quickly or cut back if there is a lot of waste.

What to plant in your new organic chicken garden. There are many different grains, grasses and vegetables that can provide fabulous nutrition.

GRAINS:

Corn: Provides carbohydrates and fats, but is deficient in ash, protein and vitamins. Flint corn cracks cleaner and chickens are attracted to its appearance more than standard corn varieties. Cracked corn fed in winter helps keep chickens warm.

Wheat: Offers a large amount of digestable nutrients and is high in carbohydrates. Has good color, is palatable and an excellent choice for chickens.

Barley: Barley is comparable to wheat and provides carbohydrates and high fiber. A good choice. Tibetan Purple barley has a nice color and is a hull-less barley. It is sometimes referred to as Purple Prairie barley.

Buckwheat: While not as attractive in color you can add barley to your chicken garden if your hens enjoy it.

Millet: Not a good choice. Millet passes through the chicken whole.

Sunflower Seeds: Digestable and provides more energy than many cereal grains. Easy to grow and nice to look at as well. The entire seed heads can be tossed into a chicken coop for their feasting pleasure.

Amaranth: An extremely tiny seed packing lots of nutritional value and high protein levels. You can soak the seeds from these beautiful, prolific plants to give your chickens fresh Amaranth sprouts.

Flax Seed: Chickens will enjoy a little flax seed and it is nutritionally good for them.

When purchasing grains, try to find hull-less varieties whenever possible. It is also best to seek out heirloom and open-pollinated varieties. Do not use genetically modified (GMO) seeds. If your chickens aren’t thrilled with the grain itself, most often due to lack of color, try sprouting the grain seeds. Place the seeds in water and let them grow. The sprouts are very nutritious to birds.

GREEN FEEDS and GRASSES:

Some of the green feeds and grasses can be planted as a “chicken lawn” in their free-range zone and around the organic chicken garden. Mow them to keep them fresh and tender. Others like alfalfa can be grown or you could purchase a single bale of alfalfa and grind it up to provide many days of feed. Many grass crops are also grown as cover crops and can therefore be used for two purposes; cover crops and cut greens for the birds. Clip and toss to the chickens daily a mixture from your cover crops.

Alfalfa (ground) or Alfalfa Leaf Ground: If you have a means to grind alfalfa it provides a fair amount of Vitamins A and K.

Clover: Easy to grow. Can mow. Stays green and tender most of the year. Wild white clover and Ladino clover.

Other Mowed Grasses: Meadow grass, perennial rye grass, creeping bent, crested dog’s tail, Kentucky bluegrass, Canada bluegrass, timothy and the fescues. Planting and keeping these mowed in the free-range area can help reduce your feed cost by 5-20%.

Feeding Trough Fines: If you raise livestock, especially cattle, the fines in the bottom of the trough are great to feed to chickens. The cows have already done the grinding for you.

WILD PLANTS FOR CHICKENS:

Dandelions: Very palatable and highly nutritious. They will eat the entire plant, including the roots. Let the dandelions grow in the chicken lawn or garden with the other grasses, grains and vegetables.

Yellow Dock: Another wild weed providing good nutrition to chickens.

Comfrey: Very prolific grower. The protein in comfrey is higher than alfalfa. Cut and feed or plant in the chicken lawn or garden. Chickens like comfrey and geese love it. Can be dried to be used year round.

Stinging Nettle: Chickens enjoy stinging nettle and it does provide good nutritional value to their diet. Can be dried for feeding year round. Tip: Wear leather gloves when collecting.

ORGANIC VEGETABLES:

Potatoes/Sweet Potatoes: A winter favorite. Cook the potatoes or sweet potatoes and mash. Mix with other grains to serve up a warm, grain mash.

Mangel, Fodder and Sugar Beets: Good for hens (not chicks). These big beets provide good carbohydrates and are a good alternative crop when other high carbohydrate feeds are unavailable. They have a low digestability, so don’t overfeed. As a treat, take a whole beet and toss into the chicken coop. Slice it up a bit first to get the chickens started. Fodder beets can produce huge roots (up to 10 lbs. or more) and can be stored during winter like potatoes. Feed one at a time until consumed during cold winter months.

Cow Peas: Small amounts of cow peas can be fed to chickens.

Tomatoes: Provide Vitamins A, B1 and B2. Can dry the skins, pulp and seeds for year round use.

Pumpkins: Easy to grow and feeding them is simple and enjoyable to watch. Bust open a pumpkin and watch the chickens dig in. Pumpkin seeds are a great source of protein.

Zucchini/Squash: Similar to pumpkin. Serve to chickens the same way.

Jerusalem Artichoke: Chickens will eat the leaves and the earthworms at the base of the plants. This vegetable plant can reproduce and take over a garden, so be careful not to allow it to overpopulate itself.

Swiss Chard/Beet/Kale: Chickens love eating the leaves of swiss chard, kale and beets. Plant these in the chicken garden in abundance. Don’t let the chickens at them until the roots are well established and the plants are about knee-high. By waiting, the plant will stay rooted in the ground when the chicken tugs on it and they will continue to regrow new leaves for the chickens continually until a very hard frost. Many times these vegetables survive mild winters.

Cauliflower, Broccoli, Lettuce and Spinach: Feed the leaves to chickens.

Carrots and Rutabagas: Great source for vitamins and minerals. Chop up and feed or some chickens will peck at whole carrots and rutabagas.

CRUCIFERS:

Turnips

Mustard

Rape

FRUITS, BERRIES AND NUTS:

Chickens are like miniature orchard recyclers. The dropped fruit and nuts from orchards are very beneficial to chickens, turkeys, geese and other fowl. Nuts are highly nutritious, but must be smashed prior to feeding time. The chickens will then peck and sort out what they want or don’t want.

Nuts: Acorns, chestnuts, hickories and black walnuts are but a few of the choices of healthy nuts for birds. In early homestead years, pigs were often fattened up for butcher on acorn crops if oak trees were in the area.

Fruits: Chickens will eat the dropped fruits from orchards. Either provide access to the orchard or pick up the dropped fruits and toss them to the hens. Apples, plums, persimmons, mulberries, raspberries, blackberries, huckleberries and many more fruits and berries can add valuable nutrition to the diet.

OTHER EDIBLES FOR CHICKENS:

Insects: Earthworms, flies, maggots, beetles and slugs. Chickens know bugs are good for them. Insects provide great protein. Flip over large stones or roll over logs and let the chickens choose their buggy meal.

Eggs: Feeding eggs can help a hen begin laying again. Eggs have a lot of protein in them because it takes a lot of protein out of the hen to make eggs. Feed raw or cooked. For small chicks you can hardboil eggs, chop up finely and feed. Never feed the shells whole or they may start pecking at their own eggs.

Egg Shells and Oyster Shell: These should be provided to cooped hens and is rather optional for free-range hens because they are able to find their own grit in small pebbles and sand while grazing.

Milk: Sour milk has been fed to chickens since the days of pioneers. It is good for chickens and a favorite. Milk provides a good source of minerals, protein, vitamins and lactose. Per 100 hens you can feed about 12-14 quarts.

Manure/Compost: Allow the chickens to scratch in the compost pile or through manure piles on the farm. They eat the insects and help keep the fly population down. Dried sheep or cow manure can replace about ten percent of ground alfalfa as long as the chicken is eating a well-balanced meal.

Meat: Yes you can feed meat to chickens, which provides a lot of protein and minerals. However, you will find a great deal of controversy on this subject. Do not feed meats that have salt added or sauces with salt. Salt should not be fed to chickens.

Molasses: You can feed chickens small amounts of molasses. Be careful, too much can cause diarrhea.

Hempseed Meal: Hempseed has high nutritional values and can replace up to about 20 percent of the grain cereal rations.

You can reuse your organic chicken garden year after year. Be sure to fertilize with organic manure (chicken, cow, pig, rabbit manures work best) and your garden will grow. If you find the chickens are destroying the garden or chicken lawn you may fence off a portion to allow it to regrow and rotate between the different areas.

Provide a constant source of fresh water daily along with a good mixture of these organic chicken feeds and you will have healthy laying hens. Protect your hens from predators and keep a clean chicken coop. To reduce diseases caused by mice and rats it is best to keep all grains and other feeds in metal trash cans with tight fitting lids. Sweep up any spilled grains and you shouldn’t have an issue with rodents.

OTHER RELATED ARTICLES

How to Save Pumpkin Seeds, Gourds, Squash and More

Forest Gardening: Shade Tolerant Vegetables and Herbs

Constipated Chicken ~ Squirt of Olive Oil Tunes Hen Right Up

GREAT POULTRY RAISING BOOKS:

Storey’s Guide to Raising ChickensStorey’s Guide to Raising Poultry: Breeds, Care HealthChicken Coops: 45 Building Plans for Housing your Flock

More Olive Garden Articles

About a year ago, my friend Brenna and I decided to get a garden plot at the local park where they do organic gardening. The plot cost us to rent for the summer. Not a huge expense, so I figured what the heck. I haven’t had a garden in 25 years, but I remember the basics, right?

Wrong!

I’ve never had an organic garden, but it’s not that different, right?

Wrong!

Brenna grew up on a farm, so surely she knows a little bit about gardening, right?

Wrong!

Brenna grabbed her Farmer’s Almanac and seed catalog. We used graph paper to estimate how much space each of the crops would take up. We looked up natural pesticides and natural solutions to keep predators, in this case deer and rabbits, out of our garden.

I should have known then that things would not go well. Brenna seemed not to understand the basic concept of just how many seeds you need to plant a garden. She really believed that if you planted the seeds two inches apart the plants would have room to germinate and grow and you would have just enough plants to fill the space.

Wrong!

I tried to argue that you should overplant and then remove the extra seedlings that you didn’t need. She disagreed. Even though we spent on seeds (never buy from a seed catalog), we had nowhere near enough seeds for our plot.

The book said our region sees the last major freeze about March 15 each year, so we went out the first week in April to work the plot and get it ready for planting. Bad idea number, well, I lost count already. The ground was tilled by the park district, but it still needed raked and hoed and divided into plots. None of us thought about the irrigation system, believing that between regular rainfalls and occasional watering we would be fine.

Wrong!

We didn’t raise the beds for planting or figure out any form of weed control, other than a good hoe. That lasted about two weeks once we got the spring blooms of every sort of weed imaginable.

But before we could get to that disaster, there was working the plot. We three girls, Brenna, her sister and I, worked in the April sun for about six hours. We got the plot about half ready for planting and major sunburns. We also spent another on a hoe, rake, garden trowels, and gloves.

Still, despite the sunburn I was excited. I bought a couple tomato plants and a variegated sage, at a cost of about . Yes, our organic gardening experience was up over a 0 in base costs now, but it would be fine once the produce came pouring in, right?

Um, wrong.

The week after we planted our organic garden, in mid-April, it turned cold. We didn’t get a hard freeze, but we did get day after day of pouring rain. The garlic plants, all started indoors, were washed from their planted locations to the middle of walkways and to neighboring plots. The marigolds planted to keep insects away seemed to be the one type of plants that actually grew. Things sprouted in the plant beds and then I realized that none of us remembered what a freshly sprouted bean plant looked like. No one could tell the difference between a carrot and a weed.

Worse yet, the tilled ground at the park turned to mud and then to hard clumps, not surprising since most of southern Illinois soil ahs a significant clay base.

Then, it got hot. Overnight, we had temperatures in the 90s. As I had explained to Brenna before we started, I couldn’t be out in the hottest part of the summer. Ninety degrees and my multiple sclerosis do not get along. So, I had to go over a couple evenings a week to weed at dusk. Aside from a few mosquitoes, that would be fine, right?

Wrong!

Brenna and her sister were supposed to pick up the slack, but her sister never really showed back up after that first day of planting. Brenna works two jobs and found herself unable to get to the garden for days at a time. The weeds took over.

The two tomato plants I bought bloomed early and we had some pretty green tomatoes for a few days. They were there on a Tuesday and not there on a Thursday. I think one of the neighboring gardeners, assuming our overgrown plot had been abandoned helped themselves to the tomatoes. I got one beautiful perfect and juicy, organic and I grew it tomato. Brenna may have gotten one as well. It was the only produce that the garden created all summer long.

Another problem was that Brenna forgot to mention when she would plant things. She planted the radishes sometime in June, I think. On a cool day in August when I went to do some weeding, I found the peas had been knocked down by a marauding visitor, most likely a dog. The squash blossoms were torn out of the ground and the radishes resembled wooden tops, overgrown and gone to seed.

The lessons of the tomato are fresh in my mind and I have decided to devote myself to gardening via the farmer’s market from now on. If the day is too hot or blustery or wet, I can buy produce indoors at the local town market. The region’s Sufi farm provides organic vegetables for purchase there.

Brenna is apparently made of sterner stuff and has every intention of gardening again this year. She purchased the books on container gardening and started her seedlings indoors. She was so proud of her seedlings, hoping to move them outdoors soon. But a marauding cat named Moonshadow knocked over the containers and made off with sweet peas. Brenna still argues container gardening will be much easier and more productive than the garden plot was. “Right?” she asks.

Wrong!

In the quest to get healthy, more and more people are turning to organic food. Free of chemical additives and pesticides, organic produce offers only pure and natural nutrients. But for those people who do not have ready access to organic produce at their local markets, or do not wish to pay the high prices associated with organic produce, starting their own organic garden allows them access at any time to fresh, wholesome produce at a fraction of the price it would cost to buy at the store. For those interested in beginning such a garden, an organic garden center can give you all the tools and education you need to start off right.

An organic garden is defined by produce that is grown without the addition of chemicals and pesticides normally used to ward off bugs and weeds, as well as stimulate growth in a traditional growing environment. In order to truly grow organically it is necessary to fully commit to using only products that are 100% certified organic. And in order to get those products you are best to visit an organic garden center.

As its name suggests, an organic garden center offers products for sale that are only certified organic. From soil to fertilizer, the organic garden center will ensure that you have all that you need to grow a delicious and beautiful organic garden. Best of all, most centers have knowledgeable employees on hand who are just as committed to organic gardening. They can be enormously helpful in showing you how to begin, as well as pointing out those products that will work best in your particular space.

Begin with the proper fertilizer and choose those sees that you want to plant in your garden. The organic garden center should be able to help you find those products that will thrive in your particular climate, as well as in the type of sun that your garden receives on a daily basis.

Be sure to do your research regarding the type of maintenance that your seeds will require. The organic garden center can also offer literature and other information about helping your garden grow successfully. Taking the time beforehand to determine what factors will most contribute to your success will help you realize your gardening dreams.