$\"My$ <\/a>

My hens in their chicken tractor<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 A \u201cchicken tractor\u201d is a portable chicken coop, designed to put chickens to work weeding and fertilizing areas of your garden.\u00a0 The best part is you get fresh eggs (and meat, if desired)\u2014no roosters needed!\u00a0 Hens are easy to care for; they can be given food scraps such as stale bread and cereals, vegetables and fruits (they won\u2019t eat rinds); they eat cheese too; and recycle eggshells!\u00a0 You should buy \u201clayer crumble (or pellet)\u201d for supplemental feed.\u00a0 And of course, make sure they have fresh water.\u00a0 The disadvantage of having chickens is that they are messy; like all birds, they poop everywhere.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t want poopy eggs, you need to clean out nest boxes frequently and put in fresh bedding.\u00a0\u00a0 Animal manure attracts flies; moving the chickens frequently reduces manure build up.\u00a0 After you move your chicken tractor the area can be tilled,\u00a0raked out and prepared for planting.\u00a0 Chickens don\u2019t discriminate between weeds and your prize plants\u2014so keep them away from plants you don\u2019t want eaten or the soil scratched up around.\u00a0 Your chicken tractor also needs to be predator proof.\u00a0 I never know for sure what gets our chickens at night\u2014 a chicken can be dragged through a hole as small as a softball and all that\u2019s left the next day are some feathers!\u00a0\u00a0 You may think a pastoral scene of wandering chickens would be picturesque, but unpenned chickens aren\u2019t safe and are likely to eat or tear up your garden plants.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

$\"My$ <\/a>

My worms huddling together on a cold winter day.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 I inherited a \u201cCan-o-Worms\u201d worm composter from a neighbor.\u00a0\u00a0 The Can-o-Worms is convenient because you can separate the finished, older compost more easily and drain away the \u201ccompost tea\u201d (which can be used to water plants).\u00a0 To be a successful worm wrangler, you just need to make sure you don\u2019t layer in the food scraps too thickly.\u00a0 You need to maintain the right balance of moisture and aeration.\u00a0 Worms can be purchased, or get them from a friend or a local organization.\u00a0 Start by placing worms in a bed of compost (or coconut fiber).\u00a0\u00a0 Add a layer of food scraps and cover with moistened, shredded (non-colored) newspaper (or fallen leaves).\u00a0 Continue layering food scraps and newspaper in the following days and weeks until layer is full; then start again in the next section allowing worms to migrate up from the older section to the new.\u00a0 Worms love vegetable scraps and fruit rinds \u2014 especially melons!\u00a0 I like the fragrance of orange peels.\u00a0\u00a0 Almost any plant product can be put into a worm bin: coffee grounds, tea bags, dryer lint (from natural fibers), sunflower and nut shells. . . as long as you don\u2019t load up too much green or wet material and woody material is small.\u00a0\u00a0 Leftover tomato, melon and other seeds often sprout in soil made from worm compost.\u00a0 The biggest drawback is that annoying fruit flies are attracted to the bin.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Between my chickens and my worms the only kitchen scraps that I throw out are: 1) meat and fish bones and scraps; 2) some dairy products; and 3) fats and grease.\u00a0 (I even use old cooking oil for making laundry soap \u2014or my husband uses it instead of diesel!).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

(This article was first published in the Peninsula Gateway<\/em>\u00a0on February 10, 2010.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I hate having to throw anything away.\u00a0 I recycle everything that is allowable in the co-mingling recycling bin and save up anything else that can be dropped off at a convenient location.\u00a0 I try to buy only what my family will use, but inevitably food spoils and must be discarded.\u00a0 I feel not so<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":369,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360\/revisions\/369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}