Juliet Eve

James Bridger wrote:I was wondering the same thing, and I guess we'll find out. I cleaned out the chicken coop last weekend, and put it all on my baby garlic plants. The shoots were maybe 4" tall. I had enough used litter/poop mixture to go down about 3-4" thick. I already have a couple little shoots poking up through the litter/poop mix.

For reference, my litter consists of one 7.5 cubic foot bag of pine shavings, in a 4x4' coop with 11 chickens, where it initially sits 6+" deep.  I stir it up at least weekly, and after 2 months when I change it, it's about 4" thick, with no wetness or bad odor, or any noticeable odor at all, really. I don't know if this is really considered deep litter, but it works well for us.

I suppose I'll find out on the spring if my little garlic plants come through, or if I messed up and killed them.

That IS considered deep litter and I commend you for maintaining it properly.  It is always my intention to stir mine daily but with 6 coops and some as large as 12' x 8' and having occasionally been sidelined with a shoulder injury, I have utterly failed to do so! Wound up just layering with lime/sweet pdz and fresh shavings/stall pellets... though the chickens have done their part in stirring it for me, not so much under the roosts though.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:How "hot" do you think it is? I'm guessing that deep litter means a lot of brown matter, which will soak up excess nitrogen during decomposition. Does it smell like ammonia when you muck it out?

While the bulk of it won't I have no doubt some of it absolutely will. It may even be steaming once I turn/agitate it.

I use the deep litter method with my chicken coops and it’s time to clean them. I also want to top dress my dormant asparagus roots. I know I cannot put hot manure on growing plants, because it will burn and kill them, but can I put it down on dormant roots? By the time they start growing in spring, it will be composted. Any thoughts appreciated!

Hi Beth, Here I have what I believe is wild black raspberries.  Yummy but tart with giant seeds.  I ignorantly paid them not much mind at first, they were never too badly behaved - they were in the shade.  One year a few canes made it to the sunshine and everything changed.  The canes grew thicker than my thumb and they began leapfrogging across my yard, 15 feet at a bound.  I used to think my chickens could shelter from hawks under them but they were afraid of them.  I have seen video of sheep who had been caught in them, were completely  trapped and became berry fertilizer. In one year it became obvious they were going to take over my whole property if I didn't do something.  My solution was to keep a fire going and spend literally every single free moment of my time digging them out by the roots and burning them.  I pretty much eradicated them in the course of about 6 weeks.  The scars on my arms are nearly invisible now, lol.  I do have one pop up from some root I missed or perhaps from a bird contributing some seed from somewhere else but now I catch them early and dig them out as soon as possible.  Having seen their worst my attitude is to show no mercy!  You might also try keeping goats but you'd probably want to maintain them there for several years to kill the roots.  Bets of luck!

I grow my food here in MA zone 7b. I always used to try to get my potatoes in around St. Patty's day but one year I was nearly a month late. I observed that it made no difference! The warmer it is the faster they grow, so now I don't worry or rush it. Same is true for snap peas. I buy seed potatoes because there is less chance of disease but if some bought for food sprout they get planted too. I try to pick the smallest potatoes with the most eyes, I don't cut them. I dig a hole roughly a shovel's length deep and press the potato into it but leave the top, with eyes facing up, sticking out. I check my garden every day or so and when I see leaf growth I push some dirt back into the hole to just barely bury it. I repeat this until the soil is level again. My plants are usually very large and bushy and I usually get 6 to 12 potatoes, sometimes more, from each plant depending on variety, I grow Red Norland, Russet, Yukon Gold, Superior, Russian Banana and red fingerling and this year I'm trying a bicolor fingerling. I too have volunteer potatoes, little ones I missed the previous year, coming up all the time so now I am experimenting with a permanent potato bed, I put any and all potatoes that overwinter in it and only dig them up when I have a really nice big plant show up. I always put the smallest ones back in. So far so good I have maintained this bed for 3 years now.

I was recently reading about how Thomas Jefferson (a gardener/farmer first and foremost) grew rice on his windowsill when he was obligated to take an apartment in the city for a time. I'm a bigtime sprouter so I thought gee why not sprout some rice? I buy lundberg's organic short grain brown rice. That stuff sprouted like crazy! For eating as sprouts I think it was too starchy but I have plans to sprout more and then cook it. Also I want to experiment with growing it this summer. Maybe like or with water chestnuts? https://www.greenharvest.com.au/Plants/Information/Waterchestnuts.html

Turkey, I raised 5 for friends and family this year, they dressed out at 26 lbs, 24 lbs, 20 lbs(mine), 16 lbs and 15 lbs. Phew, that 26 pound tom was a monster!
Apples and pumpkins for the pies. Had a bumper squash year got 15 pie pumpkins from one hill! Damn chickens ate all my arugula so the arugula/apple/goat cheese w/balsamic salad I usually make won't be mine except for the apples.
Squash, I've chosen some pretty delicatas for the holiday.
Sweet potatoes.
Yukon gold potatoes for the mashed potatoes.
Everything grown/raised organically.
Yum!

For the longest time I was obsessed with growing super short season tomatoes. I started with 2 Russian varieties; Siberia and Stupice, saved my own seed every year from only the earliest ones. Wound up focusing on Stupice. My personal record was eating a fresh tomato 42 days after planting out at 6 weeks of age. Then I thought why the heck do I want to eat this hard, green shouldered, super tart tomato anyway? They weren't that good! Now if I want tomatoes out of season I just grow long keepers...

As for other early foods I vote sprouts, weeds, I have tons of lamb's quarter, plantain leaves (still trying to perfect a recipe for that) radishes (I too love the pods), and all manner of greens. While not technically planted by me, the seed is self sowing so not sure of the time frame, I grow a biennial chard (fedco billed it as perennial chard but I think it's a super reproductive biennial) that is one of the first things I can eat from my garden every spring.