Doug McEvers

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since Dec 06, 2025
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Western Minnesota
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Recent posts by Doug McEvers

"How do pellet chicken poop work and where we get it? Never seen chicken poop being used for compost before. Which crops benefit from it?"

Blake, pelletized chicken litter comes from laying hens and is dried and made into pellets with a pelletizing press. It is my go-to fertilizer for the last 25 years, using it on native seed production grassland and now on our soon to be organic acres. N-P-K is typically 4-3-2 but Gary Zimmer says the N can be as high as 8%. It also contains 8.5% calcium that is likely available when calcium can be complexed even in high calcium soils. Also, some zinc and copper is generally included in the chicken diet so there would be some of those traces along with others. It really is quite a complete fertilizer and I feel it is a very good soil life starter choice. I am also a big fan of mined gypsum, seemed to do some very good things for our soil as indicated in the soil health testing we did.
2 days ago
I am sure it has been linked here many times but if not.  Buffalo Bird Woman

https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/buffalo/garden/garden.html

2 weeks ago
We like Baby Pam pie pumpkin. They are easy to grow and store very well in the winter months. My sister in law's sister makes pumpkin pie with them. If there is a better pumpkin pie, I have not had it. I just take the remaining pumpkins and spread out the seeds in the spring, presto, a new pumpkin patch. Had a lot of extra pumpkins last season, some quite small, gave them to an acquaintance for a 60 kid Halloween party at his church. The kids went crazy for those little pumpkins, videos were taken, and I believe some drone footage. Could not download it but it made me smile that we made a bunch of kids happy.
2 weeks ago
I am with Joao,

Watch for a year to see how this parcel handles the rainfall. When we started our organic farm transition here, my neighbor and custom farmer said the same. He said our farm would handle water differently than before due to our biological methods and minimum tillage. After 2 seasons we no longer have standing water in places where it used to stand and drown out the crop. We have had 2 very wet growing seasons but have not lost much due to poor drainage.

Start your soil building process first and the land will tell you what comes next. A moderate slope is quite beneficial in my opinion, you can manage soil moisture more easily.
3 weeks ago
Just came across this when searching "subtle energies in agriculture".  A lot of information here on regenerative agriculture and its history.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11625-022-01281-1
3 weeks ago
You need sunlight to grow a garden, does not need to be full sun all day but that is preferable. I have found that later maturing tomatoes get some partial shade from our farm grove that earlier plantings do not. Add this in with the shorter daylength and the ripening proceeds slowly.
This is the latest in livestock fencing and management, some are using and liking it in our area. Don't know if I would trust this in a high traffic area but in a more remote setting it may be just right. For temporary grazing of cover crops and the like this is a neat option to fencing providing it works well.

https://www.halterhq.com/en-us
1 month ago
Our well water here is good but has a lot of calcium even after filtration. It tends to leave a white ring on water glasses so white vinegar (5%) is my go-to for cleaning them up. You can scrub and scrub with water and soap with little effect, but the vinegar takes the film right off. Works good on cleaning stainless steel cookware as well. First used it for cleaning coffee makers but got tired of the short coffee maker lifespan and have gone to an antique hybrid drip coffee system.
1 month ago
The amazing thing about gardens and soil is how they can remain productive indefinitely with proper techniques. The soil provides 5% of the nutrients and the rest comes from the cosmos. Have been working on soil building in our garden that has been continuous for likely 70 years. I raise warm season native grass for seed and would work the straw from the cleaning into the garden. This made a big difference along with biological fertilizers. I soon saw very low insect pressure and much higher production and quality. Our soils are very fine textured and can use up soil organic matter quickly. Will be doing oats as a cover crop soon and will leave it grow except where the garden plants are. Also, I have a volunteer native border that is home to a host of beneficial critters (hopefully not pocket gophers).
1 month ago
I am with John, hire out the work. Payments, depreciation are alligators for most.
1 month ago