Matt McSpadden

I have used soil blocks for several years when starting seeds. I like it alot. The key is to make sure you use a good recipe so the blocks are not too dense and also don't fall apart.

No little pots, and I do believe they adjust to transplanting faster.

Will it work without Internet after installing?

LibreOffice - Yes
Inkscape - Last time I tried it
Calibre - I'm not familiar with

Welcome to Permies!

I have heard good things about orange oil killing fire ants... but I'm not sure the effect it might have on the compost. I imagine it might slow down the process.

Welcome to Permies Aedan,

For me, I would prefer flavor over size if I was going to a U-Pick, but size is important too. Makes it easier for kids to pick and for you to fill a basket quickly.

I too have been looking into vapor barriers between walls and foundation that did not use plastic. I think you have a couple good ideas already, but could I suggest metal? Metal roofing or even aluminum flashing would be plenty to break the capillary action between cement and other materials.

I like LibreOffice, which is an offshoot of OpenOffice. The "Writer" program is similar to Microsoft Word. It is more for text, but can handle quite a bit of formatting with pictures as well. It also includes "Draw" which is similar to Microsoft Publisher and is built for designing posters and pamphlets and things like that. So it has all sorts of tools for pictures and text.

https://www.libreoffice.org/

Jake Esselstyn wrote:

Matt McSpadden wrote: I would like to also point out that while calcium sources like oyster shells can be used as a form of grit... it is water soluble and will not last long compared to say pebbles and granite shards.

I'm having a hard time understanding how this could be true. Oysters live in water. Why don't they dissolve?

A fair point. I think I should have said that they dissolve more quickly in the crop/stomach. So maybe acid soluble? Is that a term? :)

Timothy Norton wrote:I've recently read that a chicken might consume a 1/3 lb of grit per month. I think that is kind of incredible!

That is pretty impressive. I imagine it matters what kind of grit. If it was something like oyster/egg shells that dissolve fairly easily, I imagine they would go through more than an actual pebble that would probably stay for longer.

Ryan Burkitt wrote:After wood chips and leaves did the grass ever try to come back?

Not very much. I'd say it was probably 4" of leaves and 5-6" of woodchips. There were a few hearty weeds that poked up through, but they were easy to pull and not wide spread. It will depend somewhat on what kind of plants are there now.

Hi Ryan,
Based on my experience I would only use chickens to start to kill grass. While they can get it down to bare dirt... generally by the time it gets there, it is usually very matted down, covered in manure, and a scorched earth/hard pan kind of think. I made some gardens the exact size of my movable electronet. One I left till it was bare dirt. It worked, but I don't feel that it was healthy for the chickens or the soil.

On the second garden, I left them only for a couple of days. They knocked down 98% of some grass/weeds that were 2 foot high. I then moved them off, covered it in fall leaves and woodchips. Wow... that was some good soil the next spring.