Re: Permaculture market garden
Robert Plamondon (newsgate.duke.edu!agate!howland.erols.net!cs.utexas.edu!geraldo.cc.utexas.edu!arRobert Plamondon)
Wed, 29 Jan 1997 22:50:27 GMT
In article <199701260328.OAA25649@macquarie.matra.com.au> rhys@macquarie.matra.com.au (Rhys Howitt) writes:
>Dan wrote:
>>
>
>>Yes, this works if you have the space. Depending on climate, soils, the
>>value of eggs vs vegetables in your profit margins, etc., you can have
>>several plots and rotate them. The trick then is to get your companion
>>planting to work while you plant gardens that will be harvested all about the
>>same time, despite the fact that they are mixed crops. More divisions also
>>allow for more space to veggies, which can be important to people on smaller
>>plots.
>>
>Dan, thanks for the many interesting ideas.
>
>Actually, I was talking to a biodynamic market gardener yesterday. He said
>that the ckickens are great to fertilise the soil, but do massive damage to
>the soil structure. They tend to compact the soil, they dig up the roots, etc.
I wouldn't run chickens on my garden during the growing season.
They're too indiscriminate about what they eat, and I don't like
chicken manure on my food. They're best in a rotation, eating crops
that were planted specifically to provide chicken food, plus maybe
some shade and shelter from hawks. Kale, sunflowers, and corn are
possibilities, along with the more usual pasturage. You have to
cultivate between crops in a rotation, anyway, so the birds' habits of
digging holes and compacting the soild will be erased in any event.
Chickens are also run in orchards, though the studies I've seen show
that they aren't as good at insect eradication as ducks. But I'd
think twice about selling unpasteurized juice from an orchard with
poultry on it.
-- Robert
--
Robert Plamondon, High-Tech Technical Writing, Inc.
36475 Norton Creek Road * Blodgett * Oregon * 97326
robert@plamondon.com * (541) 453-5841 * Fax: (541) 453-4139