Homesteading | Old Fashioned Families

Plant Something for Your Chickens When Planting Your Garden

April 17, 2013 by Mamma 4 Comments

Plant Something for Your Chickens When Planting Your Garden

A question I have pondered a lot is whether or not I can grow my own chicken food. I have heard both those that said I could, and those that said it was not a good idea. I find it hard to believe that feeding your chickens off the land is either not possible or not advisable. But more importantly than that I have come to believe that growing your own chicken food is not only safe but is much better for your chickens.

I can draw on a lot of experiences for this thought, first off, I asked myself, what did farmers do before commercial chicken feed was widely available? Second of all, I look at all of the animals we keep, and a common theme repeats itself. Those animals that are on as close to their natural diet as possible do better. I think that statement right there is so important I could almost repeat it twice, for emphasis. My dog does better on dog food that is not commercially made, or a dog food that is minimally processed. We all know that feed lot cattle are not as good a quality meat as grass fed, and who has not seen the difference between a free range egg and one that comes from the store and was commercial raised?

It all leads me to one conclusion, the closer to nature we can bring our chickens and all of our animals the healthier they will be. While it seems pretty obvious, why are there still some who thing commercial foods are necessary?

It is all a Lack of Education

In my mind it all comes down to a lack of education. Some say that commercial food is better because it contains all the nutrients in balance your chickens need to lay properly. While commercial foods can be a good supplement I believe that they nutrients we can grow for our chickens are much better for them. Provided we all do the necessary research, can do an even better job of keeping our chickens healthy.

So Where to Go From Here

If you are like me, you probably have fed your chickens a few things from your garden, in the belief that it is good for them, but what if you want to go one step farther?

This year, I am planting a specific amount of my garden just for my chickens. And while my garden is not big enough to feed them all year long, I do believe I can supplement their diet for part of the year, which is not only better for them, but will save me money.

What Would Chickens Eat?

What would chickens eat in the wild if we did not feed them a pelleted food that did not even closely resemble what they would eat if they could? Green plants, wild seeds, animal foods such as worms and insects. Not so hard at all…. All stuff we can get easily for our chickens. And provided we offer them a wide range of foods they will wisely balance out their own diets.

What to Plant

So then comes the question of what to plant in your garden for your chickens? That depends largely on whether you plan to grow all of your own food, or if you plan to only supplement. This year I am only going to supplement. Not only can I not hope to feed them all year long, but I have neither the time nor the space to grow everything they will need. I will however grow several of the things that they can eat, which I hope will save us on feed bills as well as produce much healthier chickens.

Grains

Corn – Most gardens have corn in them so this is an easy one, just add a few extra ears of corn to your garden this year. You can feed it fresh or you can let it dry on the stalk and then store it through the winter if you want. You can grind the corn, or feed it whole and make sure to give your chicken access to grit to aid them in digesting it. (Warning: Not all experts agree on whether it is safe to feed chicken whole dried corn.)

Legumes, wheat, rye, oats, and barley are all common crops that can be grown for your chickens. While I won’t be doing any of these this year, with the exception of legumes, I wanted to add them for other that might wish to consider them.

I will be planting sunflowers, the chickens love these and they are rich in nutrients such as omega 3s. You can toss the entire flower into your chickens. These are so easy to grow and harvest, making them an easy choice. Other seeds you might consider if you have access to them are millet and sorghum.

Greens

We like to give our chickens plenty of greens during the year, not just grass, but also lettuce, spinach, and kale. These are so cheap to grow, I always plant lots of them, not only do I give them the plants as they are growing, but I toss the plants going to seed to the chickens too, they don’t mind the bitter taste.

In addition to greens, you can give your chickens the tops of the carrots, beets, turnips, and what is left over from the broccoli plants at the end of the season. Chickens also love a wide range of herbs, Something I did not know until this year, so I will be adding to the herbs I grow. Basil, Parsley, rosemary, fennel, thyme, lavender, Marjoram, catnip, mint, and cilantro are just some of the herbs that are good for your chickens.

Assorted Other Things to Toss to your Chickens

Chickens also love tomatoes, something I learned last year, when one of my chickens and 4 of my ducks broke out of their pen and broke into my garden. I caught them chasing tomatoes all over the garden in what was so obviously part fun and part feeding frenzy. Cucumbers are also on their list of favorite vegetables, as are carrots and beans. And of course chickens love fruit and berries best of all. (Hint: they will destroy a strawberry patch in a quick hurry) You can also plant a few nasturtiums for your chickens most of them love the tender greens and flowers from these plants.

If you are like me and your ability to let your chicken’s free range is limited, then offering them choice tidbits from the garden can help them to stay healthy. I don’t spray any of my garden with anything that is toxic, so more often than not, they also get a few insects and worms along the way.

Do You plant anything for your chickens? Is there anything special they love? Share with us in the comments!

Filed Under: Animal Husbandry, Gardening, Homesteading Tagged With: feeding chickens, Growing your own chicken food, what to plant for chickens

Getting Your Garden Tiller Ready for Spring

April 15, 2013 by Bob Getz Leave a Comment

Getting Your Garden Tiller Ready for Spring Spring is finally upon us and if you are like me, this means it is finally time to put the snow blower away just in time to break out the tiller. This is the perfect time of year to get an early start on preparing all of your gas powered equipment for what is sure to be yet another grueling season.

If you were smart and did the right thing at the end of last summer, all of your power equipment should be sitting in the garage or shed with the gas drained out of the tank and carburetor, ready to go. Of course if you are like me, you probably turned each of them off and put them in their spot in the garage. There they sat until now doing little more than gathering dust and the mysterious junk that gets piled on them no matter how hard you try not to let it happen.

Now that Spring is Here

Now that spring has finally reared its beautiful head, all thoughts turn towards getting the garden ready for planting. This means dragging out the tiller and getting ready to go. Ours is an older timer circa somewhere in the 60s or maybe early 70s. We found a listing on our local Freecycle for someone giving away an old tiller and riding lawn mower. So far I have managed to get the tiller running, next on my list is the mower.

Now is the perfect time to drag out the gas powered equipment and give it a good once over. The more you do now before the season kicks in, the less trouble you are likely to have when the season really gets going. General maintenance of these pieces of equipment is something that can be done by anyone who can use a few simple hand tools. Among these are:

A Phillips screwdriver
A slotted screwdriver
A pair of pliers
A pair of wire cutters
A sharp knife
A hammer
A file
A small hand electric grinder

Most of us own at least this much as part of our collection of tools, the only thing you may not have is the small hand grinder, but you can easily pick one of these up at your local do it yourself store for less than $50. A word of caution here, if you are going to use a grinder, you need to buy a pair of safety goggles or glasses and USE THEM! You only have one pair of eyes and the metal filings and sparks from a grinder can cause SERIOUS eye injuries and rob you of your sight.

Your Garden Awaits

If you garden is like ours, it sat all winter long growing a great crop of weeds and grass. The first thing we reach for in the spring is our trusty tiller. There was a time when we turned it all over by hand, but now our garden has simply become too big to do this or maybe I am just getting a little too old. In either case we are now the proud owners of a gas powered tiller.

Getting the tiller ready each spring involves cleaning, lubing, changing the oil, and more long before you pull the rope for the first time.

Cleaning

If all you did was roll the tiller into your garage at the end of the year, you’ve got some serious cleanup to do before getting started. A good wash with the garden hose will get you started off on the right foot. But before you do this take some plastic wrap and rubber bands, cover the air filter housing and muffler. This will prevent any water from getting into the engine where it can cause serious problems.

Once you have washed and scrubbed the buildup of dirt from your tiller, grab a sharp knife and cut away weeds, strings, and buildup that has gather around the tines and the drive shaft. While your tiller may still run with this buildup, it will slow it down, make it work harder and if you let it get too big cause your tiller to not do a good job.

Prepping the Tines for another Season

While you are looking at the tines, look for damage such as chips or dings in the leading edge, bent tines and broken mounts. If the tines are bent, crack or have broken mounts, you will need to replace them. While bent tines will not necessarily cause any serious problems, they can make your tiller hard to handle.

Depending on how new your tiller is you may be able to straighten slightly bent tines. In order to this, you will have to remove them from the drive shaft. Most newer machines have a shear pin that holds them on, you will need to use a hammer and punch to drive the pin out. If you do not damage the pin, you can reuse it, but if you do it will need to be replaced.

Getting Your Garden Tiller Ready for Spring You can use a small sledgehammer to straighten stamped steel tines. But if your tiller is like my old timer, the tines are made from thick cast steel and must be heated up using a torch in order to straighten them. Unless you have a set of oxy acetylene welding torches on hand, you might want to take these tines to someone do the work for you.

Sharp tines will cut through the weeds and soil far more easily. This does not mean you need the same sharp edge as your lawn mower blade, but your tines still need an edge. You can use a good file to take out the nicks and dings from last year and put an edge on the leading edges of the tines or you can use a small (4 inch) electric hand grinder. If you are going to use a grinder, you MUST WEAR your SAFETY GLASSES.

Start working from the bend in the tine towards the tip, whether you are sharpening by hand or with a grinder. The idea is to keep the original cutting bevel as this is considered the perfect angle to get the job done. You should only file or grind long enough to remove the nicks and put a cutting edge back on the tines. Remember, you are going to be doing this every spring, if you take too much off it won’t be long before you have to buy new tines.

Taking Care of the Drive

If your tiller is like mine and belt driven, you need to examine the belt or belts for frayed edge, pieces missing or any other signs of damage. Replacing them before you get started will save you a lot of frustration compared to breaking a belt in mid tilling session. Examine the pulleys and tensioners for damage and spin any free running pulley by hand to make sure they roll smoothly. If you have any that feel rough, replace them now as damage pulleys or bearings can destroy your belts.

Getting Your Garden Tiller Ready for Spring The tines of your tiller are attached to a shaft that then connects to a drive unit and the shaft the belts turn. This is a good time to see if there are any grease fittings that need to be pumped full of grease. You can pick up a grease gun at any auto parts store along with a tube of grease. As a good rule of the thumb, you should pump grease until you can see it coming out of the ends of the shaft. This way you know there is plenty in there and you have flushed out the old grease and dirt.

The drive unit may also be filled with gear oil that must be checked, there should be a plug on the face or side that you can take out. If there is a dipstick, all you have to do is add enough gear oil to reach the full mark. If not just fill it until the oil reaches the bottom threads and that should be fine.

Cables, Controls, and Shutoffs

This a good time to check the operation of all cables, controls, and shutoffs. For the most part all you really need to do is make sure everything works smoothly. If there is too much slack in any cables you may be able to adjust them, if not you may need to replace them. Whether you have a key switch, a simple toggle switch or a kill button, you need to make sure it works properly. This is VERY IMPORTANT from a safety point of view as you need to be able to shut your tiller down immediately in an emergency.

The Engine the Heart of Your Tiller

Spring is the best time of year to do an oil change on your tiller’s engine. If you have the owner’s manual it will tell you where the drain is, but on most models it located on the bottom of the engine or at the bottom of side. Drain all of the old oil into a container that can be taken to a nearby auto parts store for disposal. Refill with fresh oil, your owner’s manual will tell you what type to use. If you do not have a manual, you should be able to find one online.

If you ran your tiller out of gas at the end of last summer, you should be able to fill the tank with fresh gas and be ready to go. If not you need to drain the old gas from the tank and carburetor. In order to do this, you need to disconnect one end of the hose that runs from the tank to the carburetor and let the gas flow into a container.

Finding the Location of your Sparkplug

On the bottom of the carburetor there should be one or two screws. If there is only one, you need to remove it and let the fuel drain out. If there are two, one in the middle and one on the edge, remove the one on the edge and drain out the old fuel. Put everything back together and fill the tank.

The only thing left is to replace the spark plug, and you should be ready to face a new season. But before you pull the rope for the first time, give your tiller a good once over. You should be looking for loose nuts and bolts, or signs of damage. Once you have done all of this you should be ready for spring tilling and planting. The good news is that despite this huge post, it should take you no more than an hour or two to do everything on this list.

Filed Under: Homesteading, Maintenance Tagged With: garden tiller, lawn and gard tool maintenance, lawn and garden tools, rototiller maintenance, Tiller Maintenance

Garden Tool Maintenance – Taking Care of all Of your Gardening Tools Year Around

April 5, 2013 by Bob Getz Leave a Comment

Note From The Editor: Please welcome my husband, who has agreed to add to our blog with bits of wisdom from around the Homestead. I am creating a special maintenance and DIY category just for him. I look forward to all of his great ideas!

Making Your Garden Tools Last Takes a Proper Maintenance Program

Spring is finally creeping up on us and with it comes the time to check over all of your garden tools and make sure they are up to the task. If you had taken the time to prepare them for storage at the end of last summer, this shouldn’t be a problem. On the other hand if you are like most of us, you knocked the worst of the dirt off and stuck them in the shed or garage. With this in mind, join me as I take you through preparing your tools for storage and taking care them throughout the year.

It is Only Natural to Have a Large Collection

If you are like most avid gardeners, you have managed to acquire an extensive collection of garden tools. I know we have invested a pretty hefty chunk of money in garden tools. Unless you plan to continuously replace your tools as they fall apart, you need to institute a proper and regular maintenance program. As with any tool you own, if you do not invest the time to take care of your garden tools, they will not last.

Sharpening Hoe Whenever you have a hobby that requires specific tools, there is nothing better than spending that little bit extra to buy good quality tools. While it might require spending a little extra in the beginning, I find the payoff is not only having tools that will last longer, but in having tools that will make each task a little easier.

Just as the chef keeps his knives sharp, you will find keeping your garden tools clean, properly sharpened and ready to use makes gardening far more fun. Our newly sharpened hoe cuts down weeds far more effectively and churns up the soil in far less time. A rake with well-defined points and straight tines will make leveling your soil and raking up the weeds faster with less effort. You can’t do this with cheap tools any more than you can with tools that are not properly taken care of.

The best part is that it does not have to take hours to care for your collection of hand tools, it only takes a few minutes for each tool. But that few minutes of your time can provide you with tools that last a lifetime.

Starting with the Handles

Wood Handles:

Chances are good that most of your garden tools have wood handles, some are short such as your garden fork, and others like those on your rake or hoe are much longer. Long or short the handles must all be taken care of if you don’t want splinters in your hands. Each handle should be sanded smooth at least once per year. Clean the dirt and grime off each handle using a damp cloth, and set them aside to dry.

Take a sheet of fine sandpaper and lightly sand the handle to remove any roughness, this is a good time to give the handle a thorough inspection. As long as there are no major cracks or divots in the handle, it is ready for the final touch. Wipe the handle down with a good quality linseed oil. The idea is to soak the handle to the point where it will absorb any more oil. Set it aside and repeat for each wooden handled tool.

Once you have done this to all of your wooden handled tools, leave them to sit and dry for approximately half an hour. Wipe off any excess oil and you are done. Doing this once each year at the end of the gardening season ensures the wood will not dry out over the winter and that the handles will stay smoother and more flexible all summer long. If you have not done this over the winter, you can still do it now, but be sure to do it next fall before you put your tools away.

Fiberglass Handles:

Fortunately, fiberglass handles require very little in the way of maintenance. All you really need to do is give them a good wash down to remove any dirt or grime. However, now is a good time to give each handle a thorough examination. Fiberglass can be damaged by the sun and if you apply to much stress it will crack. Catching any signs of damage early can save someone from getting seriously hurt if a handle should happen to break under a load. Remember to store your tools with fiberglass handles out of the sun.

Metal Tools and Tool Surfaces

The biggest problem you are ever likely to face with your garden tools is rust. If you are not proactive in your fight against rust, it will destroy your valuable garden tool collection in a very short period of time. Taking care of the metal parts of tools such as garden forks, hoes, shovels and spades is a two part process.

The first part of the process covers how you clean and store them, the other concerns how you take care of them at the end of the season. Let’s start with daily cleanup and storage.

You will need the following:

A garden hose
A five gallon bucket
A bag of sand
Motor oil (you can use vegetable oil if you prefer, it is less hazardous to your garden).

Pour the sand into the five gallon bucket, and add enough oil to keep the sand damp. Clean and rinse as much dirt as you can off of each tool. Then insert the tool into the bucket and then move it up and down several times. Not only does this remove any leftover dirt, the oil will help to protect the metal and keep it from rusting. You can store your tools in the sand all year long, right through winter, the oil in the sand will continue to protect the metal.

At the end of gardening season, you should take a wire brush and use it to remove any dirt or light rust that may have formed. If any of your tools have a heavier layer of rust you can use steel wool to remove it, or soak the tool in pure white vinegar. If you have to sand the rust to remove it, you need to protect the bare metal by spray painting it with a good quality rustproof primer. You can then store your tools with a fresh coat of primer or for those that will fit, slide them back into your bucket of oiled sand for the off season.

Sharpening Your Tools

If you are serious about taking good care of your garden tools, proper maintenance includes keep the edges of certain tools nice and sharp. This includes hoes, shovels and spades, it can also to a certain extent, include the prongs on your garden rake. There are two methods you can use, the simplest and safest is to use a metal file. You can also do the job with a small, handheld electric grinder.

The only other tool you need is a bench vise to hold the tool in place. This is not absolutely necessary, but it will make the job easier. If you are going to use a hand file, you need a good quality mill file. This is nothing more than a common metal file available in any hardware store, you need one that is relatively fine.

Take the file and set on the edge of the tool trying to match the original bevel. You move the file away from your body using smooth even strokes. Do not drag the file back, lift it from the edge and place it back at the starting position. This results in a faster cut and no damage to your file. With a hand grinder you can achieve the same results in far less time, but you must use a light touch or you could destroy the edge rather than sharpen it.

Once you have restored the edge to your tool, flip it over and file just enough from the other side to remove any burrs or roughness. Lightly oil or paint the fresh edge and your tool is nicely sharpened and ready for use. You should do this several times during the season and at the end of the season before you place your tools in storage. If you are not storing them in the sand bucket, you should paint the fresh edge to prevent rust.

Pruning Tools Take Extra Care

If you have pruning tools in your garden tool collection, you need to oil the pivot after every use. In order to sharpen them properly, you may need to disassemble them. Instead of a file, you need a whetstone to put a new edge on them. A good trick used by professionals is to use a black marker and run it along the surface of the edge to be sharpened.

You are finished once all of the marker has been removed. The only edges you should be sharpening are those that are beveled. You must keep the shape of the bevel as you sharpen to maintain maximum cutting ability. If you have a very expensive pair of pruners, you may find taking them to a professional sharpening service is a better idea.

One Final Thought

Your garden tools are only going to last if you take good care of them. Anytime you are using a file or a grinder, you need to be wearing safety glasses to protect your eyes from flying metal filings. All it takes is a single metal filing in your eye to cause serious damage. With a little care and attention, your tools should last for many, many years and help you produce endless amounts of fresh fruits, vegetables and flowers.

Filed Under: Gardening, Maintenance Tagged With: Garden tools, maintenance garden tools, taking care of garden tools, winter care for garden tools

Grow Veg Garden Planner Review

March 27, 2013 by Mamma 4 Comments

I know there are several reviews out there for this software, but since I used and loved this tool last year, I thought I would through my review out there as well. Whether you have used this software or not, please make sure to view the video I embedded for you, of the new features this year. These features make a great program even better, I am excited to get going using it just based on a few of these new tools.

I have to say, I am not typically a fan of these types of tools, not only am I not an organized person (and most days I prefer it that way) but organizational tools normally sit and collect dust in my house. I also was not sure how I felt about computerizing something that most years I do in my head.

Last year however we had a larger garden for the first time in years. I wanted to get the most out of my garden that I could. So I went looking for a tool that would let me maximize my garden harvest with the space I had.

Well since I will be using and recommending Grow Veg this year I can honestly say that it was a serious success.

First Impressions

Grow veg has a lot of things going for it, but what I had to decide is whether or not it was truly worth paying $25 a year for. Keep in mind that Grow Veg does offer a free trial for 30 days to try the software out. So I was able to plan my garden and print out a copy of it and my plant dates for free. But was it worth continuing to pay for?

Ease of Use - Right out of the box Grow Veg is so simple and intuitive anyone can use it. I did not spend any time trying to figure it out, because they made it so easy to use, I could dig in and start planning my garden right away. This is no easy feat when you consider how flexible this program is.

Flexibility - Speaking of flexibility, imagine designing your garden, is it perfectly square or does it have to fit in a space provided for it? Grow Veg makes it easy for you to draw out simple plots, oddly sized plots, several plots or your ENTIRE landscape.

Tools Galore- I think these tools were what finally made me decide that Grow Veg was worth the extra cost. When it was time to replant I got an email telling me it was time. For the hopelessly unorganized such as myself, this all by itself was worth the annual fee I paid. Some people might find that annoying, but for me, who never manages to remember to replant at the right time, it was priceless.

Year to year, the Grow Veg vegetable planting guide helps with rotating crops. I am no spring chicken anymore, and even when I was younger I had a hard time remember how, when, and where to rotate. Grow veg had all of that information ready for me when it was time to replant. No fuss, no worries, it made it so easy to plan this year’s garden.

In addition you are able to lay out things like pathways, irrigation, fencing, arbors, and more. This is new this year, it even provides a shopping list for your irrigation system to make this task incredibly easy. This allows you to plan your garden from the ground up. When you are done, you also get a plant list that tells you exactly what you have planted and any other notes or information you might want to record. If you want to keep a gardening notebook this could be nothing short of priceless. You can even record the varieties you planted and later go back and make notes about how well they did.

Other Features You Won’t Know How You did Without

The list of things I loved about using Growveg is long, I won’t bore you with all of them, with a free trial it is easy enough for you to find out for yourself. But I wanted to share those little gems that will keep me coming back time and time again.

The ability to tuck in one, two or twenty plants wherever you want. (I love relaxed gardens that are not all straight rows. But you can do those too!)
Garden Veg automatically determines spacing, so NO CHEATING. Seriously I am terrible about being over ambitious and crowding plants too close together.
Grow veg does have a square foot garden design planner, so if you are short on space you can fit in more in less space
This program adapts to my location so a vegetable planting calendar told me exactly when to plant everything, no more guess work (although I did cheat a bit on this, it was an extra warm year last year)
I thought for sure that this program would not have all of my plants, but guess what? It did! But if it does not, no worries, there is a way to create your own plants custom.
Everything is as simple as drag and drop, it is fun, easy, and creative to build a garden this way!
Straight Rows are optional! Seriously! Ever wanted a garden that was a work of art and as fun to plant as it is to harvest? Ditch the straight rows and have fun designing a garden!
Need information about the plants I grew? There is an extensive data base of information that tells everything you need to know about how to grow vegetables, fruits and herbs.

Is Grow Veg Something I will continue to use?

It is easy to say that $25 is a lot of money to add to the cost of growing your vegetables, and it is true that that is the case. I try to grow as much as I can, for as little as I can, to save us money. I am also a bit of a tightwad.

But here is the bottom line, if I can increase my yields but getting in second plants, increase the health of my plants by planting them properly and by getting information about rotation then this program is worth every dime I spend on it. For me it was a no brainer, anytime I can spend money to save money I will do it.

At for those of you who think that you don’t need this program because you have been gardening for ____ years (you fill in the blank) I have been gardening for over 30 years and I find this program fun, easy to use, and incredibly helpful.

What I did not like About Grow Veg

First off, I have to say I looked at all of the vegetable garden plans out there, I did not like any of them much, other than this one. By far this was the most affordable, flexible, and useful in my books. Once I got started with it, I found little to complain about.

The one single thing I really wish they would improve is the ability to print layouts. I hope they fix this, this year, I had to fuss around to get my entire garden printed out at a size that was useful for me. I did get it printed and it did work, I just feel certain that there has to be a better way than the one they provide. It might be me, it might be my printer, but it seemed a bit harder than it needed to be.

For those with iPads, you can get Growveg on your tablet and take it outside with you, but that is not me, so I relied on a printed copy to take out to the garden with me.

So there is my Grow Veg Review, I hope you enjoyed reading it, this is supposed to be part of my Garden Planning Series but time got away with me and I never got back to finishing it. I still hope to do so, but I really wanted this post done for you before garden planning time is over with.

NOTE if I get enough interest in this post, I will create my own tutorial and walk through on how to get the most out of Grow Veg.

Filed Under: Gardening, Homesteading Tagged With: grow veg, how to grow vegetables, square garden design, vegetable garden design, vegetable garden plans, vegetable planting calendar, vegetable planting guide

Garden Planning Series – Deciphering the Different types of Seeds

February 1, 2013 by Mamma Leave a Comment

Garden Planning Series – Deciphering the Different types of Seeds

During the week I got to wondering why it is that so many things in life have become so complicated. I guess it started when I was trying to find something for dinner (being the very end of the pay period before I go shopping) and ended up making very simple meals. Those meals turned out to be some of the most satisfying meals we have had in a long time. That got me to thinking about how nice simple is sometimes. But choosing what to buy in the stores or online never seems so simple anymore.

There are a number of different types of seeds available on the market, for the seasoned gardener this does not present much in the way of a problem. But for the new gardener, those choices can seem a bit overwhelming, especially since some types of seeds are not as easily available as others.

My hope is to help you decipher the different types of seeds available so you can make a more informed decision on what type of seeds you want for your gardens this year. In a future post, I will be doing reviews on the different seed companies I have used or that readers have used in an effort to help you find the best seeds for your garden.

So How Many Different Type of Seeds Are There Anyway

There are so many different terms used to describe seeds, some of which overlap it is not surprising to me that there is some confusion out there as to what is what. Some of the terms you are likely to hear are GMO or genetically modified, hybrid, organic, heirloom and open pollinated. Many people assume that organic seed is automatically heirloom seed for instance and that is not always the case. Open Pollinated and heirloom seed do not mean the same thing either. To better understand the best seed to buy here are some definitions that can help you out.

GMO Seeds

GMO seed is becoming more and more common especially among commercial farmers but it is often present in seeds you buy in the store for your home garden. Genetically modified seeds have raised concern worldwide about the dwindling bio diversity of our seeds and food supply. Concerns about the companies that hold the patents to these seeds has also grown, so many people like to avoid using this type of seed.

In simple terms genetically modified seeds have been modified in a lab to produce a desirable trait in the seed that it did not previously possess. The DNA used is from different species, so the results can often be unpredictable. You cannot save seed from GMO seeds, the results will be unpredictable. In commercial farming the saving of many GMO seeds is forbidden by the manufacturers and new seed must be purchased every year.

There have been concerns among scientists and those in the farming community about the possibility that GMO seed may not be safe. So far it has not been proven one way or the other, but more tests need to be done to determine if GMO seeds truly are safe.

Hybrid Seeds

People often confuse hybrid seeds with GMO but these are in fact not the same. Hybrid seeds are the results of two varieties of the same plant being crossed. This happens in nature all the time, but frequently seed growers do so in order to cultivate seed that has certain desirable traits. This is not done with chemicals or in a lab necessarily, which means that being hybrid does not preclude a seed from being organic.

There are no concerns about health when it comes to hybrids, however you may find that many hybrid varieties are not as flavorful as heirloom seeds. Many times the emphasis placed on hybrid seeds is on the size, the color, or how long it takes to harvest rather than the flavor. The biggest problem with hybrids is that you cannot save the seed with any degree of certainty in what it will produce in subsequent years. Many hybrids are sterile and often the seed they produce is nothing like what the parent plant was.

Hybrids have their advantages if you have no plans to save seeds, they tend to be hardier, and they are often more disease resistant and offer higher yields.

Open Pollinated Seeds

This is a term that you may or may not have heard before. Generally when you talk about “purebred” seeds and plants you think about Heirloom seeds and plant but this is not necessarily true. Heirloom seeds are always open pollinated but not all open pollinated seeds are Heirloom seeds.

The term open pollinated refers to the fact that these seeds are pollinated by normal means such as insects, birds, wind or humans. This pollination allows the variety to adapt slowly over time to meet the conditions, however these seeds will always breed true year after year provided they are do not share pollen with different nearby varieties.

The big difference between open pollinated seed and Heirloom is that open pollinated seeds can be new strains of seeds, provided that they breed true year after year.

Heirloom Seeds

Heirloom seeds are gaining in popularity in recent years, and with good reason. Heirloom seeds are always open pollinated, but more than that, they are varieties that have been handed down by our grandparents and their parents for generations. These seeds have a history and some times that history goes back a hundred years or more.

There has been a huge movement to preserve heirloom varieties, and for good reason, heirloom seeds offer some of the best varieties and flavor you will find in your garden.

Organic Seed

I have saved this classification for last, simply because most people think that Organic, heirloom, open pollinated all mean the same thing. This is not the case, it is important to remember that organic seed is seed without synthetic pesticides or fertilizer used to grow it. Organic seed cannot be genetically engineered either, but it can be hybrid. It does not have to be heirloom either, open pollenated seed can also be organic.

So Which Seed to Choose……

So here is the big question, which seed to choose for my garden? I have always steered away from GMO seed, as much for ethical reasons as for the concerns I have about our food supply.

I also choose organic seed because nobody needs pesticides….

I love heirloom seeds, because of their diversity and flavor, but I am not against using open pollinated or hybrid varieties provided they are organic.

I guess the answer lies in what works best for you, and what varieties of seeds you truly want. You may find that a hybrid allows you to grow broccoli in an area where it might not otherwise grow. Don’t let the fact that it is a hybrid stop you from enjoying fresh broccoli this year. There are benefits to be had from buying heirloom and open pollinated seed, but this does not mean that I am never going to buy hybrid seed if it suits my needs better.

I hope that helps! Next in my series I am going to do a review of many of the seed companies and what their specific offerings are. I hope to include a printable table that you can refer to when buying your seeds.

Filed Under: Gardening

GMO or Not to GMO What You Need to Know AND a Free Gift!

January 30, 2013 by Mamma 7 Comments

I will get back to my garden planning series in the next couple of days, a forum member was gracious enough to supply a very special gift for all of you, and it inspired to me to create a post to go along with it.
garden

The term GMO has certainly had its share of press over recent years, enough so that many of us know that it is something we need to be concerned about. This fact in and of itself has created a battle between consumers and the companies that use GMO products. Companies fear that labeling will cause the public to assume that the product is bad for them, and that this will hurt their profits, while others say that consumers have the right to know.

What are GMO Products

GMO stands for genetically modified organisms, this term in and of itself is enough to worry me. Why is someone modifying my food? Is there are reason for it, and what are the ramifications for doing so? More about that later, first if you want to make an informed choice about GMO foods, you have to understand just what they are.

GMO crops have had changes made to the DNA with the use of genetic engineering techniques. Changes are made to make crops grow faster, make them resistant to disease and insects, as well as to encourage them to produce extra nutrients.

On the outside this sounds like a good thing right? But some changes have gotten carried away, such as modifying crops to be resistant to herbicides so that weeds can be sprayed on a field full of food. There are other reasons why GMO may be of concern despite the fact that many scientists and corporations have insisted that there is nothing wrong with them.

vegetables

Are GMO Products Bad for YOU?

First off I have a theory, any time you add something to a natural food that does not belong there, it is not a good thing. Nature’s foods are perfect the way they are, without being altered or changed in any way. I believe that no good can come from altering the DNA of anything, and that includes our food supply.

GMO is rampant, and it is a good bet that unless you eat all the food from your own farm or you eat all organic foods you are eating GMO foods. It is estimated that 90% of the corn crop is now GMO, and when you consider how many products have corn derivatives in them this it makes GMO’s pretty hard to avoid unless you know now.

But there are good reasons to avoid GMO foods, perhaps one of the most important is that there have not been enough studies to prove the GMO are safe. Past experiments with food have proved to be unsuccessful and even dangerous, such as trans-fats, and there is concern among many scientists that genetically modified foods may have unforeseen side effects in the long term. In fact many of the GMO food studies have produced results that seem to support the fact that GMO is not only doing its intended job, but they are having some unintended consequences.

One of the biggest concerns when it comes to GMOs is that modifying the genes of plants make them less genetically diverse and hence less robust. This has a lot of potential impacts on our food supply, think about inbreeding in people or animals, the product of inbreeding is an offspring that is not as hardy as its parents and other ancestors. With plants this means plants that are more susceptible to disease not less, that cannot handle environmental adversity nearly as well as genetically diverse seeds can.

GMOs Are Not Labeled

Food labels list just about everything else, from how much fat, sugar and nutrients are in your food to any potential allergy issues, but manufacturers are not required to label foods as GMO. If there is no problem with these genetically modified foods then labeling should not be an issue.

I have decided for my family that GMO’s are something to be concerned about and something to be avoided, just as much as BPA, pesticides and trans fats. In the end it is up to us to make sure the food we feed our family is healthy, and provides the right nutrients. There is no reason to buy food that has been genetically modified and the only real reason to grow it is greed. Many people believe that somehow these foods have helped to feed starving nations, but there are no studies that say that these food have provided any of the benefits that they are supposed to provide.

Choosing non GMO foods can be difficult, when it comes to produce the safest thing to do is to buy organic or grow your own from non GMO seeds (more about this in a future post). When it comes to packaged foods my free gift below can help you find foods that do not include GMO crops.

Your Free Gift

First of all, be looking for an upcoming post, I will be doing a lengthy post about seeds and helping you to determine the differences between GMO, Non GMO, organic, heirloom and more with the seeds you buy and where to buy them from.

In the meantime enjoy this PDF, it is a list of manufacturers that offer Non GMO foods, and I have also provide some links and books for further reading if you want to know more about GMOs.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, I will be adding to this list as I find more companies, and I may try to provide links as well as descriptions of the products available. In the meantime, if you know of a company that is not in this list, leave it in the comment section and I will add it!

Non GMO Food List

Sources and links to more info:

http://www.organicauthority.com/foodie-buzz/eight-reasons-gmos-are-bad-for-you.html

http://www.saynotogmos.org/

http://www.csid.unt.edu/files/What%27s%20Wrong%20With%20Genetically%20Modified%20Food.pdf

Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies About the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You’re Eating

Genetically Engineered Food: A Self-Defense Guide for Consumers

Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods

Filed Under: Gardening, Homesteading Tagged With: GMO, non GMO, non-GMO foods

Garden Planning Series – Getting Organized

January 23, 2013 by Mamma 5 Comments

Garden Planning Series - Getting Organized

This article is part 2 in a series about getting ready for gardening season, you can find part 1 here – Making Sure you have the Right Tools and Resources

I am not a very organized person, never have been, but I have found over the years that a bit of organization can easily make the task of planning the garden easier but it can also make it more cost effective and efficient.

Planning a garden demands a certain amount of organization and planning. I don’t care if you are planning a small garden in containers on your porch or a huge garden with as much gardening space as any one person could hope for. Planning will allow you to make the most out of the space you plant, and with the ever rising cost of food, this is always a good thing.

Getting Organized

To get organized I start with pulling out all of my seed catalogs and a notepad. If you do not have any seed catalogs yet, you better hurry! Or alternatively you can use the Internet for this step, but it is not as much fun!
My goal here is not to make out seed orders just yet, instead I make two lists, 1) is the list of veggies I know I am going to grow, 2) Is a list of new veggies I would love to try to grow. (I make a mental list every year of what worked the year before, what I would like more of, and what not to grow next year.) I also try to choose something new every year to try.
The fun part is to sit there leafing through the seed catalogs making a list of the things I want to grow this year. This is the perfect cure for spring fever and with a good cup of tea and the right music it makes for a wonderfully relaxing afternoon. Make a list of the seeds you would like to get, planning the garden and ordering seeds comes later. Right now you just want to create a firm plan on what you want to plant.
Go through all of your supplies and make a list of anything you will need to buy, this includes, pots, dirt, fertilizer, fencing, any landscaping you want to do, as well as any other amendments you want to put in your garden.
Make a list of any of the new projects you want to take on this year, it might include improving the garden space you already have or it may mean expanding. You might want to learn more about organic gardening or you may want to use mulching this year, after last year’s droughts.
Take a look at your compost pile if you have one and decide whether it is going to be ready for spring planting. Get it turned if you can get to it, you still have a couple of months or more to get it ready for spring planting.
Map out the area you intend to plant, measure it to see how big it is, and keep track of those measurements because you will need them later.
Take note of the sun, what part of your garden gets full sun, what part gets partial sun. Believe it or not, lots of vegetables love partial shade, while other vegetables demand full sun, knowing what goes where can greatly increase your yields.
Now it is time to plan your garden, and once your garden is planned you can order your seeds. Unless you have a very small garden, I strongly advise that you plan your garden before you buy seeds. Nothing is more frustrating than realizing you did not get enough seeds and you cannot get anymore.

Need Ideas?

I have been doing this for 25 years, I don’t really think about planning too much anymore, in fact I have to think hard just to write this, because I do not think about my late winter / early spring routine much anymore.

You might have a lot of questions or need ideas about how to plan your garden, you can ask your questions here on the comment section of my blog, or you can visit one of a number of websites to help you with answers for all of your questions. One of my favorite sites for getting organized is Grow Veg, it is an online garden planning site that has a number of tools to help make planning your garden even easier. They even have apps for your iPhone and iPad.

Filed Under: Gardening Tagged With: gardening, Planning vegetable gardening, planting, vegetable gardening

Garden Planning Series – Making Sure you have the Right Tools and Resources

January 21, 2013 by Mamma 2 Comments

Garden Planning Series – Making Sure you have the Right Tools and Resources Spring is not here yet but for those of us that love to get their hands dirty growing food, the time is soon approaching to start planning for this year’s garden.

While late winter is not one of my favorite times of year, it is a good time for one of my favorite tasks, planning out this year’s garden.

It was only natural for me to write a full series on garden planning, I have been doing this task for 25 years and it never gets old. When the snow is flying and the temperatures are dipping, part of my sanity comes from pulling out the seed catalogs and dreaming of what my garden will grow this year.

There are a lot of tools and resources I use when it comes to planning a garden, many of which I take for granted, this year I would like to share how I get started with getting my garden ready for spring and summer.

Have the right Tools for the Job

You cannot do any job right if you do not have the right tools so one of the first things I like to do when planning my garden is to make an inventory of what I have and what I need. I will probably make my next post on getting organized and ready for your garden but first you have to have all of your tools.

Seed Catalogs

Garden Planning Series – Making Sure you have the Right Tools and Resources Seed catalogs are a wonderful way for the green thumb to spend an afternoon and a great way to ward off spring fever. Every year about this time, I start pulling out my catalogs and start looking through them dreaming of the garden that is to come. Order lots of them, they are free, they are fun and they are wonderful inspiration when planning your garden. It is not too late to order catalogs, you can always browse online, but there is just nothing like a great seed catalog so I order mine.

Planning Materials

My materials for planning are pretty simply, a notepad, pen, and some way to lay the garden out. There are a few choices here, you can toss a few scribbles on a piece of paper and hope it is close, you can use graph paper and carefully measure everything out, or you can use a software program.

I have done all three, and trust me, tossing a few scribbles on a piece of paper is not the way to go. Even if all you are doing is some container gardening or only have a small plot in your backyard CAREFUL Planning can go a long ways towards high yields and a more successful garden.

Last year was the first year I used GrowVeg.com, prior to this I used paper, but always seemed to get the measurements wrong and I never got everything into my garden that I wanted it to have. So because they had a free trial I decided I would give it a try, and I loved it. So this is how I will be doing my garden again.

I plan to do a full review on Grow Veg soon, but I wanted to share with you some of the great features this program has. You can simply specify the size of your plot, and then drag and drop the plants you intend to grow onto the screen automatically giving the plants the right amount of space for the type of space that each variety needs. The plan is on a grid, so you can print it out, and take it out to the garden with you. Could not be easier!

GrowVeg.com has a free trial and comes with planting reminders, crop rotation and much more.

You will also need seed companies to get your seeds from, there are so many, and so many considerations about where you buy from, but for the time being you can get your seed catalogs coming. I will try to do a blog post on selecting the right seed company as a part of my garden planning series.

It is Also Time to Take Inventory

Another important task before planning begins is taking inventory, by this I mean you need to look at what you have and what you will need for the coming season. If you save seeds or even the old seed from last year, it is time to pull it out and see what you have. You will also want to check to see if you have all the containers and dirt you will need for starting all of your new seedlings.

I like to get this done early because it gives me time to ask around with friends and neighbors if they have any pots left over from last year that they do not want. Keep in mind that you can also recycle and reuse potting soil to save a few dollars so be sure to ask if your friends have any laying around in pots or in the shed they want to get rid of.

Read Up

If you like me, get spring fever, doing some extra reading to give you ideas, inspire you and help you learn new techniques is the perfect way to gain a positive outlook on the long winter. Books, Internet and magazines are all great resources. Start a berry garden this year, or trying organic gardening for the first time. Put in an irrigation system, or learn to make your garden drought proof.

New skills always translate into better yields, take a look at a few of these books, I have all of them and highly recommend them to learn more about gardening.
All New Square Foot Gardening
The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible, 2nd Edition
Vertical Gardening: Grow Up, Not Out, for More Vegetables and Flowers in Much Less Space
Trowel and Error: Over 700 Tips, Remedies and Shortcuts for the Gardener
1,001 Ingenious Gardening Ideas: New, Fun and Fabulous That Will Change the Way You Garden – Forever! (Rodale Garden Book)

Finally

Check all of your lights to make sure they work, or if you are using a green house, it is time to inspect it for damage, or any cleaning it might need. We start our seeds in the next 3 to 6 weeks here, so while that might seem like plenty of time, I invariably leave it to the last minute and leave myself with too much work to do.

Filed Under: Gardening Tagged With: Planning vegetable gardening, seed catalogs, vegetable gardening

Looking Forward to 2013 – Homesteading Goals and Plans

December 26, 2012 by Mamma 3 Comments

Homestead Updates - Old Fashioned Families

Winter is Here but it is time to plan for Spring!

I have to admit, 2012 was not the glorious year that I wanted it to be, too many things happening getting in the way of our plans and goals, and just generally one of those years where all one could really do is hang on for the roller coaster ride.

2013 is going to be different, or at least that is what I keep telling myself, and the firm belief in my head is that if I keep thinking it will be so, it will be. I have a lot of plans, not all of them are focused on my homesteading goals, in fact I have reversed directions just a bit, but not without keeping the future in my sights.

Financially we stumbled hard, so this year, building our business is going to be our first priority, while OFF is mostly about my homesteading pursuits, in my mind it is all part and parcel of the same dream, the American Dream! I spent so much time working on building gardens, raising animals and working on other projects that I did not pay much attention as to how we were going to sustain that dream. When a client pulled the rug out from under us, everything fell apart.

So this year, having a sound financial future is going to become a part of my overall family goals. I will not, have not forgotten the animals or the garden, but I am going to try to keep my goals in that area modest as we work to build a more secure future for our family.

Lesson learned, it is all important, it is easy for some to say, that business, career, and money can take a back seat, but in truth you have to have money in order to build the rest.

What We did Right This Year

Homestead Updates That said, we did a lot right this year, we raised our own poultry, and we will do that again this year, I can’t imagine going back to buying our meat in the stores. Some claim it costs more than buying it, which really depends on how your raise your poultry, but in the end does it really matter? When you realize how expensive it is to raise your meat at home, does it not make you wonder what they do to make factory raised poultry so cheap? Does that make you question whether you want to feed that to your family?

We also had a freezer full of vegetables which will take us well into the spring, I have not bought any vegetables this winter except for those fresh for salads and sandwiches. I did not get to can much of my produce this year, because we lost our primary client and I ran out of canning jars, but we had plenty of things canned such as pickles, relish, salsa, sauces and more.

2013 Homesteading Goals

This year I want to raise more chickens, this is a lot of work, but it has a worthy goal at the end of it, and we have certainly felt good about eating our own chicken this year. I do not want to go back to store bought so we will continue to raise our own meat. We have not decided if we will do turkeys again this year or not. They are a much bigger time commitment, but on the other hand they were so much better than store bought so we will see.

I have no plans to expand the gardens, but I do have some different goals for my gardens this year, Now that I know what we will eat, I will be focusing my efforts on those crops.

This year I have decided I want to abandon square foot gardening and give my plants more space, I have found that in this humidity and heat, at least for me, the plants do better if they have more room to breathe. So I will be planting less, and going for more air circulation, especially for my tomatoes. I am going plant a section exclusively for my chickens as well, as garden produce went a long way to helping out with the feed bills last year.

This year I estimate 40% of my food bill was offset, next year I would like to bring that figure up to 60 – 75%. I hope to have more canning jars, and I need to replace my stove, since canning on it nearly destroyed it this year.

I do want to expand my berries, and make the area for my Herbs bigger or plant my herbs in with my vegetables. I want to spend more time on companion planting as a way to cut down on bugs so if I move my herbs in with the vegetables that will be the goal.

Ultimately By the end of 2013 I want to be more financially stable and more sustainable going into 2014. I would like to get a couple of milk goats, but that will depend a lot on our financial status, I would also like to raise a couple of pigs, but that requires building a place for them, which probably won’t be on the priority list until 2014 at this point.

I would love to hear your goals this year, especially if you are just starting out. I know a lot of you out there, like me are doing this for the first time in a long time, or the first time period. What have you learned this year? What will you put back into practice next year, what will you improve on and what will you start new?

Homesteading is a process, you will never simply snap your fingers and have your dream homestead, not unless you just won the lottery J. How will you sustain your small farm as you build it up, and how will you make it mesh with your other goals?

I have learned some important lessons this year, lessons about only having so much time, and how setting priorities should be not done just by the heart, but should make sense in order to attain the most stable growth over time. As much as I want my perfect little farm, it takes time, hard word and money.

Here is to a prosperous New Year in 2013 for all of us!

Filed Under: Homesteading, Homesteading Tales Tagged With: homestead, homestead updates, homesteading

4 Elements of a Good Predator Proof Chicken or Turkey Coop

November 19, 2012 by Mamma Leave a Comment

With a warm start to our late fall/winter I worry about the possibility of predators getting to my chickens. Hungry predators getting ready for the long winter are on the prowl looking for food and if my chickens are not secure it is just as likely as not that they could be on the menu.

Losing chickens or for that matter ducks and turkeys, to predators of all kinds (that includes dogs who find your coop an easy meal) is common and it is heartbreaking. It only takes one break in to lose all of your flock to a hungry predator, then you will find yourself starting all over again.

Whether you are building your chicken coop for the first time or want to make sure it is predator proof, there are several things you need to look at. It can help to know what type of predators you might have in the area, if you live in a rural area it can help to talk with neighbors, to see if they have had any troubles and what type of animals have been skulking around their birds.

Creating a barrier

It could be tempting it use chicken wire to fence in your chickens, it makes sense, but if you have had a lot of large dogs roaming around in your area, chicken wire is not very likely to keep them out, at least not on its own. There are several animals that can make short work of your fence, such as big dogs, raccoons, coyotes and foxes. You can still use chicken wire but be sure to use some sort of barrier to keep animals from tearing at the wire.

We used old metal roofing around the outside of the coop, it provide a barrier above ground as well as one below ground. Hardware cloth is more expensive than chicken wire but lasts longer and provides a much sturdier barrier to keep predators out.

Watch out for Burrowing Animals

Don’t forget that a lot of rodents and dogs will dig under your fence, so having a 12” barrier all the way around your coop is essential to keep diggers out. You can use a variety of materials for this, metal roofing, hardware cloth, and concrete all work equally well to keep animals from digging under the fences of your chicken coop.

Opt for a secure chicken coop with a solid floor

One mistake that a lot of people make is buying or building chicken coops that have open access and no way to secure birds at night. Most predators will try to attack your coop at night, so having a secure coop that cannot be entered is just one more layer of protection for your birds. Doors should close, even the hatches that are meant for just birds to go through (you would be surprised what can squeeze through there when they are hungry enough). Windows should have a way to be covered or secured, and your coop should have some sort of foundation that cannot be dug into.

Even better have your coop off the ground, this eliminates any chances of rodents being able to reach your birds. Nesting boxes and roosts will let your chickens get away from predators, so provide plenty of them.

One thing that bird owners do not often think about is how vulnerable their chickens are from above, especially if you have young birds. Hawks are a threat just about anywhere, so if you have a hawk problem you will want to cover your coop. For this instance chicken wire will work, it does not have to be sturdy it only needs to keep the hawks out of your coop. Some people have used brightly colored streamers and shiny aluminum strips to scare hawks away, but the best protection is going to be a barrier that hawks cannot get through.

With the right precautions the chicken coop you build can be secure enough to let you and your birds sleep well at night. If you need help with plans to build a secure chicken coop this site has some wonderful resources. Not only do they sell a book on how to build a chicken coop but they also have several free ebooks and a set of forums to help you on your way to a safe and healthy place for your chickens.

There are also several books on Amazon if you prefer a Kindle eBook or paper book

Filed Under: Animal Husbandry, Homesteading Tagged With: building a safe chicken coop, how to build a chicken coop, predator proof your chicken coop