Here at Bloom Where You’re Planted we are doing a happy dance. There are a couple of reasons you might find me doing a jig in my garden.
- I defeated my garden nemesis the Squash Vine Borer!/ Not this time.
- I have a new animal on the homestead! /I wish, I so want sheep or goats
- Cool weather is coming or rain after a long dry spell!/ Bingo! Cool weather, bring it!
You guessed it! Cool weather is coming! Why am I so excited about this? Because cool season crops like kale, lettuce, beets, carrots, Swiss chard and sugar snap peas take cool daytime and nighttime temps to germinate.
So I am spending every spare moment that I have clearing out my raised garden beds and getting ready to sink in those cool weather crops!
About this time of year all the soil levels and fertility levels are at an all time low in my front yard garden. As I clear out Summer crops it is the perfect time to replenish with nutrient rich fertilizer. What fertilizer do I use?
Let me introduce you to my soil factory! I put in all the waste from the front yard garden and bags of Fall leaves and my chickens turn it into great black nutrient rich soil for my garden. Give your chickens their own space, vegetation and Fall leaves to work with and you have yourself a soil making factory all of your own!
If you cannot have a soil making factory then get rabbits. Unlike the hot nitrogen of chicken manure, rabbit pellets can go right on the garden. Your plants will thank you with lots of fresh veggies!
If you cannot have chickens or rabbits then don’t give up. Contact the horse ranches in your area and see if you can score some composted horse manure. I made a good friend doing this very thing.
For those of you that are visual we did a video of just how we get our garden beds ready for Fall crops. One thing I show in the video is how I raise insects, not only to feed my chickens but to make free fertilizer for my garden.
We hope this will inspire you to spend the weekend getting ready for Fall crops. If you are making a raised bed for the first time, see how to get started here.
COOL WEATHER IS COMING!!!! Yay!!! Let’s do a happy dance together!
This post was shared on the Simple Homestead Blog Hop.
I thank you first for the video. I have improved on my maggots production. I have found out that industrial brewery waste is better substrate for the black soldier fly maggots. Kindly advise on the simplest way of making maggot coop.