Real food? - Mini vent.

[sumi]

I cannot bake a cake to save my life, so I'm afraid I'm batting for the shop team there

A friend of mine showed me this:

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2014/08/judge_to_decide_fate_of_richla.html

Really? But feedlots are still allowed, aren't they? Battery hens? Sow stalls? 3 Acres is a decent size piece of land. I just don't get this.

 

[basschick2305]

I don't understand this "law". Its seems to b Ok for big brother to jam pack as many poor animals into a pen stall whatev spray our veggies n fruits that r supposedly fresh, but to grow ur own raise ur own they gonna have a beef with that. Ordinance's are just a way of the government bn able to keep so called control over society. This whole issue irks me beyond belief! Sorry so late on replies & whatnot been pretty busy round my way with upgrading duck pen & workn round the house! Trying my best to get my 12y.o. son motivated back on the track with his grades in school (attending academic academy with a know it all attitude is not the way to start a new school yr.!)...back to subject tho I've never onc checked to c if I could have chickens ducks goats or anything else round my way I live out in the country but no where far enough out. I feel that what I'm growing & raising for sustainable life for myself & my family is much better than any chemical induced crap that is store bought. Now don't get me wrong I'll say it I'm running out the house now to go to Walmart for a few things but hey the fact is I know what's good for my fam & that's what I'm gonna do regardless of any ordinances lol. Luckily I'm not tripping on it & my heart goes out to those who are bustin they rump daily to try & do the same!

 

[WendyJ]

I think I know which one I would prefer to be neighbours with

 

[sumi]

You'd be amazed how much you can fit into a small space vegetable wise. Potatoes for example, find some old car tyres, and put two down on top of each other in a fairly sheltered spot (not too much direct sun). Fill them with compost+soil and plant some potatoes in there. Once they've grown nice and big, put another tyre on the stack and fill it with compost, letting the tops of the plants stick out. Let them grow big and repeat until you have a nice tall stack and then leave the plants to finish. When they are ready to harvest remove the tyres one by one and pick up your potatoes

 

[baymule]

I like to compost everything, if possible. I have horses, I have been guilty of scooping poop and putting directly on the garden....... I borrow a phrase from my Daddy......"It'll either make it GO or it'll kill it." I have 7'x8' coop with a 8'x12' run. I pack leaves in all winter up to 3-4 feet deep. The chickens scratch it to bits, poop all over it and reduce it to black, crumbly garden GOLD. My chickens do all the work for me.

 

[goatgurl]

goat poo or bunny poo works great too and neither of them will burn plants like chicken poo. keep an eye out on craigslist for people who are giving away bunny poo. and i, like baymule put bags and bags of leaves and grass in my chicken house for the girls to work on all winter. i just toss a couple of handfuls of cracked corn on the pile every day or so and they dig and toss around like it was fun. one note i did change from scratch grain to corn chops because when i put the compost on the garden not all the millet seeds had been found and would sprout in places i didn't want millet and the chopped corn won't sprout if they miss a piece. i also plant in containers some. i take 55 gallon plastic barrels and cut them in half not long ways but in the middle and then put stout wire cages around them. they will hold two tomato plants nicely and since the cage is 5 ft tall it contains them without having to stake them and vined crops also work well in them. up the sides they go and the beans, cukes etc are held up by the cages and are kept clean and easy to pick.

 

[Denim Deb]

I have a bunch of buckets, so I'm going to be trying some beans (a bunny ate all mine), some tomatoes, some potatoes, some radishes and I'm not sure what else. I may dig up some peppers and see how they do. I'd like lettuce, but don't have any seeds. But if this works, then next year, I'd do even more. If I find that I can't keep it warm enough, I'll bring the buckets in and grow them in the basement.

 

[wyoDreamer]

If you don't get the sunlight you need, you can substitute light bulbs to extend the day. Just make sure if you use florescent to use a cool light bulb and a warm light bulb to get the most complete spectrum of light.
Also important would be to keep the soil warm. A rocket heater with a vent that goes through the soil beds would do the trick.
If I had the funds, I would love to have a geodesic greenhouse.

http://geodesic-greenhouse-kits.com/home_greenhouse_kits/greenhouse_design/

They have some really neat features that can be used in other greenhouses.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Paving stones and such will work well as a heat sink.
Another idea for temperature control would be to sink the greenhouse into the ground. Doing that will help provide a more stable temperature - avoiding/minimizing the temp swings from day to night.

Are you the one thinking of a rocket stove? If you build the rocket stove and put venting through the benches that the planting beds are on, it will heat the soil from below and release heat into the greenhouse.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I looked up the climate of Ireland.
Mean daily winter temperatures vary from 4.0 °C (39.2 °F) to 7.6 °C (45.7 °F), and mean daily summer temperatures vary from 15 °C (59 °F) to 20 °C (68.0 °F). from Wikipedia
So you really won't have to add too much heat to keep stuff alive. What are you wanting to grow in the greenhouse for the winter?
Tomatoes and peppers may be a problem, because they like HEAT! but lettuce, spinach, carrots could all be grown there with a little added light and minimal heat. Just enough to prevent freezing.