The chickens are eating scratch I tossed on the ground and Morgan is thinking about how she can lick some of the corn up without me seeing her being sneaky. I really don't want to be up all night with a sick doggie. So, I stand and watch while the chickens eat up all the scratch.
There is a pile of small branches behind Morgan. I'm collecting them to use as a layer in the hugelkultur planter beds. I still need to find some more small branches and some larger pieces for the first layer. I wish I knew someone who had cows because I would love to have some manure to add to the soil. I really don't want to buy bags of compost from the nursery. Who knows what is in the stuff or where it comes from.
I guess I will dig up some of the "soil" from the chicken pen and add it to the dirt in the planter beds. I have read that chicken poo will burn plant roots, so I will add the chicken soil as a layer over the bottom layer of logs. Maybe I can take off the top few inches of soil in the chicken pen and put that on the logs and then use the soil that is deeper and has been there longer to add to the dirt I will use for top soil in the planter beds. I'll see what happens when I ever get out there to do some work.
I found another site (OregonLive) with info about hugelkultur with a link to a diagram on how to assemble the layers. It seems that people put the beds together pretty much the way they want according to what they have on hand or can get. I was getting worried about what layers go where, but I have decided to calm down and just do the best I can with what I have available.
(May 5, 2009)
Screamer is a kick.
Too bad I didn't catch her "yelling" at me.
[4 eggs today]
~:>
Smiles
