Comments on: Lasagna Gardening

By: admin

admin — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 13:07:12 +0000

Jane…how are you. Sure is nice to see someone else was around during the “dinosaur times!!” Appreciate your knowledge and experience with lasagna gardening! Oh, by the way, I didn’t think about planting in it right away, but I’ll still take the credit! See Deb, I told you I was smart!
I wonder if the chicken manure may have been too hot to have planted right off in it?? Just wondering. In our 50′x100′ garden, I put 21 TONS DOWN, yep, 21 TONS! Straight chicken manure! I turned it in probably 6-8 times, and let it sit for about 8 months, turning in every so often. It being so hot is why I waited. This wasn’t manure from pullet houses where it was mixed with sawdust, it was straight chicken manure, from a layer farm.
Dad was in the chicken business for over 40 years, sold out in 1995. Had over 2 million birds laying with the majority on two complexes. One with 600,000 birds, another with 720,000, the rest were all contract farms. The complex I ran, 720,000 birds, we produced about 42 tons of manure daily. Each house had 60,000 birds and eat about 12,000 lbs. of feed a day, per house. All the eggs came from the houses, into the plant by rod conveyor, through the washer, over the scales to size, through the candling booth, into the packing machine, and were packed into cartons or flats into cases, slid onto another conveyor belt, and straight into the cooler. NEVER TOUCHED BY HAND! It was amazing. He had his on hatchery, I think during full production he was hatching about 25,000 birds per week, and had his own feed mill, ingredients brought in by railcar, mixed at the mill, then trucked to the farms. Anyway, we know the people who bought Dad out, so we still kinda have a manure connection!
D&D

By: Craig Mouldey

Craig Mouldey — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 01:40:29 +0000

Hey Ty Rex or Mousie. I can’t picture you as a mouse. Here is something I’ve learned lately but it isn’t about gardening.
When I was a little guy, and that was long ago and far away, we always had tincture of iodine in the medicine cabinet. I hadn’t seen a bottle for decades but recently with all the terrible events in Japan I heard somebody on the Alex Jones program mention that applying iodine to the skin will do the same thing as Potassium Iodide pills in a nuclear event. So, I started reading. Our bodies need iodine. The Thyroid and endocrine system need iodine. I bought a couple of little bottles. Dirt cheap. What you do is apply a small patch, say the size of a silver dollar on your abdomen. It dries fast. If that patch disappears in less than 24 hours you are low on iodine. My first attempt was gone in less than 4 hours, but I kept applying it until it lasted 24 hours. Iodine is also a great killer of viruses, bacteria and fungus. It is a good thing to have in the medicine cabinet. I’m going back to the old days. I’ve never heard of any nastys becoming iodine resistant! Just a tip you might want to follow up on.
We plan to try a garden this year. Just have to figure out where to get the non gmo seeds and which seeds are best for us to plant. Keep up the good work old boy, er, dinasaur!
Cheers.

By: Jane

Jane — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 16:36:44 +0000

Back in the early ’80s, around the time of the dinasaurs, I put this, exactly where I wanted it to be on top of green lawn, using newspapers, fresh chicken manure and all the other goodies mentioned in your article. I think it was super successful because the earthworms from surrounding soil migrated into it to feed on that wonderful green manure. I put mine down in late fall and allowed it to mellow over the winter. Wish I’d thought of planting into it right away as you did.

By: Sandra

Sandra — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 14:56:05 +0000

Re: Lasgana gardening. Great project for kids to participate in. They laugh all the way through the process and think the old folks have lost it. Next time they visit, its the spaghetti garden and are in awe. (Short term memory in children, spaghetti, lasgana to them whats the dif.)
Observation: Cola cartons and some other glazed and printed cardboards. I was told to not use these because of the inks being envoirmentally unsafe. Did some rescearch and some years ago all printers ink was changed to a soy based ink by EPA. Misting of a light solution of water and bleach will break the glaze, let them dry and proceed and they will compost better. As the grandchildren and I looked at our strange looking untidy mound grandaughter said, kinda ugly Nana and left. Came back with a bunch of pine straw, fluffed it on and said now it’s pretty and it was. Water frequently and watch it grow. If you own a home paper shredded use that too.
Still have my Lasagna garden and now it grows ferns.
Have a good Sunday all. Raining and storming here. The Month of March has rounded up his lion and is leaving town. I see April around the corner.